A Fix For Widely Varying Police Scanner Audio Levels Using a Free Windows Program (Also Linux and macOS)

[wtburton]

I’ve poked around a bit with this preset, but where do I disable Image mono? I use a stereo input that feeds two separate streams (one scanner on L, one on R.) I believe image mono is mixing them into one. I thought I shut it off, but no such luck.

Processing/Stereo/Stereo Image... click the red power button icon right under the meters.

 

[wtburton]

For this type of application, I would suggest using RATIO = 2:1, adjust threshold for -3db gain reduction, make-up gain +3db. The attack and release settings don't really matter for this type of application, but you could try 1ms attack, 3-10ms release.

Thanks!

 

[dispatchgeek]

Processing/Stereo/Stereo Image... click the red power button icon right under the meters.

Thanks. It turns out I was right there, but forgot that my AirPods mix stereo into mono when only one ear bud is in. Thanks for all your work on this! It certainly cleans my setup quite a bit.

 

[dispatchgeek]

Be nice if it could some how work with Proscan. In any case, my audio from the BCT15X sounds much better than with this app.

I am running it with two instances of Proscan right now. Stereo input into Stereo Tool, output to VB Cable. Both instances of Proscan are looking at the VB cable output for only their channel of audio. It’s working great!

 

[wtburton]

I am running it with two instances of Proscan right now. Stereo input into Stereo Tool, output to VB Cable. Both instances of Proscan are looking at the VB cable output for only their channel of audio. It’s working great!

Cool! I'm glad it's helping. And thanks for the feedback.

 

[wtburton]

To use Stereo Tool in your audio chain while streaming via Proscan or ScannerCast (and be able to hear it through your speakers):

Stereo Tool Input: Line (from scanner)
Stereo Tool Output: VB-Cable Input

System/Sound Output: Your Speaker
System/Sound Input: VB-Cable Output

Proscan or ScannerCast Input Sound Device: VB-Cable Output

Use “Windows Listen” option to be able to hear your feed audio through your speaker: Settings/System/Sound/More Sound Settings/Recording/Cable Output/Listen/Check “Listen To This Device”.

*** Here is a new preset I am using for my Broadcastify feed. I have cranked up the Noise Gate and the Low Level Boost all the way to pretty much eliminate some slight line noise I was still having and to bring up the audio on EXTREMELY low levels. It also seems to help a little with the famous popping noise on the SDS200.

Stereo Tool Presets - Google Drive

 

[wtburton]

To use Stereo Tool in your audio chain while streaming via Proscan or ScannerCast (and be able to hear it through your speakers):

Stereo Tool Input: Line (from scanner)
Stereo Tool Output: VB-Cable Input

System/Sound Output: Your Speaker
System/Sound Input: VB-Cable Output

Proscan or ScannerCast Input Sound Device: VB-Cable Output

Use “Windows Listen” option to be able to hear your feed audio through your speaker: Settings/System/Sound/More Sound Settings/Recording/Cable Output/Listen/Check “Listen To This Device”.

*** Here is a new preset I am using for my Broadcastify feed. I have cranked up the Noise Gate and the Low Level Boost all the way to pretty much eliminate some slight line noise I was still having and to bring up the audio on EXTREMELY low levels. It also seems to help a little with the famous popping noise on the SDS200.

Stereo Tool Presets - Google Drive

To completely eliminate the line noise from my SDS200, I had to go into Noise Gate’s “Filtering Per Band” and crank those all the way up as well. This was not needed for my BCD536HP. The preset does not include this so if you need it do it manually.

 

[ratboy]

I'm gonna try this in a couple of days. I sure hope this PC can handle it, it's not great by any means.

 

[wtburton]

I'm gonna try this in a couple of days. I sure hope this PC can handle it, it's not great by any means.

It should run on just about anything. Nice collection of classic hardware you have. If you have questions feel free to post them. Good luck with it.

 

[ratboy]

It should run on just about anything. Nice collection of classic hardware you have. If you have questions feel free to post them. Good luck with it.

Well, that we will see, it's got a crapload of stuff I need to have running for work, and most of the time, it's fine, but once in a while, I run something that takes almost no CPU to run, and it stutters like a machine gun. I'm going to order a cable from Monoprice to try it out. I couldn't find anything at home that was long enough, it has to be at least 6 feet.

I don't even have room to list all the stuff I still have. A bunch of old CB's, weird portable SW radios that are too small for their own good, like the Raddy RF-760, sold under at least a couple of other names. Insanely hard to use, it actually isn't a bad performer for the price, and the size is handy, but it's really frustrating. The RF-75 with the phone app is actually pretty easy to use. At one point, I had over 30 handheld scanners, I brought a lot of basket cases back to life. I got a lot of corpses for like $2-5. Get several, and you almost are guaranteed to get a working one out of them. I still have a ton of FM broadcast capable radios that are semi useless as listening to FM with all the ads annoys the hell out of me.