Post install questions
  • It feels good to be up and running with Airtime Very Happy . I've two installations now working and both feel and sound great. Very slick design and lots of fun to use. Well done SourceFabric.

    I have a couple of questions though.

    Is there a way to update shows once they start playing? e.g add another playlist or stop the currently playing one?

    Is Airtime compatible with Jack? I haven't got Jack installed yet but I would like to do something like route the output from Airtime/ icecast into jammin or some other processors and simultaneously use mixxx or idjc as a live assist program.

    When I go into add content my playlists are filtered i.e I have created 5 playlists but sometimes it only shows one. Once I add this one to the show it disappears from the list so I cannot re-enter it into a show.

    Any ideas?

    thanks
    John
  • 9 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Daniel JamesDaniel James
    Posts: 844Member, Sourcefabric Team
    Hi John,

    > Is there a way to update shows once they start playing? e.g add another
    > playlist or stop the currently playing one?

    At the moment, no, not as far as I can see. I do think an emergency
    'stop playout' button would be useful, as long as there was an 'Are you
    sure?' prompt.

    In the meantime you could connect the output of the Airtime server to a
    mixer, and fade it manually. Or remotely, if your mixer accepts Open
    Sound Control, or perhaps can be tweaked over ssh (alsamixer maybe?).

    > Is Airtime compatible with Jack?

    Yes, liquidsoap supports jack, but we haven't documented how to do that
    yet. Have a look in the liquidsoap docs for now.

    > I
    > would like to do something like route the output from Airtime/ icecast
    > into jammin or some other processors and simultaneously use mixxx or
    > idjc as a live assist program.

    I've been thinking about that too, but I can think of a couple of
    reasons why we shouldn't send the output of Airtime to JAMin:

    1. Most commercially released music is highly processed for maximum
    perceived loudness, so we really shouldn't need to compress or limit it
    any further. We will only reduce dynamic range and introduce distortion.
    Better to use ReplayGain to level out the tracks (i.e. make the too-loud
    tracks quieter).

    2. JAMin is CPU intensive, and so probably shouldn't be running on the
    Airtime server, unless it is a fast machine with two or more cores.

    I think JACK is a much better prospect in the live studio, where our
    routing demands are more complex. Here, we can:

    1. Use a JACK mixer (such as Ardour) to balance multiple mics, including
    live music sessions. Put compression/limiting on the vocal mics using
    LADSPA/LV2 plugins.

    2. Use Ardour to record multitrack mixes of the live music sessions,
    which can be mixed for CD later (potential revenue stream).

    3. Use JAMin to do some quick EQ/compression/limiting on the live music
    before it goes to the streaming client or soundcard output (in place of
    hardware like a TC Finalizer 96K).

    4. Use IDJC for everyday non-dance-music shows, e.g. phone-in shows.

    5. Use Mixxx for dance music shows that require beatmatching.

    > How do we delete single files from the database?

    In the Playlist Builder, right click on an audio file, and select
    Delete. I'm not sure if that command actually reclaims the disk space,
    or just causes the database to forget about the file.

    Cheers!

    Daniel
  • Hi Daniel,

    Totally agree about using Jammin to recompress already mastered audio. It's a no brainer really. Replay Gain is actually what I'm after, just to get things to a more balanced or consistent level. Ideally I would run just the presenters mic channels through a box running Jammin. Then return Jammin's output on a separate channel on the desk and mix with mastered music from another source e.g Airtime. Anyone donating computers;)

    From playing around today it's clear that Airtime won't be useful for my situation as a live assist tool but will be the tool of choice for automating all our pre-rec'd audio which is exactly what I want it for. I would really like the ability to edit/stop shows that are played by mistake Wink

    Mixxx, idjc or maybe rivendell work well for live assist playing sound bites,jingles ads etc. during live shows but another reason to use Jack is so two programs aren't trying to share one soundcard. Everything could go through Jack first then output. I'll explore this further.

    I'm still stuck on this one. Has anyone else got this problem or could anyone point me in the direction of where to look to sort this?

    As you'll see from the attached image the search is showing - '1 to 1 of 1 entries (from 3 total entries)' despite the fact that I haven't tried searching for anything. I only have 3 playlist made up and closed in the library but they are not available to add to shows. Is it a bug?


    http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee31/johngough1/Screenshot2011-02-22at215644.png


    Cheers
    J






  • Hi John, the 1 of 3 entries is listed because I filtered playlists according to size so since you show is 10:00 min long Airtime will only show you playlists with a duration of 10:00min or less. if you schedule a 5:00min playlist then the search results will change to show you playlists of 5:00min or less.

    -Naomi
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Paul BaranowskiPaul Baranowski
    Posts: 389Member, Administrator, Sourcefabric Team
    Hi John -
    In the next release we are planning to put in a way to cancel shows that
    have already started and also integrate replaygain support.

    Paul Baranowski
    CTO, Sourcefabric, http://sourcefabric.org

    +1 (416) 832-6436 (Cell)
    Skype: paulbaranowski
    720 Bathurst St. / Suite 203 / Toronto / ON / M5S 2R4 / Canada



    On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:23 PM, johngough <
    airtime-support@lists.sourcefabric.org> wrote:

    > Hi Daniel,
    >
    > Totally agree about using Jammin to recompress already mastered audio. It's
    > a no brainer really. Replay Gain is actually what I'm after, just to get
    > things to a more balanced or consistent level. Ideally I would run just the
    > presenters mic channels through a box running Jammin. Then return Jammin's
    > output on a separate channel on the desk and mix with mastered music from
    > another source e.g Airtime. Anyone donating computers;)
    >
    > From playing around today it's clear that Airtime won't be useful for my
    > situation as a live assist tool but will be the tool of choice for
    > automating all our pre-rec'd audio which is exactly what I want it for. I
    > would really like the ability to edit/stop shows that are played by mistake [image:
    > Wink]
    >
    > Mixxx, idjc or maybe rivendell work well for live assist playing sound
    > bites,jingles ads etc. during live shows but another reason to use Jack is
    > so two programs aren't trying to share one soundcard. Everything could go
    > through Jack first then output. I'll explore this further.
    >
    > I'm still stuck on this one. Has anyone else got this problem or could
    > anyone point me in the direction of where to look to sort this?
    >
    > As you'll see from the attached image the search is showing - '*1 to 1 of
    > 1 entries (from 3 total entries)*' despite the fact that I haven't tried
    > searching for anything. I only have 3 playlist made up and closed in the
    > library but they are not available to add to shows. Is it a bug?
    >
    >
    > [image:
    > http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee31/johngough1/Screensho t2011-02-22at215644.png]
    >
    >
    > Cheers
    > J
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >

  • I love it. that's actually super cool.
    Thanks Naomi.
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Daniel JamesDaniel James
    Posts: 844Member, Sourcefabric Team
    Hi John,

    > Ideally I would
    > run just the presenters mic channels through a box running Jammin.

    That's not ideal; JAMin is a stereo mix compressor, not a channel strip.
    For presenter mics I would suggest starting with the SC4 mono compressor
    in the swh-plugins package (Debian/Ubuntu). You will need a suitable
    LADSPA host mixer, such as Ardour or jack-rack.

    > Anyone donating computers;)

    Try http://www.ilovefreegle.org/ in the UK, or http://www.freecycle.org/
    in the US and elsewhere. You have to be quick though!

    > From playing around today it's clear that Airtime won't be useful for
    > my situation as a live assist tool

    It may be suitable once the pause and other buttons are implemented.

    > I would really like the ability to edit/stop shows that are played by
    > mistake

    We have a ticket open for that.

    > Everything
    > could go through Jack first then output.

    Yes, you can send the output of Mixxx into the streaming client of IDJC
    for multi-DJ shows.

    Cheers!

    Daniel
  • Well in the radio industry a processor would be used before the transmitter. Is such a thing needed for webradio? Maybe even just for levelling? Normalizing will not do the same job although a worthwhile feature.

    As far as jack, I installed Version: 6:1.9.6~dfsg.1-3ubuntu2+fixes1~lucid2 for libjack0 and jack2
    I uncommented "jack" in the PACKAGES file in liquidsoap 8214. I then compiled it all.
    I guess a line needs to be added to ls_config /ls_script to make it show. Haven't done that yet.

    Jeremy
  • Vote Up0Vote Down Daniel JamesDaniel James
    Posts: 844Member, Sourcefabric Team
    Hi Jeremy,

    > in the radio industry a processor would be used before the
    > transmitter.

    In the analogue days this was considered necessary for pop radio, but
    consider that most digital files ripped from contemporary CDs are
    already compressed and hard limited. That's why radio stations that
    compress and limit further have such poor dynamic range. See:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war#Loudness_in_broadc asting

    > Is such a thing needed for webradio?

    I would suggest that Replay Gain is, particularly if you are playing
    music mastered in different eras.

    > Normalizing will not do the same job although a worthwhile
    > feature.

    You're right that it's not the same thing. See
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReplayGain

    > As far as jack, I installed Version:
    > 6:1.9.6~dfsg.1-3ubuntu2+fixes1~lucid2 for libjack0 and jack2
    > I uncommented "jack" in the PACKAGES file in liquidsoap 8214. I then
    > compiled it all.
    > I guess a line needs to be added to ls_config /ls_script to make it
    > show.

    We haven't documented that yet, coming soon :-)

    Cheers!

    Daniel
  • Yes, ReplayGain looks quite promising! I'm thinking some stations may use content of various compression ratios between voice and different music styles.

    Jeremy