New Radio Beta (See Post #5 onwards)

[.Kuja.]

I can't check the sound-test radio at the mo as its down and when i used to look at it, it was just pre-recorded strings of final fantasy songs compressed in to single mp3's.

The winamp servers also seem to be down.

I was wondering if it is possable/could become a fully fledged shoutcast radio, im sure UFFSite members wouldn't mind contributing to it and with thousands of members around the globe, we could keep a 24-hour station running. I think people would listen to it with a wide selection of music (depending on the radio host's Music Library xP) rather than just FF OST's.

What do you guys think? (I'd happyly do it some times xD)

:cookie:

[AP]

This IS being worked on along with everything else. What the radio used to be wasn't just one MP3 file compressed, but a fairly complex little system ran by a radio program. It basically had a database of around 50,000 game MP3s, and it'd pick out random tracks to play. It wouldn't repeat the same song within x time, or the same album within y time... it was all rather detailed.

I've been experimenting with this a lot over the last few weeks and I can say that the new system I'm pleased to say is even more accomplished. It has an online database listing every track I have. You can then browse through by artist, album title, track name, year or any other manner of information... and hit request.

And it'll be the next song played on the radio.

As far as Live shows goes, that stuff is possible, too. It's easy to 'hand the server off' to individual people.

The thing I'm looking into now is streaming radio is very expensive - so we either get a new dedicated server (which isn't cheap) which allows us to stream from our own built-in bandwidth, or we suck it down and do it the way we used to. The way we used to isn't a problem, mind... it's just a rather expensive solution. We will be doing it again soon, though..

[.Kuja.]

http://shoutcast.primcast.com/
how about this, or is it too much?

Does the server have to be running a seperate "winamp host" process or is it possable to run it through https?

[AP]

Some of those deals on that site are worse than where I was looking, some better... But hmm, thanks for that link. I'll look into their stuff some more.

[AP]

Thanks for the link to Primcast, Kuja. We're gonna have two servers, one with them and one with audiorealm.

The Main Radio Link (http://soundtestradio.primcast.com:5054/listen.pls)

Or for those without Winamp/iTunes, an ASX feed. (http://primcast.com/asx/listen.asx?sid=255096)

To explain what's coming up:

We're experimenting with a new page. Soon I'm gonna give you all a link to a page which lists lots of information from the radio - last played songs, playing now, coming up in the next half an hour, etc.

Within this radio 'mini site' - and the radio WILL have its own mini site, it's own section of Sound-Test in the future - there'll be a list of every song in the radio database. The database is literally getting bigger all the time (I've only added a fraction of our game music archive), but currently it stands at over 6000 tracks.

You can search for specific track names. Searching for "The Decisive Battle", for example, will bring up every version of that track we have - FF6, FF10, Black Mages, Piano Collection, etc etc.

You could also search for say - "Halo" - and it'd bring up every track we have from the Halo series. Or "Nobuo Uematsu", which right now brings up a whopping 2000 songs and in the future will probably bring up even more. You could also get a bit more specific, and search for say "Final Fantasy VII", which'll bring up all the FF7 tracks in the database. The search is simple but robust right now. Later, we'll make it even moer robust allowing you to narrow search terms etc.

Anyway, the point is this - find the track you like - hit request. It comes direct through to our radio server machine and we guarantee that if there are no other requests in line your request will play within two songs. If there are others in line, you'll just be placed in the order they arrived and play out 'til all requests are fulfilled.

The idea behind this is simple - no more shitty preset playlist, no more FF dominating the radio - you decide what you want. The only rule about requests is the same track can't be played more than once every two hours. Other than that, go nuts. Want an hour of FF7? Request your favorite tracks on top of each other. Want some Sonic? Halo? Just make your own mini playlist up.

By handing control of the playlist direct to you guys and our other listeners, we hope to expand the radio, make it more popular, offer more stuff than our (limited) competition and get you guys participating in it day to day.

As I said... you will control the playlist.

[Minion]

Now with this, will there still be the ability for control on your end, like if I ever get off my lazy bum and do a show or whatnot? And like the old radio parties?

Still worth an idea.

Also, you officially have two more listeners. Me and my girl both approve.

[AP]

Oh yeah, I still have full control. I can even hijack, reorder and delete requests if I wish, and I can disable requests at a moments notice.

[Minion]

As an idea, would other people be able to do the same thing you can, like if you had times with other people could control the radio, or is it all done on our end?

Just giving ideas. =P

[AP]

Live shows are totally possible.

http://www.sound-test.org/radio/playlist.php?limit=25

Ignore the buttons that say "buy" and stuff and the terrible site design... as all these options will be worked into Sound-Test's design, but feel free to drop in a few requests.

There's THOUSANDS of tracks, so you're better to search for a game. We've got a lot in there so far, not just FF - KH, Chrono, Smash Bros, Goldeneye, Halo, Gears of War, Fable, Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey, Shenmue, Streets of Rage.. a lot more. Have a search around; and I'm adding more tracks and albums right now.

EDIT: Thoughts, suggestions etc on stream quality, search usefulness, how good requesting is will be highly appreciated. Bear in mind it'll all be much more cosmetically pleasing, but actual suggestions on how to improve the search will be acted on.

The final stream will likely run at significantly higher quality than this, like 50% more kbps.

[Minion]

I enjoy the stream as it sounds, personally. I requested a few songs and they came on pretty quick, so im happy with the system so far.

[Dr. Flux]

sigh, Uni starts back up again next week. I was quite enjoying my endless months off.

[Kat]

Lmao. Nice input Fluxie. ;p leeex I forgot to tell you Metroid needs to be in there :(

[Andy]

Metroid always does.

[Aether]

Nice quality, but then again, I don't know how many people are cutting into the bandwidth as I type this.

Requested a song and it took...8 minutes, 19 seconds. Nicely short.

[Dr. Flux]

Lol, I was meant to also make mention of hoping vs soundtrack is still on there but i got side tracked. How old of me.

[AP]

Versus XIII? The only track relased offically so far is called "Somnus", and is on Yoko Shimomura's solo album. The album is in the playlist.

Series with Albums so far:

Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban (8 albums)
Blue Dragon (2 albums)
Chrono Cross/Trigger (6 albums, 2 more to come when I get around to adding them)
Disgaea (4 albums)
Eternal Sonata/Trusty Bell (1 album)
Fable (2 albums)
Final Fantasy (106 albums :o)
Golden Axe (3 albums)
Gears of War (2 albums)
Halo (4 albums)
Infinite Undiscovery (1 album)
James Bond (1 album)
Kingdom Hearts (4 albums)
Lost Odyssey (1 album)
The Legend of Zelda (22 albums)
The Last Remnant (1 album)
Mass Effect (1 album)
NiGHTS (3 albums)
Outrun (1 album)
Okami (1 album)
Panzer Dragoon (4 albums)
Ristar (1 album)
Super Smash Bros (4 albums)
Starfox (5 albums, 1 to come)
Streets of Rage (3 albums)
Shenmue (3 albums)
And Compilation CDs (20 and climbing real fast.)

Over 7000 tracks.

Still to come: Over 100 more albums from assorted series', including Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, Banjo Kazooie, ANimal Crossing, Castlevania, Megaman, Donkey Kong, Mario, Devil May Cry, Diablo, Dragon Quest, Earthbound/Mother, Ecco, Sonic the Hedgehog, F-Zero, Golden Sun, Ghouls & Ghosts, Grandia, Jet Set Radio, Hitman, Onimusha, Vagrant Story, Valkyria Chronicles, Metroid, Super Hang On, Shining Force, Silent Hill, Street Fighter, Wave Race, Warcraft... and more, including additions to the series' listed above.

[Minion]

any chance of there being some Video Games Live in there?

[Dr. Flux]

Nah, I meant vagrant story. As well as Akira Yamaoka.

[AP]

any chance of there being some Video Games Live in there?

I have the VG Live CD they sent me for review, so I'll be adding that, of course. There's also several Live orchestra and band CDs in the "Compilation" section from Orchestras in Japan and other places.

Vagrant Story will be going up, yes.

[.Kuja.]

Are there any licencing issues involved when playing music other than FF OST's, etc?

(nice work AP! xDD)

[AP]

License stuff is a complex and annoying minefield that I'm working on. Honestly, with game music it shouldn't be a massive issue, though, and we will always steer clear of games with 'real music' like Grand Theft Auto, Guitar Hero etc.

[.Kuja.]

quick question:

How did you get the licensing for all the OST's?

[AP]

The simple answer is right now we just don't and are working without it. Most internet radio stations don't bother with the licensing at all, least of all when they're playing game music and the companies in question don't care if you're broadcasting it or not. I submitted the forms today to PRS and PPL, two broadcast rights companies, though, just to be 100% official.

As far as the OSTs go, everything we have is either a legal CD I actually own (like the FF OSTs, Halo etc) as game companies have been sending me freebie CDs for ages now, or an unofficial game rip. So with the radio everything broadcast I either own, or isn't available commercially at all.

[AP]

Over the last few days I've added Metroid, Metal Gear, After Burner, Mario, Sonic, Vagrant Story, NiGHTS into Dreams, Goldeneye 64, Outrun as well as a bunch of new albums to already-present series' including the just-released OST to the new Crystal Chronicles game which just arrived today.

These additions now bring us to over 10,000 tracks. Massive. And I've still got many big hitters to add like Command and Conquer, Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, Earthbound, Ecco the Dolphin, F-Zero... a lot more.

Your thoughts and suggestions on how requests work, how fast they go through etc are hugely appreciated. Please help us get this working as well as possible!

[Sioux]

So...since the request wagon is still going on right now can I ask for some Dynasty Warriors music by chance?

[AP]

Will do my best. I, surprisingly, don't have any Dynasty Warriors on my HDD right now. I'll try to find some CDs... they all appear to be out of stock on Play Asia. I'll also add the "Koei Compilation Collections" i have, several CDs featuring music from Koei games including DW.

[Aether]

I don't know how much control you have over the search result display, but is it possible to have a page number on the results? I was looking for a particular song from an album, but didn't know the name and has to wade through about 15 pages to find it :P

[Dr. Flux]

Hmm, and considering it's beta, is it possible to have like a 'now playing' box so we know what we're listening to eventually

[AP]

There already is one. If you're listening in Winamp or iTunes or any player with a display, it'll show the track name in the usual field.

It'll appear like this:
Sound Test Radio - The Decisive Battle - The Black Mages

or something like that. ALSO, the main webpage at www.sound-test.org/radio/ has a "currently playing" box as well as the last 5 tracks ti be played. I will make it all more prominent in the full version though when it's fully integrated into the ST site.

Aeth - I'll look into getting page markings on the results. Don't know how difficult it'll be as it's pulling from a remote SQL server, but I will look at it.

[Nurse Fin]

(No Xenogears/Saga yet :()

Nice, though. It's about time the radio started playing again. I'll keep checking back...

[AP]

I'll sort out Xenogears/Saga. Sonic and Mario have disappeared from the database for a while and the top requests list has been reset, I'm just experimenting with some settings so bear with me and just enjoy the 10,000 song selection there is without those two series'.

[AP]

Making some database changes, going to be down on and off today.

[tebian]

Good luck with the radio, if you need any help with SAM I have been running that for about year now and might be able to help. Making a station is not so hard but maintaining it can be many hours of what you might call "labor of love". Best part of the Final Fantasy series besides the game play to me is the soundtracks. I miss you old setup and hope you get things back up at sound test. (yes i do listen to other sites music beside what i dj 24/7...)

[Minion]

Not to get off topic, but, tebian, which sites do you DJ? I noticed the FFXIRadio link in your sig.

[tebian]

I built the www.finalfantasyradio.com about a year ago for the linkshells on ffxi and i am the dj there, if you need any help like i said msg me anytime. Have always enjoy the site here and thank you for asking.

[AP]

EDIT: Take it back. Up again. :)

Will be down tonight for maintainence as I work on some ideas for integratng the request system into Sound Test and making it more reliable and easy to use.

Back up tomorrow.

[AP]

As I said above scratch my previous post, it's back up. I've also replaced Metal Gear and Metroid tracks back into rotation, they should be requestable now. Mario/Sonic should be returning this week or next week, then we're back to all-new stuff.

[Aether]

Is there any chance of getting the OST from The World Ends With You on there? I wouldn't mind that if you could get your hands on it

[AP]

Will be down tonight 'til about 10pm GMT.

[AP]

I've readded Mario, and I'll be readding Sonic tonight. I also added Perfect Dark, Kameo, Disaster Day of Crisis and a few other smaller series'.

I've also added album title to the stream now, so it'll display like this:

Artist - Track Name - Album Title (Sound Test Radio)

This is so you can see what game a song is from without having to visit the webpage.

[rake]

I love the radio, it's a really good project and I'm glad it's being done.
Not to mention the Chrono Trigger. *much love*

I think it would also be good to have the Chrono Symphonic,
that soundtrack that was to be used in Chrono Resurrection.

[AP]

Do you know anywhere I can grab that? It wasn't released on CD and I have it but two tracks are corrupted. That's why it hasn't been added to the DB.

[Ridley]

Was this from the CTRP Unfinished Business torrent, with music made by bLiNd Leifo? If so, I have all of the music from that file.

You should also throw in the Chrono Trigger - Green Amnesia track from OCRemix. Amazing music. ;)

[AP]

Not doing Remixes at the moment... just concentrating on pure OSTs. I've got like another 200 gb of music to add, though..

Everyone: What format would you like the feed's title info in?

Like, Title - Artist - Album?
Artist - Title - Album?

What combo?

[Aether]

Well I know Winamp can do it in two lines, but I don't know if others can...

Artist - Song Title
Album

I would be partial to having it that way

[AP]

Can't do two lines sadly, but I can do any order.

[AP]

Sonic tracks going up tonight/tomorrow/in the next 24 hours. Keep 'em peeled. Might throw in some Pokemon or something if I have time.

[Aether]

Well perhaps then

Artist - Song Title (Album Name) ?

Also, can I renew my request for some The World Ends With You OST goodness if you can find it?

[AP]

I'll look into TWEWY.

SONIC and BANJO KAZOOIE now in the playlist.

Tonight is Sonic night. Sonic music for the next six hours. Requests work as normal.

[Dr. Flux]

POKEMONS!

nooo way.

[.Kuja.]

www.listen2myradio.com look anygood? (FREE!!!! ^^)

[Dedrus]

Greetings,
This is my first time posting on this site, so please, notify me if I am doing anything wrong ;)

Well, firstly, I've been keeping an eye on this thread for a while, though only the recent pages, so if I've missed anything, I'm sorry.

Right, now then!
I was wondering if it would be possible to somehow add the OST from Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams to the radio database?
Edit- Apologies, I read through your list back on page 2.
I see it's in there - hope to see it on the database soon ;)

I enjoy it greatly, though I cannot say it's feasible to load up the game and find the right location just to listen to it ;)

On a side-note, any idea when Sound-Test will be back up?
I <3'd that site.

Not too bad for a first post, I guess? ;D

[AP]

Yeah.. I shall get around to the Onimusha stuff soonish, promise!

As for ST itself... we're currently working on the new iteration of RPGSite in more earnest, but when that's done later this month we'll be moving on to executing our plans with Sound Test. You'll hear more very soon, I'm sure!

And welcome to the boards!

[Dedrus]

That's great to hear, on both accounts of ST and the Onimusha OST's.
I eagerly await the reincarnation of ST, though I shall keep an eye on RPGSite with such an interest - I have only ventured onto there a few times that I remember.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

[Haywire]

No plans to get any of your Red Wings stuff up there?

Also, I still exist :)

[AP]

I will, eventually, add some TRW, along with some other cover bands we're friendly with.

In the meantime, I've added all the music from the FF13 demo to the playlist. Go ahead, listen, request, see what you think of the battle theme, boss theme etc. :)

www.sound-test.org/radio

[Dedrus]

I couldn't think of a better place to suggest this, but here I go;
I was wondering if it'd be possible, at some point, to add the OST from Star Ocean: The Last Hope to Sound-Test (when it's up and running again) and/or the radio?

I know it's a relatively new game, of which I don't know whether the OST has been released yet, but regardless I'd love to see it on the database sometime.. there's so much coolness eradiating from the OST =P

[AP]

Will be up and down for the next few days as I'm installing new hardware to the radio server.

[AP]

Same situation again, except this time it's specifically new radio software. There will be more features coming, but that means requests will be spitting out errors for now.

[Aether]

Would this be effecting the search function? Tried to use it earlier this morning, and it wouldn't return results, just refresh the page.

[AP]

It's pretty much effecting all aspects of the website bit. The new hardware is installed, but the software is falling out with it as a result. Give me a few days.

[AP]

Should all be A-OK now.

[Kat]

'kay guys, the big cheese asked me to inform you the radio might be down for a bit. Lovely tech support says it'll be back up "by tomorrow" but we all know that can mean a million things, right? ;o

Sorry for the inconvenience!

[AP]

Been a shed-load of radio trouble over the last few days. Everything fixed now. Requests working. Some exciting new soundtrack additions too including the Persona series and Advent Children Complete's new OST tracks. Try doing a search for "Advent Children Complete" in the playlist if you want to check that out.

http://www.sound-test.org/radio

[AP]

Dropped a gigantic bollock in fixing some stuff and broke requests, but it's working again now.

[tebian]

Sounds like you guys have had your share of problems. I finally resolved my situation with down time. I just use two providers for the relays.

Nice station and good music you got there. Do you use SAM to Broadcast ?

[AP]

We do. SAM5. I'd love to have a chat to you about your setup to see if we can learn anything from you! Please drop me a PM or something with an MSN address or something I could get in touch with you via!

[AP]

Going to be down today and tomorrow as a power cut managed to fry the Radio Server's RAM. Waiting for replacement to be delivered tomorrow, sorry for any inconvenience.

[AP]

Finally fixed, after many hours of bellyaching. Enjoy.