Winamp, LivePRO & Microphone...

[Jem]

Hi all

I read somewhere in a past post that it is possible to get Winamp to accept input from an external microphone. I need to do this so that I can use the microphone/Winamp/LivePRO plugin to enable the beat feature in LivePRO.

Basically i'm going to be sat at the back of a venue with my laptop running LivePRO and I want to be able to detect the beat of the audio.

I've tried searching past postings but can't seem to find the post where it was discussed, I'm not certain but I think it was Buffo or Cruch that had the solution.

Cheers

Jem

[buffo]

I tried to get it to work, but ran into a problem with the cheap on-board audio hardware on my motherboard that prevented it from working.

However, here's how you do it:

Load Winamp. Right-click on the faceplate and select Play, from URL, and then type "linein://" without the quotes in the requester that pops up. Hit enter. Now start playing some audio from an external source that's connected to the line in jack on your sound card. (An I-pod will do...) If everything is working, you should see the level meter in winamp start to move to the beat. If it does, then you're all set. Load up the AVS Laser Plug-in and you've got an automatic beat-sensitive laser show.

I didn't know that Live Pro also supported beat detection through Winamp... That's cool. (Damn, that's another reason for me to upgrade to Live Pro!) Let us know how you make out...

Adam

[Jem]

Thanks Adam, you're a star

I knew it was something along those lines, I had just missed off the ':'

Sadly i've had to pack in playing with my lasers for tonight, but i'll give it a go tommorrow. I'm totally hooked on the audio features in LivePRO, you can get some fantastic effects that make a beamshow look totally customised to the music, and all without doing anything as the music's playing

I'll report back tommorrow with an update

Jem

[Jem]

Quick update...

Shhhh.... I managed to sneak off to my workshop to try this out

IT WORKS!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!

Plugged a microphone into my laptop, started Winamp, selected line input, started the LivePRO plugin, started LivePRO, clicked on the 'detect audio beat' feature, clicked on select sequential cues, adjusted the audio settings for brightness and size of the beams, clicked on 'Play' and sat back.

WOW!!!

Beams everywhere, all pulsating, swirling, changing colour, fading in and out to the beat of the music.

A full laser sound to light show

I then tried it with my iPod, it is detecting the beat and I have audio input, but there is no audio output from my laptop speakers - Any suggestions as to how I may be able to get the audio from my iPod so I can hear it?

Jem

[buffo]

Glad to hear that it's working, Jem!

As to why you have no audio, it could be that you need to fiddle with the audio properties in the control panel. Check the settings and be sure the volume sliders are up and nothing is muted.

However, it may be a problem with the hardware on your computer. But try messing around in control panel first.

Adam

[Jem]

O.K., so now i'm going to make myself look really stupid ...

I had the microphone mute box checked

Funny thing is that I had assumed that because Winamp was picking up the audio it would automatically be output to the speakers.

Ah well, everything's fine now and I have access to my full music library on my iPod

Oh and Adam... You definately need an upgrade to LivePRO

Jem

[cruch]

Live Pro (and live pro usb) is a powerfull software!!
So cool to play with..

[buffo]

Jem;

Yeah, Live Pro is on my short list for upgrades to my laser software. (Right up there with adding more oscillators to the abstract generator!) We'll have to see how the funds go though; C-mas is going to be rough this year, and I still gotta pay for spring tuition and books for my youngest son...

For what it's worth, this doesn't work on all machines. I can't get this line-in trick to work on at least two computers... (Up to this point I've only tried it on the two machines that I've got dedicated solely to laser work.) But I know other people that have it working on their machines, so it *does* work if your hardware is up to snuff.

Bottom line - If you've got the cheap-ass AC97 sound hardware on your motherboard, you may encounter the same difficulty I did. (The sound plays just fine, but Winamp won't detect a beat.) If you have better on-board sound, or a separate sound card, you should be OK.

I've got a spare Soundblaster Live card that I'm going to install next and see if that solves my problem. (It should...)

Adam

[andy_con]

what is winamp??

everyone keeps going on about it? does it come with the fb3???

[Jem]

Hi Andy

It's basically just a media player for Windows, available here...

http://www.winamp.com/

The reason it's so poular amongst laserists is it's ability to interface with LivePRO through a plugin. There's also other plugins available for laser visualisations.

Cheers

Jem

what is winamp??

everyone keeps going on about it? does it come with the fb3???