Posts

RadioDJ Sounds Wonderful (Professional Audio Output)

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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)

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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)

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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

Spacial Audio Like To Play BIG Corporate

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Spacial Audio Solutions like to play the part of a BIG corporate company when it comes to their software and support when in reality they are just a small time software company based out of an office 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 th

SAM Broadcaster Cuts Off The End Of Jingles

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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

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. Dic

Very Upset with Spacial Audio Technical Support

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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, We have audiences of 1000 concurrent listeners and now I am below 100 because the software is not fully working. 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 Broadca

Where Have All the Software Pirates Gone?

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Over the past few years I've seen posts on X offering cracked copies of SAM Broadcaster Pro I'm pretty sure the same thing has been going on on other social media websites. Recently the posts offering these cracks has calmed down. Not seen anyone offering pirated copies of SAM since late 2020. Not even seen anyone offering SAM Broadcaster v4.2.2 which was the most pirated version of SAM Broadcaster On the whole that has to be GOOD NEWS. I'm sure Spacial Audio will be thrilled. These software Pirates have obviously realised you DON'T NEED a Pirated version of SAM Broadcaster you just need RadioDJ 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 doesn't require online activations or registration keys Radio

XML Files Cause SAM Broadcaster To Crash

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As the title of the blog post would suggest SAM Broadcaster crashes when .XML files get corrupted. It can be frustrating when SAM goes wrong for no apparent reason. Sounds like a broken SAMBC.core.xml file Try uninstalling and reinstalling SAM Broadcaster Although you will lose all of your program settings SAM Broadcaster Pro relies on .xml files for its operation it only takes one of those files to become corrupt and SAM does a disappearing act How the XML files become corrupt in SAM Broadcaster Pro is anyones GUESS! Then you have to reinstall the software from scratch which can be quite a Faff. Trying to get SAM Broadcaster to work but it crashes within 24 hours RadioDJ also relies on .xml files for backend & plugin functions & I've NEVER had RadioDJ crash like SAM. FACT: RadioDJ performs 100 times better than SAM Broadcaster Pro Soun

Why Do I Only Promote FREE Radio Software?

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Q: Why do I only promote free radio software from this blog site? In my own experience when I've paid $$$ for software in the past I've ran into issues that stopped me in my tracks. Users like me paid hundreds $$$ for radio automation software & found the support sucked for those pieces of software Some software companies seem to plod on year after year not updating their software all the while still taking paying customers money. Spacial Audio are the biggest Cowboys when it comes to customer support You only have to search this blog to find that one out Lack of customer support is one huge reason I hate paying for software. Another is when Vendors/Authors of software suddenly disappear off the face of the Earth and then their software becomes obsolete. I find some FREE software can be absolutley Amazing sometimes. FREE SOFTWARE is my favourite sort of software because it comes to you

SAM Broadcaster Pro How Good Is It?

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This was a question I saw askd by someone on a Forum. Q: SAM Broadcaster Pro: How good is it? A: IMHO It's not a very good piece of software & it's not worth the $299 & $699 pricetags SAM Broadcaster can be extremely tricky for a novice to setup it gets confusing having 5 different database options on first run. Firebird is the worst of the database options and is flaky and unstable. Firebird can only hold around 50,000 tracks in its database so no good if you have a large library (100K+) of songs I installed SAM Broadcaster with the help of a software engineer We used the included Firebird server That worked well for a few days then SAM wouldn't restart I'd have to start over again reinstalling from scratch SAM fails to the point where it crashes at least once a day Its taking ALL the fun out of this We often hear users reporting crashing/activation issues with SAM Broadcaster often taking stations off air for a few

Why Can't I Use DSP Plugins With RadioDJ 2.x.x.x

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Regular users of RadioDJ will know that version 1.8.2 used to support plugins made by other users. One of those Plugins written by SnowHow supported the use of certain DSP plugins within RadioDJ. In RadioDJ version 2.x.x the plugin structure changed and OLD plugins weren't supported as they had been in version 1.8.2 HOWEVER If you really need a DSP (digital signal processor) plugin to enhance your sound you can do it from within Sound Empire Caster Sound Empire Caster supports the use of DSP plugins. You need to place the .dll and .xml files into the main SEC program folder and you should then have access to that DSP after a restart Highlight The DSP you want to use and use the arrows to move it into the right side panel. TIP: Click SAVE so it remembers the plugin all the time. Sound Empire Caster shouldn't have issues with the DSP of Stereotool I've only heard GOOD THINGS from users about Sound Empire Caster.

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

Budding InternetRadio DJ?

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Q: Are you a Budding Internet Radio DJ? Starting out doing Internetradio as a hobby can seem daunting at first but when you get used to streaming it can be a great hobby to have. If you're a Budding Radio DJ and are looking to get started then may I suggest a few pieces of software to use that won't cost you a penny. In order to start streaming on the internet you will need the following... Broadband connection with minimum of 2MB per second upload speed 1 Music collection with at least 2000 tracks, make sure you use properly ripped audio files at 320Kbps (CBR) mp3 or FLAC A decent computer with a decent processor and at least 2GB RAM. Plus an operating system LATER than Windows Vista. A decent radio automation program. We recommend RadioDJ FREE radio playout software for this. 1 You may encounter issues if other members of your household are streaming TV/Movies at the same time. Reasons to Use RadioDJ:

Beware Of Free Radio Automation Software?

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@Spacial Audio have written a blog post about choosing the right software for running a radio station with. When it came to free radio automation software they said this. Beware of Free Radio Automation Software Free software can often come at a higher cost in the long run with hidden fees and complex contracts that can be costly if you don't foresee them What planet are Spacial Audio living on? Because it sure isn't Earth   With RadioDJ there are NO CONTRACTS NO KEYS NO ACTIVATIONS Genuinely free software sometimes does not deliver on expectations from poor performance to a lack of support when things go wrong WRONG AGAIN! RadioDJ has GREAT Stability & Reliability One user had RadioDJ v1.8.2 running on a Laptop for 4 years RadioDJ has really great support via the Community Forums It's Spacial Audio Solutions who have the distinct LACK OF Customer Service @spacial The worst

SAM Broadcaster Freezes While Adding Music?

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I first used SAM Broadcaster way back when v1.3 came out in 1999. One thing that bugged me about Streaming Audio Manager is that it always FROZE while adding music into the software. Adding files is a very time consuming process and SAM freezes for a while It won't transition to the next song until the folder scan is done Back in v1.3 If I tried adding a large folder of music to the software it would cause the program to crash. It was exactly the same with versions SAM Broadcaster 2/3/4 The reason SAM freezes is down to the fact that the software suffers from bad MEMORY LEAKS! Plus the software is well known for using lots of the computers resources & CPU. SADLY 20+ years later the same thing is still happening in Spacial Audio's SAM Broadcaster software. Saw this on Social media recently. I'm making headway adding music & jingles to SAM but it keeps freezing The Fact