Streamerp2p Forum

Since a few days I'm using a great automation tool called Zara Radio. It works really great.


Here you can download it: ZaraRadio Radio Automation software

Programme is in English and Spanish, but more languages can be downloaded. And it supports Plugins.

Oh, and it is Freeware BTW.

Hello!

I've just downloaded this (zararadio 1.6) and installed it, and it does seem to be a good tool (for free!); I've downloaded Oddcast V3 standalone to use it with, and it seems to work fine-

My only problem is that there appears to be no way to stop monitoring the broadcast audio:

The vu meters in the Zara console behave the same whether the volume in slider in Zara is up or down, but as soon as the volume is turned down in Zara, it also affects what is sent to Oddcast-

i.e. turning down the monitored audio also turns down the broadcast-

Is there a way to mute the zara console and still have the audio sent to Oddcast?

The only way I can get any quiet at the moment is to turn my speakers off, and of course, I cannot use any other applications on my PC which require sound! (Unless I listen to my stream at the same time!)

Help much appreciated!!!

Using ZaraRadio with broadcasting works great indeed, but you will have to broadcast what you hear. This means shutting down windows sound messages, which are anoying anyway.

What you like to do would needs two audiocards if I remember right. One would be dedicated to ZaraRadio and have no output to your loudspeakers.
The other one would be used for direct audio, this way Windows sounds can be put back on. (Or programmes with sounds )

You could put headphones in the audiocard used by the ZaraRadio-Oddcast combo.

Most modern motherboards have sound onboard, so all you'd need is an extra soundcard.

Well this all is in theory and it comes without any waranty.

This way you could install a second streamer into another folder and listen to your own broadcast over your speakerset. While checking ZaraRadio through your headset. Or listen to another station while broadcasting yourself. Do not know why you would, but you could.

ZaraRadio can Cue and Direct output sound to a card of your liking, you could choose for both the same card here. You can find it in the options menu under output.

I"m not sure if this would lend itself to this situation or not but there is something out there called the Virtual Patch Cable or something like that that allows you to reroute audio to another program. If you find it and it works for you, be sure to post your findings and let everyone know how you did it.

Virtual Audio Cable
http://www.ntonyx.com/vac.htm

Thanks for this information, both.

I've just taken a look at the page that d-tracks' link points to and in the explanantory text it says the following:



So I am guessing that this won't solve the 'problem', but much obliged for the suggestion!

Well, from what little experience I have had with this, I think it appears as a virtual sound card. So, you could send the audio from ZaraRadio to it, and then set the stand alone Oddcast to use the same virtual soundcard as it's input. Leave Windows set to go to your regular soundcard that's in your computer for those sounds and such and if you should want to listen back to the stream or something.

That was what I was thinking. Maybe this isn't how this works?

(*Slaps own forehead*):oops:

Ahhh... I think I see what you're driving at now, gentlemen...

I hadn't considered that it might be possible to run this alongside my existing soundcard:roll: so I'll download this and resort to the ancient method of 'playing' and see how I get on.

Thanks

Never hurts to play. I think the free version of it is a bit limited but still may do enough to do what you want. If not, I don't think it's THAT expensive but again... I've slept MANY times since I checked it out last.

Just noticed this in your post above, Harwin- I'd be interested to know how you've set up plug ins (and which ones), as I can't find any 'Plug in' options in any of the menus...

Probably just me, as usual...

I'm pleased to report that virtual audio cable has truned out to be just what I needed, so thanks for telling me about it- I really don't have time for more details now, but I will post later or tomorrow.

As I was saying...

I'm pleased to say that 'Virtual audio cable' has proved an excellent solution to the problem of not being able to mute Zara Radio- I now have the output from Zara fed into VAC and the output from VAC fed into Oddcast... and can use my other audio applications without intereference from what is being broadcast.

I tried the free version first, but it has 2 major disadvantages:

1) None of the help files in it work!

2) It is preset to add a female voice to the outgoing stream which says the world 'Trial' about every 5 seconds!

Also, the program is written by a gentleman whose first language is not English, so some of the text is a bit difficult to follow- But given that even I could install without the help files, it must be fairly straightforward!

It is also important to remember to UNINSTALL the TRIAL version BEFORE installing the full paid-for program. (It's £12, by the way, you can also pay in Dollars or Euros etc etc)

I admit that the installation/uninstallation did get a bit laborious, because the program does not appear in the 'add or remove programs' list in control panel (well, it didn't here...) so it was necesary to find each individual file and delete it- I had to install and uninstall a couple of times, in fact, before the program would work properly.

Anyway!!! Once it WAS installed it worked fine-

The program handles up to 256 'cables' (i.e. inputs and outputs) but I've only set up one...

It seems simply to be a case of opening your streaming program (in my case, Oddcast 3) and selecting 'Live Recording', then choosing the 'Virtual cable' Input from the drop down menu:
(NB: I found I had to close Oddcast and reopen it before the Virtual Cable option would appear).



Then in the 'Options' menu in Zara Radio select 'Outputs' and do the same as above:



NB: Another thing I found was that this only seems to work if the 'virtual cable' option is selected in Oddcast FIRST, and THEN in Zara. I'm not sure if this will be the same for everyone.

I also note that when I close Oddcast, it reverts to using the original soundcard when re-opened. (this may be because I am using the standalone version, however).

So... Hope that wasn't TOO tedious for everyone!
But on the other hand, maybe someone else can use this information in future.

I would like to know if anybody knows a way of displaying song titles using Zara Radio, as presently I don't have this facility.

Well done Lumber, this sure beats another soundcard About the songtitle thing. This can be done with Oddcast and ZaraRadio as a matter of fact.

In Oddcast click on [Edit], select in External Metadata (0) File and fill in the path to a file called 'CurrentSong.txt' including the filename. This way Oddcast will display your Current Song every XX( default 60) seconds.

Oddcast has even more fun things there, in way you can create a stream of messages. Well you'll figure it out.

But when I tried it, once in a while Oddcast bombed out with this setting. I use ZaraRadio 1.44 so it may be a bug there. Dunno.
Curious if you can get it stable.

Thanks Harwin-

I'm not sure if I understood you correctly- In the Oddcast Meta tab, do I simply have to do this?



I expect I have it wrong...

In any case, it doesn't seem to be working!

You are almost right there, because you also have to 'tell' Oddcast where it can find that file, otherwise it wil look in it's own directory.

I presume you have installed ZaraRadio like here:

C:\Program Files\ZaraSoft\ZaraRadio\

So the complete path including the textfile would be:

C:\Program Files\ZaraSoft\ZaraRadio\CurrentSong.txt

Place this complete path at the spot where you currently only have filled in CurrentSong.txt and it will work, considering the path is indeed the one corresponding to the one on your PC.

But if I remember correctly this is the standard path ZaraRadio installs itself to.

Remember though it might bomb out Oddcast V3.16 now and then. At least that happened at my place. Have not found out why it did though. Hopefully it will do just fine for you.

If it does work stable with ZaraRadio 1.6 let me know, then I think I will give it a try again. Maybe it is something like when ZaraRadio changes the filecontent and Oddcast at the same time tries to read it, that's where things go wrong. It's just a wild guess.

Thanks Harwin!

Would never have found that by myself-

Only just set it up, but I will keep you informed!