SHOUTCast vumeter, unbelieveably urgent!!!!

[defbase]

Hey all,

Kinda crossposted by accident, but hopefully someone in this SHOUTCast forum can help!

Heres a problem I can't believe no-one has had before. I urgently need a solution to this, as I can't run the station without it.

I broadcast my SHOUTCast live. To do this, I have 2 machine's set up as follows:

Machine 1 (player). Plays the music/sound effects etc etc. This is linked into an external hardware DJ-esque mixer.

Microphones are directly hooked into the mixer.

Mixer master output is hooked into the Mic In port on the second machine (broadcaster).

This all works a treat, and I can broadcast with no problems.

But, I need to monitor the total volume level that is being broadcast. Easy, I thought. I installed a few vu-meters on the broadcast machine, and found one that suited me. So I got it all running, and, surprise surprise, it seems that LINEREC:// input does NOT trigger any visualisation plugins!

Now the plugin works, because I can use LINEIN:// and the vumeter plugin monitors the input perfectly. Except the SHOUTCast DSP plugin is not compatible with LINEIN://, and won't send anything to the server.

Fine, I thought, I'll find something else to do it. But regardless of what vumeter I install, whether it is a winamp plugin or a standalone exe, it doesn't work. Plugins don't respond the the SHOUTCast DSP, and standalone (ie: not winamp plugins) just crash the DSP every time.

This is really annoying, as it means I can't monitor output levels - a nightmare in live broadcasting.

Someone else must have had this problem before.... ?

Cheers guys, all help is REALLY appreciated...

-dEF bASE!-

[Sargeant]

First thing you need to understand is that, given your setup, you're integrating analog off-board gear with digital on-board gear. Trying to match analog levels with digital levels can be tricky. Your Shoutcast plug-in is the last thing in your chain. Since it is what plugs you into the server, it's not concerned with audio. In fact, it doesn't even know what audio is, it transmits data. The data that it transmits is dependent upon the digital information that you feed it, which includes any digital audio information that's sent to your sound card (the guts of your broadcast). So, what your asking is equivalent to seeing if you can put a VU meter on your word processing program. Know what I mean? You won't find an "output meter" for your shoutcast plug-in because once the audio has reached that stage, it's been reduced to mere binary code. I would suggest that you pull up your line mixers on your second computer and run some material from that hard drive (mp3s, wave files, or anything that generates audio) and set the line mixer levels to a place where you know that your soundcard is operating at it's optimum output level without being overdriven, then open up your shoutcast source window, crank up your stream with your offboard gear, and then tweak the levels on your off-board mixer until the VU in the lower right-hand corner is touching into the -4 dB range. Then you should be okay. You could always go to the library or a friends house, or somewhere else where you can get on another computer and hook into your stream and see what it sounds like, then run back home and make any necessary adjustments. Also, you might want to buy an off-board compressor/limitor to patch into the effects loop of your mixer if you can afford it, or, if you can't, go to the winamp website and download a software compessor/limitor. If you download a DSP one, get the "DSP Stacker" so you can put it in-line behind your shoutcast plug-in. That will even out your audio levels so that you're running fairly consistently, just be careful not to squeeze out the character of the music.

I hope this helps...

[defbase]

Hmm, I think you may have misunderstood.

Load winamp, and play from LINEIN://. The vu-meter goes wild, it monitors the input.

Now play from LINEREC://. Nothing, zip, nada.

Forget the SHOUTCast DSP plugin, I spoke about that because that was the cause of me trying to fix this. But LINEREC:// works perfectly well without the SHOUTCast DSP connected to a server, so it's pretty irrelevant.

I know what you mean about it being binary when it hits the DSP plugin, and yes, you're right. But regardless, it's still waveforms when it goes in through the LINEREC:// plugin, and therefore a vu-meter should work. Hence my original statement:

>, it seems that LINEREC:// input does NOT trigger any >visualisation plugins

I re-read my original post, I mistyped something. Where I said

>Plugins don't respond the the SHOUTCast DSP

I meant to say "dont respond to the SHOUTCast LINEREC://".

Anyway, I kinda found a solution. It seems the stereo linrec plugin I had was screwed in some way. I re-downloaded a new version, and it popped up an input dB meter. It sucks, but it does the job.

But anyway, my original point still stands. The LINEREC:// plugin doesn't trigger a visualisation plugin.

Nullsoft, are you listening?

-dEF bASE!-