Posts

Running RadioDJ On A Macbook

Image
While RadioDJ is a Windows program a user recently posted on the forums that they had it running on their Apple Macbook. It doesn't appear to be too diffcult if you know your way around a Macbook. Amazing program runs well together with MariaDB on Windows 10 in a Parallels virtual machine hosted on macOS (Catalina) on a Macbook I know from experience RadioDJ behaves in a Virtual Machine Environment as its a method I used on Linux for quite a few years. Virtual machines don't have to be a scary prospect. If in Doubt search G o o g l e 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 require RadioDJ is 100% FREE and has ZERO restrictions on what YOU use it for The Database is really stable. Plus RadioDJ comes with a Database Backup To...

The Perils Of Activation Servers (SAM Broadcaster Pro)

Image
Since December 2007 Spacial Audio have required users to activate SAM Broadcaster Pro and all their other software. However the Activation Servers can sometimes have issues with how many active activations a user has. When I try to reinstall SAM I am getting an error message stating I am over the allowed number of activations. I only had it installed on one machine Hundreds of SAM Broadcaster users have had the same issue since the activation requirement was hard coded into the software You are entitled to 1 license for this program 1 licence = 1 registration key which activates the program You are permitted to activate the program on different 3 systems You can only run 1 copy of SAM Broadcaster Pro per licence and you CANNOT run multiple copies. Its another reason that SAM Broadcaster Pro sucks the way Spacial Audio LIMIT usage of their software. The SAM activation server has a nasty habit of locking users out of the software, sometimes as t...

Disable Cortana Windows 10

Image
If you don't want Cortana taking over your Windows 10 PC you can easily stop Cortana by a simple registry hack. 1) Download this .zip file and Extract the files to a folder of your choosing. Disable Cortana Zip 2) Double Click on Disable Cortana.reg registry file and run when prompted. 3) You should now have Silenced Cortana on your PC. RESTART WINDOWS AFTER CHANGING THESE SETTINGS! Important: This tutorial involves changing registry settings so you run the instructions at your OWN RISK

Important: Turn Off Windows Sounds And Other Audio Settings

Image
I quite often see new DJ's asking how they stop the sounds from their PC going over onto their stream. This is another good question & it's really quite simple to fix. You need to right click on the speaker icon in the taskbar and choose "Sounds" or use Control Panel>Sound Right click on the sound output you use and choose properties. The sounds tab is where you need to be. In the drop down menu choose "No Sounds" and click apply then you shouldn't hear Windows sounds over your audio. There is another audio setting you should change 1) Find your soundcard in the list of sound devices and right click choose properties. 2) Under the Advanced tab uncheck the tick boxes under exclusive mode and click Apply. TIP: Also do the same for your default recording device and/or Virtual Audio Cables. 3) Under the Communications tab you need to set it to "Do Nothing" Most settings ...

Switch Off User Account Control Windows 10

Image
There are certain pieces of software out there that just don't work or interact well with UAC. For anyone else who may come across this topic here is how you Disable UAC (User Account Control) on Windows 10 In order to switch off UAC in W10 you need to go to the Start Menu and search for Regedit & run it as administrator. You need to navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System In the right hand pane you need to find EnableLUA right click and choose Modify and change the value to 0 When you have done this Restart your computer and UAC should now allow you to install software on your Windows 10 PC Important: This tutorial involves changing registry settings so you run the instructions at your OWN RISK I cannot be held liable for any damage or data loss that comes from changing UAC settings.

Run Multiple Internet Radio Stations With RadioDJ

Image
Running an online Internet radio station can be a fun thing to do. However running one radio station isn't enough for some people they want to run more than 1 station. I know of several users running multiple streams & stations using RadioDJ free radio automation software. It's another reason why why RadioDJ is so great and flexible. You can run as many stations as you WANT without it costing you hundreds of $$$ Did You Know? It costs HUNDREDS of $$$ to run multiple copies of OTHER radio playout software Running 3 stations with SAM Broadcaster would cost $897(USD) I attempted to run two copies of SAM Broadcaster on Windows XP once upon a time, I'll let you guess how that went. Whereas I used to run 2 copies of RadioDJ v1.6.0 together with Virtual Audio cables with zero issues. Obviously there's a limit to how many copies of RadioDJ you can run on one machine but you get the idea!...

Make your Station POP! With SAM Broadcaster Pro?

Image
Seen a couple of posts on social media where users claim you can make your radio station sound great with SAM Broadcaster Pro REALLY? I don't think so somehow! I used SAM Broadcaster for over 10 years and was frustrated time and again by audio distortion. My music files were ripped at the same audio levels and bitrates but despite this my music sounded CRAP in SAMBC. You CANNOT make your station POP with SAM Broadcaster as the audio output is AWFUL and amateurish at best. The last thing YOU need as a DJ is piss poor sounding audio your listeners will tune out if it doesn't sound right. It didn't matter what sound settings I tried my stream always sounded piss poor with SAM Broadcaster The audio quality from the bass sound engine really does make RadioDJ sound PROFESSIONAL. I can play different genres of music through RadioDJ & everything sounds GREAT with the above settings. Download RadioDJ and install it and you should not...

Radio Automation Software For Schools (Free)

Image
Are you a teacher trying to teach your students about radio and how it works? Radio can be a fun thing for your students to learn about & who knows it could set them up for future careers media. You have software that can be used to teach your students the workings of radio streaming and automation. One of the best programs to use is RadioDJ and its really easy to setup and use RadioDJ is like the brains of the studio, Its great for automating music/podcasts/interviews etc... The RadioDJ features list includes: Compatible audio formats: mp3, wav, wma, flac Now playing artist-title exported to file, web or serial (by plugin) Custom number of auxiliary players (by plugin) Audio Processor plugin (with AGC, Compressor, Stereo widening and 10 band Equalizer) Automatically overlap sweepers over start/intro/end Now playing artist-title exported to file, web or serial (by plugin) Auto skip silence from start and end of the tracks Bac...

RadioDJ Online Requests

Image
Did You know: RadioDJ has the ability to take listener requests online? I thought I would do a short tutorial on how to setup RadioDJ Online Requests. To get the request system working with RadioDJ you need to do the following. 1) Make sure you have RadioDJ installed. How To Install RadioDJ Tip: When setting MySQL up choose a strong password with lots of number and symbols and & make sure you write it down! 2) Create a new MySQL user that isn't "root" You can find out how to do that HERE Please try not to use root for requests it won't be as secure. 3) Place the Plugin_Requests.dll and .xml file in the plugin folder within RadioDJ. (The files can be found in the disabled plugins folder) 4) Download one of the RadioDJ request templates. RadioDJ Template 3.0 RadioDJ Template 2.2.3 Note: These scripts are intended as a pointer for you to build your site around. I cannot promise that these scripts ...

Spacial Audio Revoking SAM Broadcaster Pro Licences

Image
As many of you know I take an interest in what goes on in the world of Spacial Audio. I saw a Tweet on Twitter that made me shake my head... This company is so vile. One of the worst on the Internet. Even when you pay for SAM Broadcaster Spacial can decide to revoke your licence. So as much as $299.00 down the drain. Don't buy from @spacial So let me get this right, Spacial Audio are revoking peoples licences for no reason? I've blogged before about Spacial revoking licences when customers complained about the software and its still going on. That's awful espcially when users like the one quoted above have paid $$$ for the privelidge of using SAM. It never ceases to amaze me what the support staff at Spacial Audio do! Spacial Audio have ALWAYS had an awful way of dealing with paying customers It's WRONG when users pay out good hard earned money for software and then they get treated like this. RadioDJ is a great alter...

Winamp Can't Handle BIG Music Collections?

Image
Someone recently Tweeted about issues they were having with Winamp The Tweet was about Winamp not being able to handle 2TB worth of songs being loaded into it. My library is now is over 2TB and Winamp kinda chugged with it Winamp takes a long while to load (5+ min) & occasionally it crashes Its not the first time I've heard of people having issues with the amount of files they were attempting to import into Winamp I feel this users frustration I had various issues trying to use Winamp & recently a Windows 10 update broke it so I uninstalled it. Winamp hasn't seen any development since 2013 and v5.666 can be buggy as hell on Windows 10 As for the 5.8 leaked BETA that was even worse I couldn't get it working at all. Yes Winamp was a thing 20+ years ago but these days there is better and more robust software out there for playing music with. Reasons to Use RadioDJ: ...

Who's Using Marketing Gimmicks Now? (Spacial Audio)

Image
A couple of years back I was accused by Spacial Audio of using GIMMICKS when it comes to my promotion of Radio DJ software. Dear Spacial Audio my Blog posts are NOT Gimmicks The software I promote doesn't require any marketing gimmicks as its 100% FREE The links I have in my posts are links to RadioDJ tutorials, Downloads or other sites with useful software & information. The exact origin of the word ‘gimmick’ is unknown But there is one theory that it comes from the word ‘gimac’ an anagram of ‘magic’ Spacial are the ones using marketing gimmicks as there are lots of links for their products in their blog posts. Even posts about stuff thats nothing to do with Spacial Audio even end up with links to their products. Spacial Audio are struggling for sales of their software and they seem to be using blatant & desperate gimmicks! The fact t...

Please Buy Our Software We're Desperate (Spacial Audio Solutions)

Image
I can't help but notice that Spacial Audio posts on social media of late smack of desperation for sales. Instead of paying month-by-month Get a whole month free from Spacial's yearly purchase plan They want you the user to cough up a years worth of subscription money in one go. Who on earth can afford to pay up to $825 p/a just so they can use SAM Broadcaster Cloud? Most Hobby Broadcasters I speak to don't have that sort of cash to spend year on year. I could understand paying out all that money if the software solutions and customer service were up to par but alas neither are. What would happen if Spacial Audio closed down and you'd paid all that $$$ in advance you would be left out in the Cold. We all know Spacial Audio don't like giving customers refunds which is a bit naughty if you ask me. We DO NOT offer refunds because of our free trial o...

RadioDJ Sounds Wonderful (Professional Audio Output)

Image
I'm testing streaming codecs in Sound Empire Caster and it doesn't matter what bitrate I stream at the audio from RadioDJ sounds Wonderful. I've ran 3 different tests on an Icecast server. Streaming out in 64K OGG/48K AAC+/64K OPUS and all the streams sounded amazing. Sadly the OPUS stream encoded by MB Recaster kept cutting out on song change which was a bit annoying. The Audio quality from RadioDJ when you have properly ripped files can be amazing. I couldn't get this sort of audio quality from other radio playout software I wonder why. I found software such as Zararadio made everything sound awful. The AGC & EQ in SAM Broadcaster makes everything sound distorted. You cannot get a professional sound from some software that often costs $$$ I'm so glad I discovered Radio DJ when I did in 2010 I found it had great programmed audio processing from the get go. ...

Take Your Time And Have A Bit Of Patience! (RadioDJ)

Image
Every now and then we get new users registering on the RadioDJ forums who start kicking off Because the software isn't doing what they want it to do within 5 minutes of installing it. Woah! Back up and take stock for a couple of minutes! It takes time and PATIENCE to get to grips with what RadioDJ is capable of. People had tried helping a recent user who threw his toys out of the pram on the forums about track rotations. When I first installed RadioDJ way back in 2010 it took me a while to figure out the optimal rotation setttings. When you program a rotation you need to make sure there are enough songs in the category and subcategory for the rotation to pick items from In newer versions of RadioDJ if you click on EDIT at the right hand side of your rotation entry it tells you how many files you have available for that rotation to pick from. Its not exactly rock science...

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

Image
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?

Image
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...

Spacial Audio Like To Play BIG Corporate

Image
Spacial Audio Solutions like to play BIG corporate company when it comes to their software support when in reality they are a small time software company based in Sherman Oaks, California. The support team is staffed by people who have NEVER used the software and who usually send the wrong replies. I love SAM Broadcaster but @spacial Customer Support makes me feel more like a Victim, than a customer. The Customer Support Manager is RUDE to users on a regular basis (Why he's still in a job I don't know) Spacial Audio may well have been worth $59,000,000 based on the amount of copies of SAM Broadcaster they have claimed to have sold worldwide. We doubt they're even worth a quarter of that these days According to a recent Google search Spacial Audio turnover is rumoured to be around $4 - $5 Million a year. Yes Spacial Audio Solutions may well have sold software to over 150 countries BUT that was years ago when there was NO viabl...

SAM Broadcaster Cuts Off The End Of Jingles

Image
This is yet another issue within SAM Broadcaster Pro I could never get a sensible answer for. As hard as I tried I could never get SAM to play jingles or station ID's properly it would always CHOP the end off. This was a question asked recently on the SAM Broadcaster Forums. Can anyone help with how to prevent radio spots, Station IDs, Jingles, Promos (Voice Ads) from being cut-off at the end? Right now the ones I have get CHOPPED of at the end before they COMPLETE It also does it with songs SAM Broadcaster Pro could NEVER crossfade properly. I am still fighting with this I have a problem with the tracks snipping on the end a fraction before the track is finished I have tried every combination I can find regarding gap killers and even tried various settings on crossfading in case that was the issue You always ended up with a CAR CRASH of a crossfade between tracks in SAM. I regularly saw people asking on the SAM forums a...

Very Upset with Spacial Audio Technical Support

Image
The Spacial Audio support department strike again! I have been a Sam Broadcaster customer for over 15 years I have reinstalled a PC and when I wanted to activate my license it did not allow me I've been writing to Spacial technical support for two day and they won't give me a solution I have my radio station losing thousands of listeners. I don't know what to do anymore It appears the activation system is yet again causing users issues even if they've deactivated before reinstalling Things like this should NEVER happen with radio automation software. A radio DJ needs software to work so they can do their job or hobby It all stems from the fact SAM Broadcaster was pirated a LOT back in the days on 4.x.x versions. Spacial Audio introduced the activation requirement to cut down on the amount of pirated copies of SAM Broadcaster Pro there were out there. A former Spacial Audio employee posted this: I helped b...