[hank alrich]

At the request of a daughter who operates a dance studio
(www.godancestudio.com) I am researching Mac-compatible programs to
playback audio files.

Requirements:

- Music Files and playlists need to be able to be stored on a server,
not on individual computers, so that all folders and playlists are
identical when accessed from any computer on the network.

- The ability to queue songs up individually from folders/playlists.
(For example one instructor queues up song Y to be played, and then
another queues up song X to play when the first song is finished and so
on, this all form one playback station.)

-Adding songs to the queue cannot interrupt the current song that is
playing.

- Ability to adjust the tempo of a track that is playing.

- Straight -orward operation that can be learned fairly easily by the
dance teachers. I.e., not Logic Pro, etc. g

- Ease of browsing a large database of songs.,

- Ability to play songs in as many formats as possible, including iTunes
if possible.

Note to Windows folks: she has been running a Windows network for
several years. She will replace it shortly. She wants to investigate
what is available on the Mac side before she makes her move. She is in
Austin TX, and has access to plenty of Windows support and advice.
Hence, there is no point in suggesting she just do this in Windows. The
whole point of this query is to look at the other side of the platform
situation.

Thanks to all who might have clues to share.

--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

[WillStG]

On Apr 25, 7:25Â*pm, (hank alrich) wrote:
At the request of a daughter who operates a dance studio
(www.godancestudio.com) I am researching Mac-compatible programs to
playback audio files.

Requirements:

- Music Files and playlists need to be able to be stored on a server,
not on individual computers, so that all folders and playlists are
identical when accessed from any computer on the network.

- The ability to queue songs up individually from folders/playlists.
(For example one instructor queues up song Y to be played, and then
another queues up song X to play when the first song is finished and so
on, this all form one playback station.)

-Adding songs to the queue cannot interrupt the current song that is
playing.

- Ability to adjust the tempo of a track that is playing.

- Straight -orward operation that can be learned fairly easily by the
dance teachers. I.e., not Logic Pro, etc. g

- Ease of browsing a large database of songs.,

- Ability to play songs in as many formats as possible, including iTunes
if possible.

Note to Windows folks: she has been running a Windows network for
several years. She will replace it shortly. She wants to investigate
what is available on the Mac side before she makes her move. She is in
Austin TX, and has access to plenty of Windows support and advice.
Hence, there is no point in suggesting she just do this in Windows. The
whole point of this query is to look at the other side of the platform
situation.

Thanks to all who might have clues to share.

--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

When I did audio for COMDEX a couple years ago, the coming wave
for home multimedia distribution seemed to be centered on large
gigabit ethernet network drives, such as this $320 Terrabyte LaCie
drive http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10882 . It
supports multiple operating systems for file sharing and
administration, allows http access for file browsing and supports the
"universal plug and play A/V" protocol ( UPnP„¢ A/V). At COMDEX
manufacturers had a number of video and audio playback units hooked up
to the networked drive playing back assorted streaming programming.
With the LaCie for example, you can stream video or music from the
drive over ethernet to any computer via a web browser, or to a
television or music playback system that supports the "UPnP„¢ A/V"
streaming A/V protocol. There are more and more of these products
coming out, one such UPnP audio device is the D-Link DSM-120,
http://www.dlink.com/products/?model=DSM-120. It not only does UPnP
over ethernet, it streams over wireless networks, can find music on
any of your computers with it's remote and led screen, and supports an
internal drive and USB/flash cards, somewhere around $200.

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

Iraq has been called "The Cradle Of Civilization" as it was home to
the World's first known civilization;
Iraq is Aramaic for "the land among the banks of the rivers"; the
Greeks called her Mesopotamia ("Between the rivers"),

[[email protected]]

It's a good question. Think in terms of radio and broadcast. Avid is
a company to explore. You might want to look at something along the
lines of a TV station file server platform, and then see if you can
disregard the video aspects of it and just send audio feeds. Then in
the future, if you wanted to incorporate giant flatscreen TV's in each
of the studios, you can make it a video server and have each song be
tied to a video. The video could be the artist's videos, or you could
get artistic and make your own videos or abstract light designs.

I would do something like keyword search on radio broadcast file
server and go from there.

[hank alrich]

wrote:

It's a good question. Think in terms of radio and broadcast. Avid is
a company to explore. You might want to look at something along the
lines of a TV station file server platform, and then see if you can
disregard the video aspects of it and just send audio feeds. Then in
the future, if you wanted to incorporate giant flatscreen TV's in each
of the studios, you can make it a video server and have each song be
tied to a video. The video could be the artist's videos, or you could
get artistic and make your own videos or abstract light designs.

I would do something like keyword search on radio broadcast file
server and go from there.

Thanks for you input.

So far the most interesting app I've found is MegaSeq:

http://www.megaseg.com/about.html


Avid systems are far too cumbersome and costly for this. Ease of use for
non-audio saavy folks is paramount. And for this job I'm not sure they'd
offer anything that MegaSeq doesn't offer.

--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

[hank alrich]

WillStG wrote:

(hank alrich) wrote:
At the request of a daughter who operates a dance studio
(www.godancestudio.com) I am researching Mac-compatible programs to
playback audio files.

Requirements:

- Music Files and playlists need to be able to be stored on a server,
not on individual computers, so that all folders and playlists are
identical when accessed from any computer on the network.

- The ability to queue songs up individually from folders/playlists.
(For example one instructor queues up song Y to be played, and then
another queues up song X to play when the first song is finished and so
on, this all form one playback station.)

-Adding songs to the queue cannot interrupt the current song that is
playing.

- Ability to adjust the tempo of a track that is playing.

- Straight -orward operation that can be learned fairly easily by the
dance teachers. I.e., not Logic Pro, etc. g

- Ease of browsing a large database of songs.,

- Ability to play songs in as many formats as possible, including iTunes
if possible.

Note to Windows folks: she has been running a Windows network for
several years. She will replace it shortly. She wants to investigate
what is available on the Mac side before she makes her move. She is in
Austin TX, and has access to plenty of Windows support and advice.
Hence, there is no point in suggesting she just do this in Windows. The
whole point of this query is to look at the other side of the platform
situation.

Thanks to all who might have clues to share.

When I did audio for COMDEX a couple years ago, the coming wave
for home multimedia distribution seemed to be centered on large
gigabit ethernet network drives, such as this $320 Terrabyte LaCie
drive http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10882 . It
supports multiple operating systems for file sharing and
administration, allows http access for file browsing and supports the
"universal plug and play A/V" protocol ( UPnP„¢ A/V). At COMDEX
manufacturers had a number of video and audio playback units hooked up
to the networked drive playing back assorted streaming programming.
With the LaCie for example, you can stream video or music from the
drive over ethernet to any computer via a web browser, or to a
television or music playback system that supports the "UPnP„¢ A/V"
streaming A/V protocol. There are more and more of these products
coming out, one such UPnP audio device is the D-Link DSM-120,
http://www.dlink.com/products/?model=DSM-120. It not only does UPnP
over ethernet, it streams over wireless networks, can find music on
any of your computers with it's remote and led screen, and supports an
internal drive and USB/flash cards, somewhere around $200.

Thanks, Will. Lots of interesting info you've provided there.

The dance studio already has a large music library, growing all the
time, on a central Windows server that feeds the separate rooms. They've
been using WinAmp to date. Now that they are migrating nearly all their
business applications to web apps they're looking to bring ease of use
and potentially some audio and video production into the studio. My
daughter likes the way that kind of stuff works on the Mac side. On top
of that the present network grew a piece at a time and they need to
replace enough of it that the idea of a complete makeover is appealing.

So far the most interesting app I've found is MegaSeq.

http://www.megaseg.com/about.html

I'm messing with the demo right now, which is fully functional but
interrupts playback every fifteen minutes. The manual seems quite good,
and is clearly aimed to support folks who've not set up their Macs for
pro audio before.

Cost is reasonable with a significant discount for additional licenses.

--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

[WillStG]

On Apr 26, 4:27 pm, (hank alrich) wrote:
SNIP

So far the most interesting app I've found is MegaSeq.

http://www.megaseg.com/about.html

I'm messing with the demo right now, which is fully functional but
interrupts playback every fifteen minutes. The manual seems quite good,
and is clearly aimed to support folks who've not set up their Macs for
pro audio before.

Cost is reasonable with a significant discount for additional licenses.

--
ha
Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam

Well - you could always use Quicktime Streaming Server, part of
the Apple Mac OSX Server Software. Full features for Internet and
Intra-net web hosting. Pricey, but does a bit more as well.
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/streamingserver/

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

Iraq has been called "The Cradle Of Civilization" as it was home to
the World's first known civilization; Iraq is Aramaic for "the land
among the banks of the rivers"; the
Greeks called her Mesopotamia ("Between the rivers"),