tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post2111270897459300138..comments2023-08-03T07:18:04.680-04:00Comments on Geek Like Me, Too: I Stream, UStream, We All StreamPaul R. Pottshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04401509483200614806noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-89698445683669636272011-09-26T05:45:32.176-04:002011-09-26T05:45:32.176-04:00Yay!!
I have been trying to stream (decent) audio...Yay!!<br /><br />I have been trying to stream (decent) audio and video via Ustream for quite some time, but I have stymied by the Ustream broadcaster's inability to recognize the audio I was sending from Logic. I have been using my Digi002 to mix my audio (a vocal mic, sometimes a bass, and keyboard using virtual instruments.)<br /><br />For some bizarre reason, Ustream would recognize only the vocal mic input and not the keyboard - either a direct input or a MIDI trigger for VIs - even though I could hear them both fine, and I can broadcast the audio by itself perfectly.<br /><br />Your post helpd me figure out how to route my audio using an aggregate device with Soundflower. I don't use the Digi002 because that Digi driver is such a nightmare unless that's all you're using - it makes Soundflower explode - but I'm using an M-Audio Fast Track Pro, which will get the job done.<br /><br />Now I can hook up a camera and use the Aggregate Device for the audio input! Thank you so much for the great post and explanation (and for the very useful Logic pic!)Alicia Morganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14458700009032102949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-66381176599779456252010-03-04T04:33:50.483-05:002010-03-04T04:33:50.483-05:00thanks! this was very helpful. I am using it to mi...thanks! this was very helpful. I am using it to mic bands and play live sessions. Here is my video page: <a href="http://www.alwaysgoodmusic.com" rel="nofollow">Always Good Music</a>Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14727506554960203093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-30337259080342059882009-06-02T12:10:12.544-04:002009-06-02T12:10:12.544-04:00Again, thanks so much for your help with this! I ...Again, thanks so much for your help with this! I really appreciate the effort you have put into this. I watched your video clip testing a setup where you just use the Ensemble for the microphone input and it sounded great. The sound quality was very good and the video seemed to work perfectly. I just tried doing it again and still have the slow motion problem. I thought maybe the problem was that I had a bunch of different microphones plugged into various inputs on the Ensemble and I thought maybe that was taking up too much bandwith or processor power or something, but I still had the problem after I unplugged everything but one microphone. <br />I recorded a video so you can see what I'm talking about:<br />http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1596067David O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01244589537400332982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-6211780806371336392009-06-01T11:55:10.810-04:002009-06-01T11:55:10.810-04:00When I go to that page today, I am able to play ba...When I go to that page today, I am able to play back my test clip. So maybe it had just not been encoded yet. (It would be nice if the UStream site said something to that effect, rather than just giving me the spinning animation when attempting to play the clip).<br /><br />It is hard to know from here whether the problem you are seeing is a function of bandwidth on your internet connection. Even a pretty low-power Mac should be able to handle the video and audio streams -- it worked on my older G4 Mac Mini, although as I mentioned I could not add very many plug-ins before pegging out the CPU and destroying the audio.Paul R. Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04401509483200614806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-51389108482516205622009-06-01T07:21:50.190-04:002009-06-01T07:21:50.190-04:00I should have mentioned, the problem produced itse...I should have mentioned, the problem produced itself when I tried to play the video back in the test console. I didn't even get as far as you did.David O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01244589537400332982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-75389324970244807232009-06-01T07:20:38.965-04:002009-06-01T07:20:38.965-04:00Thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate...Thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate the time you put into trying to help me solve this. I tried plugging the camera into the ensemble. I didn't even know you could do that. The camera worked fine until I tried it on Ustream that way. Unfortunately, it produced the same result, which was the extremely slow motion video and sound. Hmmm. I'll keep trying to figure out a way. I also sent a support request to Ustream to see if they had any advice about it. It seems like one should be able to use a separate microphone from the web camera on Ustream. I'm not even trying to do anything nearly as fancy as what you are doing.David O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01244589537400332982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-24138413331190425182009-05-31T15:06:52.074-04:002009-05-31T15:06:52.074-04:00Well, for some reason my test clip was playing bac...Well, for some reason my test clip was playing back for me in the UStream console, but will not play back for me from the web page. I don't know what that is all about -- it appears to be another problem on their end. My older clips seem to play OK (they were recorded at lower video quality), but they exhibit some of the audio problems I was talking about.<br /><br />I can't mess around with it any more this afternoon, but I'll see if I can get a better test clip recorded. I swear it was working...Paul R. Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04401509483200614806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-91705517783461318852009-05-31T14:58:40.217-04:002009-05-31T14:58:40.217-04:00OK, I was able to do an audio/video mix to Ustream...OK, I was able to do an audio/video mix to Ustream using the Ensemble + iSight. Here's a little video clip here (go to this link, and look for "Ensemble Mic Input Test" clip).<br /><br />http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pottsandpans<br /><br />This is strictly a little experiment done off the cuff to see if I can make it work as you described -- not intended to be high-quality.<br /><br />Whether I can get that kind of video quality seems to depend heavily on how my internet access is going at any given time -- it changes depending on network traffic.<br /><br />I didn't mention it but when I have the camera plugged in to the Ensemble and turned on, the Maestro control panel's "bandwidth used" setting jumps from 13%, which is where it is when I have it set to 8x8 mixer mode, to something like 39%, so the camera uses a lot of bandwidth. But this time at least it didn't seem to break up the audio or the video. In previous experiments involving effects through Logic and Soundflower as the audio input to UStream the audio quality got really poor, and I have not figured out exactly where the problem lies.Paul R. Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04401509483200614806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-60967920629776315242009-05-31T14:25:25.207-04:002009-05-31T14:25:25.207-04:00Hmmm. About the problem you're having with using t...Hmmm. About the problem you're having with using the Ensemble as an input into UStream -- I have not tried that exact setup because I wanted from the beginning to use Logic to handle effects. It could be a bottleneck with trying to share your FireWire connection with both the camera and the audio -- are you using a FireWire camera?<br /><br />One thing you might try is plugging the camera into the FIreWire through on the Ensemble.<br /><br />I'll see if I can reproduce this problem using a straight mic input into the Ensemble as the audio for UStream.Paul R. Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04401509483200614806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-68491181946681024122009-05-30T11:57:20.720-04:002009-05-30T11:57:20.720-04:00I didn't realize Mainstage caused that problem. S...I didn't realize Mainstage caused that problem. Separate and aside from that, I can't even get Ensemble to work with Ustream. When I try to use it, just to add a better microphone than the one on my webcam, it makes the video stream go into slow motion and the sound is in super slow motion. I select "Ensemble" as the audio source and that's when it goes into slow motion. Do you know what might be causing that?David O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01244589537400332982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-79363395313217655702009-05-30T10:58:57.123-04:002009-05-30T10:58:57.123-04:00Oh, now I remember why I don't use MainStage. It r...Oh, now I remember why I don't use MainStage. It runs great on my Mac Pro, but _will not run_ on my Mac Mini G4, which is installed in my rack so I can set it up for live use. Logic runs just fine (although I can't use very many plug-ins at all). MainStage complains that the video hardware isn't powerful enough. Maybe at some point I will replace the old Mac Mini with a new one. I love the Mini for putting on a rack shelf because they are extremely quiet, even quieter than a laptop.Paul R. Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04401509483200614806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-91406089520390256802009-05-30T10:24:10.830-04:002009-05-30T10:24:10.830-04:00Hi Tumbling Dice,
Thanks for posting a comment. C...Hi Tumbling Dice,<br /><br />Thanks for posting a comment. Comments are moderated and with 4 kids I don't get on here to moderate as often as I'd like.<br /><br />I don't have a lot of time today to think about this -- lots of errands and what-not -- but let me start with your last question: "can't you just use the Apogee Ensemble to mix everything together?"<br /><br />That works fine if you want to listen to multiple sources, say sending them all to the headphones or monitors. The Ensemble will mix multiple inputs to outputs and CoreAudio will mix multiple applications playing on those inputs, say iTunes with system sounds.<br /><br />But it breaks down because of this fact: different applications seem to have greater or lesser flexibility as to how they can route audio. This is an area where Apple could really improve, in my opinion, with a standard control panel for application audio input and output, maybe with a basic mode and an advanced mode.<br /><br />iTunes seems to always send its audio to the default output, as selected in Audio MIDI Setup or the Sound control panel. There doesn't seem to be a setting within iTunes itself to pick something other than the default output. So if I want to send my iTunes output to uStream, the default output has to be set to something that uStream can use as an _input_. Soundflower acts as the "virtual" device for that purpose. I guess I could also route two of the Ensemble outputs back to Ensemble inputs with cables or something, or maybe there is a way to do it in the Maestro application using the mixer, but I mostly have tried to avoid using Maestro's mixer because it seems very buggy -- it crashes a lot, it won't obey my settings, it won't restore my settings, it comes up with random routings.<br /><br />Logic is another special case with its audio behavior -- it wants to work with a single CoreAudio device for both its inputs and outputs -- it won't let me pick and choose separate devices for input and output. So if I want Logic to be able to take inputs from the Ensemble and send outputs to the Soundflower bus, I have to create an aggregate device that lets me combine Soundflower with the Ensemble.<br /><br />I have not used MainStage very much -- although I have experimented a little for doing MIDI drum things with a used Yamaha DD-55 pad I just picked up on eBay. I did notice that MainStage seems to have much more flexible audio routing -- it appears to let you use separate devices for input and output, although I have not played with it much.<br /><br />It becomes even more complicated when you add video. I want to record live video of my playing, using my mics and instruments going into the Ensemble and having Logic do all the effects and mixing. Apple's iMovie will let me record from the iSight camera I have on my desk but it seems to only take the audio stream coming from the camera's built-in mics, which is not what I want. So to record like this the only application I found that would do what I want is actually Photo Booth, which records audio from the default input (in this case, Soundflower).<br /><br />The whole mess is not working right for me, though, because Soundflower seems to have some serious problems (see my most recent posts). So I may have to find an entirely different solution.<br /><br />That's my take on it -- it's always possible that I'm missing something obvious that would let me do what I want without Soundflower. I hope it will either get fixed, or that I can find some kind of replacement.Paul R. Pottshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04401509483200614806noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21054185.post-3070702333776623592009-05-29T17:53:22.282-04:002009-05-29T17:53:22.282-04:00Very cool. I'd like to do the same thing. I just...Very cool. I'd like to do the same thing. I just tried downloading soundflower and setting this up, but I can't get Ustream to actually detect the audio. Even if I select soundflower or the virtual aggregate device as the audio input in Ustream. Not sure if that's the weak link or if Apple Mainstage is not sending the signal to the right place. I can't get Mainstage to detect the virtual aggregate device but it does detect soundflower. <br />Also, why do you need soundflower, can't you just use the Apogee Ensemble to mix everything together. I can listen to Itunes through it while I'm doing other things with it - I assume, haven't tested it yet.David O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01244589537400332982noreply@blogger.com