[GreenKeys] WinAMP

[George B. Hutchison]

Greenkeyers - - -

I spent many hours working with WinAMP and ITTY trying to figure out what 
the problem was/is.

First, WinAMP is really an outstanding program when it comes to the 
versatility of what you can do with soundcards.

WinAMP has a feature whereby you can run multiple instances of WinAMP.

I have had three soundcards running simultaneously in one computer using 
WinAMP. Each soundcard had a different Shoutcast radio program running on 
it.

The trick was they had to be different brands of soundcards. Apparently each 
different brand of soundcard has different bus addressing such that they 
don't interfere with one another.

Where the system failed was when I had ITTY on one of the soundcards, the 
ITTY channel would run for hours, or it would run for seconds before it 
crashed. A computer with only the on-board soundcard would crash. A computer 
with a PCI soundcard would crash.

Winamp has a host of variable features allowing you to change the size of 
the buffers, and so forth.

WinAMP has run flawlessly on the transmitting side of ITTY.

In order to keep the bandwidth narrow enough to allow a number of listeners, 
I use an encoding program by AudioRealm which has some configurations in the 
11 KHz sample rate, mono, that with the upload bandwidth I have her on DSL 
(with Qwest) I can comfortably run up to 20 listeners assuming I run only 
one ITTY channel.

Another advantage of running low bandwidth is that it works very well with 
dial-up access. Wayne in Minnesota is on dialup, and he runs long hours with 
solid copy.

Should ITTY become so popular I need more bandwidth than my single line 
allows, I would have to go to using relay servers, which is what the biggie 
internet broadcasters do.

Bottom line - I have no adverse issue with WinAMP other than the fact that I 
cannot use it for receiving due to its random drop out characteristic. I 
might be due to the fact that I use a lot of Dell GX-150 desktop computers, 
which have only a 1 gig processor speed.

I use multiple computers because of the redundancy factor. If one craps out 
the others still keep on chugging.

Bill Bytheway has run multiple instances of the ITTY broadcasting app on one 
computer. This is great, but if it bites the dust the whole system is down, 
and though it is bit of a hassle keeping track of what is going on with each 
different computer, it has been a major point of operation that ITTY has 
been as reliable as it is.

Were I to be able to afford some of the new spiffy 12 core processors with 
Auto-Butler, Insta-Chef, with Beer Cooler Included, running 128 bit versions 
of Windows Super ULTRA Seven, it might be different, but inasmuch as I am a 
fan of dedicated use computers, I'll stick with the 35-dollar cheapies.

I like Dells because I have a "magic" disc that allows me to things 
economically.

I am glad that some of you have great success with WinAMP. I would like to 
know more about your system and the configuration(s) you use, as it might 
help me to understand what is going on.

I relate all of this to y'all so that you are aware of some of the 
activities here at ITTY as the system has evolved. It certainly isn't 
perfect, but a part of ITTY that has been in the forefront is that all the 
user needs is an off-the-shelf computer, a cheapo TU such as an ST-6, and a 
teletype machine. Those interested can hook up their gear and make it play.

I am not a software whiz-bang, so I have held-back doing anything with heavy 
metal. It is my understanding that it was originally written so as to make a 
six-level machine such as a model 20 play. Most people do not have six-level 
machines, so I guess you could say ITTY fills a void.

Happy  New Year all,

W7TTY