Encoder stops so now and then, restart is necessary

[Menno]

Dear forum members,

Here is an urgent question that I am posting in both the German and English forums. I hope that that is allowed. I’m a bit at my wit’s end…

I’m using mAirlist 7, the latest version, in combination with Stereotool 9.91. I run 24/7 on onverantwoord.com. Mixer is a D&R Airence that I can control with mAirlist. My PC is two years old, running on an i9 with 16GB of memory, OS is W10 Pro, version 22H2. All music is played from a Synology 1821+ NAS. The network is gigabit.

I use mAirlist’s built-in encoder. It seems to happen more and more often that that one just stops without identifiable season. I’ve heard it happen a few times. He plays the last track neatly all the way through and then it’s quiet. Of all the tracks that mAirlist plays after that event, I can see the ID3 tags on my playback devices, so tag info is still forwarded to the streaming server on the internet. After such a spontaneous interruption, I can’t get the encoder connected anymore. I can click on the “Line” button but nothing happens.

In today’s log I see that tracks started until 9:10. That’s when I restarted mAirlist. Until this time, there is nothing to be found in the log about the possible deactivation of the encoder. It was quiet on the stream though…

Stereo tool also indicates that there is no more music at all, the meters no longer show something.

To get mAirlist working again, it needs a restart. FYI, a screen dump of the encoder’s settings.

The encoder gets its signal from an Audio4DJ sound card. This is an old card that runs fine, but could that be a weak spot?

I’m thinking about using a separate streamer. If anyone has a tip for a type or brand of streamer please do, because these disruptions make it all unreliable. Is this streamer easy to feed with the ID3 tag info?

Your feedback is very valuable to me!

Translations from Dutch to English by Microsoft Word, so don’t blame me!

[Pascal1]

Beste Menno,

Wat er intern wellicht in Mairlist gebeurt kan ik niet verklaren.
Wel zou je, zoals je zelf al aangaf, eens via een externe Encoder kunnen streamen.

https://danielnoethen.de/butt/

De Butt encoder zou een mooie oplossing kunnen zijn.
Ik zou dan ook kiezen om de standalone versie van Stereotools te gebruiken.
Zo weet je zeker dat het niet aan de encoder en stereotools ligt.

Succes!

[Stefan_Hillen]

@Menno

I’m thinking about using a separate streamer.

Hi menno,

that’s not necesarry, the mAirList-Encoder runs fine on most stations, I’m streaming six instances from a win server with two outgoing streams each without any problems.

Isn’t this the same problem that take place in January and then disappeared?

Encoder stopt er af en toe mee

Sinds een tijdje stopt de ingebouwde encoder van mAirlist er zo maar mee. Vannacht was ik getuige van het moment. De encoder stopte er netjes mee op het moment dat een track was afgelopen. De volgende track werd wel gestart, maar het signaal “kwam blijkbaar niet meer aan bij de encoder”. Een herstart van mAirlist loste het probleem op. Stereotool kreeg geen signaal meer, geen uitslag van VU meters. Ik gebruik Stereotool (met licentie). Stereotool is geconfigureerd zoals in onderstaande screendu…

What happened in your installation / what did you change before it started to made problems again?

@Menno

The encoder gets its signal from an Audio4DJ sound card.

I don’t know the Airence in detail but isn’t it possible to send the Master-Out via USB too to connect it directly to the Encoder without another Soundcard?

[UliNobbe]

@Stefan_Hillen

I don’t know the Airence in detail but isn’t it possible to send the Master-Out via USB too to connect it directly to the Encoder without another Soundcard?

Indeed, it seems so. Follow the description from D&R:

One physical USB connection interfaces 4 stereo audio channels to and from your PC, along with all programmable remote controls on the left-hand section of the mixer.

(https://www.dnrbroadcast.com/airence-usb, highlighted section from me)

[Menno]

@Stefan_Hillen

that’s not necesarry, the mAirList-Encoder runs fine on most stations, I’m streaming six instances from a win server with two outgoing streams each without any problems.

Isn’t this the same problem that take place in January and then disappeared?

Hi Stefan, it’s the same problem that took place in January. It’s never been away but last weeks it happened more than once a week. I posted in the German and Engish forum as well hoping to get more response. It looks like I’m the only one suffering from this… Maybe it’s a hardware problem in my pc, because I’ve had more problems with skipped tracks in the playlist which hasn’t bothered me for a while.

@Stefan_Hillen

What happened in your installation / what did you change before it started to made problems again?

Really nothing!

[Menno]

@UliNobbe

Indeed, it seems so. Follow the description from D&R:

Thx for your response Uli. The D&R doesn’t have a digital master output over the USB connection. There are only 4 inputs and remote controls. And if it did have a digital master output, it wouldn’t be of much use to me because the analog output of the Airence goes to a limiter and I digitize the signal that comes out of it with the Audio4DJ sound card.

[Menno]

@Pascal1

De Butt encoder zou een mooie oplossing kunnen zijn.
Ik zou dan ook kiezen om de standalone versie van Stereotools te gebruiken.
Zo weet je zeker dat het niet aan de encoder en stereotools ligt.

Dat is zeker een optie die ik ga bekijken! Dank Pascal. Ik ben wel benieuwd wat een standalone-versie van StereoTool is? Ik gebruik nu de Winamp plugin in mAirlist. Die was niet gratis (!) dus ik hoop niet dat ik dan een nieuwe licentie moet kopen.

[Pascal1]

Je kunt deze downloaden en installeren.
Je mag dezelfde code op dezelfde PC gebruiken zolang je ze maar niet tegelijk laat lopen.

[Menno]

Helder, dank voor te toelichting!