Behind the Scenes of MSP Waves Radio

in mspwaves •  7 years ago  (edited)

Watch: A Peek Into my Studio @globocop's Lair


After a rather nerve wrecking and busy week, preparing not for one, not for two, but for three Radio shows: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 2 hours each, I have created a setup that works for Radio Broadcast.

It' is more than the minimum setup required to get on the air - a much simpler configuration and cheaper equipment will do the trick for many.

It took about 3 days two set everything up and get through the steep, but rewarding learning curve...


I thought I share my studio setup here at globo's secret lair with my fellow Steemians...


I would like to thank both @r0nd0n and @ma1eevent for their fantastic support getting me started on the techie site.

Here is a video of my studio and a schematic, detailing my setup. However, one can broadcast with just one computer, a microphone, a music source, and an internet connection.

The key here is RAM and storage. Both must be plentiful.



Below is the schematic that's shown in the video.

1 or 2 machines?

I opted for this setup because neither of the laptops is powerful enough to handle all things, the broadcast stream, and the voice/audio in/output. The MACs fan goes wild if I run the Broadcast software, audio source, web browser and Discord all at once. It's not stable enough for broadcast comfort in my view.


Laptops

The MAC is a Macbook Air 2011, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB, and plenty of external storage via USB where the music library is stored.

The Acer is just as old, an Aspire 6930 with 3 GB RAM and 250 GB HDD. It was gifted to me for some data recovery work on that machine. At the time, I didn't have use for it. It's now loaded with Linux Mint. It's astoundingly fast and stable, compared to Windows, which I dismissed summarily from the machine.


Mics

Both Mics I have owned for a some time, so they are not new aquisitions. You can probably get a decent condenser mic for around $ 50 Dollars.

Extra

I recently bought the DJay Pro Software to make live shows easier - and it's a great little helper, although no fancy mixing with beat changes etc, though now I could.

I opted for Djay Pro, because it allows to work with Spotify on the fly. However, there are Open Source DJ products out there, such as MIXX - especially if you are working in Linux.


Internet:

I ordered 2xCat6A network cables today to wire both laptops directly to the router, as WIFI is not as fast as the maximum broadband speed available to me. This way I can maximize my network up and download.

I do not want the stream to experience break-ups, simply because I am launching a website... It is also more secure and shielded from outside interference and channel congestions with adjacent WIFI networks in the vicinity.

Software

Linux:

  • Open Broadcaster Software (OBS)
  • Discord App, to display the chat channel on the video feed during broadcast.

Mac OS X:

  • Music Source, this can be iTunes, Spotify, VLC, whatever plays tunes,
  • Discord App for responding to the audience channel or for guests via Discord
  • Skype or similar for remote co-hosting or guests

Optional:

  • Loopback by Rogue Amoeba to create virtual audio channels
  • DJay Pro for music mixing

Loopback

This amazing software allows the user to create any number of virtual audio channels.
For example, I can create a channel that contains:

  • iTrack Solo (Mic input)
  • dJayPro (or other music apps)

I can now use that channel as the input for Skype, so that my co-host @disarrangedJane can hear the entire show, music and my mic as if she was here with me in Studio - real-time.

I then created another virtual channel:

  • iTrack Solo
  • dJay Pro
  • Skype
    ...and use that as my main output to the OSB Linux, which includes Skype.

Lovely!

In any event, if you have any suggestions on how to improve my setup or have questions, or if you are an aspiring DJ for MSP-Waves Radio, don't hesitate to ask - I am happy to help.

Signing off...
~Chris


Please do check out our very own Steemit-Radio on MSP-waves.com, where a dedicated team of Steemians provide quality content - ON AIR. To know more, follow @msp-waves and support those who support Steemit online and on Air. 📻


Thank you for reading.

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Proud Supporter of PAL and the - The Minnow SupportProject
Christopher "The Hat" Hatfield @globocop

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Nice post globo

tip! 1 hide

Awesome - thanks @sircork Happy days. :D

"so that my co-host @disarrangedJane can hear the entire show, music and my mic as if she was here with me in Studio - real-time."
(Closes eyes, and imagines...giggles)

Yes - indeed. One day at a time...

It's amazing what you can do - I think it sounded great!

Thanks Erin - always had a thing for AUDIO - RADIO, and of course MUSIC. :)

I can tell...that's how you had all that gear lying about :)

Yea ... and put to use after lying around for aaaaayges.... :)

This post received a 5% vote by @msp-shanehug courtesy of @sircork from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ). Join us in Discord.

Upvoting this comment will help support @minnowsupport.

This post received a 5% vote by @minnowsupport courtesy of @sircork from the Minnow Support Project ( @minnowsupport ). Join us in Discord.

Upvoting this comment will help support @minnowsupport.

Hi @globocop ! Very cool! You might want to think about integrating Musicoin into your workflow in the very near future. Check out this post we just did about a recent development concerning the DJ biz:

The World’s First Blockchain-Enabled DJ Mix
Hi-voltage-dude.jpg

This is v interesting.
First glance - sounds ideal for all parties involved. How is Musicoin mined - is it tradable on exchanges etc? Appreciate any additional pointers.

In the meantime - I am forwarding also to our @msp-waves station manager @sircork for review - and will let our dj's know.

I am not a DJ mix-artist - I just play music on my shows. So, the music mix/genres are less suitable for my shows. However, I certainly will have a listen.

So - there are 100 free plays - after which the consumer/radio host will pay into the system... Is that how Musicoin is funded?

Is this then open to all genres of music, let's say, I have written a Christian song, and I perform it, upload it.
Are there plans to roll this out to include a wider music music spectrum?

How does Musicoin protect against ISRC registered plagiarism. What would prevent someone to rip a song and sell it on Musicoin as original work?

ISRC = centralized
Musicoin = decentralized... Fantastic!

Thanks for your response!

Hi @globocop ! Musicoin is an Ethereum fork, so it's mined with ethminer, Claymore, etc.
The 100 free plays is temporary, soon the system will be hardforked for free play, paid for by a 15% fee from mining.
Musicoin is ALL genres. No restrictions. My mix just happens to be hard dance music, but everything is already there.
Plagarism is policed just by the community right now. I imagine this approach will grow, as listeners and musicians are economically interested in the system, I don't think they will tolerate someone uploading a popular song under false pretense and draining the system.

Thanks - will discuss with @sircork... Sounds all great.

Really cool to see what you are using and how you are using it!

This post received a 3.3% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @globocop! For more information, click here!

Brother I would love your input on some equipment suggestions to make our Steem-pocalypse show more "professional". I was thinking about getting a condenser mic but I don't think my phone supports the use of an external mic other than a Bluetooth mic. I would also love to have a way for the sound bytes we play to be fed directly in to the the video input and NOT being picked up by whatever mic we are using. I'm thinking this all will require the purchase of a camera and obviously mic. I have the advantage that I'm not broadcasting online but rather recording to be published to YT. I like the sounds of that loopback software. I may have to look in to that. I just purchased the Edjing Mix software for my phone so I can try to make some beats for different contests on steemit.