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Showing posts with the label software

25 Years Of Being Into Internet Radio (1999-2024)

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WOW Just WOW! Its dawned on me I've been into Internet radio since 1999. It all started with me playing around on a friends computer and I tuned into a LIVE365 station. Cyndi Lauper All Through The Night was the first song I heard It was 2001 before I was able to afford my first computer and I set about learning How To Stream on the Internet. I've lost count of how many different bits of software I've tried in 25 years some of them were GREAT some of them were PANTS Oddcast, Edcast, Altacast, Jazler, MB Recaster, BUTT, Zara Radio, SAM Broadcaster & Winamp with DSP Encoders Early versions of some software would crash if you tried adding a large folder of music to it. Some software just didn't have great stability which was Sad because the software looked promising. I lost a position on an Internet radio station because of software issues. I spent a LOT of time FIGHTING with sof

The Most Perfect Piece Of Music Playout Software

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Q: Have you ever found the most perfect piece of music playout software? I've tried LOTS of music playback software over my 20 or so years on the Internet. Winamp, Foobar, Real Player, Windows Media Player, Musicmatch Jukebox, SAM Broadcaster, SAM Party DJ Some pieces of software were OK for playing music and some of them would crash if I added a large folder of music into them. This is a Quote from a RadioDJ User: This release is the closest thing to Perfect! Certain Radio Automation Software couldn't Crossfade very well and I'd end up with a CAR CRASH transition betweeen songs. RadioDJ excels at crossfading, It has a better Cue Point editor than some paid for software. It was 2010 when I first used RadioDJ and I haven't looked back since. RadioDJ has been the bedrock of my music automation since I discovered it via a search in

8 Reasons To Not Use SAM Broadcaster Pro

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I can think of a few reasons WHY you might want to choose an alternative to  SAM Broadcaster Pro or Studio 1) Lousy Customer Support: When SAM Broadcaster goes wrong (and it will) don't expect to get much help from Spacial Audio: The Spacial support department sends users the same old canned replies without actually helping anyone. Spacial Audio like to play BIG Corporate with their Small Support team that have never even used the software The Customer service manager is rude to users on a regular basis Even the forums and social media accounts are staffed by people who don't really care about the software. People have even taken to Social media to vent their frustrations at not getting much in the way of support. @Spacial Audio are the worst software company I have EVER come across @spacial Customer Support makes me feel more like a Victim, than a Customer What a dreadful customer experi

Cash Strapped & Potless - Can't Afford Subscriptions?

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I know from watching broadcasting websites that Internetradio station owners don't always have endless pots of cash. SOME Radio software subscriptions can be expensive and sometimes users get taken for a ride by the company. Users buy the software then they find the support is horrible Its among one of the reasons I ditched Spacial Audio and their lacklustre software. I could never get a sensible answer on the Forums or got called rude names by one of the moderators. This is where software such as RadioDJ is miles better than a lot of the paid for automation programs. For starters RadioDJ is 100% FREE and has a great support network on the RadioDJ Community Forums Reasons to Use RadioDJ: Once installed it's stable and works for days/weeks without needing to keep an eye on it Great Music library support add as many categories & subcategories you re

Why Is It Wrong to Have An Opinion? (Internet Radio Forums)

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I keep getting hassle for my views about RadioDJ FREE radio playout software. When will you start to giving independent advice instead of giving the same old opinion everytime someone asks a question about a playout system I'm getting really really TIRED of people spouting BILE at me on forums about my meerest mention of RadioDJ. I suggest RadioDJ as an alternative to other (Badly Coded) automation solutions and there are lots of awful playout solutions. Its NOT my fault paid for radio playout solutions such as SAM Broadcaster Pro don't work as advertised IS IT? NO the fault lies with the often LAZY software developers programming badly coded radio playout software solutions I've paid for software & then found it didn't work and then I've ran into a brick wall when trying to get a refund. We DO NOT offer refunds because of our 14-day free trial version, which allows users to try the product for free and make sure they are sa

Zararadio Why Bother?

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Zara Radio Free Version: Why Bother? This is another piece of radio software that I tried to use before I discovered the benefits of RadioDJ I had to switch to another program Zararadio would crash after 20hrs of use Zararadio was another piece of software I couldn't get to work properly. Even after RTFM The crossfading was awful & I would always end up with lots of dead air between songs. The sound quality was poor with some songs sounding distorted even though they sounded OK on other players. It would frequently repeat songs & artists as it didn't have any playlist rotation rules built in. It wasn't much kop when it came to leaving it unattended to automate my music. I would wake up and look at the PC to find it wouldn't be playing anything. You could never call Zara radio professional radio software It's a horrid piece of software to even try and run a radio stream with. Infact we'd go as far as saying Zararadio is nothing more tha

The Glory Days Are Gone (Winamp)

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It was 2014 when Radionomy bought Winamp & Shoutcast for $5M from AOL. Since then there have been a plethora of Shoutcast v2.x.x releases but not much has been done to Winamp since. Sure theres a BADLY CODED BETA version but according to lots of reports it doesn't work properly. This is a quote from an Ex Winamp Dev: Winamp as a thing is a dead-end with the brand effectively tarnished/irrelevant, its glory days are long gone Winamp doesn't have the massive fan base it once had. Just a few die hard users hanging onto the past! Technology has moved on far too much for Winamp to be considered USEFUL Indeed since Winamp was sold other audio software has evolved to overtake it. Winamp wasn't a great media player many a time I'd listen to a Shoutcast stream and It would start buffering after a while. I attempted to use it for my Internet radio stream back in 2002 it wasn't great at

PlayItLive Radio Automation Software

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This program had been on my radar for quite a while & I last tested it for about 5/6 years ago now. I downloaded, installed & then I started importing tracks into it via the built in tracks manager feature. Unfortunately that's where it all started going downhill. It started scanning a folder of 1400 tracks then completely chose to ignore about 200 of them. Those 200 files are all loaded into RadioDJ with no issues so that wasn't a great start. Another user posted this on Social Media I've dropped Playit Live from my studio as it was too much like hard work Then there's the reports of frequent crashes with the software I am having problems with PlayIt Live regarding how frequently it crashes I am asking for help on how to stop the system from crashing Radio software shouldn't crash on a user it makes the DJ look stupid and NO DJ wants THAT feeling. The EULA for the software is somewhat laughable. Dict

The Most Perfect Database Software?

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2024 will mark 10 years of me being a MariaDB user. I've used it alongside a lot of versions of RadioDJ. I'd seen someone mention in 2014 that they had found MariaDB so I went and installed it. Maria DB hasn't let me down. I can't even remember the last time I had to fire up HeidiSQL to do maintenance to my databases. MariaDB is being used by some large corporations across the world! I had MariaDB powering my old website before I had to cancel the VPS due to technical issues beyond my control. On my VPS servers MariaDB performed amazingly well compared to MySQL Community Server from Oracle. The author of RadioDJ did a few tests and it appears that MariaDB processes SQL queries fast than Oracle MySQL. I had nothing but headaches with Oracle MySQL community server I only ever do a bit of basic housework with MariaDB. I optimise my RadioDJ database every day by an event. Its been a LONG time

I Don't Have To Lift A Finger (RadioDJ FREE Radio Playout)

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One of the GREAT things about RadioDJ is once you have your automation setup you may just find you don't have to touch things. I can switch RadioDJ onto Auto DJ press play and rotations and events do the rest. You can have Jingles & Playlists loading by event, You can also load different rotations at different times of day also via an event. RadioDJ will make your radio station more streamlined and because its better programmed you won't need to keep an eye on things. One user had an uptime of 4 years with RadioDJ 1.8.2 Sadly I could never get this sort of stabilty from other well known radio automation software. I was lucky to get a few hours uptime let alone days with other radio playout software. One of the pieces of software would crash and take the database with it. Some of the credit needs to go to MariaDB without it I wouldn't have a stable database.

MySQL 8 Problems (RadioDJ)

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Over the past year or so I've seen LOTS of people having issues with MySQL 8 and RadioDJ. Which has now lead Marius to post about using RadioDJ with MySQL 8 Marius carried out out some tests and its quite clear that MySQL 8 takes longer to process queries compared to MariaDB. Query Duration MySQL8: 1.7712764 seconds Query Duration MariaDB: 0.0081946 seconds As you can see the difference is huge on MySQL8 it takes almost 2 seconds just to run a single query. I found MySQL to be bloated when it came to installing it to test it There were far too many options to setup MySQL8 Whereas MariaDB is simpler to install and not so bloated I've used MariaDB since June 2014 and it performs 100% better than Oracle MySQL ever did. I've NOT had to rebuild my RadioDJ database since 2014. I take daily backups so I don't lose my hard work. Its rare for MariaDB databases to crash (IF EVER) I've not had to run a repair in a w

You Have A Choice Of Radio Automation Software

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When it comes to Internet radio automation software you have a choice... Do you pay out hundreds of $$$ for radio playout software or do you download a program for free? Personally I'd rather use something for FREE leaves more money to spend on studio equipment and streaming. I know from using various Forums over the years that hobby broadcasters don't always have $$$ to spend on stuff for their station. Everytime I test paid automation solutions I come to the conclusion that they don't perform that well when up against RadioDJ. DEMO versions of some radio software offerings have usage restrictions or time limits With those restrictions you can't test the software to its FULL POTENTIAL RadioDJ doesn't have trial periods, reg keys or online activations I'd rather help save someone from the hell that is a paid for product with very little in the way of support, The case in point being SAM Broadcaster People pay

You Don't Have To Be A Radio DJ To Use RadioDJ

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As you probably know by now I swear by RadioDJ free radio automation software. While RadioDJ is primarily built for use in radio studio's. You DON'T have to be a Radio DJ in order to use the program. I currently use Radio DJ for automating my large music collection around my flat via Bluetooth. If you've converted your CD's to a digital and you're looking for a program that is great at automating your music collection then RadioDJ is the program you need RadioDJ supports a lot of audio codecs right out of the box. Supported Audio Codecs: *.mp3;*.ogg;*.wav;*.mp2;*.mp1;*.aiff;*.m2a;*.mpa;*.m1a;*.mpg;*.mpeg;*.bwf;*.mus;*.wma;*.wmv;*.aac;*.adts;*.mp4;*.m4a;*.m4b;*.m4p;*.mod;*.mo3;*.s3m;*.xm;*.it;*.mtm;*.umx;*.mdz;*.s3z;*.itz;*.xmz;*.flac;*.midi;*.rmi;*.kar;*.opus;*.wv;*.ape;*.apl;*.mpc;*.mpp;*.mp+;*.spx;*.tta; More file types can be added from the BASS Library https://un4seen.com/ Reasons to Use RadioDJ: Once

Why Does RadioDJ Rely On A MySQL Database?

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Saw this post on a forum on a post about RadioDJ free radio automation software The biggest fail with RadioDJ to me is the reliance upon a MySQL database Q: So Why does RadioDJ rely on a MySQL database? A: RadioDJ requires a MySQL Database to run some backend functions such as events and rotations Having an MySQL database also makes programming on your website (PHP) really straight forward. You can show what’s currently playing or recently played or even take listener requests from your website. The fact RadioDJ relies on a database for some of it's functions is actually one of it's PLUS points. Some radio automation programs run with a flat file text based system and don't appear to have any form of web integration. I never hear anyone question why other radio playout software has more database options Another PLUS with RadioDJ You can backup your database on one machine and restore it on another machine. You

How To: Install RadioDJ FREE Radio Playout Software

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Installing RadioDJ the easy way... I know it can be daunting and scary installing radio automation software for the first time. I knew nothing about working a Database 23 years ago. Now I can take care of a Database with no issues Mind I learned the Hard way. If you aren't used to using software that requires a database don't panic it's not as difficult to setup as you might think. Tip: Try NOT to use MySQL8 its Buggy and Unpredictable users have had issues with it alongside RadioDJ If you follow these easy steps and have a bit of patience then you should have the program up and running in no time. Why choose RadioDJ Free Radio Automation Software? RadioDJ is 100% FREE and has ZERO restrictions RadioDJ doesn't require online activations or registrations Once installed it's stable and works for days/weeks/months without needing to keep an eye on it Great Music library support add as many