This is an email I sent to a couple of friends after finally getting MP3 audio streaming correctly.

This is an email I sent to a couple of friends after finally getting MP3 audio streaming correctly. It should of help if you are trying to set up your own mp3 radio station.

Hi All

Thanks for listening to the test. Its been running all night without a reset
needed so I am hopeful for future tests.

This is mainly a guide of how to do it for Andy and to assist my poor memory
but sending to all.

First Mr Shaw asked how to enter the IP and port into winamp. You ain't the
only one and they don't make it easy do they....

Go to the extreme top left corner and right click on the little sine wave
symbol. Then select PLAY LOCATION and type in:
216.32.166.89:10418
I am hoping that the next time I try this I will be able to use the same
port as above (the last five digits), but if not I will email you the
correct one. We are using a server at www.live365.com which allows high
bandwidth streaming.

Right... I'll start a the beginning as I'm bet Mr Shaw is curious about this
to. Thanks to Andy M for going the final 9 yards and getting the crucial
last bit of info that made this possible.

First make sure you have winamp 2.22 or later and then get the dsp plugin for winamp from www.live365.com you also need the line-in plugin. The names of these are IN_LREC.ZIP and dsp_sc.zip and can be downloaded here if required.

Inside these zip files you will find IN_LREC.DLL and DSP_SC.DLL
and these need to be placed in the winamp plugins directory. You need to restart winamp to make sure it sees the plugins.

Next step is to go to www.live365.com and signup. After you do this apply for a audio server. You will then be given an IP address (216.32.166.89) and a port number.

Now go to winamp right click on the little sine wave and select options, preferences and then and then DSP effect. Click once on the 'SHOUTcast source for winamp version 1.10' in the right window box and you will see a box pop up like this

If you don't get a box identical to this then you have the wrong DSP plugin and need to get the one from my link above.

Click on the top SET button and enter the IP address given to you by live365.com in the top box, followed by the port number and your password from live365 in the boxes below. The password is the same as your login pass to live365.

Next enter any description you like for your audio stream. This will appear as a scrolling message in the winamp window of people listening. In front of your description put [live365] exactly as I've done it there. This is a requirement of using their audio servers. Next fill in the Genre and if you want to you can enter your web address which will be listed in the directory at live365.com

Ok, that the first box finished.

Click OK and then you go back to the previous box (Shoutcast source).

Now click on the second SET button and configure the MP3 bitrate. I kept this very low for my tests and used 11KHz mono (8bit) sample rate which gives a transfer rate of 8kbit/sec (About 1K/sec modem speed). This quality is very phasey but helps reduce drop outs on 28K connections. 16bit 11KHz mono sounds much better and even 22KHz mono seemed to work but I cant really tell properly as I am obviously receiving on the same connection and trying to shift twice the data for tx alone. (I shut down the receive side when happy its all working).

Now the big moment.... Press the connect button and hopefully it will connect ok.

Don't forget to press the play button in winamp as you won't see any data leave you until winamp starts to stream. If you are running live audio into winamp type LINEREC:// into the PLAY LOCATION part of winamp. (The IN_LREC.DLL is needed for this).

This should now be taking audio through your sound card, into winamp and then streamed data leaves winamp and connects to the high bandwidth servers at live365

Even at 11KHz mono 8 bit, I still found it sometimes dropped out by checking emails.

If it does this you need to restart the live365 server. You do this by going to http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/resetcast.cgi

You then enter your user name and password and it resets the server you were using with the same IP and port numbers. Go back to winamp and try to reconnect.

HOW CONNECT TO YOUSELF (Now there's a novelty!!)

You need to run a seperate version of winamp in a different directory to be able to access your stream coming back to you. I used an old version of
winamp (2.10) in a seperate directory, but I don't see why you can't install antoher copy of version 2.22 into a seperate place. The two copies of winamp
running together don't seem to interact or cause trouble. Well at least not with using ver 2.10 as a receiver.

If you want to listen to audio from the copy of winamp you are using as your receiver, you will nedd to prevent the audio from your transmitting copy of winamp being sent to the sound card. You do this by using a plugin called out_null.zip which stops the audio from the transmitting copy of winamp being sent to the sound card but still takes audio into winamp and sends it as a stream to the live365 server. Once your've copied the out_null.dll file into the winamp plugins directory, you restart winamp (so it reconises the new plugin), and go to OPTIONS, PREFERENCES, OUTPUT and then highlight NULL output plugging v1.0 and then press close.

Other points:

Don't use odd sample rates like 12KHz as many sound cards don't support it. Stick to 8,16,22KHz rates.

Don't run a high sample rate even if you are on a fast connection as most people are still on modems and will not be able to hear you without serious drop outs.

I guess you need a full duplex soundcard if your using line in and out at the same time - but most support this facility these days.

I think the only serious way to do this is to use a dedicated pc and phone line

Hope I have covered it all.

Errors:

This was written about Oct 99 and coming back to it in April 2000 there are one or two errors:

1. The shoutcast plugin needed is 1.0b - Dec 30 1998 as available on the link on this page and not 1.10 as stated.

2. The link to reset your server doesn't work anymore as live365 has changed.

Back to update page Back to home