Tips and Tricks for Improving Your Broadcast Quality

Setting Up Your Broadcast

To prevent the possibility of forgetting where your Playlist and MP3 files are located:

On your hard drive (usually C:) create a "Broadcast Live" folder.
In your "Broadcast Live" folder, create sub-folders for the different types of music you will be broadcasting.
When creating your Playlists, save them in the "Broadcast Live" folder.
When naming your Playlists, use meaningful names. For example: if you're broadcasting Ambient music, use a Playlist name such as "Ambient-###". If you're doing Old Time Radio, use "O-T-R###".

By saving them all in your "Broadcast Live" folder, you can easily identify and select the Playlist for your Broadcast.

Problems with Dropouts & Skipping

As you are watching your Studio365-Live Status window, if you notice dropouts occurring, you can alleviate part of the problem by increasing the CPU Priority on the Extras drop-down menu.

Note: The higher the priority setting, the harder your computer will be to use for other tasks.

Network Connection Problems

All network connections are not created equal. If you broadcast a lot you may notice your line-quality going up and down. Even "high speed" DSL lines can have bad days and be less effective than a 56K modem. You may need to sign-up with an ISP that has known quality connections.

Ripping Audio Streams

The higher speed an MP3 is "ripped", the more CPU speed is required to broadcast. With a CPU of 300 MHz or less, MP3s should be re-ripped at lower speeds. Use Studio365-Loader to do batch transcoding with the upload feature switched off.

Voiceovers Hint

If you want some extra time to make voice announcements between songs, create some short MP3 tracks of silence, then add them to your Studio365-Live Playlist just like any other track.

Stream Quality Problems

This window displays the quality level of the audio stream as sent from your system, including dropouts. This can occur three ways:

The Broadcast may be at a rate higher than the connection can handle (due to either line problems or Output Quality set too high for your connection). On the window, keep an eye on Output to network. The first number is what Studio365-Live is uploading. The second number is what it should be for the selected Output Quality. You can lower the output quality of your Broadcast (see Controls/Broadcast Info) to improve the numbers.
The computer system may not be "fast" enough You should have a system of at least 300 MHz or more.
Occasionally a Playlist Track change is sensed as a dropout.

Exiting/Ending Your Studio365-Live

If you are currently broadcasting and decide to exit the program, the confirmation message comes up. Click Yes to exit your Broadcast or No to cancel the exit process. If Yes, the program will disconnect you from the Broadcast server and close all open Studio365-Live windows.

You can stop the current Studio365-Live Broadcast by clicking the Stop Broadcast button on the Studio365-Live Main Window.

Warning

For Broadcasting from MP3 files, the minimum recommended CPU system is 300 MHz. The higher the MHz, the better the Broadcast stream quality.

Selecting External Source for Your Broadcast

When CD is selected as an external source (CD), and there is no CD in your computer system, an error message display. Click OK to close. Insert a CD and click External Source/CD again.

There is no verification check to determine if a Microphone or Line In connection exists.

Listening to Your Station

When starting your Broadcast, you may be tempted to go to your Live365 station and start up the Player window, just to listen to your own station. This is not recommended because:

You would need a high-speed line and a powerful computer, since every byte going out will be coming back again. It's double work for your computer system.
There will be a 10-20 seconds delay between your Broadcast and the audio download, creating acoustical chaos.

Broadcasting from your Collection

Studio365-Live 2.3 is optimized for playing MP3 files from your hard drive. The Playlist window will not work with a CD. You can use a third-party audio player (such as "Winamp" or the standard Windows CD player) to broadcast directly from your CD player. Studio365-Live must be active, and you need to select External Source > CD after the CD begins playing.

Quick Notes about Using Studio365-Live

Some MP3 files may not be playable, based on the way your broadcast is set up. In particular, mono tracks cannot be reconverted to stereo. Any unusable tracks are crossed out in the Playlist window and written into the log file for later review.
The lower the speed of the original MP3 is, the less CPU is needed. So for slower machines, you may want to use files ripped at 56K or less.
The biggest problem when broadcasting is the connection line quality. Even "high speed" connections such as DSL or cable modems can have bad days. If your line is congested, your Listeners will hear a very choppy broadcast.

Cleaning up the registry after an uninstall

(Warning - NEVER MODIFY YOUR REGISTRY UNLESS YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING!)

Studio365-Live's uninstaller does not know what additions Studio365-Live makes to your registry. If you do want to uninstall the software completely, you will need to go directly into your registry and remove this entry: <> HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Live365/Live key.

NOTE: Always make a back-up copy of your Registry before making any changes. If something goes wrong, you can recover from the mistake by restoring the Registry with the back-up copy.

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