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Post by Jeff on May 17, 2006 8:38:46 GMT -5
Hello Indigenuts! Today I am looking into internet radio. If I can do so, I’ll start broadcasting today. But that might be a little ambitious. Right now, I’m looking at four products to do this. 1. Pirate Radio ( www.pirateradio.com/ ): If we go this way, everyone has to download and use the “Destiny Media Player.” I think that would be a big limitation on our audience. The software costs $40. 2. SHOUTcast ( www.shoutcast.com ): The software is free. It works well with most media players, especially winamp. The only downside is that it is a little hard to learn. But hey, we’re wicked smart, so we should be able to figure it out. The hard part will be configuring one of our PCs as a server. 3. Live365 ( www.live365.com/broadcast/ ): This looks like both a software/server solution. For individuals they charge $10/month. For companies they charge more. This solution doesn’t appeal to my DIY instinct. 4. SAM broadcaster: ( www.spacialaudio.com/products/sambroadcaster/ ): Another solution that requires a contract with a server. Not interested. Finally, here is the wiki write-up for internet radio: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_radio . I’ll keep you posted about my progress. It looks like SHOUTcasting is the way to go. But we’ll see… Jeff
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Post by jtmx1 on May 17, 2006 9:44:05 GMT -5
I think I am broadcasting right now on the shoutcast network, but I am not showing up in the searches. Stand by...
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Post by jtmx1 on May 17, 2006 9:49:43 GMT -5
We are on! www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=indigenousWell, I am on. If I had some audio of you guys then you would be on, too. I could put Ryan's song in rotation. Chris, anything you want me to play of yours today? Justin?
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Post by jtmx1 on May 17, 2006 10:40:57 GMT -5
I had forgotten what a kick ass song "Ordinary Time" is. Thank you, Mr. Cadmus. Bok, bok!
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Post by chris on May 17, 2006 11:25:50 GMT -5
Holy crap! Where did you find "Gold Mine"?
This is flippin' awesome!
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Post by jtmx1 on May 17, 2006 11:32:57 GMT -5
I got a whole bunch of files from Justin when I lived next door to him in 1999. We did our first experiments with recording on the computer in 1998-9, and from the beginning I've wanted to archive as much of you guys' work as possible. I am still trying to mix down L Simple and A Bit Too Much. I've got several of these songs in rotation right now. I'd like to have more.
Jeff
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Post by chris on May 17, 2006 11:49:47 GMT -5
I forgot how much I liked "Pithy". Not the recording, which is awful (and my singing is worthy of punishment), but the song...
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Post by Jeff on May 17, 2006 11:57:57 GMT -5
I've been listening to the old stuff all morning. I know I say this too much, but I think it's true: We're all pretty damn talented. I am jammin on the sounds, anyway. I wish I could put Ryan's songs in the mix.
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Post by Jeff on May 17, 2006 11:59:44 GMT -5
What do you want next, Chris? Any requests?
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Post by chris on May 17, 2006 12:06:03 GMT -5
Heck, I'm quite content with what I'm getting. Every other song is like a surprise from memory lane... and it hasn't repeated yet. I'm diggin' this... I'll record a promo for you: "Indigenous Circle Radio is my at-work station. It gets me through the day!"
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Post by Jeff on May 17, 2006 12:11:11 GMT -5
The bad news is that I'm about to run out of stuff that you and Justin did. Then it will be me for about an hour.
But I'm looking for some things on our drives. Maybe I can still surprise you!
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Post by jtmx1 on May 17, 2006 14:13:45 GMT -5
Okay, we've got about 3 hours of material on Indigenous Radio, and then it starts repeating. I have SOME freetime tonight. Enough that I think I could do a very bad rip of L Simple and A Bit Too Much. Nothing special mind you. And that would give us another 2 hours of material. 5-8 hours is about all I plan to broadcast during any particular day. Doing it ties up my PC, and I want to be creative during my time off.
But Chris and I demonstrated the technology today. And we can do whatever we want with it.
We could broadcast whenever we want, though scheduling our them would make them easier to promote. When would you guys be most likely to tune in?
We can broadcast whatever we want. So produce your stories, poetry, songs, etc... Upload them to savefile.com, and I will download them and arrange them for broadcasting.
Or whatever.
Where do you want to go tomorrow?
Jeff
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Post by jtmx1 on May 17, 2006 14:15:33 GMT -5
PS Ryan, I put your songs in rotation without your expressed consent. If you want me to pull them, I'll be treating your genius as a credit card company would: You can always opt out.
Hope you aren't offended. (In fact, I hope you are pleased!)
Jeff
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Post by Jeff on May 17, 2006 14:18:05 GMT -5
Justin, what is the URL for your cuppagism website? Are there any songs still up there? In fact, does anyone have any mp3s scattered around on the net that you'd like me to broadcast? Should we ask Zakk if he wants us to braodcast 20 Minute Crash stuff? Are there any other bands that we know that we'd like to promote? Etc...
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Post by Jeff on May 17, 2006 21:21:43 GMT -5
Damn, it takes forever to rip this stuff. There is no way I can do even L Simple tonight. So, I am limiting my work to just the gold cuts. I've done Tip and '45. Right now I am working on Justin's Lumberjack Costello song, Blowpony. If any of you guys are on, tell me what you think the golden ones are on Amy B. Altered and Useful Rarities.
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Post by Jeff on May 18, 2006 1:17:10 GMT -5
I have a bunch of new songs to put in rotation tomorrow. But I wanted to tell you that as I went through the Useful Rarities on my El Simple tape the track that really stood out was The Rock and Roll Song. It is so great, but the recording is so dynamically uneven that I had to squash the hell out of it to get anything like a consistent level. That said, I've still listened to it 5 times. It seriously interrupted my work. Nice job, Chris and Justin.
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Post by Jeff on May 18, 2006 2:15:15 GMT -5
It’s 2am. Here’s what was on El Simple:
Darren and the Minorities
Amy B. Altered
1. Tip 2. ‘45 3. Sins 4. The French Song 5. Blowpony 6. Stonecutter 7. Blind 8. Handshake 9. Pastorale 10. Pantaloon 11. Cythera Awaits 12. Inspired 13. Iris 14. Crosslands
Useful Rarities
1. The Nestling 2. The Drums of East Timor 3. Harmonica Fun 4. Persnickety 5. That One Song (Still Life) 6. Nein Greviette 7. Future Perfect sketch 8. Chris Prays 9. The Thing in the Sea 10. The Eclipse 11. Reason 12. Red Rosey Ridicule 13. Rock & Roll Song 14. Vande Camp’s 15. Dreamy Intro 16. Star Child 17. Basil’s Theme
I already had
A4. The French Song A10. Pantaloon A12. Inspired A13. Iris A14. Crosslands.
I mixed down everything else EXCEPT: A3. Sins A9. Pastorale B1. The Nestling B2. The Drums of East Timor B3. Harmonica Fun B5. That One Song (Still Life) B7. Future Perfect sketch B12. Red Rosey Ridicule
I ripped and mastered 18 songs tonight, some of them better than others. I know it always sounds like I am making excuses but I’ve listened to my source tape so much—and it is about a decade old now—that I couldn’t do much for some of these songs. And of course, if I had had more time, I could have done more.
I’ll put the radio station online before I go to sleep tonight. It should be playing when you get to work in the morning.
Jeff
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Post by jtmx1 on May 18, 2006 4:52:22 GMT -5
The radio station is online. There are 95 original mp3s in rotation including a few promos that I did tonight. The playtime is about 4 hrs and 15 minutes. I still have another collection of Justin's old stuff to mix down. (And I have all my old stuff, which is about 4 hours worth itself.) Ryan, for some reason I can't find In Absence or any of your Idiot Plot stuff. If there is anything you want me to put in the line up just tell me.
I would really like to get some other pieces besides music. If you want to record one of your political views, feel free.
Oh, I realize that some of the songs in the playlist need to list their information better. Some of 'em not only don't include the artist name but have an abbreviated (or simply wrong!) name for the track. This will be a long tedious correction project. I'll get to it eventually.
I randomized the playlist so that there would be no big doses of any one theme. I think it sounds pretty good. I find myself surprised at the juxtapositions of songs sometimes.
Any other suggestions for Our Radio project?
G'night, John Boy!
Jeff
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Post by ryan on May 18, 2006 9:41:45 GMT -5
Jeff,
Of course you can put my stuff in rotation, Jeff! Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner about it -- I've been on the road and haven't had much time and/or opportunity to get online. I'm doing another contract for TekSystems. This one takes me through Indianapolis and Chicago, so it's pretty exciting. I get done June 1, which means I'll probably be back home on the 2nd or 3rd.
But yeah, anything of mine that you have, feel free to put it in rotation, regardless of the quality of the recording! I tried to check-out the station a couple of nights ago, but when I clicked on the link you posted, I just got a Nullsoft page that said, "Indigenous could not be found" or something like that. Maybe you weren't broadcasting? Does the station air only during certain hours?
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Post by ryan on May 18, 2006 10:50:38 GMT -5
Wow, I'm trying to load-up the station again today, and I'm just getting, "Opening page www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=indigenous." It's been almost 15 minutes on a high-speed connection, and nothing else is happening. So, you're running this on a server out of your house, right? I guess that means you have to have some kind of service running -- probably a set of WinXP services and a proprietary ShoutCast service. And I'm sure you don't want to leave those services running all the time. So, I guess I just answered my own question: You only broadcast during certain hours. Let me know when the next broadcast is planned. You know, I dig the DIY aesthetic as much as you do, Jeff, but there are certain cases when DIY works against you, and this might be one of those cases. I would want to tune into Indigenous Radio at my convenience. Since I doubt you want to have a dedicated ShoutCast server in your house, streaming Indigenous Radio all the time, I would suggest that, if everybody likes the idea of Indigenous Radio, we take up donations from the group and start-up a Live365 station. A Live365 station would be hosted remotely on a dedicated Live365 server, which means the station would air 24/7, whether or not anyone's listening. Also, the station would play inside an Internet Explorer window without the use of any external media players or special plugins. Its player is similar to the MySpace player, in that respect; it loads-up automatically as part of the webpage, and just starts playing. 'Cuz, I mean, seriously, if I have to download new software just to do something online, I usually don't do it. Flash, Shockwave, Java, those are things everybody's got. Winamp is not. I like Winamp, personally, but I've had a lot of problems with it through the years. Yeah, and here we go: The Indigenous Radio station finally loaded-up on Nullsoft's page. There's a link that says, "Listen." I click it, and I get a puzzling dialog box which says, "File download: Do you want to save this file? Name: shoutcast-playlist.pls. Type: unknown." I save the file and try to launch it, but Windows doesn't know what type of file a ".pls" file is, and therefore just asks me to find the program to associate with it. This is happening because my company-laptop doesn't have Winamp installed. I'd like to install Winamp, but I can't because my company's IT department has disabled my ability to install programs on this computer. So, this is inconvenient for me, and keeps me from listening to the station until I return to Tulsa. But beyond that, this is the hassle that would be experienced by anyone who doesn't have Winamp installed -- which only includes about 98% of computer users. Sure, all of us in the Indigenous circle would go through the trouble of installing Winamp to hear our own station, but nobody else would. Don't we want strangers to possibly stumble across our station and listen to it? Isn't that part of the appeal of this idea? So, Jeff, those are my feelings about this project. I love the idea, but I don't agree with you that ShoutCast is the way to go. I realize you've already ripped a number of songs into your Shoutcast broadcasting database, and this is no doubt a time-consuming chore -- but look at it this way: Since a Live365 station would be hosted remotely, any of us would be able to log-in and upload songs, so all of us could provide content and the administrative burden wouldn't have to be entirely upon you, Jeff. So, it looks like a Live365 station costs $9.95 a month for 150mb and a max of 25 simultaneous listeners, or $14.95/mo for 200mb and a max of 50 simultaneous listeners. They have larger plans available, too. We could figure the annual rate for whatever plan we want to go with, figure out who wants to start the Live365 account and be its primary administrator (I would volunteer if Jeff doesn't want the responsibility), and then everybody could send a small donation to whoever's the designated admin to keep the station on-air. The admin would post a thread on the forum here, showing how much money the station costs to keep on-air for the year, and how much money has been donated thus far. This posting would be totally anonymous, so nobody has to see who donated how much -- only the totals would be posted. These are my thoughts, and unfortunately, I'm in too much of a hurry to re-read and edit all of this right now. But, I really strongly feel that Jeff has a great idea here, and I strongly feel that Shoutcast is not the right way to go about it. Does anyone else feel this way? If I'm in the minority, then so be it. But if you all like Jeff's Indigenous Radio idea, and you'd all agree that the Live365 approach is easier for everyone involved, then what difference does a little money make? Would you be willing to pitch-in a few bucks every year for a Live365 station? Or are you content with the Shoutcast method? Let's debate!
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