How does a Dj do what he does?

[Daniel Fortman]

I have been listening to the Gaming Radio Network Djs for a few months. While listening i have been wondering how it is the Djs are able to make the Live Radio Streaming work. I was reviewing the Application requirements for Djs and Discovered that it is made possible through the use of several Software programs. I haven't had any experience with live radio streaming and I am not a DJ myself in any respect. But its seems like a very compelling line of work. So I have a few questions about working with the software and with what Djs do.

1: A minimum of 2500 mp3s

How do Djs come to have vast library's of Audio. Which types of programs are being used to download MP3s?
I can't be sure if there just plugging in a i-pod and going to town. But where are the songs we hearing comeing from and always readily available for the Dj's uses. I wondering if they use more then one Audio down loader to have plenty of resources to pull from and which programs they use.

2: Streaming software (like Sam2 or Sam3)

I did a search for Sam Streaming Software and came across this bit of information. Sam (http://http://www.spacialaudio.com/index.php?page=sam-broadcaster&/)
This program would I assume you would just download and Familiarize yourself with. But what are the tricks to using It and what kind of issues have risen for the Djs with interacting with this program. Also If that is the program that is used and is referred to in the application process.

3: IRC client (such as mIRC)

IRC client appears to me to be a form of Ventrilo used by the IRC. Is that correct? Is it a program that allows the Djs to communicate with the IRC network? Does it also enable the Djs to speak live over the air?

These are my questions regarding the requirements with the application to become a DJ.

Having no experience and no understand of the workings i am puzzled by what happens till i can get some first hand answers and tutoring by someone with the knowledge and being to preform on air.

I wonder if Djs also use more then one PC. Do the Djs use like three RIGs? Say one for the Audio Stream, one for In game character and another to Communicate over the air?

I run Windows Xp. Do the Djs use on Broad Audio?

I would like to apologize about the the wall of txt and questions above. But I'd just like to have a better understanding and a way to Familiarize myself with the process. Also this is the second typing of my questions and this one isn't as good as the first. As to the first is wasn't posted when i went to post because i wasn't login properly. So this one is rather short and confuseing. But feel free to reply here or in a private e mail. I can be contacted at Bonkmeonthehead@<hidden> Ty for you time and effort in reading the above. Anything information will be appreciated.

[Gavriel Black]

hey, thanks for the post, i'm sure other people can find the answers I give you useful.

For every DJ broadcasting a show is slightly different, some DJ's have talk shows, some play music, some have guests and some don't, so the answers I give you will be from my own personal experience.

1 - There are websites out there that you can pay to download mp3's.. many DJ's prefer this method because its cheap and easy. I personally buy cd's and then rip them to my computer, purely because I actually like to see what I own.

2 - I use Sam4 with windows XP.. sam runs nicely with xp and i've never had problems with the software, apart from the fact it is a little expensive to buy, but once you've past this fact its very easy to use.
There are other programs out there to use, but in my opinion Sam is probably the best option.

3 - Mirc is an internet relay chat client, this is basically a text chat program. If you don't have Mirc but want to find out more about IRC, i suggest you head along to www.gamingradio.net and click the chat now button in the lower right corner, that will connect you to the GRN chat rooms and i'm sure the staff lurking around would be only too happy to answer any questions.

When having guests on their shows DJ's usually use a VOIP software called Skype.
This is then plugged into sam and walla.. guest on air.

I use 2 pc's when I broadcast. 1 for sam, the other for chatting in IRC and for having guests on air (skype).

Feel free to ask any more questions ^^

p.s. love the email address.

[Ross]

Hi there,

Some of your questions would require quite a long explaination so I'm going to give fairly brief outlines for you. You should be able to get most of the detailed information from the Internet.

1: A minimum of 2500 mp3s

How do Djs come to have vast library's of Audio. Which types of programs are being used to download MP3s?

Many of our DJs are professional DJs and therefore own a vast amount of music.

2: Streaming software (like Sam2 or Sam3)

This program would I assume you would just download and Familiarize yourself with. But what are the tricks to using It and what kind of issues have risen for the Djs with interacting with this program. Also If that is the program that is used and is referred to in the application process.

SAM is just one of the programs that our DJs use. Its down to personal preference. Some use a program like OtsDJ. If you do a search for 'spacial audio sam' you'll get answers to many of your questions.

3: IRC client (such as mIRC)

IRC client appears to me to be a form of Ventrilo used by the IRC. Is that correct? Is it a program that allows the Djs to communicate with the IRC network? Does it also enable the Djs to speak live over the air?

Yes, you are sort of correct. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, its the protocol used for large chat networks with thousands of people on them. An example of a client would be mIRC. We use it to communicate with staff but also our listeners that want to chat.

I wonder if Djs also use more then one PC. Do the Djs use like three RIGs? Say one for the Audio Stream, one for In game character and another to Communicate over the air?

Many DJs use two PCs or even three to make the process easier. It can be difficult juggling between DJ applications, IRC, maybe a seperate jingle program, etc.

I run Windows Xp. Do the Djs use on Broad Audio?

A bit of a mixture, if you have a decent motherboard which has good on-board audio there is no reason why you couldn't use it. Although its recommended to have a seperate sound card.


As I said earlier, your best bet really is to search the Internet. There is a lot of information out there about Internet broadcasting. More than we could provide you here.

[FunkyBacon]

1. As for music, personally I like to use Napster for my downloads. $10 a month can get you unlimited music downloads. Using this stuff with SAM can be a bit tricky because the DRM doesn't like you playing the stuff on anything but WMP, but there are ways around it. How I got to 2500 though involved ripping every CD I owned at the time I was applying, followed by everything in my Wife's possession and, and even a housemate's CD collection. This resulted in me getting to about 2560 tracks, and about 80% of it was crap. have since managed to add about another 350 tracks of mostly quality stuff, but I do a talk show and can usually get away with less quality music than those who do a music based show.

2. I use SAM3. SAM4 isn't sufficiently better for me to consider buying the upgrade, but if you're new to the whole thing and serious about it, SAM4 is probably what you'd get. Quality streaming program, but I hear it has trouble running on Vista.

3. The others answered what IRC is pretty well. It's text chatting software. The only thing I will add is that I would suggest doing a google search for Hydra IRC over mIRC. mIRC costs money, Hydra is free, and in my opinion, has a nicer interface.

4. I use 2 PCs and a Mixer. 1 PC I use to run Eve, IRC, and SAM, the 2nd is for Skype. Skype and SAM do not get along well running side by side, but with audio looping issues, using them both on the same PC as you're broadcasting is just bad anyway. The mixer is how I bring both PCs together as well as how I'm able to use more profesional microphones rather than cheap PC mics. Only a handful of DJs use mixers for broadcasting. It can be a bit advanced if you're completely new to all this stuff though, and you really don't need it unless you plan to use 2 or more PCs directly related to your audio stream and plan to have on air guests.

[Shminty]

When I started I burnt all my cd's, and it was a bloody good collection! But it just about scraped 2500, now I have increased it to 5000+ by buying cd albums and also buying individual mp3's off sites such as Play.com (when I don't want the whole album).

My story is pretty much the same as everyone else's, except that I only use one pc - although I cheat a little by having two monitors and two souncards on that pc, although I started with just one of each, so it isn't a necessity.

[Rob]

Given that I grew up in a household where music is God (we have way too much music for me to count, our entire attic is full of old vinyls and cassettes), I've always been taught that music is good. As a result, I started buying CDs when I got cash for 'em (other kids bought toys for their weekly/monthly allowance... I bought music). It's continued to this day; I still buy music whenever I find an artist/track I want. The Interblag has helped me a lot in this, given that there are so *many* sites where you can buy music from now (amazon is going to start an mp3 section as well, aren't they? *drool*)... beatport, iTunes, napster, djdownloads, and so on. When I decided to join, I just ripped a handful of CDs, added those to my digital CDs that I already had, and was at the 2500 mark and slightly above.

I, as Shminty, only use one computer. Only one monitor, though... but two soundcards. As for software, I use SAM4 - while it cost a bit, it wasn't enough to make me cry. A lot, anyway.

[JackPott]

I got my music over a long period of time, but this day of iTunes and Beatport make it a lot easier to get music in a hurry than times gone by!

I tend to use a few computers, these days its one to do the radio side of life via a mixer, and one to do the chatting and admin side of things.

[Whitey]

3. The others answered what IRC is pretty well. It's text chatting software. The only thing I will add is that I would suggest doing a google search for Hydra IRC over mIRC. mIRC costs money, Hydra is free, and in my opinion, has a nicer interface.


mIRC is free, with an optional donation which does nothing bar speed up the log in process...... by about 3 seconds. :p

[JackPott]

Ive used it for about 10 years unregistered. This year I might pay my tribute, but I resent making someone stinking rich richer. I clearly need the money more than him.

[DJ RISC]

I spend at minimum 2 hours a day shopping for new music.

Although, I generally provide new music for every single show. So it really depends on the type of show your doing if you need to go that crazy or not.

I like to stay right on the edge of new house music, so I am always providing at least a few new tracks every show.

I generally shop at 9-10 different online places, and then also search for vinyl at local stores here in Los Angeles, or at online vinyl dealers.

To give you an idea, for JUST Beatport this year I have purchased 986 tracks. (woo, maybe I break 1,000 in the next couple days. lol)

So basically to be a decent music DJ, you really need to have your primary hobby just being an avid music collector. (at least that's my thoughts on it.)

[Daniel Fortman]

I'd Like to thank everyone for there responses. Gavriel Black, Ross(Director), FunkyBacon, Shminty, Rob, JackPott, Whitey, and Dj Dunewolf @<hidden> Eve Radio.

I've done a search of Websites that offer Downloading/Purchasing MP3s Songs and Albums. Itunes looks good. But I'm not sure what to compare against Itunes prices and Vast Library's of ready available music. Downloads at $0.99 seem like the normal. I'll have to look over the sites recommended by everyone in the replies.

I think that now that i know where i can get vast song downloads. I should consider about how i can make my PC work with the software and tasks that it will be needed to preform.

Some DJs use one PC while a few Djs like to spread it out. If i could make it all run Smoothly on one PC that would be my best bet. I do have second PC but its Tech is from four years ago and not the best at that time. My current on-Broad Audio is Realtek High Definition Audio. On a EVGA 680i SLI Mother Broad. Now I've run into issues using my On-Broad before with trying to make myself heard over software like Ventrilo. So i am really curious about how using Two or just one Audio Card can and will improve my Rig's sound and Quality Audio output.

But running everything like Sam, mERC, Skype and Audio track seeking is a lot of tasks for a PC to handle. Has anyone been monitoring there CPU and Ram Usage during there shows to see how much they're using? probably just a concern for a few who use a single RIG.

[Whitey]

Most online games take a hell of a lot out of your PC,
When I started I used the better PC for the Game side of it and the lesser powerfull one for the broadcasting.
This may sound odd, but broadcasting dont really take that much processor power.

Having started my broadcasting with GRN using a laptop (spec unknown off-hand), My first Desktop was a P3 786 with 256 mb RAM. i found this handled SAM & Mirc with no issues at all. Infact, to be really honest, it was prolly my best broadcast rig i've had, having never had any real issues with it.

My current Broadcasting Unit is a AMD Sempron 2800+ 1.99Ghz, with 1gb RAM.
This will handle everything on its own, but while the game is running, espec EVE, it all runs a little slow.... not real bad, but you can tell the difference.

End comment: Unless you have a really powerfull computer, use two. It also make life a little easier.

Just for reference, the pic link below is my basic set up, The Laptop to the right is what I used to broadcast on, all those years ago.
With Broadcast Unit to the left and Game Comp to the right.

http://www.djwhitey.co.uk/GP2.JPG

Regards

Joe (Whitey)

[DJ RISC]

I agree with Whitey here 100%. First off, even if you have a monster machine to run both the stream and EVE. I don't trust running it all on one computer anyway.

If you use 2 computers, and EVE crashes on one, then your broadcast computers keeps right on going and you don't have to worry about having to reboot or something crazy.

I have a seperate machine for each process of my show:

1. Broadcaster machine (that I don't touch unless I'm broadcasting, so the setup never changes and it's only used for that purpose, or recording mix sets.) (This is also on a dedicated DSL line.)

2. IRC/EVE Laptop, where I do all the chat stuff doing a show.

3. Video Stream Machine - I bus all the audio to this machine from machine 1 and the stream the video stream on a seperate DSL line.

This way if any 1 part of my show goes extremely wrong, it generally won't take out everything. I have had pretty much a 100% success rate with this setup, and I have had EVE crash mid show and take out my laptop before.

So the best thing to do is consider what could go wrong while setting up a broadcast rig from home.

Also, another thing I have seen over the years at ER, is once you have a rig setup. try to NOT MESS WITH IT.. Most issues I have seen that prevent people from broadcasting is that they change settings, or do so many different things on the same machine they broadcast with, that it breaks their rig, and then they have to miss shows while they troubleshoot why something is not working.. mics, SAM, etc, etc.

If you can afford it, just setup a machine (even a lower end one, as what Whitey says is true, broadcasting audio doesn't take a very hefty machine), and then just leave it alone.

DJ RiSC

[Rob]

Bear in mind that iTunes music can carry DRM (Digital Rights Management), and could potentially be a hassle to get rid of. Have a read over at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay regarding the issue.

Specialized stores (such as beatport) cost a bit more than $0.99, but offers DRM-free music, which is, to say the least, very nice. Amazon.com's service is, likewise, DRM-free. Their music is watermarked however, but that isn't really a problem - it's not as if you can hear that. (Watermarked only means that if someone buys a song and then distributes it on file sharing networks, they can see who distributed it from the watermark).

Your best bet when it comes to music is to rip it yourself, from audio/vinyls that you own. That way you don't have to spend extreme amounts just to get started with all this. I recommend, if you're at least a little computer savvy, Exact Audio Copy (http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/) for ripping the music (best quality among all the rippers out there, also features an online database for CDs) and coupling it with the LAME MP3 encoder (EAC doesn't encode files to mp3 by itself, it needs an external encoder).

The idea of using two audio cards, for me, is that I can preview music on one of the cards, while using the other one to stream the music that's actually on air. If you know what you're playing, you can get by (easily!) with just one soundcard though, but if you build up a huge database of music, you won't be able to recall each and every song so a preview option is quite handy. Again, not really required.

CPU and RAM load during my shows is around 13-20%, running on an AMD 64 3200+. That does not include the additional load from EVE Online (used on EVE-Radio shows), SAM and mIRC themselves aren't very heavy programs. SAM handles the track seeking with an internal database, so no need to involve the godawful Windows Search function.

[Shminty]

once you have a rig setup. try to NOT MESS WITH IT..

Haha, this is SO true! If it ain't broke, don't fix it. When something has gone wrong with ANYTHING I own it's normally cos I've gone and messed about with it!

On the question of multiple rigs or not multiple rigs, it is worth pointing out that Whitey and RiSC both do shows on ER, which means they have to be in-game at the point of broadcast. Therefore their points are very valid. As I don't have to be in-game (I do a talkshow on TGR) I can survive quite happily on one rig.

On the subject of MP3's, before buying hundreds make sure that they can be played on your chosen broadcasting software. Some have protection which doesn't allow it.

edit: oops Rob already mentioned this in more detail!

[DJ Sarge]

well, if i should jump in with my broadcast specs ..

all in one machine broadcast + play .. intel 2 dou 2x 2,667 gig .. 2 x 2 gig 667 ram dualchannel .. onboard realtek highdef, onboard lan, (MSI G31M) .. asus pce-i x16 geforce 8600 gt 512 mb ram .. oh, and vista ultimate ..

though laughed at at times and made fun of, my to date only mic in in my headset.

Sennheiser m@<hidden> .. http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/mrturbodk/Billede001.jpg ..

i did do some dual soundcarding before in order to run sam and merge ts / skype / whatever into the stream, but i found it quite difficult, and decided to scrap it .. besides, no room on new mobo for xtra soundcard ..

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/mrturbodk/soundcardschematiccurrent.jpg

it worked weirdly enough ..

anywho, enough ranting from me, hope to see ya soon on the testbench .. mwahahaHAHAHAHHAHA ...

Sarge