Stereo Tool
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Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
https://forums.stereotool.com/viewtopic.php?t=5507		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  blacklightradio [ Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:41 am ]
Post subject:  Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
My current PC still isn't enough to run StationPlaylist Studio, Stereo Tool, Filezilla Server, and Oddcast. (It's at least 3 yrs old, standard Dell office PC.)

Although dramatically better than the machine I was using before (which was 3 yrs older still and couldn't really run ST), I still hear occasionally micro-pauses in the audio. Neither the CPU nor the RAM appear to be maxing out, but I can hear it from the output of the soundcard.

(Interestingly, I don't hear these drops when listening back to the stream, but after a couple of hours the player has to rebuffer. Last night I heard Winamp get almost 500ms AHEAD of the audio coming out of my soundcard!!! Somebody explain to me how that's even possible!!)

However, I have a second, identical machine which I'm wondering if I could put to good use.

I know I could run analog out of one machine into analog in on the next machine, but these are cheap soundcards built in to the motherboards, and I don't have professional cards OR the money to get professional cards right now.

Does anyone know a way I could play the music on one machine, feed the audio linear digitally to the other machine, and let the second machine do the processing and / or encoding?

It just seems a shame to waste the CPU and RAM of the second machine... but I'm unsure how to get them working together...
Author:  hvz [ Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
Hm, first, make sure that you get the latest version (7.41) of Stereo Tool, it uses a lot less CPU power than before.

Micro-pauses on the source pc are probably related to either too small buffer sizes, or not enough priority for the sound card driver.

Different pc's and different sound cards have slightly different sample rates. This may very well be the cause that your player needs to rebuffer. It does not necessarily indicate a problem with your stream (I have heard of cases where after a few weeks a player was 18 minutes behind. So a bit ahead could also be possible.).

On the other hand, the micro-pauses on your system may be causing the output stream to contain less data than it should, which after a longer period could also be causing this.
Author:  blacklightradio [ Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
I'm using the latest beta (7.41.035); it's been like this since I put the new PC in place (with 7.41.025, I think).

I have the latency for Stereo Tool set at 4096 samples, the quality at 50%, and display refresh speed at 50%. On StationPlaylist Studio, I have the buffer size at the maximum (2000 ms).

The soundcard is labeled about as generic as can be: "High Definition Audio Device (Microsoft)."

I've just increased the priority of the sound driver, so we will see if perhaps that will help.

I guess there's no way to go USB-to-USB, eh? :)

EDIT: EVERYTHING is integrated on the MOBO: video, sound, NIC card. Would putting in PCI cards for some or all of these things maybe make the audio smoother?
Author:  Marino [ Wed Mar 05, 2014 11:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
Hi, do you use the advanced clipper option in Stereotool? If so, I m curious if turning it off will solve the problem.
Author:  hvz [ Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
You could try to set the latency to 2048, just in case Station Playlist doesn't handle the way Stereo Tool does its calculations (collect a block of samples and then processes it - blocking) well.
Author:  zoneman [ Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
Am using latest ST on a Mac and it seems to be stable enough with the odd dropouts.. should I adjust latency settings. Currently 4096 ?


Stream: http://uk1.internet-radio.com:15763
Author:  Bojcha [ Thu Mar 06, 2014 12:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Dedicated PC for Stereo Tool?
Quote:
Am using latest ST on a Mac and it seems to be stable enough with the odd dropouts.. should I adjust latency settings. Currently 4096 ?
Stream: http://uk1.internet-radio.com:15763
No. If you use standalone try to activate "Synchronize" in input section..
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