Talking on the radio?
 

Hello,

I am new so was hoping someone might be able to help me out. I am currently running a test shoutcast server from a host until I can make sure sure I am able to dj properly. I am trying to be able to talk on the radio with the music in the background is this even possible? I currently am using my laptop with it's built in mic. Do I need to purchase a headset with a mic in order to have background music? Having to switch from winamp to sound card completely turns off the music and makes for a poor showing in my opinion. I appreciate any help that anyone can give. I would also like to know if it is possible to have members of my site call in to the radio for I would also like to run a talk show.

What OS are you using? Versions of Windows past XP don't really work well with broadcast/mic combinations.

Windows 7. There is no way with a headset with mic to be able to have the music fade while I try to talk? Without having to pay 300 dollars for sams broadcasting lol. I mean aren't there other stations out there that are doing exactly what I would like to do where I am playing music and say I want to cut in real quick to make a live announcement but still have the music faintly in the background as I am talking?

Have you tried searching the plugins directory for a solution?

Yeah I looked at those but they don't appear to be for what I am trying to do. Does anyone else here use a headset with a mic and have windows 7 and are able to talk live with music in the background? If so I would really appreciate it if you could help me I am even willing to pay someone if it is a complicated process and they feel the need to be paid for their time.

I had an issue with this too, I used virtual cables to pipe microphone and music to the shoutcast input (soundcard input) ..

Virtual Cable software helped fix the problem. Just thought I'd say that here. Had the exact same issue.

talking
 

with the advent of Vista and Win7 and a serious lack of sound cards or drivers to suit, or a lack of motivation to put anything other than cheap onboard sound on motherboards... and in any case remove your access to do anything other than than listen to music. And consider the time that your beloved XP fails and you have to get a win 7 pc......... here is your solution done for once and all.

buy a desktop mixer..... nothing fancy (NOT USB) and run a stereo 2.5mm Y cable from your speakers out to an input channel on the mixer.

run another Y cable from the master record of the mixer to your line in jack, this effectively routes the sound out of your pc through the mixer (where you can control volume etc)

Buy a half decent set of headphones and plug them into your mixer.

Buy a decent mic and stand (i use a 27$ yoga FX508) and a mic stand and a pop filter

on your shoutcast leave it on soundcard..... select source as line in. do the same in the windows mixer.

PS. SAM is the most persnicketty thing to get right i have ever fiddled with, and support is seriously flawed (my own personal opinion)

So, a mixer with at least one stereo slider, rca lines in, master out, mic in with Talkover or at least a mic on off function and headphones out.

dont get a USB mixer or firewire.. or if they have those attachments dont be tempted to use them

advantages: easy control over volume
you can hear the music as you play it and your own voice in your headhones.... its called foldback and if you can hear yourself then you can be confident in whats going out to stream.

this is an example only of what im talking about http://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-PM4800.../dp/B000FKPVSG



With this system all you need is a speakers out jack, a line in jack and the ability to be able to select line in as your source, all other controls are done on the mixer.. so you have a premixed stream hitting the line in jack. Always connect leads turned off and always start with volume controls at zero.

i use a mixer as does my wife and we both do live radio, have done for years, my wife also conducts skype interviews live to stream and we have also done interviews with artists at the house, and playing and singing live to stream... all because we invested in a couple of mixers.

and when we eventually have to go to 7 (or whatever comes after) it wont bother us

cheers Syd

• buy a sound card which is supported by kx project drivers (most SB live/audigy/audigy 2)
• learn to program the emu10k1/2 DSP
• mix (in the audio device) 2 DJ's + 4 software music sources + CD + an auxiliary (digital) source seamlessly