volume

[arizonatom1234]

Is there a way to turn up the volume for the feeds or does this have to be done by each feed? The volume is very poor through out the feeds if there is a way please increase the volume for the server my speakers are at a 100 % . Thanks tom

[webstar22]

It's per feed and it's hard to crank up the audio on feeds because comms on the scanner are different volumes and you have to set the scanner for the loudest which may make some comms really quiet.

[DPD1]

People running streams who want to get serious with the audio level issue might want to check out a compressor/limiter. You can find them at music equipment places. Models such as the old Alesis 3630 are fairly affordable and can really help with the up and down audio level problem. Low levels are raised and high levels are clipped. Plus, the 3630 has two channels with separate inputs, so you can go stereo or process two separate mono sources individually with separate settings. So if you have a two channel stream, you can process each side. Plus, it looks cool. ;-)

[webstar22]

Also if you need to crank up your audio to 100% to hear feeds I suspect there is an issue on your computer and not the feeds.

[KMA367]

Originally Posted by DPD1

People running streams who want to get serious with the audio level issue might want to check out a compressor/limiter. You can find them at music equipment places. Models such as the old Alesis 3630 are fairly affordable and can really help with the up and down audio level problem. Low levels are raised and high levels are clipped. Plus, the 3630 has two channels with separate inputs, so you can go stereo or process two separate mono sources individually with separate settings. So if you have a two channel stream, you can process each side. Plus, it looks cool. ;-)

Is this the kind of thing that might help with my feed from here in Humboldt County? There's been one general scanning problem for years, in that Eureka PD/FD and Arcata PDs' repeaters have very loud audio compared the the Sheriff, Cal-Fire, and CHP. And with the feds having pretty much moved everything to narrowband, THEIR relative volume has gotten even lower. Unless I'm sitting at my scanner driving it, my thousands of listeners (by actual count) hear some stuff way loud/clear, but can barely make out the rest unless they fiddle with their audio.

[lbpd719]

sometimes when people who are using windows forget to look for it, there is a mixer control that just covers the "recording" side of things. Sometimes people overlook these additional "sliders" and try to compensate with volume adjustments. This in turn causes same level - but overdriven sources. I spent weeks doing little tweeks to my first stream, followed by some cheap chokes on the audio cables (from Radio Shack) to get rid of the 60hz hum before I was happy..

On XP - Double Click your "speaker" in the system tray - then select "options" to turn on the recording side sliders.

For Linux users, I recommend using "alsamixer" from the command line..

Good Luck!

[lbpd719]

Can you do two streams to separate the low and high volume traffic? Or perhaps stereo with one on left one on right, then adjust your mixer output accordingly? I don't know of any software that can be used in realtime before, during or after encoding to fix that issue..

Originally Posted by KMA367

Is this the kind of thing that might help with my feed from here in Humboldt County? There's been one general scanning problem for years, in that Eureka PD/FD and Arcata PDs' repeaters have very loud audio compared the the Sheriff, Cal-Fire, and CHP. And with the feds having pretty much moved everything to narrowband, THEIR relative volume has gotten even lower. Unless I'm sitting at my scanner driving it, my thousands of listeners (by actual count) hear some stuff way loud/clear, but can barely make out the rest unless they fiddle with their audio.

[04Z1V6]

Also there is a setting on most scanners to control this, Please summit a complaint report to that feed provider, sometimes this has helped me.

[KMA367]

Originally Posted by 04Z1V6

Also there is a setting on most scanners to control this, Please summit a complaint report to that feed provider, sometimes this has helped me.

But I'm the feed provider, and I've complained to myself repeatedly to no avail. What I mean is that the radio signals (the voices) from Arcata's & Eureka's repeaters are much louder than those from everybody else's transmitters/repeaters (CHP, Cal-Fire, the local ambulance co's etc), even those whose transmitters are much closer to me. When Arc and Eka transmit, the signal levels go all the way to the right and into the red, so I back them off just enough to keep them from overmodulating, but that causes the other agencies' signals to get maybe 2/3 of the way up.

I'm looking for a way to somehow try to level them off as they go into my 'puter. Attenuating those channels at the scanner doesn't do anything at all.

[DPD1]

Originally Posted by KMA367

Is this the kind of thing that might help with my feed from here in Humboldt County? There's been one general scanning problem for years, in that Eureka PD/FD and Arcata PDs' repeaters have very loud audio compared the the Sheriff, Cal-Fire, and CHP. And with the feds having pretty much moved everything to narrowband, THEIR relative volume has gotten even lower. Unless I'm sitting at my scanner driving it, my thousands of listeners (by actual count) hear some stuff way loud/clear, but can barely make out the rest unless they fiddle with their audio.

Yep... That's what it's made for. They're mainly used for recording where they want to limit highs to prevent clipping and compress the signal to make it more uniform in level. It takes some experimenting to get it where you want, but that's what it's made to do. You can find the 3630 for about $100. Probably find them on eBay too.

[aharry]

You could experiment with software options before going with dedicated audio hardware... If you are running your feeds on Windows get a copy of VSTHost. It is a shell that allows you to load VST audio plugins. Then grab a copy of Classic Compressor and Master Limiter from kjaerhusaudio.com and play with the settings to see if it does what you need. If not, there are lots of other free VST plugins that may get you where you want to be.

[04Z1V6]

I was not referring to attenuation. I was however referring to what radioshack refers to as Digital AGC - Instantly compensates for low user audio levels that are common on digital systems, when this is set to on this seems to level out the volume by increasing the low volume levels.

[arizonatom1234]

thanks for all the suggestions, I will just use an external speaker for volume adjustment.