Posts

Running A MySQL Database Needn't Be Scary!

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Saw a post recently on social media where someone said this: I'm looking for software that has live assist without MySQL and databases What are you scared of? Running a MySQL database server need not be scary... and it needn't be a hassle. So you probably think its going to be scary to install a MySQL database as well? ( Hint: It isn't difficult) With MariaDB its easy to Install It should also install a tool called HeidiSQL which is where you do your basic maintenance on your MySQL server. The last time I rebuilt my RadioDJ song database from scratch was June 2014. I take daily backups of the database so I don't lose all my hard work or changes to my song database! How To Install MariaDB TIP: If you've previously tried to install MySQL server you will need to follow This Post about removing the service first. If you followed the simple tutorial you should have MariaDB setup and running within 5/10 minutes. Right click on the taskbar a

Sam Broadcaster Pro Crashes

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I recently thought I'd install & see if anything changed with the latest version of SAM Broadcaster Pro SADLY IT HADN'T I started SAM Broadcaster after I configured it connected it to Shoutcast pressed play and off it went or so I thought. I got called away to help a neighbour with something & I was only gone from the computer for 10/15 minutes IF that. When I came back my stream was silent NOTHING was playing just dear air. I looked on the computer & an error message said SAM Broadcaster had STOPPED WORKING you know, that really annoying error! I had it on a clean and fresh install of Windows 11 only Sam Broadcaster was installed After testing SAM Broadcaster Pro it froze displaying the usual critical error (Unexpected Exception Occurred) After 20 years those SAM Broadcaster problems should be a thing of the past Nothing has changed with SAM Broadcaster It's still prone to crashing without warning Why do people s

Sam Broadcaster Pro High CPU Usage?

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Q: Have you ever noticed the amount of CPU that SAM Broadcaster Pro uses? Users have reported that they cannot run SAM Broadcaster Pro without it taking up the computers CPU & resources. I'm running a machine with 8GB RAM and SAM Broadcaster Pro is taking up most of the Memory and the CPU is up at 70%-80% making the PC sluggish Users shouldn't be having those sort of issues on newer machines with that amount of RAM. Ever since the early days SAM Broadcaster Pro has always required huge amounts of the CPU and Memory. SAM Broadcaster locked up in the middle of a radio show it would always max out my CPU when I least wanted it or needed it too Fact: SAM Broadcaster Pro requires a restart after it locks up and freezes. I often had to use task manager to exit the software Fact: SAM Broadcaster Pro is a very system intensive piece of software. It requires a lot of the systems time and resources Fact: SAM Broadcaster Pro has been known to slam the CPU

Frustration At Audio Distortion (Sam Broadcaster Pro)

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A long time user of SAM Broadcaster is complaining about really bad distortion on his stream. I get a distorted audio stream with SAM Broadcaster Pro I searched the forum and couldn't find any conclusive troubleshooting on the topic I have to think whether SAM Broadcaster is right for our station anymore I was NEVER able to get a decent quality professional sound in SAM Broadcaster When will you exchange that lousy and terrible sound output with professional Audio as used on regular Radio (Web) Stations? Even using DSP plugins such as Stereo tool I would always end up with distorted audio. This is not the first time I've done a post about the terrible audio quality in SAM Broadcaster I tested a recent version of SAM Broadcaster and thought the audio quality was poor compared to RadioDJ. Baffled, I have been using Sam Broadcaster for many years There is a Click or Clunk sound when I start a track playing In the years I&#

Sam Broadcaster Cloud Outages

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It seems that Spacial Audio have been having issues with their SAM Broadcaster Cloud service again. We are currently experiencing technical problems. We're investigating and will give an update soon. Apologies to those inconvenienced. This is just one of a long line of dropouts/outages with SAM Broadcaster Cloud which is hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform. @spacial I’ve been down for 8 hours and missed a live broadcast. DJ's shouldn't miss doing their regular radio shows as it makes the them look bad. @spacial SAM Cloud has been hanging lately. There was three hours of silence before I caught it. This is not acceptable! Please fix. @spacial SAM Cloud is down here apologies to all our listeners. @spacial What in the heck is going on with your cloud servers? It's pulling my station Live Broadcasts....not cool! How is anyone supp

Sam Broadcaster v's RadioDJ

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SAM Broadcaster versus RadioDJ which piece of radio playout software is better? Someone asked me to do a comparison between the 2 pieces of software. SAM Broadcaster Pro/Studio RadioDJ Price: $299-$699 FREE ($0.00) 1 Installer: Yes Yes Trial Period: Yes (51 Hours) 10 No Online activation: Yes No Registration Keys: Yes No Multiple Instances: No 8 Yes Supported OS: Windows 7/8/10 (11?) 4 Windows 7/8/10/11 Built In Encoders: Yes No 3 Audio Processing: Yes 9 Yes Aux players: 2 Customisable Supported Databases: MySQL/Firebird/PostgreSQL/MSSQL MySQL/MariaDB Stability: Users frequently report crashes Reliable and stable 6 Ease of use: Can be difficult to setup & use 7 Easy to install and use Support: Via the Helpdesk Only 2 Via the Community Forum File Types: mp3/mp3PRO/OGG/Windows Media/WAV mp3/wma/ogg/flac/wav 5 Restrictions: Only 1 station per licence None Key:

Have You Made The Switch Yet?

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It's always nice seeing other people switching from SAM Broadcaster Pro to RadioDJ radio playout software. Someone said this recently on Social media: I switched from SAM Broadcaster and have not looked back. I was hesitant at first but RadioDJ has made my station so much more streamlined If you haven't discovered RadioDJ yet what are you waiting for? RadioDJ works better than SAM Broadcaster Pro and shouldn't crash or go wrong. We know of users of RadioDJ who haven't restarted RadioDJ in 4 years Radio DJ is an extremely stable & reliable automation program. Users have had this to say about Radio DJ: We recently made the switch from SAM Broadcaster to RadioDJ with no regrets at all We've had no downtime or crashes since we switched My RadioDJ system is sounding so good! What a fantastic piece of software The thing I like about RadioDJ is the stability Listening trend is up since migrating to RadioDJ! RadioDJ is the best playout sy

Sam Broadcaster Pro Has Cost Me Listeners

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Saw a post on social media from someone stating that their copy of SAM Broadcaster has been "FIXED" Now their station is back on air they have no listeners returning to their stream. SAM Broadcaster costing station owners listeners is nothing new! This has been happening with SAM for years now. SAM Broadcaster seems to go wrong for NO apparent reason. When SAM Broadcaster goes wrong any listeners you had will move onto another station while you're off air 'fixing' things. What's worse is those listeners may never return to your stream and that's the last thing you need when running an Internet radio station. I often see reports of SAM Broadcaster crashing or not activating. SAM has been acting crazy lately. It crashes from time to time and PAL scripts fail to run properly However its RARE for me to see people having major issues with RadioDJ. PAL scripts cause memory leaks if they're not written properly which can cause SAM Broadcas

RadioDJ Crossfade Settings

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With music automation software you would expect a smooth crossfade/transition between songs wouldn't you? This is another area where RadioDJ seems to EXCEL The transition between songs is amazing even with songs that have sudden endings Everything I've thrown at RadioDJ has played and crossfaded as it should. I currently use these settings for crossfading in RadioDJ Mixer buffer is on the first screen on the options menu. Mixer Buffer = 3 The Mixing thresholds are under the AutoDJ tab. Start Threshold = -25 db Mix Threshold = -15 db End Threshold = -28 db My fadeout duration has been set at 3900ms for a few years now and always fades tracks rather well. It's rare you have silence between tracks with RadioDJ No activations – No contracts - No keys – No hidden fees - No spyware – No catches How To Install RadioDJ Silence between tracks and CAR CRASH crossfades happened regularly with other well known playout s

Using Winamp To Automate A Radio Station?

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I saw a topic on the Winamp forums from a user wanting to use Winamp to automate the music for their radio station. Do I need a plugin to make playlists so it operates 24 hours? If so which plugins are the best? I want Winamp to never stop, It will be used for a small radio station Fact: Winamp is only good for listening to online Shoutcast Radio stations or to play a few music tracks. Winamp is NOT suitable for automating an Internetradio station Listeners expect high standards from streaming media these days You don't have any artist/title/album separation rules in Winamp So you're just going to hear the same songs/artists/tracks over and over. I certainly never found a way to stop tracks and artists from repeating within the current Winamp playlist. You get lots of silence between tracks or car crash crossfades with Winamp . Having large gaps of silence between tracks isn't going to win many listener

RadioDJ And Its Magic Crossfade

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I'm sat here surfing the web & RadioDJ is playing away in the background doing amazing crossfades between songs and jingles. The crossfading in RadioDJ is just another reason to LOVE the software I'm happy I've found the most perfect piece of audio playback software. If only technology had been this advanced in the 1980s I wouldn't have a bad back from carrying boxes of Vinyl Most of the DJ automation software I tried out back in 1999/2000 was a nightmare to work with in all honesty Some of the DJ software offerings 20+ years ago were so bad they would would crash if you tried adding a large library of songs. I tried Winamp 2.9 and it was OK as a media player but wasn't ideal for doing DJ work with, Winamp struggled to crossfade smoothly between tracks even with the use of DSP Crossfading plugins. Then I discovered a program called MusicMatch Jukebox which at the time was the best audio player available. It had a reasona

Encoding Software (Standalone Encoders)

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To get your stream online its easier if you use a standalone encoding solution Its not difficult to use a stand alone encoder. You configure it the same as a built in one. The MYTH that a standalone encoder is harder to use is put out by software developers who include built in encoders in their software A Standalone encoder picks up the audio from Stereo Mix or Virtual Audio Cable. I've yet to see built in encoders function properly in some software, I frequently encountered lots of buffering messages. Using stand alone encoding means RadioDJ can be left to do what its does best AUTOMATING your songs and jingles. I've used the standalone encoding method since I discovered RadioDJ in 2010 Standalone Encoders are more reliable I've NOT had an issue with Stand Alone encoding software while streaming. Here are just some of the free Internet radio streaming encoders available. 1) Sound Empire Caster ($0.00)

Don't Stream With Spacial Audio? No Support!

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A user has been refused help from the Spacial Audio support help desk because he isn't using their streaming services. Spacial Support have come back to this user and stated because he isn't using their streaming services (Cheapest stream) they can't help him. Passive aggressive customer support is putting it mildly. I purchased two different services and got refused help based on who we stream with? Now we are on our own it would appear. This isn't the first case we've heard of but we're sure there are users who haven't been given support either because of their streaming host. Does anyone else see the problem here? Its utterly bizarre that Spacial Audio don't appear to want to help people with their software and its issues. Spacial Audio do NOT know the meaning of customer service. There is NEVER an excuse to treat a paying customer badly, I was taught that on a retail course back in the late 1980s. Don't

Stability? RadioDJ Has That In Spades

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I've been into Internet radio for a long time now (Over 20 Years) In all those years I've learnt a lot of things about streaming on the Internet. It's been a fun thing to learn about although at times it's been hard work because software wasn't up to the job. The biggest problem I've encountered when it came to Internet radio automation offerings was always been the lack of Reliability & Stability I couldn't get a stream to hold up for longer than a few hours let alone days with certain software. I don't appear to have that problem with RadioDJ FREE radio automation software. I began using RadioDJ v1.3.7.0 back in 2010 and that worked great running the music for the radio stream I had going. A few months later v1.6.0 came out and that was even better and served me well until we started testing the 1.6.x.x Beta versions. Even in Beta RadioDJ performed better than other well known radio playout software. The newer vers

SAM Broadcaster Players Are Stuck (Unable To Apply Settings Error)

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I've seen SAM Broadcaster go wrong on the flip of a coin and without warning in my years using it. A user recently posted on the forums with issues they were having on their computer. I am getting the Players Are Stuck problem with an error Unable to apply settings. Error: [Main] Unable to create DirectSound object Code: $88780078 Make sure that the sound card is not being used by another application. The user omitted which version of SAM Broadcaster this was happening with and has stated nothing else is using the soundcard. I have seen the players get stuck in SAM many a time, Which then usually meant a REINSTALL from scratch. It gets tiring when SAM goes wrong and stops working for no apparent reason. This is a typical error message within Windows Error logs from when SAM goes TITS UP! Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: SAMBC.exe Application Version: 1.0.0.0 Application Timestamp: 2a425e19 Fault Module Name: unknown Fault Module