SETUP - SoundPlay

VST Plugins

CONFLICT RESOLVED Starting with TuneTracker 2™, a conflict between TuneTracker's "BRS Silence Sensor" plugin and any other audio plugins you might have enabled, has been resolved. If you have the old TuneTracker 1 program and have run into problems using audio plugins along with the SS plugin, an upgrade to TuneTracker Basic™ or Command Center™ will solve the problem. See the Silence Sensor page for details.

Maintaining consistent audio levels is crucial to any radio operation. This can be done with expensive external gear, however there's a nice alternative right in your TuneTracker™ installation. The Be Operating System's marvelous real-time audio handling abilities make it possible to use one or more simultaneous effects plugins to fine-tune your sound, smooth out your levels, and add fullness and punch to your signal, using "VST Plugins."

Included with your SoundPlay installation is a VST Plugins Adaptor. You'll find it in SoundPlay Preferences under "Filters." Double-click on it, then browse to the "Effects Plugins" folder in your TuneTracker System installation and select the ones you want, which adds them to the list. Click "Done," and restart SoundPlay. You will now have access to the plugins you've selected.

Next, reopen SoundPlay's Filters Preferences and drag an effect from the Inactive window pane to the Active one. In the Active pane, double-click on the effect, bringing up its preferences. While playing some audio, you can use sliders to fine-tune the effects to your liking.

To help save you some time and effort, here are the effects we have chosen for BeOSRADIO. We have placed the graphics referenced below on the web, so we can keep them updated. You will need to be connected to the Internet to view them. Once you have your filters adjusted, close and re-open SoundPlay one last time, to save the new settings.

We recommend:

"FreeVerb" - Click here to see a graphic displaying our settings. Note that the "wet level" looks like it's all the way down. It's not. It's one notch up from the bottom.

"mda Dynamics" - Click here to see a graphic displaying our settings.

Another useful plugin, one that comes standard in SoundPlay, is the Equalizer plugin. Here are some settings that have worked well for us.

While it's tempting to really doctor up your signal with effects, your listeners will rapidly tire of it. The best advice is to limit them to what you really need in order to keep your levels consistent and add some punch and life to your signal.

If you come up with your own "killer combination" of plugins and settings, please send along a screen grab so we can try it out, and possibly add it to our documentation for others to try!

Important Things to Know

•   Some users have reported having difficulty finding the "VST Plugins Adapter" described in the documentation above, which may be the result of a missing file on your hard drive. It's easily remedied.
  
  
  
  
  1.   Download the following file:
     http://www.tunetrackersystems.com/downloads/CPlus.zip
     
  2.   Unzip it to the following location on your hard drive:
     /boot/home/config/lib
     
  3.   Close SoundPlay and relaunch it.
     
  4.   Check in the Plugins/Filters area. You should now see the VST Plugins Adapter and be able to proceed with configuring your plugins.

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