So you want to stream audio into Vent and beyond? This is the right place to look (if you have Mac OS X; sorry Windows, I will draft something later). Mac OS X is such a great system because of its audio versatility with a tool called Soundflower by Cycling74. Soundflower is an audio source layer that reroutes audio from one point in your Mac to another point (like how audio can go from iTunes to your headphones). In fact, you can pretty much use just Soundflower for your stream to Ventrilo (if you only want to stream to Ventrilo).
There are two routes to go about setting up a radio studio on your Mac: 1) The Easy and Decent Priced Way and The Hard and Free Way
The Easy and Decent Priced Way
What you need
- Nicecast ($59 license; Note: the demo allows for full broadcast use until one hour of the stream has elapsed when Nicecast thus overlays your stream with noise)
- Soundflower by Cycling74 (Free) ALERT: You MUST restart after installing this
- A Ventrilo copy
- An audio source application (such as iTunes, Skype, or djay)
- Recommended: LineIn (Free)
- Recommended: The Mac OS X Activity Monitor (found in /Applications/Utilities)
What to do
1.) After downloading all the necessary (and recommended) pieces of software, open up Nicecast. You should be greeted with the below image.
2.) Open up the Effects window (Window menu > Show Effects or Command-3) and set up these three modules (all in the "4FX Effect" drop down menu on click for each region)
The Voiceover module allows you to speak over your stream's input (NB: your input stream must be picking up audio). The VU Meters (Volume Unit) show the volumes levels of the left and right stereo outputs. If the volume levels are landing in the red zone, turn down the input volume. The Auxiliary Device Output (also known as Aux Send) allows you the broadcaster to send the output audio from Nicecast to another audio device. This is what we will use to send the output audio from Nicecast to Soundflower.
3.) For each effect, click the "Editor" button. In "Voiceover," verify that all menus in the "Audio Input" tab are set to "Default." The editor button for the VU Meters will bring up this window:
This window shows the volume levels of the audio input of Nicecast. In the Aux Send module, set everything to this image:
4.) Open up iTunes, start playing some music, and hit "Start Broadcast" in Nicecast. Congrats! You have started the stream! Now to hook the stream to Ventrilo...
5.) In Ventrilo's setup, set everything to match this:
After applying those settings, you will begin streaming iTunes into Vent! Your first step towards a full blown radio show!
More coming soon!
