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[quote author=”ScottyJames”]What settings are you using Dave? The sax in Glenn Frey – The One You Love sounds great.[/quote]
I’m using CGSmooth. As-is, no tweaks.Sounds promising so far. Here’s what did. I installed my Echo Mia sound card with it’s new Vista drivers. I looped the digital input and output together and used the digital input to feed Breakaway. Maybe there’s something about Vista the Breakaway pipeline doesn’t like? Also, in this configuration Breakaway needs large buffers but latency is not a concern in my application.
ScottyJames,
If you don’t mind, try listening again. I tried something but I need more ears on it so I don’t jump to conclusions too quickly again. 😆[quote author=”celar”]Dave,
Ok, now you’ve got me interested in this problem too! As far as I know, all the audio problems with Vista pertain to audio dropouts and glitches (not actual distortion). This was good news to me because once I finally got rid of the dropouts on my Vista system, I thought I was okay.
But now you’re telling me there might be even more to worry about! Aaaack… So my question is, have you read about other audio issues in Vista, besides dropouts? If so, I would appreciate if you could point me to those articles so I can have a look too. Thanks very much.[/quote]
I’ve seen mostly forum posts about dropouts etc, but I’ve seen a few referring to "scratchy audio". No answers of course.
So I’m running my stream from an old laptop now running XP. The stream sounds sooo much better now. I’m about to try something with an Echo Mia sound card on my Vista box. Stay tuned…[quote author=”ScottyJames”]If Dave was to listen to his stream through Audio Enhancer wouldn’t it be reprocessing his processed signal?[/quote]
If left in Bypass it doesn’t process the audio.quote :I was listening to Dave’s AAC+ stream the other day for a short while and the midrange was distorting on most songs I heard. It surprised me a bit as I’ve listened to his stream a lot and it is usually very clean. I didn’t give it a lot of notice as I thought he might have been testing some settings at the time.A-ha! So I’m NOT going crazy! In a way I’m glad others are hearing this also. So there must be something funky with Vista 👿.
I’m going to try a couple of things today and if that doesn’t work I’m going back to my clunky old XP box.[quote author=”Leif”]
Actually, there’s a free software oscilloscope on the market. It’s called Breakaway Audio Enhancer!
///Leif[/quote]
Leif,
Ya know, I’m still not 100% convinced my stream is as clean as it once was. I’ve heard of audio problems with Vista which I will investigate further. I know it’s not Breakaway because I have tried my original processor with the same result. More detective work to be done! In the meantime I’ve attached a screen capture of the scope while monitoring my aac+ stream. Does the indicated spike mean anything out of the ordinary? When I have time I’ll monitor the original program audio to see if I notice anything unusual in the waveform.
[attachment=0:2pic096d]streamwavform.JPG[/attachment:2pic096d]OK, so I’m an idiot. 😳
While tweaking and troubleshooting this alleged problem I didn’t always use the same computer for listening to the stream. So at times I thought the "problem" was fixed and at other times not fixed. Turns out I have an issue with the sound card on the one computer where I always heard the distortion. So the stream has been sounding clean all along! Perhaps next time I will be more methodical in my approach when tracing audio issues.
Hi Guillou,
quote :When I put a 1db attenuator plugin befor the edcast plugin in Breakaway there is no more problem.With NO attenuation Breakaway will slam the audio right to 100% and it will clip horribly as you have experienced. Attenuation will stop that. My problem is more subtle. Even with 3db attenuation there is still distortion that sounds like analog overmodulation.
[quote author=”ScottyJames”]I know their work well. Is that one of their Personal Cuts packages?[/quote]
Yes.quote :[quote author=”sneradio”]Still trying to decide on which Breakaway preset to use… 8)What one are/were you running tonight?
[/quote]Right now a slightly beefed up version of the Reference settings. I like CGSmooth also. Decision, decisions!
[quote author=”ScottyJames”]Dave,
I know this is off topic, way off topic, but … who did your Jingles? Sound like old Peter Tanner’s or something. 🙂
Your station is sounding great.
Scott[/quote]
Thanks for listening! That’s a cut from a JAM Productions jingle package.
Still trying to decide on which Breakaway preset to use… 8)[quote author=”Leif”]How’s it running?
[/quote]
I only tested it for about 30 minutes on a server I may use soon. It seemed to work fine for that short time. Of course I will test it further before going online with that particular configuration. Hey, if no other users have reported a problem then I guess all is well. Thanks.Leif,
This solution also works for StationPlaylist Studio! Setup Breakaway Live as previously instructed.In Studio:
Add the LiveLink dll to the engine/plugins folder.
In the Output settings select "Null output".
In the Digital Signal Processors Section Check the "Breakaway-Live Livelink1".
And also check Oddcast DSP so you can stream. (Make sure Oddcast is below Livelink in the list). No need to set up an encoder within Breakaway.Voila! Streaming processed audio from a computer with no sound devices!
Edit: Just noticed you replied with the same answer. I’m so observant!
I just noticed the "speaker" (which is the Breakaway output) setting in Vista was 24 bit/48000khz. I changed it to 16/48000. This seemed to make all the difference. I presume Breakaway prefers 16 bit depth? Where does Breakaway pull the audio data from to feed the encoder?
Now, to decide which preset to use! Classical for it’s clean transparency, or CGSmooth for it’s warmth? They both work well with this format. Hmmm….
[quote author=”Leif”]
…but in the beginning of this article, I also happen to explain how to avoid the sample rate conversion in Vista.
[/quote]
I didn’t see that explained specifically anywhere, but I think I know what you were talking about.quote :By the way, I do not recommend unchecking the SRC button in Breakaway.I left it unchecked because the tooltip for the SRC button states "If both the input and output are on the same sound card disable this option". I will make sure it’s checked now.
I’m pretty sure the Breakaway output and soundcard sample rates are both 48000. I have to take down computer later to update some software so I’ll use that opportunity to double-check the settings.
As always thanks for the very comprehensive explanation.
Leif,
I did a little more investigating. I do not seem to notice the distortion when running Breakaway Live (the demo version) on my XP computer. The on-air streaming computer where I notice this runs Vista. I also notice the distortion when listening to my station’s stream on the XP box (the stream that originates from the Vista box).On the Vista box my only Breakaway Live interface choices are DS and WAV. I have selected DS. Input sample rate is 44100 and output sample rate is 48000. SRC button is unchecked. Perhaps Vista is doing some sort of internal sample rate conversion making certain songs sound not-so-great?
Download this song clip. This is a portion of a song that sounded absolutely unlistenable when I was using the Reference Classical preset on air. Although there is some inherent harshness to the song, this same file sounds OK on the XP box with that preset and others even with Breakaway Live’s final drive cranked up. Maybe someone with both XP and Vista can run it through Breakaway Live on both OS’s and see (hear) a difference.
