Ok, I'm an ass, the new site isn't done and I haven't been doing much for GWR recently. Though, I have been thinking because I do want to see GWR back up and running, but I don't want to see it die again and again and again.

So, Kalar and I have been talking and we have decided to hold an IRC "get together" this Wednesday (1st Aug) at 9pm GMT (4pm EST), or rather about then. Timezones are a bitch so basically the couple of hours after that should be fine for dropping in to #gwradio on irc.whahay.net to discuss ideas as a community of DJs and listeners. If you get in late, just PM me (on IRC) and I'll fill you in with what's been discussed.

There was also the idea of a live panel on GWR to discuss things, so people don't have to actively watch the channel and can just listen as they get on with their evening, chiming in on IRC whenever they feel they have some input. This will only happen if there is enough DJs with a mic (details to follow but you must PM me a few hours before the event AT THE LATEST), maybe 4-5 would be enough.

It would be handy if you could post in this topic just to say you'll try to make it, even better if you continue to idle in IRC for the next few days. I would also prefer if you kept your ideas until then, rather than posting them here, so we can have an active discussion on it (plus it gives you time to think the ins and outs of your idea, so you don't sound stupid or something).

Until then, think of ideas. Here are some random words to get you going: Music, Radio, Shoutcast, DJ, Listener, Manager, Schedule, Podcast, Live, Pre-recorded, Website, Discussion, Microphone, Freelance, Host, Co-Host, Tune, Audio, Sound, GW, Stream, MP3, Winamp, Foobar, Ventrillo, Teamspeak

The native software for shoutcast, is Winamp. Before proceeding through this guide, please make sure you have Winamp and are familiar with how it works (it's pretty straight forward).

So, your choice of broadcasting equipment should be:

1. Winamp.
2. SHOUTcast.
3. Some MP3s.
(Optional: Microphone)

This guide will teach you how to setup SHOUTcast (minus server password), how to set the encoding correctly, fill in your DJ information and get streaming your songs & voice.

Let's roll on!

You will need to get SHOUTcast DSP Plug-in for Windows and install it.



Click that link and a download box will appear, you will want to save as to a directory you can remember. Go to that directory and run shoutcast-dsp-1-9-0-windows.exe.



This will appear on screen, click next and you will find the installation options screen.



Ensure default is selected and make sure you have enough space for it (it is not that big) before clicking "Next" again.



Browse to your winamp directory, usually C:\Program Files\Winamp. Click Next.



After a few seconds (depending on your computer, but it shouldn't take long) you will be given this message. Essentially, this guide covers what you will need from the readme.txt file, so just click no and continue with this guide. The installation will end there.

Now it's time to get back on winamp. Run winamp and you will need to open the preferences. To do this, right-click on winamp, go to Options, and then Preferences (as shown below).



The Winamp Preferences window will open, with a bunch of sections down the left hand side, and options on the right. We want to locate DSP/Effect, highlighted in this image (you may have to scroll down your menu to find it).



From the selection on the right, choose "Nullsoft SHOUTcast Source DSP v1.9.0 [pdsp_sc.dll]", which will open another window (see next two screens).





You will notice a variety of text boxes, check boxes, tabs and buttons . Please, don't click on anything unless I say so, don't want to mess it up now do you (NOTE: In my screens the details are filled in, don't add stuff in until I say so either, just to keep on track) ;o



Click the encoder tab and the above screen will appear. Set these settings using the drop-down boxes:

Encoder Type: MP3 Encoder
Encoder Settings: 128kbps, 44.100kHz, Stereo

Now, let's take a second to look over these settings. The MP3 encoder is just the compression for streaming the audio, this is required for GWRadio. If you are caught using other encoders without permission you will be banned from the server (logs tell all.....). The 128kbps, 44.100kHz, Stereo is the quality it will stream at. For lower connections, this will be lower as it uses up bandwidth. For now, we will set it at this quality as this is a good listening quality, though later on you may find you will need to reduce this which is no problem at all, just do not increase it EVER.

Click the Output Tab, then the Yellowpages button about half way down the window.



This is how we set up the various show information, seen in such things as the Dynamic Status Signatures and the Status box at http://radio.whahay.net. Make sure the "Make this server public" checkbox is checked. As you can see from the screenshot, I have gone ahead and filled in my information. Here's what you need to put in:

Description: The title of your show. You will have submitted this to me already, please make it the same to keep records up to date (if you change it, inform me immediately).
URL: http://radio.whahay.net
Genre: When filling in your DJ application, you will have been asked for a main genre. This is what you put in here. DO NOT PUT MULTIPLE GENRES OR A GENRE DIFFERENT TO WHAT YOU APPLIED WITH. There's various reasons for that which I do not need to explain, but the most obvious would be to match it up with the records and schedule. For a list of used genres, visit http://radio.whahay.net and check the "Schedule Key". If the genre you want is not there, put the closest match from that list or put Various, and contact me about having the genre added.
AIM: Your username that you submitted with your DJ application. Now, hang on, isn't AIM AOL Instant Messenger? For the sake of various scripts, we use this as a name field. It does not need to be a real AIM account. So, username goes here.
ICQ: 0
IRC: #gwradio

Track Title/URL - Make sure all checkboxes in this section are checked. This gathers tag information from your tracks and is used to display current playing songs.

Wasn't that fun? Don't worry, I won't keep you much longer. Click the Connection button next to Yellowpages.



As you can see, we are going to set up the connection information.

Address: radio.whahay.net
Port: 8000
Password: You will have been supplied this with your DJ acceptance. Don't try guessing, you'll only get into trouble.
Encoder: The number of the encoder you set. You should have set it to 1 if you followed the guide properly.

You're all set! Yes, that is all the major configurations done. Now to test it. Click connect, I dare you 8)

(NOTE: Of course, check to make sure no one is on at that time or is due to go on)



Succes! If you followed the guide, that should eventually appear. Of course, the bytes sent will change, depending on if you are playing music at the time or not. Play a song, watch it increase, check the sigs or status boxes and see the miracle that is you on-air ;d

Do not have downloads running while playing music, it makes the broadcast jumpy and will reduce quality for listeners.

It is advised that you have someone there to listen in for tweaking. As I said previously, you may need to turn down the quality. How do you know? Well, ask your listener to tell you how quality is. If they say it is skipping, it means your connection cannot handle that level of quality.

Disconnect. Yes, disconnect and go back to the encoder tab, select a lower encoder setting such as 112kbps, 44.100kHz, Stereo. Reconnect, and repeat this process until your broadcast is stable.


Winamp with SHOUTcast Setup = Complete.

Because not everyone uses winamp, but everyone does like to be a DJ DARKLEAFO there is hope for those of you running alternative software, specifically Foobar2000 0.8.3.

This guide is for broadcasting on the radio only, any default installation of foobar2000 can listen to the radio with no modification.

Oddcast is an alternative to Shoutcast Broadcasting tools, infact there is a winamp and standalone version. (I imagine the standalone version could be made to work with any media player that makes noise, but this guide is for the Foobar version). When using my guide, just follow the images. Important locations are marked by the mouse cursor and/or red arrows or shapes.

For this guide we will be using Oddcastv3, which is the latest version. V2 works as well but it is a bit dated and lacking in features. Head over to the site http://www.oddsock.org/tools/oddcastv3/ and click on the Foobar link above the image.



And now either save it to a temp location, or just click open depending on your browser!



Now the installer will begin, just accept all terms.



When you get to this dialog be sure to check off the LAME mp3 encoder, it is REQUIRED to broadcast on GW Radio. You may grab the ACC one as well, but it is not needed for GW Radio but it can be used if you wish to broadcast on other radio stations. Also make sure to leave all the default checked items checked, as seen below.



Next dialog, just point the installer to your foobar 2000 directory. After that click next to install!



While installing it will tell you it needs to get the the LAME encoder externally, so click okay to bring your browser to the page to download it from.



Download the highlighted link and open it on spot (or save to temp locations)



Now drag the two selected files as seen in the image into the root directory of your foobar2000 installation!



Now you can close the installation, congratulations installation is complete.



Start Foobar



In preferences, go to Playback > DSP Manager. You should see Oddcastv3 on the righthand column. Add it to the left.



As soon as you add it, the Oddcastv3 window should pop up (if not in focus then check in the taskbar). From here you can see currently playing music from the Foobar DSP. In the bottom you should see an empty listbox. Click on the Add Encoder button, then double click on the new encoder that has appeared to set it up



From here you can fill in the connection settings for GW radio. Copy the values exactly as they are shown in the image. Official DJs should have the password so don't ask for it here. You need the password to broadcast.



The next tab, YP Settings allows you to change the displayed settings when playing music, such as the Genre, DJ, and radio name. Fill in the values according to your style. None of these values are required, and they can not alter the effectiveness of the connection. Also note that in the AIM slot you want to put you DJ name so it can be seen in the IRC radio script and the Dynamic Signature Image.



Now you can click OK!



And then Connect.



And then the program will go through the connect stages.





And now you are one air. Head over to IRC to check it out:






Some tips:

If you have a slow internet connection, e.g a slow upstream then you may not be able to broadcast at 128kbps. You can change this value, the bitrate,  from the Encoder Settings Basic Settings tab. Make it lower if you want to save bandwidth.

Whahay does not have unlimited badwidth as well. The server takes in the stream from your computer, then rebroadcasts it to all the listeners listening to the radio. 128kbps is a constant 16 kilobytes per second download speed off the server per unit. If 5 people were listening then it would be a constant 50 kilobytes a second from the server. If those 5 people listened for 1 hour then they would consume 288 megabytes of bandwidth. In order to use less bandwidth, you can change the bitrate from the Basic Settings tab on in the Encoder's Settings. If you are using too much bandwidth ramirez will most likely tell you!

If you have a microphone and you want to talk to anyone who is listening, then from the Oddcastv3 main window just click the Microphone icon with a red X in it. The X will go poof and you will be broadcasting from your mic. From my experience in Oddcast the music will stop broadcasting when you are mic broadcasting, but the music will still be playing on your local computer, so it would be wise to use headphones.

This guide will show you how to set up your sound controls to allow multiple DJs. This will NOT provide details on setting up Ventrillo, or MSN, or Skype, or Teamspeak connects, as this will only deal with your sound settings. But note, these settings will allow multiple DJs to broadcast over any voIP connection.

Please choose a voIP application, get someone to host a server and try it out, get used to how it works because I will not describe how to use them.

Before we go any further, please read the following:

ONLY THE MAIN DJ WILL HAVE TO FOLLOW THIS GUIDE

1. It is an unwise decision to have people playing music over the voIP service, as the quality will be generally bad and will lag the show. If anyone is caught playing music (small audio clips are ok I guess, but don't over do it) then action will be taken.
2. It is also unwise for the main DJ (i.e. the one who will actually be connected to the radio server and use these settings) to host the voIP server (if one is needed). This is to avoid lag and quality problems.
3. If you are the main DJ, you should disable any alert sounds (IRC, MSN, AIM, YIM and so on) as every single sound that you can hear from your PC will be broadcasted. Furthermore, you should be wearing headphones when you broadcast, to avoid feedback. I am sure you are capable of buying some cheap headphones for this, so there is no excuse.

Now that all that is cleared up, here's some guidelines for your multi-DJ show, before we get into the technical stuff.

Both you and your co-hosts/guests should discuss any music, timing and such that will be used in the show. Don't just cut off your fellow broadcaster to play some music, that's bad broadcasting. Also, keep in mind that there may be a slight time delay between them saying something, and you hearing it.

Another bad broacasting habit would be complete silence. Plan what you will discuss before hand, hell even write a script. I don't care, as long as there isn't any:

 "Oh so what alcoholic beverage do you enjoy the most?"
"um...................................................................................".


Ok, so you should already know the ins and outs of SHOUTcast and winamp. Doesn't particularly matter for this though, but it's best if you gain a little DJing experience before attempting something like this. For this guide, all you need is volume control.

If you don't know how to get to your volume control settings yourself, you probably shouldn't be doing this at all. Despite that, either double-click the speaker icon in your system tray, or go Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Click the "Advanced Button" in the "Device volume" section.

A window similar to this should appear:



You may or may not have less options, but it does not matter because I will show you how to get the options we need. First, click "Options" and select "Properties", like so:



The following window should appear:



Once again, the check boxes might not be identical yet. As you can see by my screenshot, I have them all checked. The one you need to have checked is "Microphone". Click ok and you will see something similar to the following:



You should have the Microphone field added, and it is most likely it will have the mute box checked. Uncheck this, and drag the volume slider to the top. This means that any sound that goes into your microphone will come out your speakers/headphones. This may or may not make sense yet, depending on how much you have experimented with the sound controls, but all will be clear soon!

Moving on, click "Options" and select "Properties" again. The screen from before will show, and you should select "Recording" from the list of radio buttons, like so:



Make sure "Stereo Mix" is checked (note, some cards call this "What U hear" so check that instead), then click ok. Your volume control will change now, to something similar to this:



These are the recording controls, i.e. how you soundcard captures sound for broadcasting on the station (or anything else that need recording). You should now check the "Select" box under the "Stereo Mix" (or "What U hear") section. Your new screen will look similar to this:



A quick explaination of what Stereo Mix/"What U hear" is:

"What U hear" actually sums it up pretty well. It's whatever comes out your speakers, so that means music, MSN beeps and so on. Therefore, when you broadcast, it will send out the sounds of what you hear coming from Ventrilo or Skype or whatever, and because we set up your speakers to output your microphone sounds too, they will be broadcasted too!

Previously, you would have only had "Microphone" selected, which is how you usually speak on the air or record voice messages etc. This would not let you broadcast or record what you heard people say on ventrilo etc, unless you held the mic up to your speakers, which isn't very good.

You may now close down your volume controls, start up winamp & shoutcast, get connected to your voIP server, then connect to radio.wahahy.net. Go to Input, select Soundcard from the drop-down, press the "Lock" button (best idea, I don't think you want to hold the push to talk button the whole show do you?) and let everyone talk away.