Discord and ambient/background audio...

[celestian]

So, I've been trying to get a decent setup to at the very least play some good background music for our games. I've setup virtual cables and use voicemeeter (actually been using voicemeeter for over a year for other reasons) but the sound quality in discord for music is completely garbage. It's on par with walkie-talkie. FYI, the channel's bitrat is maxed.

I've tried a zillion options to try and improve it but it's just not working. I've also opened a ticket with discord support who has been trying to help (nothing has yet).

Does anyone do this already? Play music (non-stop) and other ambient sounds (cave winds, ghostly sounds/etc) and the sound quality is good?

There is something called "WildBot" which we can use that will play music linked from youtube but I can't do "mood" or ambient sounds on queue with it.... Wildbot sounds decent enough...

I'm wondering if it's just because I'm not in one of the larger communities that get attached to the "improved" audio quality servers I've heard rumor about. Maybe I should try it out on the FG discord server. Do any of those channels have bitrate maxed?

[damned]

Im not sure if this is a helpful response or not but do you experience the same audio issues when using TS?
I think most audiophiles shudder at the quality of sound on any of these mediums.

[Nulk]

i do this successfully, by running a second instance of discord rather than using a bot. Sound is surprisingly clear, and works well with Dulux-Oz's DOE extensions and other players running through a virtual cable.

try this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7dVeJhTKaE

[HavocSmurf]

I'm using 3 instances of Discord, one for voice, one for music and one for Syrinscape. I know when I'm listening to music and sound through the Discord channel, it sounds like garbage, BUT when I asked my players about the audio quality they all said it's good. It made me wonder if Im not getting good stream quality because Im the host? Do some testing with players in the Discord channel and ask them what they think.

[celestian]

I'm using 3 instances of Discord, one for voice, one for music and one for Syrinscape. I know when I'm listening to music and sound through the Discord channel, it sounds like garbage, BUT when I asked my players about the audio quality they all said it's good. It made me wonder if Im not getting good stream quality because Im the host? Do some testing with players in the Discord channel and ask them what they think.

I am running 2 discords (one for me, one for the audio"bot") so I've a similar setup.

I will ask them... because to me (as with you) it sounds horrid when I'm listening on discord.

I've done the same thing through g+ hangouts (sorta, required some voicemeeter magic) and it sounded decent enough so I'm pretty sure this is a discord quality issue but still hoping I'm just not turning some knob correctly.

I'm not expecting movie-theater quality at all just so I'm clear. It just sounds like old school roger wilco (which was like walkie-talkie quality).

[Nalfien]

I use Discord without any need for a virtual audio cable. I run two bots. One for music and the other for a soundboard. I have a custom exe available here on the forums called Mimic that will easily allow you to control your discord bots from within Fantasy Grounds with the help of the DOE sound extension.

Check out the thread here. (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?37439-Discord-Soundboards-with-DOE-Sound-Extension)

[Talyn]

Was gonna say, I haven't tried it for an RP session yet (which granted, might get tedious doing bot commands) but my plan was just to use a music bot and send it the commands for music to stream instead of playing music from my PC over the channel.

[bigbluepaw]

Hey folks. I've finally gotten things set up with Discord and Syrinscape. I am using Discord and then Discord PTB (beta) as the means of piping music into my voice channel. The Discord PTB was recommended by Rob Thowhy.

My issue is that I keep getting an app saying 'trial' in the voice channel. I can't tell if it is coming from Discord PTB or my Virtual Audio Cable.

Anyone experiencing the same?

[damned]

Im pretty sure its the VAC.

[bigbluepaw]

Hmmm. Interesting. I just circumvented the VAC, setting my headset as the default device for both my music account and my normal account. Still getting the 'trial' statement.

[bigbluepaw]

OK. This just got stranger. Hey folks. It continues until I end the Discord PTB process in Task Manager. That means it has to be the Discord PTB app, right?

[celestian]

OK. This just got stranger. Hey folks. It continues until I end the Discord PTB process in Task Manager. That means it has to be the Discord PTB app, right?

Have you tried canary? I think it's a more current version of the next rev?

https://discordapp.com/api/download/canary?platform=win

I tried it during my quality testing and it worked fine. Well, it worked but it didn't resolve my quality of sound issues ;)

[bigbluepaw]

Great. I'll test it and report back.

[bigbluepaw]

Same issue. I think it likely is the VAC. I'll deinstall and reinstall tomorrow.

[celestian]

Same issue. I think it likely is the VAC. I'll deinstall and reinstall tomorrow.

Have you tried this one?

https://vbaudio.jcedeveloppement.com/Download_CABLE/VBCABLE_Driver_Pack43.zip

I used it for a long time and I never got the "trial" message tho not to say they didn't add it I guess. I actually spent the 5-6 bucks and got the donation for the 2 cables here:
https://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm

[bigbluepaw]

Damned was dead on right. It was the VAC. Thanks to everyone for the help!

The music and effects sounds like garbage to me. But I'll be playing tomorrow night in my campaign. I'll report back on what they hear.

[mhorgunn]

I'm using 3 instances of Discord, one for voice, one for music and one for Syrinscape. I know when I'm listening to music and sound through the Discord channel, it sounds like garbage, BUT when I asked my players about the audio quality they all said it's good. It made me wonder if Im not getting good stream quality because Im the host? Do some testing with players in the Discord channel and ask them what they think.

I have the opposite problem. I am running it the way Doug's tutorial is running. The sound fx in Syrinscape sound good but music sounds tinny and distorted. I like the connection in Fantasy Grounds ... we played with it the first time last night and it was well received. May give Ron's version another try. The Discord PTB seemed to give me trouble. Might actually separate the music from another machine if all else fails.

[Answulf]

Fwiw, I run the Voicemeter virtual cable software and a single instance of Discord and it works great. I followed instructions I found through DuluxOz's article. This is independent of sound source - works with Syrinscape, Tabletop audio, YouTube, etc.

Not very helpful other than to say I know it can be done without extra channels, bots, etc.

[celestian]

Fwiw, I run the Voicemeter virtual cable software and a single instance of Discord and it works great. I followed instructions I found through DuluxOz's article. This is independent of sound source - works with Syrinscape, Tabletop audio, YouTube, etc.

Not very helpful other than to say I know it can be done without extra channels, bots, etc.

This was my first method (before I knew you could have multiple copies of discord running) of doing things ... just use voicemeeter and virtual cables. I would then send output from a sound source (VLC) to discord. My problem is it still sounds really crappy no matter what I do. Locally (desktop/headphones/etc) it sounds great but if I listen as a discord user (second pc) it sounds really horrid.

I'd be interested in listening to someone's game that does this (or any setup that plays across discord) and plays background mood music.... as a discord user. I want to see if it's just me or discord in general.

[bigbluepaw]

The approach of using a single instance of Discord is that you can not use push-to-talk, right? Maybe I'm missing something.

I used it last night in my OotA campaign and the players loved it. I was using the Flooded Caves SoundSet and then the Ogre Battle. They never complained about the quality of sound at all.

I think the quality probably has a lot to do with your connection to the Discord server. I saw where if you change it to your region, it should improve?

[celestian]

The approach of using a single instance of Discord is that you can not use push-to-talk, right? Maybe I'm missing something.

I used it last night in my OotA campaign and the players loved it. I was using the Flooded Caves SoundSet and then the Ogre Battle. They never complained about the quality of sound at all.

I think the quality probably has a lot to do with your connection to the Discord server. I saw where if you change it to your region, it should improve?

Yes, you have to use voice activation for single sound source.

I've tried multiple regional servers on my own discord server. I even connected to the FG official discord server to see if that helped. Popped into a channel as myself and my Ambient bot and it still sounded like crap to me ;(

I'm not a sound snoob just to be clear... it just has a walkie-talkie quality sound.

If someone wants to let me listen to their setup on the FG server I'd love to hear... and then see how mine compares. Just PM and we can sort out discord names.

[Answulf]

The approach of using a single instance of Discord is that you can not use push-to-talk, right?

Right. When I'm the GM I don't use push-to-talk.

[mhorgunn]

Ok... is anyone else still having problems? I wonder if if it's because I didn't donate for Voicemeeter. It sets up and runs fine ... for (except for the distorted music) for a couple of hours. Seems sensitive to link to pop ups asking for donations when trying to move it around the screen.

[celestian]

Ok... is anyone else still having problems? I wonder if if it's because I didn't donate for Voicemeeter. It sets up and runs fine ... for (except for the distorted music) for a couple of hours. Seems sensitive to link to pop ups asking for donations when trying to move it around the screen.

The pop ups for donations are because they have inconveniently placed hot spots that bring it up on the app ;)

For my voice chat it works fine but ambient/music its not but it's specifically discord. I tried it in g+ and the sound quality was much better.

I recently joined a fellow DM on the FG discord and listened to his and it was like mine so I'm pretty sure it's not just me... tho he was happy with it for his group. I just hate that the sound is so different from what I hear locally and what the players hear. It's very dramatic.

[matsunoichi]

Music and sound effects have a much wider dynamic range than the human voice, which is the frequency range VOIP apps compress/gate for to maximize sound quality whilst maintaining portability. On one-to-one calls, under the right conditions, the compression isn't that heavy, which means there's more audio data outside human vocal frequencies that aren't lost during compression. I've done this for one-on-one roleplay sessions to fairly decent effect, but as stated, the conditions have to be good.

For a group session, though, you may want to consider a separate audio stream, like a SHOUTcast server. Since you're already using the awesome VoiceMeeter, you can set up music apps and soundboards to mix, and then output to an audio broadcast tool and have all your players connect to it via the music player of their choice (so long as it can stream music; WinAMP and MediaMonkey work well for PC, although I actually prefer using VLC for server-based music streaming, and it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux).

Broadcast software options:

butt (https://danielnoethen.de/) is simple, lightweight, and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux
RadioDJ is rather elaborate, but is heavy on the features for queuing music, bumpers, and on-demand soundboard effects.
Even VLC (https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html) can be configured to stream audio ala the SHOUTcast/Icecast standard. There is little this awesome app can't do with multimedia.
The aforementioned SHOUTcast and the open Icecast also work.
There are a dearth of other available options in this category.


I love adding the extra ambiance to a game session, so kudos to you for trying this. Hope this helps!

[celestian]

Even VLC (https://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html) can be configured to stream audio ala the SHOUTcast/Icecast standard. There is little this awesome app can't do with multimedia.



I had no idea VLC could stream. I'm going to try it out! Thanks for the heads up.

For those of you like me that didn't know it could do this and want to know how I found this.

https://www.howtogeek.com/118075/how-to-stream-videos-and-music-over-the-network-using-vlc/

[Nalfien]

You guys should use Discord bots to handle you music and sounds. No virtual audio cables to mess with.

[celestian]

You guys should use Discord bots to handle you music and sounds. No virtual audio cables to mess with.

The bots don't allow for finesse of sound like the roar of a dragon (without long pauses at least). I also like to play a series of ambient sounds all at once (wind + crickets + trees creaking) and none of that can be done via bots.

If all you want is fairly static background music it works great tho.

[matsunoichi]

Yep, that ought to do it.

And for anyone who may wonder why it's only streaming a specific file when following those instructions from How To Geek, you're supposed to select VoiceMeeter's output under the Capture Device tab (providing that's what you're using to mix the audio sources). Just remember to remove your microphone from the mix in VoiceMeeter, or there may be an echo. lol

[celestian]

Yep, that ought to do it.

And for anyone who may wonder why it's only streaming a specific file when following those instructions from How To Geek, you're supposed to select VoiceMeeter's output under the Capture Device tab (providing that's what you're using to mix the audio sources). Just remember to remove your microphone from the mix in VoiceMeeter, or there may be an echo. lol

Re: VLC streaming configuration

So I've been experimenting with this and unable to get audio on the stream side (player side). The stream startup using http seems to go ok. I configured to capture from device (I used cable A) and then launched another VLC to play the audio that would go to the capture device. I also had to setup a port mapping. Used port 8888 to 8888 to local IP from outside IP... setup similar for FG and other things but no joy.

I've even tried to pickup the sounds from a pc on the local network (that can talk directly to the local/private ip) and I don't hear anything. It doesn't complain about connection issues or anything... just 00:00 timer and a yellow smudge on the progress bar.

Do you have any tips?

[Answulf]

Here are the original instructions I followed. They are specifically for Syrinscape, but it works with any audio output - Tabletop Audio, YouTube, mp3s, etc.

Worked like a champ, with no issues whatsoever:


1) Install VoiceMeeter (https://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Voicemeeter/index.htm)
2) Install Virtual Audio Cable (https://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/index.htm)
3) Open your Control Panel > Sounds settings. On the Playback tab you should see two new output sound options "Cable Input" and "VoiceMeeter Input". Right click on VoiceMeeter input and choose "Set as Default Device"
3a) Switch to the Recording Tab. There you should see "Cable Output" and "VoiceMeeter Output" Right click on VoiceMeeter Output and choose "Set as Default Device"


4) Run VoiceMeeter
4a) In Voice Meeter for "Hardware Input 1" choose your microphone. In that same column make sure that only "B" is selected. "A" is what you will be hearing, so if you don't want to hear yourself make sure that "A" is not selected.
4b) Hardware Input 2 choose "Cable Output". This is where Skype will be configured to come into VoiceMeeter -- so make sure that "A" is enabled and "B" is disabled for Hardware Input 2. This prevents Skype from looping the other people back to themselves causing echo.
4c) Virtual Input is what Syrinscape (or YouTube, or your System sounds) will be entering VoiceMeeter through -- make sure that "A" and "B" are both enabled so that you can hear Syrinscape (A) and so can your Skype friends (B)
4d) Under Hardware Out, click on the A1 dropdown near the top and select your output device... this is what you will actually be listenting through.


5) Open Skype
5a) Tools > Options > Audio Settings
5b) Microphone should be selected as "VoiceMeeter Output" -- this is where all of the "B" sound from VoiceMeeter goes... Skype
5c) Speakers should be selected as "Cable Input" which we mentioned before ... so that Skype sends what you are supposed to hear to VoiceMeeter into its Hardware Input 2 and out through the "A" channel.


Then read up on how VoiceMeeter works for additional setting options.


Syrinscape will run and output its sound to the "Default" of the Operating System which will come into VoiceMeeter, be mixed with your microphone, and be sent to Skype. Skype output will enter VoiceMeeter and get mixed with Syrinscape and travel to your ears and it will not feedback to Skype.


Here are the links to the original articles:

Skype: https://forum.syrinscape.com/t/syrinscape-protip-07-using-syrinscape-with-skype-for-online-play/426
Discord: https://forum.syrinscape.com/t/syrinscape-protip-08-using-syrinscape-with-discord-for-online-play/709

[celestian]

Here are the original instructions I followed. They are specifically for Syrinscape, but it works with any audio output - Tabletop Audio, YouTube, mp3s, etc.

5) Open Skype
5a) Tools > Options > Audio Settings
5b) Microphone should be selected as "VoiceMeeter Output" -- this is where all of the "B" sound from VoiceMeeter goes... Skype
5c) Speakers should be selected as "Cable Input" which we mentioned before ... so that Skype sends what you are supposed to hear to VoiceMeeter into its Hardware Input 2 and out through the "A" channel.

Yeah, my problem is with discord, not skype. The sound quality in Skype is probably higher than discord? I've never used it.

[matsunoichi]

Re: VLC streaming configuration

So I've been experimenting with this and unable to get audio on the stream side (player side). The stream startup using http seems to go ok. I configured to capture from device (I used cable A) and then launched another VLC to play the audio that would go to the capture device. I also had to setup a port mapping. Used port 8888 to 8888 to local IP from outside IP... setup similar for FG and other things but no joy.

I've even tried to pickup the sounds from a pc on the local network (that can talk directly to the local/private ip) and I don't hear anything. It doesn't complain about connection issues or anything... just 00:00 timer and a yellow smudge on the progress bar.

Do you have any tips?

Just went through the process myself to double-check my configuration, so I'll step you through it as best I can. :)


Click Media from the VLC menu bar and select Stream...
Select the Capture Device tab from the top of the window that pops up.
Under Device Selection, make sure "Video device name" is set to "none."
Below that, make sure "Audio device name" is set to "VoiceMeeter Output" (I suspect this is one of the issues, but not the primary).
Click the Stream button at the bottom. (You could check "Show more options" to set caching rules or manually input other options, but this isn't necessary in most cases.)
The Stream Output wizard will now start. If you've followed the directions thus far, you'll only need to press Next to proceed.
Destination Setup should have "New destination" listed with a dropdown box and an Add button next to it. From this list, select HTTP and click Add. (Don't check "Display locally" unless you want to hear what you're streaming out. Since you should have VoiceMeeter set to also output to your main audio device as a monitor, you'll be able to hear it locally anyway and won't need VLC to do it too.)
Now an HTTP tab will appear that will allow you to set the port number and path. For the purposes of this tutorial, the path should be left as-is (unless you're doing something special with it). The default port should be fine, but feel free to set it to whatever you wish (you'll need to forward the same port in your router). Click Next.
Transcoding Options are next. You'll want to make sure Activate Transcoding is checked. The profile you should use should be one of the Audio options, like MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.
Once you have an Audio Profile selected, you can click the configuration icon, labeled as "Edit selected profile," and set Encapsulation to your preferred container (MP3 in this case).
Clicking on the "Audio codec" tab allows you to set the codec, sample rate, number of channels, and bitrate. The default settings should be fine for most uses, but if you'd like a little more audio fidelity, setting the Bitrate to 192 kb/s should be good. After you're happy with these settings, click Save.
Back to the Transcoding Options window, with everything now set, click Next.
In Option Setup, it should show you the generated stream output string. You don't need to worry about this unless you're keen on double-checking or manually editing it (some knowledge of FFMPEG is required for that). Just click Stream, and your stream will start on the selected port.
To test, open another VLC window, click on Media from the menu bar, and select Open Network Stream.
First, you'll want to check locally to see if it's working, so for the URL, put in https://localhost:8080 ("localhost" is as effective as putting in your computer's local network IP without the fuss of having to look it up, and 8080 is the default port which you'll want to change to whatever it was you decided on forwarding earlier).
If everything's been done correctly, you should now hear your audio stream. You can then test with your external IP to make sure the ports have correctly forwarded.



Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, I'll do my best to answer them (but I'm sure this should get you going).

Edit: Just to be clear, all of the participants of your game will have to open the stream in their player of choice (VLC) to hear it, but it will be separate from Discord (which will be good for its voice quality).

[celestian]

Walked through this and it worked. I noticed a few differences, namely the "video device name" set to none the transcoding option (I left those to default).

Works now and I'll have to give it a run through with my players.

Thanks very much ;) Quality is soooo much better.

edit: I also used the virtual cable, not voicemeeter output. Mainly cause I wanted to split them. I record from that and I want to record from local sound not the stream for the better quality. It also allows me control the volume locally and not affect the players stream volume.

[matsunoichi]

Walked through this and it worked. I noticed a few differences, namely the "video device name" set to none the transcoding option (I left those to default).

Works now and I'll have to give it a run through with my players.

Thanks very much ;) Quality is soooo much better.

edit: I also used the virtual cable, not voicemeeter output. Mainly cause I wanted to split them. I record from that and I want to record from local sound not the stream for the better quality. It also allows me control the volume locally and not affect the players stream volume.

Fantastic. I'm so glad to have helped. Like I said, it's a really fun project, and one that I'd planned to do for a future campaign (and now that my D&D group knows about this thread, the GM for their game wants me to do this for him, too).

Besides, it's the least I could do for the person who fought through the mess to bring us a classic AD&D ruleset (having a nightmare of a time myself just tinkering with rulesets, let alone building one for the classic TSR Marvel Super Heroes game). So, for that, thank you. :)

[Galach]

I had tried this, also using a second instance of Discrod (you will need to run it as another user), but sound quality is also garbage, barely recognizable as something else as simple noise, so I gave up. I was thinking about trying shoutcast, but also gave up... =P

Now I may give it a try again... lol

[bigbluepaw]

Wow. Sounds like you all have made some significant progress. So basically Discord or TS is used for voice discussions amongst DMs and players. Then the players can tune in to the audio stream to get the ambient noises and music. Is that right?

Edit: What do the players have to use to listen to the audio-cast? Just a browser?

Edit: Nevermind. Wow. That is completely awesome. For those that don't know, you can send audio (via a virtual cable from your sound mixer) to SHOUTcast. That is then broadcasted. All you need to do to listen is hit the 'play' button in your browser. This is awesome. Totally going to do this.

[bigbluepaw]

OK. Got my station up and going.

https://listen.shoutcast.com/bbp-d-d-audio

Impressed with the sound quality. However, there is a significant lag. That doesn't work that well for scripted scenes where timed audio is appropriate.

[Gwydion]

OK. Got my station up and going.

https://listen.shoutcast.com/bbp-d-d-audio

Impressed with the sound quality. However, there is a significant lag. That doesn't work that well for scripted scenes where timed audio is appropriate.

Cool. I'll check it out! Stupid question. Do I need to create a website in order to use and play sounds through shoutcast?

[bigbluepaw]

Nope. No website needed. The URL is hosted at SHOUTcast. You broadcast to it with your audio. So all you have to hand your players is a URL, like the one I shared. That can play in a browser. That is all that is needed on their end.

[Gwydion]

Nope. No website needed. The URL is hosted at SHOUTcast. You broadcast to it with your audio. So all you have to hand your players is a URL, like the one I shared. That can play in a browser. That is all that is needed on their end.

Hmm. That url just gives me an error. I've downloaded winamp and the dsp plugin. Still confused on some of the documentation. Will look at it again tomorrow. Thanks!

[Gwydion]

Just went through the process myself to double-check my configuration, so I'll step you through it as best I can. :)


Click Media from the VLC menu bar and select Stream...
Select the Capture Device tab from the top of the window that pops up.
Under Device Selection, make sure "Video device name" is set to "none."
Below that, make sure "Audio device name" is set to "VoiceMeeter Output" (I suspect this is one of the issues, but not the primary).
Click the Stream button at the bottom. (You could check "Show more options" to set caching rules or manually input other options, but this isn't necessary in most cases.)
The Stream Output wizard will now start. If you've followed the directions thus far, you'll only need to press Next to proceed.
Destination Setup should have "New destination" listed with a dropdown box and an Add button next to it. From this list, select HTTP and click Add.
(Don't check "Display locally" unless you want to hear what you're streaming out. Since you should have VoiceMeeter set to also output to your main audio device as a monitor, you'll be able to hear it locally anyway and won't need VLC to do it too.)
Now an HTTP tab will appear that will allow you to set the port number and path. The default should be fine, but feel free to set the port to whatever you wish (you'll need to forward the same port in your router). Click Next.
Transcoding Options are next. You'll want to make sure Activate Transcoding is checked. The profile you should use should be one of the Audio options, like MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.
Once you have an Audio Profile selected, you can click the configuration icon, labeled as "Edit selected profile," and set Encapsulation to your preferred container (MP3 in this case).
Clicking on the "Audio codec" tab allows you to set the codec, sample rate, number of channels, and bitrate. The default settings should be fine for most uses, but if you'd like a little more audio fidelity, setting the Bitrate to 192 kb/s should be good. After you're happy with these settings, click Save.
Back to the Transcoding Options window, with everything now set, click Next.
In Option Setup, it should show you the generated stream output string. You don't need to worry about this unless you're keen on double-checking or manually editing it (some knowledge of FFMPEG is required for that). Just click Stream, and your stream will start on the selected port.
To test, open another VLC window, click on Media from the menu bar, and select Open Network Stream.
First, you'll want to check locally to see if it's working, so for the URL, put in https://localhost:8080 ("localhost" is as effective as putting in your computer's local network IP without the fuss of having to look it up, and 8080 is the default port which you'll want to change to whatever it was you decided on forwarding earlier).
If everything's been done correctly, you should now hear your audio stream. You can then test with your external IP to make sure the ports have correctly forwarded.



Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, I'll do my best to answer them (but I'm sure this should get you going).

Edit: Just to be clear, all of the participants of your game will have to open the stream in their player of choice (VLC) to hear it, but it will be separate from Discord (which will be good for its voice quality).

Thanks so much for this! I'm still a little confused, though. It sounds like with vlc you don't need a shoutcast or other server? I guess that is where I'm confused. Do I need to download VLC and follow your instructions and then also figure out how to setup a shoutcast server to host the stream for the players to be able to hear it? I tried to follow the shoutscast/winamp/dsp plugin instructions to use winamp and I think I'm still missing the basic of how to setup the shoutcast server for the stream.... Any help is much appreciated! I do have everything working well with discord, but I'm using three instances and its a little much. I'd like to separate syrinscape at least and do something similar to what you've done. Thanks in advance!

[Wolfheart]

Thanks so much for this! I'm still a little confused, though. It sounds like with vlc you don't need a shoutcast or other server? I guess that is where I'm confused. Do I need to download VLC and follow your instructions and then also figure out how to setup a shoutcast server to host the stream for the players to be able to hear it? I tried to follow the shoutscast/winamp/dsp plugin instructions to use winamp and I think I'm still missing the basic of how to setup the shoutcast server for the stream.... Any help is much appreciated! I do have everything working well with discord, but I'm using three instances and its a little much. I'd like to separate syrinscape at least and do something similar to what you've done. Thanks in advance!

This is one of those things that, at least the way I see it, that stops FG from dominating the market (along with the lack of integrated video and limited dice/rolling customisation). What should really be as simple as "click: audio transfer enabled' becomes an off-putting, complicated process of trial and error and FG mentors spending time (valuable RP time?) helping out. I could say the same about connection issues but I appreciate the independence of running our own servers.

Lack of audio/video remains the #1 reason FG stays on my secondary monitor as a fun digital GM screen with my notes, tables and painstakingly manually entered PDFs while Roll20's, the free version at that, occupies the primary screen, ugly as R20 is. Not that their audio solution is optimal either, but at least it's something. Also, video and any dice mechanics possible.

This is not a complaint per se, I have uttered this opinion before, but as I've also said before FG could be the ONLY choice for online RP with a few tweaks. Sure most people play D&D and for them FG is obviously amazeballs..but there are a lot of D&D players who are playing through Roll20 who feel the online RP experience required simplicity in setup, and audio/video. ((And of course personally I wish more people tried more RPGs, so that FG perhaps needed more strongly to cater to more varied systems and tastes.))


TL;DR I really really really want FG Unity now. *Taps fingers impatiently on table*

Edit
I'm aware there may be some legal side to things re: streaming, but if you can share PDFs while playing I don't see that streaming music should be any different

[bigbluepaw]

I agree with this sentiment, along with campaign management like Obsidian Portal or something like it.

Gwydion, I did not use VLC with my stream. I created an account on SHOUTcast. I then downloaded Winamp and their plugin. You then use the information from SHOUTcast in Wincamp (plus the plugin) to start broadcasting. You then share the URL from SHOUTcast with your players.

[matsunoichi]

Thanks so much for this! I'm still a little confused, though. It sounds like with vlc you don't need a shoutcast or other server? I guess that is where I'm confused. Do I need to download VLC and follow your instructions and then also figure out how to setup a shoutcast server to host the stream for the players to be able to hear it? I tried to follow the shoutscast/winamp/dsp plugin instructions to use winamp and I think I'm still missing the basic of how to setup the shoutcast server for the stream.... Any help is much appreciated! I do have everything working well with discord, but I'm using three instances and its a little much. I'd like to separate syrinscape at least and do something similar to what you've done. Thanks in advance!

With VLC, no, you don't need a SHOUTcast server. It's just a matter of using VLC to stream the audio in a similar fashion, one in which you serve the audio directly (after some port forwarding on your router). Your players can still load the audio stream using any app they wish, so long as it supports the HTTP streaming standard (and most do, including WinAMP). However, if you have a SHOUTcast account already set up and would prefer to use that, VLC can stream that, too. You would select IceCast from the dropdown box instead of HTTP in the Stream Output/Destination Setup window, and then click Add, which would then let you input all of the necessary information (server address, port, login/password, etc.).

VLC's footprint and audio streaming overhead is also comparatively very small. I've been using this along with VoiceMeeter for audio mixing and a single Discord instance, and it's generally quite snappy.

[bigbluepaw]

What kind of lag are you seeing? That's the major issue I have with SHOUTcast and Winamp.

[matsunoichi]

What kind of lag are you seeing? That's the major issue I have with SHOUTcast and Winamp.

WinAMP isn't necessarily the issue, but with SHOUTcast, you're sending a stream to their servers, and then your players are getting the stream from SHOUTcast, so there's a few extra hops in that transmission, which will increase the lag. There will be some lag, if however small, even on a fiber connection, but you can decrease it by eliminating the middleman. And while there is a slight security issue there, as long as you keep your router software up-to-date, change its password from the default, the risk is low (even SHOUTcast can't completely eliminate the risk, only mitigate it). Besides, I don't think you'd play a game of D&D with just a bunch of randos. :)

A direct stream is my preferred method, but it's nice that VLC, used in my example, gives you several different streaming options, IceCast/SHOUTcast included. Catching the audio stream in a browser would require other steps and software, but WinAMP and VLC work as-is and anyone who can handle using Fantasy Grounds should be more than comfortable with their use.

[celestian]

Ran VLC stream mode for my game Saturday evening and couple of my players loaded it and were really happy with the quality. Said it sounded like they were playing it locally!

Very nice tool and fairly simple in the scheme of things.

[matsunoichi]

Ran VLC stream mode for my game Saturday evening and couple of my players loaded it and were really happy with the quality. Said it sounded like they were playing it locally!

Very nice tool and fairly simple in the scheme of things.

I'm happy to hear it worked out for you! Everyone on my end has been enjoying it, too. :)

Not a perfect solution, and it's a bit more work than necessary, but given Fantasy Grounds' current limitations it's not a bad one. I, too, hope that the future versions of Fantasy Grounds built on the Unity platform eventually allow for event sounders and such, essentially folding in the features of Syrinscape and just sending commands to the clients to play audio clips locally. It shouldn't be very difficult to implement, either.

While I agree with others' frustrations about the lack of some features, migrating their existing code to an entirely new platform is hardly easy, especially with a small team. My guess is that the first beta to FGU will mostly be a port with a couple of features they've been keen on implementing; the rest will surely come later, we just need to be patient and let them do their thing. And in the interim, rolling your own audio stream isn't hard and the results are quite good.

If others are interested, maybe soon I'll put together some screenshots and post a proper guide.

[tiawaz]

I recently started using audio for my weekly group, and found that discord had real problem coping with syrinscape sound, and even more so with music (like tabletopaudio or spotify) to the point where the players asked me to turn it off.

The week after we went back to our old Teamspeak server and tried with a channel configured with the opus music codec, and the consensus was that it is 'good' enough.

[matsunoichi]

Whatever works best for you and your group. :)

TeamSpeak handles VOIP in a different manner than both Skype and Discord (TS uses a centralized server/cluster in tandem with lower bitrate compression, whereas Skype and Discord use a combination of centralized servers and decentralized P2P in addition to a more variable compression range), so that probably has a lot to do with the increased consistency of audio fidelity.

If you just wanted music in Discord, though, you could try running a bot for your group's channel. For that purpose, and for just general messin' around, the audio quality has been more than okay for my group, but like Celestian, we wanted to add a bit more functionality than the bot could reliably provide.

[mhorgunn]

Excuse the stupid question... in the vlc set up ... in the destination setup .... what should the path be set as?

[matsunoichi]

Excuse the stupid question... in the vlc set up ... in the destination setup .... what should the path be set as?

That's not a stupid question. :)

Providing you're using HTTP and are going to stream out directly to media player clients, the path should be left as the default (which is just / ).

[Gwydion]

So, quick update. Last night was my first session testing out using Teamspeak for Syrinscape audio only and discord for all other sounds (player voices, windows media player). The feedback I received from the players and stream (and my own ear) was that it sounded really good. Its only one session, so I want to keep testing this, but the initial reaction from everyone was that the sounds were much clearer than when using the three instances of discord....

[mhorgunn]

So, quick update. Last night was my first session testing out using Teamspeak for Syrinscape audio only and discord for all other sounds (player voices, windows media player). The feedback I received from the players and stream (and my own ear) was that it sounded really good. Its only one session, so I want to keep testing this, but the initial reaction from everyone was that the sounds which much clearer than when using the three instances of discord....

Gwydion ... which version are you using and is there a cost at either end?

[Gwydion]

Gwydion ... which version are you using and is there a cost at either end?

For Discord I am using the downloaded app (not the browser version) for my voice and the PTB (public test build) downloaded app for my windows media player sounds. For teamspeak, I am using the FG-con server with my own sub-channel. All of this is free. No cost on my end. Only thing I am paying for in the setup is my syrinscape subscription.

To clarify, the players don't pay for anything. I pay for the syrinscape subscription and they just log into Teamspeak to listen as I pipe the sounds into Teamspeak. There is a cost to the Teamspeak server but I believe it was damned? who set up the fg-con server which can be used by fantasy grounds players and is kind enough to open it for us. I hope I have that right!

[Andraax]

Don't understand why you mix the Discord and Teamspeak, when Teamspeak will do it all for you...

[Gwydion]

Don't understand why you mix the Discord and Teamspeak, when Teamspeak will do it all for you...

I understand and have heard that, I just like the GUI and all the other bells and whistles that come with Discord. I understand it is just personal preference on my end, but I just like the community aspect of Discord. I'm sure you can do much or all of the same on Teamspeak, but it is just more intuitive to me in discord and feels more modern. That is the only reason! I think Dulux-Oz is in your camp too! :)

[LordEntrails]

I think the confusion comes from, if you have to fire up and configure TS, then why force yourself and your players to also fire up and configure Discord?

Myself and most other probably agree that Discord has a slicker more modern interface etc. But if it doesn't do everything you need, and you have to use something else as well, then why not just use that something else.

Maybe Discord does something you need that TS can't? And that's why it makes sense (to me) why you would want to use both at the same time.

[bigbluepaw]

Quick question: once you set up the destination with /, what URL do you pass to your players? Is it just the 8080 port and your IP address?

Also, can the players just listen to the stream through a browser? I'd like to avoid having them download and install an app, no matter how simple, to listen in.

To answer the question, you can stream into TS. That's not the problem. If you stream through TS or Discord, the sound quality is poor and it cuts out repeatedly. Those applications were designed to focus on the sound ranges for voice, not music. At least, that's my understanding.

[Myrdin Potter]

I have a TS server running on my network attached server that is free (up to 32 people is free). I also use the community server. I have not extensively tested Discord yet, but from playing Eve Online for years, and fleet commanding hundreds of players at once, teamspeak always was rock solid and worked.

What voice com program to use seems to be driven by the GM and other that getting push to talk set-up the first session and making sure you can maintain focus for TS (the rights it runs under in Windows), once TS is up and running it just works.

[Andraax]

Streaming music through TS works fine. Apparently Discord sucks. I setup a second instance (just use tabs on the newer clients) and have that id join as another player. This way, my players can adjust the sound volume to their liking (even muting it if they want) without affecting my voice as GM.

[Wolfheart]

I have read through this thread but it's hard to extract the following info I'm looking for:
1) What is the best option for streaming / sending music to my players (just 2 atm) so that we all simultaneously can enjoy the soundtrack to their adventures? Is it TeamSpeak?
2) How do you configure TeamSpeak to do this?

3) Would it be better, sound-wise (not practical-wise), to just tell the players that "Now I'm putting on Song X from album Y, you do the same on your end"?

If these answers are readily available in this thread and I have overlooked them, please just say so and I'll dive back in :)

[Gwydion]

I have read through this thread but it's hard to extract the following info I'm looking for:
1) What is the best option for streaming / sending music to my players (just 2 atm) so that we all simultaneously can enjoy the soundtrack to their adventures? Is it TeamSpeak?
2) How do you configure TeamSpeak to do this?

3) Would it be better, sound-wise (not practical-wise), to just tell the players that "Now I'm putting on Song X from album Y, you do the same on your end"?

If these answers are readily available in this thread and I have overlooked them, please just say so and I'll dive back in :)

There are a lot of opinions on what to use. To start with the basic, though, Teamspeak works well for me and sounds good to me and my players. The instructions (for Syrinscape, but they should work as a good guide for other audio) can be found in the attached wiki and should help get you started. Let us know if you run into problems!

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_TeamSpeak_%26_Syrinscape

[Trenloe]

To answer the question, you can stream into TS. That's not the problem. If you stream through TS or Discord, the sound quality is poor and it cuts out repeatedly. Those applications were designed to focus on the sound ranges for voice, not music. At least, that's my understanding.
I stream music all the time through the community TeamSpeak server and it works well. No poor quality and no cut outs. Use the music codec for the channel in TS and set the music side to constantly transmit. Works like a charm.

[matsunoichi]

Quick question: once you set up the destination with /, what URL do you pass to your players? Is it just the 8080 port and your IP address?

Also, can the players just listen to the stream through a browser? I'd like to avoid having them download and install an app, no matter how simple, to listen in.

To answer the question, you can stream into TS. That's not the problem. If you stream through TS or Discord, the sound quality is poor and it cuts out repeatedly. Those applications were designed to focus on the sound ranges for voice, not music. At least, that's my understanding.

It's https://your.ip.addr.ess:8080 and yes, you'll have to use an app like VLC, WinAMP, or other music player that supports streaming audio (most do). They're very simple programs that most users will have some understanding of in advance, which is why I recommended them.

(Don't forget to forward the ports on your router, otherwise it's for naught.)

As for streaming to a browser, that requires a bit more work to set up. At that rate, most folks who aren't knowledgeable about that kind of thing would be better off streaming out to IceCast/SHOUTcast (which VLC can do, just choose IceCast instead of HTTP from the drop-down box) if they wanted people to stream it through their browsers. Unfortunately, that will increase the latency (lag), sometimes rather significantly.

The TeamSpeak solution others are espousing works fine for what it is, and for a lot of people that's enough. You could set up your own TS server, but again, there are a lot of folks lacking the time or knowledge, and they tend to just pay for someone else to host the TS server. There are a number of solid providers for that, so should you choose to go that route, there are reasonably affordable options there.

My goal in suggesting VLC to stream out directly to players was to directly address Celestian's conundrum, and my reasons for this suggestion are thus:


Significantly reduce lag.
Significantly increase audio fidelity.
Eliminate the need for multiple instances of the Discord app.
Keep resource usage at a minimum for the sake of a wide range of hardware and performance capabilities.
Low-latency audio capture of channel mix from VoiceMeeter.
Provide several streaming options to fit a host of listening scenarios.


If all you want to do is stream some music and chat with your friends over voice, and you are still using Discord, just install a bot for your channel. There are thousands, and they nearly all allow the playing of music and YouTube audio in addition to a plethora of other features. One channel I'm in uses the original Redbot, and my D&D channel uses both Scarlett and amybot. Even with a voice channel of seven people, the bot's streaming bitrate is close to source. If you're hearing compression artifacts from the bot, it's either because your computer is overwhelmed by one or more other applications, there's an issue with lag, or there's an issue with the bot host. 99% of the time, the music is clear and of a quality close to the source (I can tell it's re-compressed and loses something, but that's because I've very sensitive hearing).

[bigbluepaw]

Hey matsunoichi. I got this working as a test. How do you save the stream configuration so you don't have to set all these options again and again?

[matsunoichi]

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be a way to save the settings with VLC, but you could probably build a script to handle it for you via command line (https://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation:Streaming_HowTo/Advanced_Streaming_Using_the_Command_Line/). If you pay attention to the FFMPEG settings VLC creates as you set it up, you can copy the text parameters for reference.

[Gwydion]

Well, I got this all working and then realized although it works, given I stream this on twitch I don't see a way to keep my voice live with the stream so they can hear me, but not have my voice heard by the players through VLC and discord now. I can disconnect the mic from voicemeeter banana but then the stream won't hear me talk to them when I'm chatting with them separately from the players in discord. Darn it! I was so close!

[Gwydion]

Well I think I stumbled upon a solution (which is how I figure most things out...). In OBS you have 3 mic/aux device outputs. Mic/aux 1 is set to "default" which for me is voicemeeter output. So, everything I'm pumping through voicemeeter gets picked up. My VLC is set to pick up voicemeeter output, thus the problem of my voice getting sent out to my players through VLC as well when I only want syrinscape and my desktop sounds going to them as my voice will be in discord. So, I set mic/aux 2 in OBS to voicemeeter aux output. Then, in voicemeeter, I only activate "B2" in my mic/headset column. Therefore, my mic should be going to the stream (obs), but not through VLC as VLC is only picking up voicemeter output.

I'm going to test this tonight with one of my players (game tomorrow night). If it works, I'll put together a tutorial video. When I review my OBS main screen, it looks like it is picking up my voice through the mic/aux 2 and not the mic/aux 1 so in theory, I thin it is working! Fingers crossed....

Sorry for anyone reading this if this makes absolutely no sense to you! This is very specific to voicemeeter banana, VLC, syrinscape, etc... :)

[Gwydion]

I am so excited! Just tested everything out with a friend and the new setup worked great! Had to tweak one more voicemeeter output as he was hearing himself back through VLC. Once I tweaked that it all worked great. I loved that the sound was very clear, minimal delay and the stereo effects in syrinscape sounded great. Even on the replay when I listened to it (recorded in OBS to test), I could hear the fading between speakers. Very cool!

I'll work on a video later (or multiple videos) to describe the setup once I test in a live stream tomorrow night and confirm it all works. Yeah!

[Bidmaron]

Congrats for working it out

[Gwydion]

Thanks! I get excited when things end up working.... :) Now I hope it works during the live stream...

[Gwydion]

So, I tested live my "new" sounds setup last night. It worked great! No issues with sound quality and the players all stated the sounds were better than when we have used discord or teamspeak. I really like this setup. When I have time, I'll put together a video or two to walk through the setup.

Only issue we saw is that I'd recommend the players use VLC to pick up the audio stream. A couple players tried using Windows Media Player and they picked up the stream, but the delay was literally like 3-4 seconds. There is a slight delay with VLC but not really noticeable and the sound quality for everything is excellent.

I think I found my setup for now at least! :)

[Gwydion]

Some of you may have seen this already, but here is a video I created to show how to modify your sound setup from the setup you might have following Rob2e's sound video series. My video essentially shows you want to change from that setup to send your sounds to a direct audio stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYakEIHcem4&t=60s

[Sapphire Man]

I'm using 3 instances of Discord, one for voice, one for music and one for Syrinscape. I know when I'm listening to music and sound through the Discord channel, it sounds like garbage, BUT when I asked my players about the audio quality they all said it's good. It made me wonder if Im not getting good stream quality because Im the host? Do some testing with players in the Discord channel and ask them what they think.

I am using two instances of discord. One for voice and one for syrinscape. My players get an echo of themselves that bounces back and forth with the syrinscape. I am not sure what I am doing wrong but I can't get it to go away.

[Gwydion]

I am using two instances of discord. One for voice and one for syrinscape. My players get an echo of themselves that bounces back and forth with the syrinscape. I am not sure what I am doing wrong but I can't get it to go away.

Hey, Sapphire Man. Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you have things very close. Can you tell us if you are using Voicemeeter or Voicemeeter banana? If you are using one of them, can you post a screenshot of what your voicemeeter settings look like? I'm happy to jump in discord to help troubleshoot if you want to text or voicechat and see if we can get tot he bottom of it. Let me know. Feel free to pm me on FG if you want to connect.

[Wolfheart]

I have read through the thread but I feel as unwise now as when I began.

So I have finally made myself ready to run our IRL campaign using FG. Using Hamachi to make it easy to connect. Using CoreRPG ruleset.

We have played a few online sessions using Roll20, since that application is more friendly to our particular chosen game, and because it is ridiculously easy to use compared to FG (in terms of not needing third party software, much better dice rolling options, tiles, maps, intuitive setup etc.) is the more beautiful though).

HOWEVER, now that Roll 20 doesn't have the music streaming option (SoundCloud) anymore, I'd still like to have music while we play (it's a must).

But it has to be as simple as possible to set up. We all have Standard License (me, two players).

What is my best option? Most hassle-free, least troublesome for the players.

I don't need sound effects, just playing mp3s/FLACs.

VLC? Discord? Skype? Something else?

Edit: Forgot to mention I don't want or need stuff like Syrinscape, I make my own soundtrack mixes

[Gwydion]

I have read through the thread but I feel as unwise now as when I began.

So I have finally made myself ready to run our IRL campaign using FG. Using Hamachi to make it easy to connect. Using CoreRPG ruleset.

We have played a few online sessions using Roll20, since that application is more friendly to our particular chosen game, and because it is ridiculously easy to use compared to FG (in terms of not needing third party software, much better dice rolling options, tiles, maps, intuitive setup etc.) is the more beautiful though).

HOWEVER, now that Roll 20 doesn't have the music streaming option (SoundCloud) anymore, I'd still like to have music while we play (it's a must).

But it has to be as simple as possible to set up. We all have Standard License (me, two players).

What is my best option? Most hassle-free, least troublesome for the players.

I don't need sound effects, just playing mp3s/FLACs.

VLC? Discord? Skype? Something else?

Edit: Forgot to mention I don't want or need stuff like Syrinscape, I make my own soundtrack mixes

Hey, Wolfheart. Sorry if this thread confused the sound issue! What do you use for VOIP right now? Do you use discord? If so, I think using discord with voicemeeter might be the ticket. Before I get too far down this road, though, let us know what VOIP you use for voice chat now.

[Wolfheart]

Thanks for replying, I have no idea what VOIP even means..
I do have Voicemeter and audio cable installed. Also have VLC and Discord installed.

[Bidmaron]

Many people have had quality problems with player discord if using multiple instances. Teamspeak

[Gwydion]

Thanks for replying, I have no idea what VOIP even means..
I do have Voicemeter and audio cable installed. Also have VLC and Discord installed.

Sorry.... I meant voice over IP. So, discord is what I was looking for. I was wondering if you and your players use discord or something else. Given you are using discord, I think the easiest thing personally to pipe in music/desktop sounds is to use discord for your voice and then separately use discord for your sound. I've got a little time now if you want to chat briefly in my voice channel and I can walk your through setting up discord for your voice and separately for music if you haven't done that yet. Here is a link to jump in my voice channel in discord if you want. https://discord.gg/nVj5w

[Gwydion]

[QUOTE=Gwydion;343709]Sorry.... I meant voice over IP. So, discord is what I was looking for. I was wondering if you and your players use discord or something else. Given you are using discord, I think the easiest thing personally to pipe in music/desktop sounds is to use discord for your voice and then separately use discord for your sound. I've got a little time now if you want to chat briefly in my voice channel and I can walk your through setting up discord for your voice and separately for music if you haven't done that yet. Here is a link to jump in my voice channel in discord if you want. https://discord.gg/nVj5w[/QUOTE

Just PM me if you want to connect sometime and we I'll help you figure it out. Going to run do some things around the house, but happy to find a time to connect over the next few days. Let me know.

[Wolfheart]

[QUOTE=Gwydion;343709]Sorry.... I meant voice over IP. So, discord is what I was looking for. I was wondering if you and your players use discord or something else. Given you are using discord, I think the easiest thing personally to pipe in music/desktop sounds is to use discord for your voice and then separately use discord for your sound. I've got a little time now if you want to chat briefly in my voice channel and I can walk your through setting up discord for your voice and separately for music if you haven't done that yet. Here is a link to jump in my voice channel in discord if you want. https://discord.gg/nVj5w[/QUOTE

Just PM me if you want to connect sometime and we I'll help you figure it out. Going to run do some things around the house, but happy to find a time to connect over the next few days. Let me know.

Thanks for the offer and friendliness! I'll check into it when I get the chance.

[Gwydion]

[QUOTE=Gwydion;343712]

Thanks for the offer and friendliness! I'll check into it when I get the chance.

Sounds like a plan. Just pm me if you ever want to chat. The discord link I sent you expired so I can send you another one some other time if you want to connect. Good luck!

[Wolfheart]

[QUOTE=Wolfheart;343745]

Sounds like a plan. Just pm me if you ever want to chat. The discord link I sent you expired so I can send you another one some other time if you want to connect. Good luck!

Thanks again. It sounds like it won't be hassle-free and simple but I'll give it a shot. What timezone are you in? I am very shy* so it might take a while to build the courage to contact you :-)

* To the point I have only tried one FG game with a pickup group/strangers and was basically very uncomfortable

[Gwydion]

[QUOTE=Gwydion;343777]

Thanks again. It sounds like it won't be hassle-free and simple but I'll give it a shot. What timezone are you in? I am very shy* so it might take a while to build the courage to contact you :-)

* To the point I have only tried one FG game with a pickup group/strangers and was basically very uncomfortable

Once you get it set up it is really hassle free for the players! They will just log into discord for voice and that's it. They will hear your desktop music through discord. Its a bit of setup but I promise, we can get it working! I am in the mountain timezone (Denver). I'm here this week until Friday morning and then am going on a family vacation Friday through the following Saturday (week of July 4th). I will have my computer then as well and can still help most likely if we don't connect before then.

Please don't let one experience define how you feel about playing online! Perhaps it was just the dynamics of that particular group. I've run several one-shots with brand new groups who don't know each other and it went great.

Before we talk, it would be helpful (but not absolutely necessary) for you to do the following:

If you already have the discord app downloaded and installed, I would download the public test build (ptb) app as well. This will be how we connect your computer music/sounds to discord. I've attached a screenshot to the discord website. Just click on the public test build text (its not a very obvious link). Once you click on the link, the download link on the page will change to the public test build link. Download and install the public test build. Note that you will need to log in with a different email address for this. So, if you used [email protected] (example), you could set one up in google as [email protected]. That is what I did. Use that new email to sign up for the discord PTB.

That's it! Once you have this done our setup should be pretty darn quick. If you want to wait to do the above until when we talk, that is fine as well. Whatever you are comfortable with. I look forward to getting this working with you! PM me anytime if you'd like to move this conversation to a private one. Happy to continue it here, though, as there are always others who can benefit from these questions and may not feel confident enough to post. Talk soon!

[Wolfheart]

Thanks for your help again. I have downloaded the public test Discordamagog, used a different email and all that.
I'm on the other side of the planet so we'll have to see when it works out :-)
(I also have Voicemeter and Audiocable if that's what I'm going to use.)

Edit: Found that tutorial video on YT, maybe I can figure it out.

[Gwydion]

Thanks for your help again. I have downloaded the public test Discordamagog, used a different email and all that.
I'm on the other side of the planet so we'll have to see when it works out :-)
(I also have Voicemeter and Audiocable if that's what I'm going to use.)

Edit: Found that tutorial video on YT, maybe I can figure it out.

Just let me know. I'm happy to work something out timewise. I think once we get on it shouldn't take more than an hour and I'm actually hopeful based on what you've done so far it could be closer to a half hour. I'll follow your lead in terms of suggested times. I could do something around 9:00 pm MT (I think Denver is UTC -6 right now if I'm not mistaken, darn daylight savings confusion!).

I can usually make myself available between 6-10 pm MT to to help out. Just need a little notice to let the family know and I'm good!

Keep me posted. Really no trouble at all and want to get you up and running and loving it!

[Wolfheart]

All right, I went into the second Discord (I think I didn't really need an additional one as we use Roll20 for voice/video, but maybe the public test version of Discord has options I need that the other doesn't have?)

[Ken L]

Is there a reason you don't want to use teamspeak or mumble?

[Gwydion]

All right, I went into the second Discord (I think I didn't really need an additional one as we use Roll20 for voice/video, but maybe the public test version of Discord has options I need that the other doesn't have?)

Ok, I didn't realize you used Roll20 for voice/video. That changes things a bit as I thought you were already using discord for voice. (My mistake!) So, the main thing I'm trying to help you accomplish is to send your voice out through one setting and your desktop through another. To do that, I like voicemeeter as its a simple way to separate audio sources. I just logged into Roll20 (btw, I've never played on Roll20, I just happened to set up a profile on it early last year when I was deciding between Roll20 and FG) and I see that you can change the microphone settings (sound input), but because it is browser-based, I don't know of a way to change the output from a web page (at least in chrome, which is what I use). That means, I'm not sure I know how to pump sounds (music) for you through Roll20.

That being said, I still think we can work around this IF you are ok with using discord as the place for music only. You and your players can connect to Roll20 for voice/video as per normal and you would open discord and use it only for your players to listen (they can mute their mics) and the only thing "live" in discord will be the profile we set up to send your desktop sounds to discord. Again, this won't be too hard to do at all if you want me to help.

Ok, now here is the wrench, just for you to think about. I've been trying to get you set up on discord as I thought you were already using it and I wanted to make this really simple to start. To the point Ken and other are making in this thread, there are better options (imho) for sound quality. So, it depends on what your priorities are. If you want to just get the music up and running quickly and easily, I think we can use discord. As another option, I do agree (as I have used both discord and teamspeak), that teamspeak sound quality is better. The process to setup the music as you want is very similar to discord, just a few more hops and a tad more complication. However, again, the sound quality in my experience is better. (I do not have an opinion on mumble. I downloaded and then deleted it a few months ago. Given I've used Teamspeak and Discord and both worked well for me, I didn't see a reason to have a third option).

Finally, If you really want the best sound quality, but with more complication on the setup, I've settled on sending my audio stream directly out to my players by opening a port on my computer and streaming it using VLC media player. It is more setup on my end and I am opening a port on my computer, but with several sessions under my belt now with multiple groups, I can say that the sound quality is better for us than Teamspeak and Discord. For the players, all they do is open VLC and then "open stream" and type in the http address I give them. Then they can control the sound themselves, everything is in stereo, they can use the VLC equalizer to their preference, etc. It's beautiful!

So, my personal recommendation is let's get you set up using discord just to get you out of the gate. Should be very easy even with keeping Roll20 for video/voice. Then once you have that down, you could try Teamspeak as an option and maybe that works great for you. If you ever want to try the direct audio stream I can help with that too.

I'm sorry for the lengthy email! Given our time differences and since we haven't connected "live", I just wanted to give you all the options (that I know of) without changing your video/voice setup if you want to keep that with Roll20. I'm really not trying to confuse you and again, I really recommend we just get you working on discord and go from there. Finally, if you don't think we can connect live soon, I'll see if I can type up instructions step by step over the next day or so so that you can try and set it up yourself. I can combine the step-by-step with a couple youtube videos and I think you would be set.

Let me know!

[Wolfheart]

And thanks yet again. Yes, I do have Discord and the plan was as you say to use Discord for music and R20 for voice/video (and the relevant RP-bits that R20 supplies and FG doesn't). But it sounds to me like VLC would be a better option, I don't mind hassle for myself, but I want it to be as hassle-free as possible for the players.

[Gwydion]

And thanks yet again. Yes, I do have Discord and the plan was as you say to use Discord for music and R20 for voice/video (and the relevant RP-bits that R20 supplies and FG doesn't). But it sounds to me like VLC would be a better option, I don't mind hassle for myself, but I want it to be as hassle-free as possible for the players.

Question Wolfheart.... Will all your music/sounds you want to play be played through VLC (mp3's, etc..) or will it be from itunes or something other desktop program? Trying to make sure I understand all the pieces involved to make sure I can help with how to set it up.

[Wolfheart]

mp3s. I have VLC media player, foobar2000, MusicBee, Dopamine and iTunes installed (audio software).
But gee. Hassle.

Today one of my players - the least tech-savvy one - was going to come online and I was going to give him a crash course in FG. Ideally, he'd just fire up FG and that would be it. He'd see my face and hear my voice right away from within FG, with, of course, a sweet piece of music in the background.

Instead... Hamachi fails to start for him ("cannot connect to engine") and just like that the evening is cancelled. No FG, no nothing. So we chatted a bit in Roll20 just to see if we could fix it quickly but alas. So to run FG we are basically running loads of *other* programs and ...it is so frrrrustraaating :mad:

And he's like "But can't we just connect our Fantasy Grounds without that Hamachi thing?" and I'm like, "Uh...no...it doesn't really work without it.."
"So why do you want us to play in Fantasy Grounds again?"
"Uhm..it looks nice?"
"..."

[Anyway, yes, the answer is mp3s.]

[Wolfheart]

hey just noticed you have a VLC/FG video on YoUTube :D Six third-party programs.. geez :hurt:

[Gwydion]

hey just noticed you have a VLC/FG video on YoUTube :D Six third-party programs.. geez :hurt:

Actually, don't let that get you too concerned! Of the six "programs" I show in my VLC video, you really only need Voicemeeter (or Voicemeeter banana, I'm trying to figure which is best for you and trying to keep it simple), VLC media player and fantasy grounds. Keep in mind I stream live on twitch so my setup is more complicated as I stream with OBS software. RobTwohy's video I reference shouldn't really be listed under "programs needed" as its just a video explaining how to use syrinscape with discord. That's not something you need, though, so we are down to Voicemeeter (or banana), VLC and Fantasy Grounds only! Only two third-party programs I think! :)

However, I'm back to more questions. I see you are using Hamachi so does that mean you haven't been able to stream directly using port-forwarding. Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to make it simple (if possible!) and if port-forwarding isn't working, I don't want to introduce the VLC audio stream as it requires port-forwarding.

If port forwarding is something you are comfortable with, I still think I can help you using Voicemeeter banana with VLC. The ONLY reason I think we need voicemeeter banana (instead of just the basic voicemeeter) is it has two virtual outputs (B1 and B2) and I think we can use one (B1) for the roll20 voices so you hear them in your headset, but we don't push that through the VLC stream, and we can set up VLC to send out through the second output (B2) so that the players will only hear what is playing through the VLC player in the direct VLC audio stream and they will hear your voice as normal in the roll20 voice chat.

I'm sorry if I'm making this more complicated! Just trying to help. For your hamachi issue I know damned and others in the house of healing can help more. I've never used hamachi. I've only used the normal direct port-forwarding method or a VPN service with dedicated ip address when I'm traveling.

Anyway, I'm still happy to jump on a call with you or, I might just post the entire instructions when I get home tonight of what I think you need to do with voicemeeter banana installed.

[Wolfheart]

Actually, don't let that get you too concerned! Of the six "programs" I show in my VLC video, you really only need Voicemeeter (or Voicemeeter banana, I'm trying to figure which is best for you and trying to keep it simple), VLC media player and fantasy grounds. Keep in mind I stream live on twitch so my setup is more complicated as I stream with OBS software. RobTwohy's video I reference shouldn't really be listed under "programs needed" as its just a video explaining how to use syrinscape with discord. That's not something you need, though, so we are down to Voicemeeter (or banana), VLC and Fantasy Grounds only! Only two third-party programs I think! :)

However, I'm back to more questions. I see you are using Hamachi so does that mean you haven't been able to stream directly using port-forwarding. Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to make it simple (if possible!) and if port-forwarding isn't working, I don't want to introduce the VLC audio stream as it requires port-forwarding.

If port forwarding is something you are comfortable with, I still think I can help you using Voicemeeter banana with VLC. The ONLY reason I think we need voicemeeter banana (instead of just the basic voicemeeter) is it has two virtual outputs (B1 and B2) and I think we can use one (B1) for the roll20 voices so you hear them in your headset, but we don't push that through the VLC stream, and we can set up VLC to send out through the second output (B2) so that the players will only hear what is playing through the VLC player in the direct VLC audio stream and they will hear your voice as normal in the roll20 voice chat.

I'm sorry if I'm making this more complicated! Just trying to help. For your hamachi issue I know damned and others in the house of healing can help more. I've never used hamachi. I've only used the normal direct port-forwarding method or a VPN service with dedicated ip address when I'm traveling.

Anyway, I'm still happy to jump on a call with you or, I might just post the entire instructions when I get home tonight of what I think you need to do with voicemeeter banana installed.

No worries, I'm amazed you're willing to help out so much :) (And thankful!)
Yeah I use Hamachi to get FG to connect, I remember trying without it, but with no success.
I haven't heard of the "banana" version of VoiceMeter, will check. I do like bananas.
I'm having a harder time with all the jargon, but I'm not giving up just yet.
I might be able to be more available tomorrow (depending). I'm kind of too busy really to be dabbling with RPGs at all but hey, I just can't let go :D

[Gwydion]

I'm kind of too busy really to be dabbling with RPGs at all but hey, I just can't let go :D

I hear that! Keep me posted. Like I said, I don't want to open a huge can of worms if port forwarding is an issue as the VLC stream is absolutely dependent on it whereas sending music through discord or teamspeak wouldn't be. I might write up some instructions on the settings i'm thinking of in voicemeeter banana (which is very similar to voicemeeter, just a few more columns!) for use with VLC and send your way tonight. Keep in mind, I'm trying to think this through for use with your setup as everyone's setup is different!

Hopefully we will connect soon. I really want to get you sorted as I love fantasy grounds and it has taken me a while to get where I am with sounds and streaming but I wouldn't go back personally! :) Have a great night.

[Gwydion]

No worries, I'm amazed you're willing to help out so much :) (And thankful!)
Yeah I use Hamachi to get FG to connect, I remember trying without it, but with no success.
I haven't heard of the "banana" version of VoiceMeter, will check. I do like bananas.
I'm having a harder time with all the jargon, but I'm not giving up just yet.
I might be able to be more available tomorrow (depending). I'm kind of too busy really to be dabbling with RPGs at all but hey, I just can't let go :D

Ok. So, I spent a lot of time last night and during my drive into the office this morning. So, for your situation, I'm trying to stick with the assumption that you want to use roll20 for voice/video. For the sound setup this complicates things (for me at least as I'm not an expert, I've just learned a lot by trial and error and help from others). The reason is, at least in Chrome, I'm not aware of a way to change the audio output. As far as I know, it is simply going to output audio to the "default" output you have set up for your computer. If you have set up Voicemeeter or Voicemeeter Banana, that output should be Voicemeeter Output (VAIO). The other complicating factor is that I was hoping you were sending out ALL of your MP3 music through one source (i.e. VLC). However, based on your response yesterday you use several! (Foobar2000, MusicBee, itunes, VLC and Dopamine). So, the reason this becomes complicated is I want to send all of the music inputs from each of those programs you identified to the players so they can hear the music (i.e. through discord, teamspeak or VLC), HOWEVER, I do not want to send the players voices that are coming through Roll20 and chrome browser (or firefox I suppose if you use that instead). Point being, I don't want the players hearing their voice echoing back to them because you are just sending them all sounds from your desktop (all the music programs and the sound coming to you from the Roll20 program through chrome).

I just wanted you to have that background to understand why its more complicated in your situation. It would be easier if you were using another VOIP program like discord or teamspeak as those programs DO allow you to switch the audio outputs. However, I'm trying to work within the parameters given!

All that being said, I still think I've come up with two solutions if you keep Roll20 for video/voice that should work. I typed up very lengthy instructions for the first one (which I can send to you but haven't attached them here yet):

Option 1 - Pipe the audio through VLC as we have discussed. However, the added complication is port forwarding. Essentially what would we be doing in this case is using Voicemeeter Banana and we would make sure we are sending your microphone to the chrome browser so the players still hear you in Roll20 (your browser will use "default" which we have changed to voicemeeter output, so I want to make sure that it uses your microphone). Then, we would need to change the output for EACH of your music programs (MusicBee, VLC, Foobar2000, itunes and Dopamine) to output through Voicemeeter Aux. Then, when you send your direct audio stream out through VLC, we will send out only Voicemeeter Aux sounds. The reason being, when you send your direct audio stream to the players, they will only hear the music and not the sound coming through your browser which would duplicate their voices and cause the universe to implode... :) For what its worth, I found instructions on the internet for changing the audio output for Musicbee and itunes (and VLC is easy). I think you can change the output for Foobar2000 and Dopamine, but I'm not familiar with those programs.

Option 2 - Pipe all of your music sounds through discord or teamspeak (still keeping Roll20 for video/voice). The setup would be very similar to 1 above, but you would not have to port forward. The drawback is varying degrees of sound quality and I'm not sure if there would be issues sending several different audio programs through the same channel. I don't think there would. So, you would still need to use Voicemeeter Banana and you would still change the audio outputs of each of the audio programs to Voicemeeter Aux and then setup Discord or Teamspeak to pick up everything being output from Voicemeeter Aux. Again, you don't want to send the players voices from the browser back through Discord or Teamspeak as it would cause a fracture in the space/time continuum. :)

So, if you are up for continuing, let me know which of the two options above sound good and I can finalize an instruction checklist for you and send your way. I can upload a word document attachment to a post.

If anyone else on the forum thinks I'm being an idiot and making this too complicated, please chime in! The fundamental issue I'm having is not knowing of a way to change the audio output in chrome. Thanks!

[Trenloe]

Go with option 2 - the GM and players would need to join into Teamspeak/Discord/Whatever. The players would mute their microphone pickup, with the GM not using a microphone as input but the output of the various audio apps being sent to input of Teamspeak/Discord/Whatever. Then use Roll20 for the voice/video.

[Gwydion]

Go with option 2 - the GM and players would need to join into Teamspeak/Discord/Whatever. The players would mute their microphone pickup, with the GM not using a microphone as input but the output of the various audio apps being sent to input of Teamspeak/Discord/Whatever. Then use Roll20 for the voice/video.

Yep... I tend to agree that is the best option and we can definitely do that. Wolfheart, let me know what you think and I'll send detailed directions to you.

[Gwydion]

Ok, Wolfheart, here it goes! I've attached two sets of instructions. The first "Step by step discord music setup" and "Sound setup when you play a game". Couple disclaimers/warnings first! One - Wolfheart, I would recommend taking a snapshot of all your settings for sounds in windows, audio output settings for your music players, etc.. Just want you to be able to put things back to normal if this doesn't work!!! Second - For anyone else reading the pdf's attached. Please note, I created these specifically for Wolfheart's situation. They might not and probably won't work for you unless you are trying to do EXACTLY what Wolfheart is doing!

Wolfheart, I went with sending you the discord version as you don't need to port forward. If you get it working and your players say the sound quality isn't great, we can try teamspeak. You will already have everything setup, you would just need to setup teamspeak which I can help with. The VLC streaming thing is great, but is more complicated and again requires port forwarding.

If you try it, let me know how it goes! If you don't, no problem. Completely understand. Message me here or PM me if you get into the setup and have questions. Good luck!

[Wolfheart]

Arf, I wrote a long post here Gwydion and the intorwebz ate it with frenzied hunger.

(Also, I replied to your last post on the previous page, not noticing there were more posts/new page...)

Any way, there's been a misunderstanding - I am definitely not gonna use more than one program for mp3s, I just listed the audio playback software I have currently installed, just in case..sorry for the confusion. I do have Discord PBT, but if you (and others here, it seems) thinks it better with TeamSpeak I can download that. What do you think?

Thank you so much for being so helpful, I think you've gone way beyond the call here with PDF instructions and all, very much appreciated. I will check it as soon as I can. My schedule is rather random (and hectic) at the moment, sorry for the late reply.

PS: Just to be on the safe side - it's the second file ("Step by Step..") I go through first, right? Sorry, dumb as a banana.

PS 2: Should I uninstall VoiceMeter before installing VoiceMeter Banana or can they live side by side? (I use VoiceMeter for recording music)

[Gwydion]

Arf, I wrote a long post here Gwydion and the intorwebz ate it with frenzied hunger.

(Also, I replied to your last post on the previous page, not noticing there were more posts/new page...)

Any way, there's been a misunderstanding - I am definitely not gonna use more than one program for mp3s, I just listed the audio playback software I have currently installed, just in case..sorry for the confusion. I do have Discord PBT, but if you (and others here, it seems) thinks it better with TeamSpeak I can download that. What do you think?

Thank you so much for being so helpful, I think you've gone way beyond the call here with PDF instructions and all, very much appreciated. I will check it as soon as I can. My schedule is rather random (and hectic) at the moment, sorry for the late reply.

PS: Just to be on the safe side - it's the second file ("Step by Step..") I go through first, right? Sorry, dumb as a banana.

PS 2: Should I uninstall VoiceMeter before installing VoiceMeter Banana or can they live side by side? (I use VoiceMeter for recording music)

I would start with discord just to get your feet wet as it is easy. Then see what you think and I can walk your through teamspeak later. That way you have options. Just my thought. And, I'm heading to a flight in an hour so can't help on the teasmpeak right now! :)

You can keep voicemeter installed. I still have both even through I don't use voicemeeter. Just shut down voicemeeter and open voicemeeter banana.

So, for my instructions, only worry about changing the audio device for what you will play the mp3's through. Hope this gets you going! Please post if you have any problems. good luck!

[Gwydion]

How is it going Wolfheart? Did you get those rolling?

[Wolfheart]

Hey, I had to postpone the project for reasons, will be out of the house for a week at least, so I'll have to wait. Will update :)

[Gwydion]

Got it. Keep us posted!

[Salva]

Hello Gwydion. I have tried your solution with VLC but it only works with machines in the same network. Do you need an special server or ip address to make it works for players out of your local network?
Thanks

[Gwydion]

Hello Gwydion. I have tried your solution with VLC but it only works with machines in the same network. Do you need an special server or ip address to make it works for players out of your local network?
Thanks

Hey Salva. It should work fine outside your network as well as long as you have opened the port. I'm not a port-forwarding expert, but have you checked to make sure the port is visible? Forgive me if you already know this, but you can check to see if the port you are trying to open is, in fact open, with this site:

https://canyouseeme.org/ Just type in your external ip address and the port you are trying to open and it will show you if it is open or closed.

I've never had an issue with my players logging in and they are all outside of my network in other parts of Colorado.

[Salva]

Hey, thanks for answering.
I have made the test and the port is open.
What exactly does the players has to type: mi external ip with the port o my ip with the port?
Anyway i have tried boths and the second one only works inside my network and the first does not.
Any ideas??
Thanks!

[Gwydion]

Hey, thanks for answering.
I have made the test and the port is open.
What exactly does the players has to type: mi external ip with the port o my ip with the port?
Anyway i have tried boths and the second one only works inside my network and the first does not.
Any ideas??
Thanks!
2Should be your external ip and port like this: Get 662.12.232.32:8080 (8080 or whatever port you used). Caveat. I'm at a beach bar right now drinking a painkiller (name of a drink). Just starting though so my advice should be ok. Not impaired.... yet... :)

[Salva]

2Should be your external ip and port like this: Get 662.12.232.32:8080 (8080 or whatever port you used). Caveat. I'm at a beach bar right now drinking a painkiller (name of a drink). Just starting though so my advice should be ok. Not impaired.... yet... :)

Lol and provecho!!!

I got error:
Hope you can see it before you drink another painkiller jaja
Have fun.

[Gwydion]

Lol and provecho!!!

I got this error:
19719
Hope you can see it before you drink another painkiller jaja
Have fun.

Hmm. I'm not familiar with that error. When you launch the stream from vlc did you change the output to http? I mean when you open the player to stream, not when you are trying to connect. There is a part when you launch vlc where you need to select http and then input the address. That's the only thing I can think of right now. If you watched my VLC video you will see what I mean.

[Gwydion]

Hmm. I'm not familiar with that error. When you launch the stream from vlc did you change the output to http? I mean when you open the player to stream, not when you are trying to connect. There is a part when you launch vlc where you need to select http and then input the address. That's the only thing I can think of right now. If you watched my VLC video you will see what I mean.

If it's not that we might need real technical help which unfortunately is not me!

[GainunX]

Lol and provecho!!!

I got this error:
19719
Hope you can see it before you drink another painkiller jaja
Have fun.

I had the same error. I thought it was a router configuration problem, but I'm not the router's admin, so I cant test the hypothesis. I also tried using a server (shoudcast) + winamp. However, there is a very big time lag... the sounds begins very late after I start to play it.

[Gwydion]

I had the same error. I thought it was a router configuration problem, but I'm not the router's admin, so I cant test the hypothesis. I also tried using a server (shoudcast) + winamp. However, there is a very big time lag... the sounds begins very late after I start to play it.

Hmm. I'll have to look at it when I get home. Never seen that error. I'll do some research on it tonight.

[Salva]

Maybe this helps:
There is an option in the preferences of VLC: Tools-Preferences-(check all)-Interface-Main interfaces
By default all options are unchecked but when i ckeck "Web" i cannot even stream locally.
The other thing wich version of VLC you r using?
Firewall or antivirus has something to do with this??
Thanks

[Salva]

Hey, thanks for answering.
I have made the test and the port is open.
What exactly does the players has to type: mi external ip with the port o my ip with the port?
Anyway i have tried boths and the second one only works inside my network and the first does not.
Any ideas??
Thanks!
Desactivate firewall and antivirus but no luck :(

[Gwydion]

OK. Walking around and trying to answer. Haven't looked at this but looks promising.

https://vlchelper.com/vlc-is-unable-to-open-the-mrl/

[Salva]

OK. Walking around and trying to answer. Haven't looked at this but looks promising.

https://vlchelper.com/vlc-is-unable-to-open-the-mrl/
No luck.

Gonna try downloading the last version of VLC.

[Gwydion]

No luck.

Gonna try downloading the last version of VLC.

Just to be clear, is the error after you have the stream open and you are trying to connect with another computer to the audio stream?

[Salva]

Yes, the error is after the stream is open.
When i try to conect with my same computer on another VLC instance placing my IP its works fine but when i try the external one i get the error.
I have also tried to conect by my celphone (with the operator signal) with the VLC app putting the internal and the external IP but the app crashes/or doesnt show anything.
Also i have tried with the lastest version of VLC but no luck.
:cry:

[Gwydion]

Yes, the error is after the stream is open.
When i try to conect with my same computer on another VLC instance placing my IP its works fine but when i try the external one i get the error.
I have also tried to conect by my celphone (with the operator signal) with the VLC app putting the internal and the external IP but the app crashes/or doesnt show anything.
Also i have tried with the lastest version of VLC but no luck.
:cry:

Well heck. I'm running out of ideas. Here is something I found while searching on the net:

Remote contents execution in VLC is blocked by the firewall
If you’re using a firewall, make sure to grant to VLC the permission to run remote content (the procedure varies depending on the installed firewall). Remember to check the integrated firewall of your router as well, if present.

Unauthorized execution of video stream
If the video you are trying to open with VLC is hosted in a private section of a website, or its URL has been taken using a PC or an IP address different from yours, you may not have the required permissions to view/download it on your computer.

Also, have you searched whatismyipaddress to make sure that the external address you are trying to log into is the external address of you machine? so that it is https://externalipaddress:8080? It just feels like maybe there is something strange in the external ip if you can connect with the internal ip. After that I'm really going to have to think of what else to suggest!

[Salva]

I suspect the problem has relation with my internet provider.
It looks like my external ip is poiting to them:

[Gwydion]

I suspect the problem has relation with my internet provider.
It looks like my external ip is poiting to them:
19723

Hmm. Well I'm officially out of my realm now. I know this is tangential to fantasy grounds but Trenloe or someone in house of healing forum might be able to help. One other thought. Do you port forward 1802 to dm games and does that work? When u launch fg what external ip address shows up if you click on external ip in the launch stream. That should be the one for your machine.

[Salva]

Hmm. Well I'm officially out of my realm now. I know this is tangential to fantasy grounds but Trenloe or someone in house of healing forum might be able to help. One other thought. Do you port forward 1802 to dm games and does that work? When u launch fg what external ip address shows up if you click on external ip in the launch stream. That should be the one for your machine.

The port 1802 works fine with FG and the external port is the same.
I found this:
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/374782-VLC-Streamming-Public-IP-Address
But no sure how to apply.
Gonna foward this to the house of healing.
Thank you very much for you patience.

[Gwydion]

Sounds good. So sorry I couldn't get you 100% there. Was really hoping I could. Keep me posted here or on discord. Haven't even checked discord today given we have been communicating here. Good luck! I love the VLC setup and so do the players.

[Salva]

Yes!!! i was very happy when i follow your steps and made a local test. The sound was great.
Hope we find a solution for the issue.
Thank you very much for your time and patience. I will keep you updated.

[Salva]

And here the solution courtesy of Trenloe.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?39109-Streaming-with-public-IP-by-VLC&p=345342#post345342
Post #7
Thank you very much!!!
One question:
If one of your listeners pause its stream how do they catch up again. Because if they only put play they will continue where they stopped but not where the stream is.
Thank you

[Gwydion]

And here the solution courtesy of Trenloe.
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?39109-Streaming-with-public-IP-by-VLC&p=345342#post345342
Post #7
Thank you very much!!!
One question:
If one of your listeners pause its stream how do they catch up again. Because if they only put play they will continue where they stopped but not where the stream is.
Thank you

Yes!!!! So glad. That's why he is who he is... :) Honestly, I'm not sure of that answer. Never had someone pause the stream and I would tell them to just leave it going and never pause it. I assume there is some type of fast forward function they could use to catch up possibly? Maybe in my next stream i will have someone pause it and see if we can catch them up. Let me know how things go as you roll this out in a live game. I hope you like it as much as I and my players do! Glad you got things sorted.

[Salva]

Thank you very much to you for making all this possible and share it and also your patience and time helping others to also enjoy it!!!!
I love to play with high quality background music and effects and now my players will also enjoy it as it meant to!!!!!
I will also try to find an answer to my last question. If i get it i will post it.
Thanks again!!

[GainunX]

I just want to know one thing. At the moment I can not do tests with VLC since I am not the admin of the router. But I'm putting my hopes in this VLC method. My question is: by VLC is there timelag between audio being played on my PC and my players listening? Or can I expect an experience more or less similar to discord audio-chat (in terms of speed of transmission)? Because I did tests using butt + shoudcast servers (also with winamp) and there was a lag longer than 10 seconds. What makes it impractical to use.

[Salva]

Well, there is a short delay, around 1 to 3 seconds that i found not a problem for background music and effects.
Anyway i prefer that delay and the quality of the music than no delay and the quality of discord.
It will be nice to hace no delay.
Maybe there is a way to reduce or maybe eliminate it. It will be almost perfect.

[Salva]

I found this but dont really know how to apply it:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9119106/how-to-reduce-the-delay-vlc-streaming-from-a-web-cam
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=3798
If you figure out pl share

[GainunX]

Well, there is a short delay, around 1 to 3 seconds that i found not a problem for background music and effects.
Anyway i prefer that delay and the quality of the music than no delay and the quality of discord.
It will be nice to hace no delay.
Maybe there is a way to reduce or maybe eliminate it. It will be almost perfect.

Thank you. 1 to 3 seconds is something acceptable and, it seems like there is no way to improve it. Once I have a location where I can configure the router, I can help with the tests

[Gwydion]

Thank you. 1 to 3 seconds is something acceptable and, it seems like there is no way to improve it. Once I have a location where I can configure the router, I can help with the tests

Agree with Salva. Slight delay but not bad definitely heard the shoutcast setup is delayed.

[matsunoichi]

Some of you may have seen this already, but here is a video I created to show how to modify your sound setup from the setup you might have following Rob2e's sound video series. My video essentially shows you want to change from that setup to send your sounds to a direct audio stream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYakEIHcem4&t=60s

I'm glad my VLC solution works so well for those that have tried it. I haven't had a lot of time for the forums lately, otherwise I'd be helping more with the technical issues, but Gwydion is doing a pretty good job of that. I'll try to field the more technical questions anyone may have, if and when I'm able, and also make a proper thread with a copy of the instructions (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?37571-Discord-and-ambient-background-audio&p=335335&viewfull=1#post335335) (along with some helpful images).

The instructional video looks great, by the way. Cheers.

[Gwydion]

I'm glad my VLC solution works so well for those that have tried it. I haven't had a lot of time for the forums lately, otherwise I'd be helping more with the technical issues, but Gwydion is doing a pretty good job of that. I'll try to field the more technical questions anyone may have, if and when I'm able, and also make a proper thread with a copy of the instructions (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?37571-Discord-and-ambient-background-audio&p=335335&viewfull=1#post335335) (along with some helpful images).

The instructional video looks great, by the way. Cheers.

Yes! For those that don't know it was matsunoichi who discovered this solution originally. Not me! Thanks again matsunoichi!

[Salva]

Yes! For those that don't know it was matsunoichi who discovered this solution originally. Not me! Thanks again matsunoichi!
Ohhh so was matsunoichi the one that forge the rings to rule them all!!! and Gwydion bearer of the one.
Thank you very much for that!!!

[Gwydion]

Ohhh so was matsunoichi the one that forge the rings to rule them all!!! and Gwydion bearer of the one.
Thank you very much for that!!!

Exactly!!! My prreeccciiiooouuussss. :)

[Wolfheart]

Gwydion, thank you for all the work you put into making those help files! I hope others could make use of them as well.
I'm going to test it tonight.
It's quite overwhelming all that has to be done just to stream a bit of music but I'm not giving up***, got a couple of hours a day this week to see if I can get it to work.
You've written the documents with clear and concise instructions so I hope it'll work out nicely. I'll ask when it goes wrong ;)

***
Like, first I had to uninstall the old Voicemeeter. Then reboot. Then I installed new Voicemeeter. Then had to reboot. And I'm still on the first sentence of two full pages of instructions. May FG Unity give us all we need with a click. :P

[Wolfheart]

So in Voicemeeter there's something called "VBAN" with "incoming and outgoing audio streams", maybe this is something new? In your instructions you mention a fifth column, but there are only four (hardware input 1, 2, virtual input, hardware out)?

Edit: Nevermind, even though I uninstalled the previous non-banana Voicemeeter, it's still installed and that's what I was running. Question about VBAN still stands

[Wolfheart]

Phew, right. Think I've got the first part done. I'm hearing music from my speakers through VoiceMeeter Aux Input. Now to get those guys gathered for testing.
Seriously great document Gwydion, only one thing: You wrote (in the section about Discord setup):
The input device should be Voicemeeter Aux output. The input device should be Voicemeeter Aux input.

I guess the first "Input device" mentioned should say "Output device"?

Edit:
Figured out what VBAN is, question no longer stands.

Much later:
Oh, the accursed hassle :D With luck, I hit the "B" button under the fifth column and, as if by magic, my music was heard on the other side. Couldn't get it to sound 100% good, but, good enough to get that needed atmosphere. I couldn't find a way to improve the sound quality beyond upping the samplerate in Voicemeeter. Also not sure if the music is supposed to go through the Discord mic or not (that's the only way we got sound at any rate). Phew! We're set for Sunday evening, then, thanks to you.

Thank you so much Gwydion!

[Gwydion]

Phew, right. Think I've got the first part done. I'm hearing music from my speakers through VoiceMeeter Aux Input. Now to get those guys gathered for testing.
Seriously great document Gwydion, only one thing: You wrote (in the section about Discord setup):
The input device should be Voicemeeter Aux output. The input device should be Voicemeeter Aux input.

I guess the first "Input device" mentioned should say "Output device"?

Edit:
Figured out what VBAN is, question no longer stands.

Much later:
Oh, the accursed hassle :D With luck, I hit the "B" button under the fifth column and, as if by magic, my music was heard on the other side. Couldn't get it to sound 100% good, but, good enough to get that needed atmosphere. I couldn't find a way to improve the sound quality beyond upping the samplerate in Voicemeeter. Also not sure if the music is supposed to go through the Discord mic or not (that's the only way we got sound at any rate). Phew! We're set for Sunday evening, then, thanks to you.

Thank you so much Gwydion!

So sorry for the delay! I've been crushed at work.... Awesome that you have it going! Maybe we can touch base this weekend to see why the sound quality isn't so good. Discord can be a bit finnicky with the sounds, but glad it is working! Yeah!

[Wolfheart]

Yeah, we got it fair enough, good enough that it is better than no music at all. For some reason it seems like the audio "warps" when there are strong and/or high notes played. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. It turned into a bit of pushing buttons until something worked.

We spent so much time getting it to work, though, that there was no session at all.. but we're going to play tonight in an hour or so, although one of the players has already said he won't bother with Fantasy Grounds, just Discord and Roll20. Sigh.

[Gwydion]

Yeah, we got it fair enough, good enough that it is better than no music at all. For some reason it seems like the audio "warps" when there are strong and/or high notes played. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. It turned into a bit of pushing buttons until something worked.

We spent so much time getting it to work, though, that there was no session at all.. but we're going to play tonight in an hour or so, although one of the players has already said he won't bother with Fantasy Grounds, just Discord and Roll20. Sigh.

I really think you are close but have something small off. When you have time, can you post here or send me screenshots of your voicemeeter banana setup? I'd like to see the main screen when you open it. Then send me a screenshot of your discord voice for your voice and then also for the sound discord you have set up for syrinscape. I think I'll be able to troubleshoot but not til after your session as I'm heading out for a few hours.

I know we will get there.

[Gwydion]

I really think you are close but have something small off. When you have time, can you post here or send me screenshots of your voicemeeter banana setup? I'd like to see the main screen when you open it. Then send me a screenshot of your discord voice for your voice and then also for the sound discord you have set up for syrinscape. I think I'll be able to troubleshoot but not til after your session as I'm heading out for a few hours.

I know we will get there.

Sorry. You can email me if u want at [email protected] if u prefer. Thx!

[Wolfheart]

Sorry. You can email me if u want at [email protected] if u prefer. Thx!

Hi again, you were right, I went through your document and found one mistake, so we ended up with music in the background for both players, better quality than last time :-)

Had something to do with those A1/B1 buttons I believe. Nonetheless I'll send you screenshots anyway to double-check and maybe you see something more that should be fixed I dunno.

Manifold cheers, I owe you :)

[Gwydion]

Hi again, you were right, I went through your document and found one mistake, so we ended up with music in the background for both players, better quality than last time :-)

Had something to do with those A1/B1 buttons I believe. Nonetheless I'll send you screenshots anyway to double-check and maybe you see something more that should be fixed I dunno.

Manifold cheers, I owe you :)

Awesome! Very glad it was better for your session. I'll look at the screenshots when you get a chance to send them. Hopefully the other player will hop into the sound as well now that you have it rockin!

[HavocSmurf]

Hey, has anyone else had issues where Syrinscape stops transmitting through Discord mid session? I double checked my settings and everything looks right. When I fire up everything in order ( set the cable B input/ouput to default, load Syrinscape, reset the audio input/outputs to voicemeter, launch all my discords) and test it, it works fine, but within an hour or two, syrinscape stops transmitting through discord. I've tried disconnecting and reloading the Syrinscape discord account, but it won't transmit to the players ( although I'm still getting sounds at my end (host)). I'm having no issues with the WMP discord account for music from the desk top.

[Gwydion]

Hey, has anyone else had issues where Syrinscape stops transmitting through Discord mid session? I double checked my settings and everything looks right. When I fire up everything in order ( set the cable B input/ouput to default, load Syrinscape, reset the audio input/outputs to voicemeter, launch all my discords) and test it, it works fine, but within an hour or two, syrinscape stops transmitting through discord. I've tried disconnecting and reloading the Syrinscape discord account, but it won't transmit to the players ( although I'm still getting sounds at my end (host)). I'm having no issues with the WMP discord account for music from the desk top.
Is the syrinscape instance the PTB or the web browser? If it's the web browser you need to maintain focus on that page. But for me when I disconnect and reconnect that instance it usually resolves immediately.

[HavocSmurf]

Bags, I'm using the PTB Discord for Syrinscape so I guess it's not that. I'm trying to avoid shutting everything down and rebooting the sound midgame, since it's a total momentum killer. I'll see how it goes tonight.

[Gwydion]

Bags, I'm using the PTB Discord for Syrinscape so I guess it's not that. I'm trying to avoid shutting everything down and rebooting the sound midgame, since it's a total momentum killer. I'll see how it goes tonight.

How did it turn out last night?

[Wolfheart]

Dear helpful Gwydion, over the last two or three sessions we have had so much trouble with Discord/Voicemeter Banana that we have given up, using the generic music and sounds built into Roll20 instead to get a bit of atmosphere. However I can't let it go because for me having the "proper" music is important for my enjoyment of the game.

I am not sure what goes wrong; but every time after that first succesful session, when I start up the apps needed to push music to my players (Discord TPB, Voicemeeter, VLC..) there is no sound anymore, no matter what I try to do.

So my new question is, would it be easier to stream through VLC Media Player exclusively?

This page (https://www.zdwired.com/stream-over-internet-using-vlc/) makes it seem so easy - is this all there is to it (as long as we're connected through Hamachi)?

[Gwydion]

I might have to try and jump on with you in voice if you are willing to try and help. When you say use VLC exclusively, you can do that if you are just pushing sound to your players but you will still need something to hear them (ie. discord, roll20, ts3) and you would need to make sure you aren't pushing their voices back through to them over VLC where they hear themselves twice. I'll need to go back through the word document I put together for you to think about your setup again and might need you to jump in discord with me to post screenshots of your setup to see if I can troubleshoot. I might have time tonight but should have time tomorrow night if you're interested. Let me know if you're interested in jumping on to try and work through it and I'm happy to post a link to my discord channel for you to join.

Sorry you are having so many problems with the setup!

[Wolfheart]

And sorry for bothering you with this..
We're playing tonight..

I actually managed to push a track through, using Hamachi's IPv6 adress, but when I changed to another song, the VLC on the players' end refused to play any more.

[Bidmaron]

Why not use teamspeak?

[Gwydion]

And sorry for bothering you with this..
We're playing tonight..

I actually managed to push a track through, using Hamachi's IPv6 adress, but when I changed to another song, the VLC on the players' end refused to play any more.

Ok. I didn't realize you were using Hamachi. I've never used Hamachi but have read a lot of posts on it from damned and others. I'm getting a little out of my element as if you are using Hamachi, I believe you are connecting to their hosted network and in theory are using a virtual LAN. Similar to if you were in the same house/office and using a LAN. I'm just not sure how to deal with the addition of Hamachi. I know how to open a port on my home network and broadcast through VLC (similar to the link you posted above). However, I start getting a little lost with how Hamachi might complicate/change this process.

I'll try and research a bit more on my end but you might be getting to a point were you need someone with real technical ability here on the forum to jump in and help. I'm afraid all I will be doing is speculating at this point! Still happy to help just not sure how much more assistance I can be!

[Wolfheart]

Ok. I didn't realize you were using Hamachi. I've never used Hamachi but have read a lot of posts on it from damned and others. I'm getting a little out of my element as if you are using Hamachi, I believe you are connecting to their hosted network and in theory are using a virtual LAN. Similar to if you were in the same house/office and using a LAN. I'm just not sure how to deal with the addition of Hamachi. I know how to open a port on my home network and broadcast through VLC (similar to the link you posted above). However, I start getting a little lost with how Hamachi might complicate/change this process.

I'll try and research a bit more on my end but you might be getting to a point were you need someone with real technical ability here on the forum to jump in and help. I'm afraid all I will be doing is speculating at this point! Still happy to help just not sure how much more assistance I can be!

Thanks.
Well, yes but I don't have to use Hamachi.

It was running without me really noticing and when I hit msconfig to make the URL for the others to connect in VLC, the msconfig showed Hamachi with its own IPv6 and IPv4 adresses. So I just gave it a try and lo! Player A heard my stream with the same quality I had (which was amazeballs). However, I suspect the player was shut off when I changed tracks because it was not a "legal" (?) connection.
We also figured out that I may have some trouble because my router is provided by a company and I can't just open ports willy-nilly (probably). HOWEVER, it worked the first time around, so that's weird.

Yes, I think it may be time for me to man up and actually meet you online, lol. I'm so damnable shy :/ at first.

(I also suspect the Discord/VoiceMBanana setup is giving me problems because I probably change settings between sessions as I use my machine for music production.)

Thanks again for even bothering to read this stuff :)


Why not use teamspeak?

It seems after reading this thread that people aren't happy with that solution? I had teamspeak for a while because I actually dared join a FG D&D group and I remember it as another hassle, so maybe I'm avoiding it.

[Bidmaron]

I cannot remember the last time someone had a problem with teamspeak. The quality is suppposdely better with it. The only reason it seems discord is so popular is because it has a more modern interface.

[Myrdin Potter]

Discord is popular because of the the chat room coupled with voice plus the potential web interface. Plus, you are not running a server and you really do not appear to be connecting to a server (even though you are) so a lot of the port forwarding yiu need to handle if you run teamspeak yourself goes away.

I run a teamspeak server on my NAS and it took about 10 minutes to get it running but I have not had to do anything since then.

[Gwydion]

Thanks.
Well, yes but I don't have to use Hamachi.

It was running without me really noticing and when I hit msconfig to make the URL for the others to connect in VLC, the msconfig showed Hamachi with its own IPv6 and IPv4 adresses. So I just gave it a try and lo! Player A heard my stream with the same quality I had (which was amazeballs). However, I suspect the player was shut off when I changed tracks because it was not a "legal" (?) connection.
We also figured out that I may have some trouble because my router is provided by a company and I can't just open ports willy-nilly (probably). HOWEVER, it worked the first time around, so that's weird.

Yes, I think it may be time for me to man up and actually meet you online, lol. I'm so damnable shy :/ at first.

(I also suspect the Discord/VoiceMBanana setup is giving me problems because I probably change settings between sessions as I use my machine for music production.)

Thanks again for even bothering to read this stuff :)



It seems after reading this thread that people aren't happy with that solution? I had teamspeak for a while because I actually dared join a FG D&D group and I remember it as another hassle, so maybe I'm avoiding it.

Hmmmm.. I only know a little about Hamachi but I'm a little confused as I thought you and all the players had to log in to use it so I'm puzzled (or maybe just misunderstanding) as to how it could be running without you knowing it. To step back for a second, how is your Fantasy Grounds connection set up for the players to connect to you? Is it the standard port-forwarding setup where you open port 1802 or are you using Hamachi? (Setting aside sounds for the moment).

[Wolfheart]

Yeah I have Hamachi so that the players can connect to my Fantasy Grounds campaign (not that they do - too much bother..), so that's what I meant - when I fire up my machine Hamachi is one of those programs that just start up and run in the background. I tried for a long time to connect without Hamachi but no ..dice...

I will download TeamSpeak then, and begin a re-read of this thread ;)

[Gwydion]

Yeah I have Hamachi so that the players can connect to my Fantasy Grounds campaign (not that they do - too much bother..), so that's what I meant - when I fire up my machine Hamachi is one of those programs that just start up and run in the background. I tried for a long time to connect without Hamachi but no ..dice...

I will download TeamSpeak then, and begin a re-read of this thread ;)

Sounds like a plan. Just let me know if you want to jump in ts3 or discord to talk some time and walk through the setup. If you end up using ts3 (which is a great option as I think I've tried most setups now!), the wiki is the best instruction to follow here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_TeamSpeak_%26_Syrinscape Don't let the length of the wiki worry you! Its a great step by step guide.

Also, there is a community server for ts3 that a lot of fg users use. Instructions on logging into it can be found here: https://www.fg-con.com/information/teamspeak/

You can add your own channel to ts3 once you log into the fg server by right-clicking on say d&d5e and creating a sub-channel. You can password protect it so that only you and your players can join as well. No worries about joining me in voice sometime. I'll leave it up to you. Just let me know if/when you are ready and we will find a time to connect. Good luck!

[Wolfheart]

Thanks Gwydion. Would you say that TeamSpeak is the best option for me?
(I mean, I have no interest in Syrinscape, I want my own library of music to be heard..but I guess you know that by now ;) )

[Gwydion]

Thanks Gwydion. Would you say that TeamSpeak is the best option for me?
(I mean, I have no interest in Syrinscape, I want my own library of music to be heard..but I guess you know that by now ;) )

Yep, lol... The instructions in the wiki also talk about how to connect VLC. So, in your case I do still think this is your best option. Then you can play your mp3's, etc through VLC in TS3. I think it will work well for you.

[LordEntrails]

Don't forget, though you can install your own TS3 server, you can also use the community sponsored one detailed here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?17071-Voicechat!-Community-TeamSpeak3-Server).

[Bidmaron]

I don't get the discord madness. As I said I cannot remember the last time someone bitched about teamspeak but the boards are absolutely polluted with complaints about discord setup and quality problems.

[Trenloe]

Plus, you are not running a server and you really do not appear to be connecting to a server (even though you are) so a lot of the port forwarding yiu need to handle if you run teamspeak yourself goes away.
If this is an issue, don't run your own TeamSpeak server - as has been mentioned, use the community one - no port forwarding, the music codec is enabled so good quality music streaming is there.

[sarm11111]

I have tried and tried and the sound quality is terrible.

[sarm11111]

I have tried and tried and the sound quality is terrible.

We have gone to using the online bots indiscord and they will play a you-tube file with good sound but the transmit audio quality using sound meter and VC just is of no practical use. I'm quite disappointed since they are both industry standards in their respective cooperative/synergistic fields but have yet to perfect working together. frankly it will soon be the difference as to keeping my subscription to Syrinscape as its just not doing what i pay for.

[sarm11111]

Hey folks. I've finally gotten things set up with Discord and Syrinscape. I am using Discord and then Discord PTB (beta) as the means of piping music into my voice channel. The Discord PTB was recommended by Rob Thowhy.

My issue is that I keep getting an app saying 'trial' in the voice channel. I can't tell if it is coming from Discord PTB or my Virtual Audio Cable.

Anyone experiencing the same?



how are you setting up the Syrinscape account feed? I downloaded the PTB but am unsure as to how to run the Syrinscape on PTB and me on the reg ver.

[Wolfheart]

All right! I may have misunderstood and there isn't disdain for TeamSpeak, probably my bad.
So I need:
VLC
Hamachi
TeamSpeak
DOE Extension

?

[Gwydion]

All right! I may have misunderstood and there isn't disdain for TeamSpeak, probably my bad.
So I need:
VLC
Hamachi
TeamSpeak
DOE Extension

?

Hey Wolfheart. I hate to potentially confuse things, but if you are going to use TS3 (TeamSpeak), there are still a few options (maybe more), but my recommendation would be the following:

Assuming that you just want to play music (MP3's and other files you have on you have downloaded on your computer) and you don't need to play desktop sounds (i.e youtube or other online music service), you could best do this with VLC and TS3 (imho). You don't need Hamachi for the sound, however, if you are using Hamachi for the Fantasy Grounds connection you will still need Hamachi for that. I'm just making a distinction that Hamachi is not needed for the sound.

Following the wiki entry I sent you above, you can set up TS3 so that you have a profile for your voice (and you can set that to push-to-talk as a lot of folks do) and a separate profile for the sounds that will come through VLC which will be the mp3 or other files you play through VLC. For that profile you can set to continuous sound and not push-to-talk.

You don't necessarily need the DOE Extension although I love to use it. What the DOE extension will do is allow you to create url links within Fantasy Grounds that will essentially trigger the mp3 files from your computer without having to "leave" fantasy grounds and search for a file on your desktop. If you don't mind having to go to your desktop to find the sound and play it in VLC, then you don't need the DOE Extension. Again, I love the DOE extension and trigger many sounds through it, but given what you are trying to accomplish from what I understand, it isn't technically necessary.

I hope I'm helping and not confusing things.

[Gwydion]

how are you setting up the Syrinscape account feed? I downloaded the PTB but am unsure as to how to run the Syrinscape on PTB and me on the reg ver.

Hey sarm1111. So, as you've seen on this and other threads, there are a lot of opinions on how to set up sounds. I've tried many of them myself. To answer your specific questions, if you want to you discord, I would recommend watching the four part short video series Rob2e put together on youtube that is specifically meant to explain how to set up syrinscape with discord. Here is a link to the first video in his series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U3TRoS3gpM&index=5&list=PLchhxIEqPEd-QGT3HNgGUHAQjgqcNJh1p

If you have questions after going through the series please come back here or feel free to PM me here on FG or I can post a link to my discord if you want to chat. Good luck!

[Wolfheart]

If so, I'll skip the extension for now as my players have taken on this attitude of refusal. (I can always add it later right? As long as FG remains an obstacle rather than enhancing the experience I suppose they'll stick to Roll20. And I'm fine with that, it's quick and smooth. But I find FG very useful on monitor 2. Best GM screen ever :D

So yeah. Going to download TeamSpeaker-

[sarm11111]

Will do thanks

[jxg975]

Can anyone try something out for me? I tested a different (but similar) setup on my computer and got the desired effects.

Download Elgato's Sound capture software: https://www.elgato.com/en/introducing-elgato-sound-capture-windows (you can even download the actual software even if you don't have an elgato game capture...the software comes with 'sound capture' which is what i'm using)

Once it's downloaded, go into the sound capture software, click on Advanced, and make sure that nothing is selected in the "Where do you want to hear your audio?". You can have the software assign the sound capture as your system's default, but i left it unchecked. Your audio input should be your headset.

My idea was that the sound capture software is your virtual line.

Go into your second Discord instance (I used the PTB one).
Settings -> Voice & Video ->
Set input device to "Line (elgato soud capture)" or whatever it's called on your computer, set the output device to whatever, but make sure the audio is at 0, and deselect the input sensitivity and drag that slider to 0 as well.

Now in your actual Discord, max your server audio bitrate, and make sure you select your actual mic and headset as the input/output.

Then go into your player (i tested this in firefox, setting the audio output to the "Line (Elgato sound capture)", set the output to the elgato software, and join the discord server. you should hear the music coming from your browser, or syrinscape, piped through elgato, piped into discord, through the internet, back down to everyone who is listening in.

At least it worked for me...so does anyone else want to try to reproduce what I did? I like trying to keep things simple, and not having to install a bunch of other software.

[Wolfheart]

All right I have downloaded TeamSpeak. And that's where it stops :(
Do my players need to install TeamSpeak (I know it's probably a superdumb question but I have to be ELI5'd here).
What is next?
Same procedure as with Discord, sending music through the virtual audio cable through TeamSpeak?
(I don't need voice there, as I use Roll20 for that.)

To clarify:
I run voice and video through Roll20.
I just need to push my music somehow.

[sarm11111]

When you use discord Ptb do you make a separate account? Example reg discord you are in chat room as bob , ptb dicord in chat room as bobsmusic?

[Gwydion]

When you use discord Ptb do you make a separate account? Example reg discord you are in chat room as bob , ptb dicord in chat room as bobsmusic?

Yes. Name it something different than your normal voice account.

[Gwydion]

All right I have downloaded TeamSpeak. And that's where it stops :(
Do my players need to install TeamSpeak (I know it's probably a superdumb question but I have to be ELI5'd here).
What is next?
Same procedure as with Discord, sending music through the virtual audio cable through TeamSpeak?
(I don't need voice there, as I use Roll20 for that.)

To clarify:
I run voice and video through Roll20.
I just need to push my music somehow.

Yes. With all the chat and voice apps (discord, teamspeak, mumble, etc), players need to connect to it to hear it. So, for teamspeak, your players would need to download it and connect to it. Once they download it and know what server and channel to connect to it isn't super difficult of course, but you do still need it to hear the music you are piping in. In your particular case, you will want to mute everyone's mic (or they will need to mute their mics in teamspeak) or you will hear everyone talking through the Roll20 application as well as teamspeak. All you want them to hear through teamspeak is the music.

The link I posted in this thread on syrinscape/teamspeak in post #165 walks through in detail how to set up teamspeak to push music through VLC to teamspeak. You don't need to follow the syrinscape portion as you don't use it. I also posted a link in that thread to the fg community teamspeak server. You will need to connect to it when you all log onto teamspeak.

[Wolfheart]

Thank you Gwydion, I will check the post when I get back home. I hope TeamSpeak can be the savior here (along with you), it's really getting on my nerves that there have to be so many complications just to use Fantasy Grounds.

(Unrelated kind of but: Anyone else experience that FG uses more RAM after the latest Windows 10 update?)

[Gwydion]

Thank you Gwydion, I will check the post when I get back home. I hope TeamSpeak can be the savior here (along with you), it's really getting on my nerves that there have to be so many complications just to use Fantasy Grounds.

(Unrelated kind of but: Anyone else experience that FG uses more RAM after the latest Windows 10 update?)

Fingers crossed. Keep us posted.

[Wolfheart]

Oh! It's that page, I encountered it when I downloaded Teamspeak and began researching. It's a bit confusing because of all the talk about extensions and Syrinscape and stuff I don't need, but let's see... I was stumped reading through it last time, let's see if I can figure out where I got lost.

First of all, this is what I need, am I right? --> Teamspeak. Voicemeeter Banana. VLC Media Player.

(Voice goes through R20 - at least until FG gets it act together - so all I need is a channel to distribute the campaign soundtrack.)

Okay. Let's see.
(If anyone's jumping into the thread wondering what I'm on about - I'm trying to stream music to my players while gaming. We have our own 'campaign soundtrack' of mp3s. Basically soundtracks that I have retagged with game/setting-specific titles etc. The page I'm trying to understand is here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/wiki/index.php/Linking_TeamSpeak_%26_Syrinscape))

So, I assume that in the section on "Identities" I will need just one identity - let's call it "CampaignSoundtrack".

1. I connect to the FGCon Server (as suggested by Lord Entrails in one of the posts following #165) OK
2. Ah, the first hurdle (easy one though) - the page says "Clicking on Settings->Identities, or (...)" but it's "Tools->Identities" (maybe changed later?) OK
3. In the same vein, "Add" is now "Create" btw
4. OK, now "Profiles":..geez I'm already having trouble. What's a profile for and why is that different from identity...whatever...no one said this was easy hehe. Uhm..what. Let's see. There are different types of profiles too. Of course. So if I read this right, I only need a "Capture Profile" - for VLC. And VLC doesn't require a "Playback Profile". Aaaand I'm lost. *Reads up and down, back and forth*. Oh! You have to actually *rewrite* your identity name. Geez.. right.. ok..Capture Device dropdown list...no wait wrong dropdown..ah there it is ... I pick "VoiceMeeter Output (VB-Audo VoiceMeeter VAIO)" hoping more than knowing it's the right choice.
5. Continuous Transmission Radiobutton selected. That was an easy one!
6. Uncheck the Advanced Options Checkbox .... was already unchecked, even easier! I love 5 & 6 the most so far.
7. Bookmarks?? WTH. Gods what is it with all those nicknames. Now I'm Wolfheart in one windows, Wolfheart_GM in another and when I log on I'm "DarkestDarkLord". Gaaaah. Anyway, what now? New Server? Huh? But..there is no "Identity" dropdown?
Wait..do I have to join an existing server? Am I making one now? What?

Arf..
*hits Cancel*

Maybe this post illuminates just how dumb I am, but it also shows just why I want to explode.

[Gwydion]

I'm sorry that its so confusing.... :( It isn't all that intuitive. You are joining the free Fantasy Grounds server. The password to join it (case-sensitive) is Dungeoneers

Here are screenshots of my voice and sounds setup. Keep at it! You will get there. Still need to get you on voice with me sometime! :)

I'm going to be out for a while but will try and check back in later. Fingers crossed!

[Wolfheart]

I began anew and now I think I'm getting somewhere (though I have no idea where that 'where' is really).
However, when I open Bookmarks and right-click "FG-Con Server - Wolfheart_GM", I get
Maximum number of connections with the same identity exceeded.

(BTW, the document doesn't explain what preferences I need in Voicemeeter Banana and I'm also not sure which output to use in Windows?)

Thanks again.

(I hope the team is reading this thread and realize that something absolutely must be done to make FG easier to use when it comes to sound!)

Edit:
I tried disconnecting from everything, then Bookmarks->right-click FG-Con Server - Wolfheart_GM", what happens is I just get back into the normal server with all the game channels etc etc. Is this correct?

Edit II:
It says Server Groups: Guest and Channel Group: Guest but I did make an account (not with the Wolfheart name, though) - is it supposed to be like this?

(Sorry for me being such a bug)

[Andraax]

You need to create a new TS identity for your second connection.

[Wolfheart]

Do you mean I can't have the same name for "Identity" and "Capture Profile"?

Edit: All right, I changed it to

Identity = "Wolfheart_GM"
Capture Profile = "Wolfhearts_Campaign_Soundtrack"
Playback Profile: "Wolfheart_GM"

Does this seem right?

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see. When I right-click the bookmark "Open in new tab" now, there's a shift of sorts and a woman's voice says "Connected", but the window that opens is still the same FG Con window (with all the tabs on the left like LFG, FG Con Discussion, General Muster, Tech Support etc etc etc)

[Andraax]

If you go into your "Identities" (under "Tools"), each identity will have a "Unique ID". If you connect more than one tab to the same server, each one is required to have a different "Unique ID". If you copied someone else's config, you may have accidentally duplicated their Unique ID as well, and this will cause problems.

[Wolfheart]

I've got "Default" and "Wolfheart_GM" and they have different Unique IDs

[Gwydion]

Do you mean I can't have the same name for "Identity" and "Capture Profile"?

Edit: All right, I changed it to

Identity = "Wolfheart_GM"
Capture Profile = "Wolfhearts_Campaign_Soundtrack"
Playback Profile: "Wolfheart_GM"

Does this seem right?

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see. When I right-click the bookmark "Open in new tab" now, there's a shift of sorts and a woman's voice says "Connected", but the window that opens is still the same FG Con window (with all the tabs on the left like LFG, FG Con Discussion, General Muster, Tech Support etc etc etc)

Ok. I don't want to jump over Andraax, but want to point out a couple things. First, when you first connect with one of your bookmarks it will drop you iin the general TS3 channel. Your first bookmark has your Wolfheart_GM identity. You then need to find a channel in TS3. You can create one but for now, use mine. Scroll down to the D&D5E channels until you seen Gwydion. I'm not in there so you can play around with it. the password is only45e (I will change it later!).

Now go back to your bookmarks, right click on whatever bookmark you have for your sound identify (not your Wolfheart_Gm identify) and click on "connect in new tab). It will open a new tab and drop you in general. Connect that one to my channel and you should have both identities in the channel.

I can walk you through how to create your own sub channel in TS3 but wanted to make sure you can get in first.

[Wolfheart]

All right, thanks. I right-clicked your channel, clicked "Switch to Channel", and now I suppose I'm there (at least the right window says Gwydion now.)
Meanwhile, I had sound when I was fumbling around earlier and now it's gone. GARAHRHA
Oh, switched A1 to the right thing (why the heck does it "jump" all the time) and it came back - so I suppose it should be working then.

Edit:
Yeah I see my name under the Gwydion channel now, but when I try to connect the bookmark, I'm thrown out and get hte "Maximum number..:" thingamagog. I suppose I can only have one connection?

[Gwydion]

The maximum number thing should only pop up if your are trying to connect the same bookmark in a new tab. So, I have a bookmark that is for GM and a bookmark for FG Sounds. The identity listed in my GM bookmark is "gm" and the identity listed in my FG Sounds bookmark is "FG Sounds". Once I connect my GM bookmark into my channel I go back up to bookmarks and right click on my FG sounds and connect that in a new tab. That should pop into the general channel and then you can move that into my chat. The key is to make sure you are using two separate bookmarks (one that you set up for your voice and one that you set up for your sounds). If you try to connect the same bookmark twice in a new tab (which I tried and it gave me the same error) it will give you an error. Hope that helps!

[Gwydion]

BTW, yes I see you in my channel so you are definitely there.

[Wolfheart]

The maximum number thing should only pop up if your are trying to connect the same bookmark in a new tab. So, I have a bookmark that is for GM and a bookmark for FG Sounds. The identity listed in my GM bookmark is "gm" and the identity listed in my FG Sounds bookmark is "FG Sounds". Once I connect my GM bookmark into my channel I go back up to bookmarks and right click on my FG sounds and connect that in a new tab. That should pop into the general channel and then you can move that into my chat. The key is to make sure you are using two separate bookmarks (one that you set up for your voice and one that you set up for your sounds). If you try to connect the same bookmark twice in a new tab (which I tried and it gave me the same error) it will give you an error. Hope that helps!

Ok let's see- this is what I have (I didn't understand your last post to be honest):

Identities:
(Default)
Wolfheart_GM
Identity Name: Wolfheart_GM
Nickname: Wolfheart
Unique ID is different from the Default
Security Level 8

Playback:
(Default)
Wolfheart_GM
Playback Mode: Automatically use best mode
Playback Device: VoiceMeeter Aux Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)

Capture:
(Default)
Wolfhearts_Campaign_Soundtrack
Capture Mode: Automatically use best mode
Capture Device: VoiceMeeter Output (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)
Continuous Transmission
Unchecked Advanced Options

[Gwydion]

Ok let's see- this is what I have (I didn't understand your last post to be honest):

Identities:
(Default)
Wolfheart_GM
Identity Name: Wolfheart_GM
Nickname: Wolfheart
Unique ID is different from the Default
Security Level 8

Playback:
(Default)
Wolfheart_GM
Playback Mode: Automatically use best mode
Playback Device: VoiceMeeter Aux Input (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)

Capture:
(Default)
Wolfhearts_Campaign_Soundtrack
Capture Mode: Automatically use best mode
Capture Device: VoiceMeeter Output (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)
Continuous Transmission
Unchecked Advanced Options

Ok. I understand the issue. Give me a bit and I will respond.......

[Wolfheart]

Thanks! Hopefully the time where I shalt no longer depend on your wisdom is nigh... :)

[Gwydion]

Ok, here we go! So ultimately I was trying to make sure we were creating two separate complete voice profiles for you in teamspeak (bookmarks). One of them we want to have all the correct playback profile info (so you can hear sounds from ts3) and the correct capture profile info (so your voice/sounds goes into ts3) for your Voice. The other we want to have all the correct information for your sounds (music). Now, given you have voice through Roll20 I suppose we can just create one sound profile for your music and not worry about the one for your voice as I think that is just confusing the issue. I was trying to get you to have both so you could make sure sound is making it into ts3. If you don't have a voice profile setup in ts3, you will still hear the music locally on your machine through your browser, I just wanted you to hear it through ts3 to test. So, let's just stick with the sound profile and you will have to have someone else in ts3 with you to see if they hear the music. I hope that makes sense!

So, if we just want to include a sound profile in ts3 let me look at the settings you posted in your last post right now and see if it looks right to me.

[Wolfheart]

Yes, all I need to do is stream music :)

[Gwydion]

Yes, all I need to do is stream music :)


Ok. I think we are close... really! When you open VLC media player and look at the menu at the top (media, playback, audio, etc..), click on "Audio Device". I would set that to Voicemeeter Aux Input.

Once you have done that, go back to ts3 and I want you to open your bookmark and set your playback profile to "none". Then hit "ok".

Leave your capture profile as wolfheart_campaign_soundtrack. Go back to the top menu in ts3 and click on "tools" and "options". Click on "Capture" and then the wolfheart_campaign_soundtrack profile. Change capture device to voicemeeter aux output. Then click ok.

Now when you connect you should be able to push music from vlc through ts3. I need to step away for just a bit, but I should be able to jump in and try to see if I can hear it if you want to play a track.

Let me know! I really think we are almost there!!!

[Wolfheart]

Ok I'll try... but when I set VLC to "Voicemeeter Aux Input", I lost the sound. Edit: Done the rest

Edit 2: I went into the configuration of VLC and changed the stuff there to Voicemeeter Aux Input" as well, but no sound. Only when I choose "Speakers (VB Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)" in both "Options"->Audio and directly from the toolbar (Audio->Output)

... I bet I've made you roll your eyes harder than anyone ever. It's..a Jedi trait

[Gwydion]

Just hop back in my channel when you think you are set and I'll connect to my channel as well. (you will see me in there). Then try and play some music or something and I can let you know if I hear it.

[Wolfheart]

Ok cool

[Gwydion]

Just hop back in my channel when you think you are set and I'll connect to my channel as well. (you will see me in there). Then try and play some music or something and I can let you know if I hear it.

I see you in there. Are you playing anything yet? I just jumped back in.

[Gwydion]

If you play something I should (fingers crossed) be able to hear it.

[Wolfheart]

Trying to chat with you :D (Music is playing indeed , but with aforementioned "Speakers (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)

[Gwydion]

Trying to chat with you :D (Music is playing indeed , but with aforementioned "Speakers (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)

Sorry... Did you change the profile stuff and make sure vlc is set to aux input? I'm in there and looks like you are set to continuous voice but don't hear anything yet.

[Gwydion]

Oh snap! I hear it

[Gwydion]

Is it some operatic kinda thingy...

[Gwydion]

ahh...ahhha... ahha... ohh.......

[Wolfheart]

Now I have set:
VLC -> Audio -> Audio Device: VoiceMeeter Aux Input (VB - Audio Virtual Cable)
VLC -> Options -> Audio -> Device -> VoiceMeeter Aux Input (VB - Audio Virtual Cable)
Windows 10 -> VoiceMeeter Aux Input (VB - Audio Virtual Cable)

..but once I do so, I have no sound

[Gwydion]

It seems to be working just fine!

[Wolfheart]

Wait, what, you hear it? It's a great track isn't it ;) From a climactic scene in our campaign. You can't get that stuff from Syrinscape (I suppose :D)

[Gwydion]

In windows 10 you need to keep it to voicemeeter input... Not aux. And make sure in voicemeeter banana in the 5th column which should say voicemeeter aux, make sure you have A1 selected so you hear it as well.

[Wolfheart]

Do I have to change "Hardware Out" in VB perhaps?A1 ?!

[Gwydion]

Yes, I hear it fine. I just needed to change my vm banana settings back. I changed them to make sure I knew what you were seeing in yours. Lol.. Funny to be chatting here. Everyone is probably saying why are they talking here? lol

[Gwydion]

No, don't do that. Just look at the post immediately above. Just change your windows 10 sound default.

[Wolfheart]

I have no Voicemeeter Input in Windows just

"VoiceMeeter Aux Input"

&

"Speakers (VB blablabla AUX-VAIO)" + same without AUX

[Gwydion]

I have to leave the office soon but will be around tonight. If you need to run a campaign tonight, use my ts3 sub-channel. Give them the password. Let me know if you can hear the music after you look at my posts above. Don't change anything else as it is pumping through ts3 fine!

[Wolfheart]

Also BTW I use a Bose headset

[Gwydion]

Scroll all the way down once you open your sounds. I think it is there it is just cut off. Make sure to scroll all the way below aux. It will be there.

[Wolfheart]

THanks so far, man. It's midnight here and me need sleepy, so the quest must continue...tomorrow or whenever you have an opportunity if you can be bothered

[Wolfheart]

Scroll all the way down once you open your sounds. I think it is there it is just cut off. Make sure to scroll all the way below aux. It will be there.

Definitely not there :(

[Gwydion]

Make sure playback and recording in Windows 10 is Voicemeeter input and Voicemeeter output, respectively (not aux). I'll check in with you in an hour or so. Need to run out. Sorry! I think you are there, though.

[Gwydion]

It should look like this.. Last post! Need to run..

[Wolfheart]

Go, go, go! :)

[For when you come back: I actually don't have a VoiceMeeter Input in there, just "VoiceMeeter Aux Input", Speakers (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter Aux VAIO, with a phone icon attached to the speaker icon) and Speakers (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO, which is set as Default).

In the other window I *do* have VoiceMeeter Aux Output twice (one "VB Audio Virtual Cable" and one "VB Audio VoiceMeeter AUX VAIO), and VoiceMeeter Output. When I write this with that window open, the mike seems to pick up my typing and the sound through my headset becomes a bit.. noisy.

The weird thing (?) is that the outputs are in the "Recording" window, while the inputs are in the "Playback" window (I don't know if these are the actual names of the windows in your Windows, as I don't have English operative system hehe).

[Harrie]

hey lads! I found the setups here to be quite confusing, so here's a setup I managed to put together for streaming chrome's audio to a second discord account, it should work for any program though.

these are the programs I'm using:
discord, & the discord public test build (https://discordapp.com/download)
virtual audio cable (https://www.vb-audio.com/Cable/index.htm)
audio router (https://github.com/audiorouterdev/audio-router)

1: you'll need to make a second discord account, and sign that one into the public test build. this lets you have two accounts signed in at the same time.

2: on your new account, set up your audio settings like so:
https://i.imgur.com/sDexKeW.png
- input set to CABLE output
- output is muted
- input sensitivity is set to -100db to pick up all sound
- you'll also want to scroll down and disable noise suppression & echo cancellation, & probably automatic gain

2a: i recommend restarting discord after changing audio settings to make sure they are applied.

3: open up audio router
https://i.imgur.com/eY6tXX5.png
you might need to make chrome make a sound for it to appear, once it does go to route & a new window will pop
https://i.imgur.com/ZtPHZZm.png
route it to CABLE input

4: refresh the tab, put on your music, join the call on both accounts and you (& everyone in the call) should now hear chrome's audio in discord! If it's a little quiet, you can reenable automatic gain but it's probably best left off as you don't want it overpowering everyone who's talking.

now when you want to play audio through that second account, you just need to open up audio router & route it to CABLE input. Anything you put into CABLE input will play through that account. When you close audio router, your sound devices will return to normal.

[Gwydion]

Thanks, Harrie and welcome to the forum! Yeah, thanks for the screenshots. Wolfheart has a bit of a unique situation with roll20 voice, etc.. So, he is just working to pipe music through ts3 only and not even his voice. i think we are close. I've set these up so many different ways that we will get it sorted. Appreciate the detailed walkthrough for folks on discord!

[Gwydion]

Go, go, go! :)

[For when you come back: I actually don't have a VoiceMeeter Input in there, just "VoiceMeeter Aux Input", Speakers (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter Aux VAIO, with a phone icon attached to the speaker icon) and Speakers (VB-Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO, which is set as Default).

In the other window I *do* have VoiceMeeter Aux Output twice (one "VB Audio Virtual Cable" and one "VB Audio VoiceMeeter AUX VAIO), and VoiceMeeter Output. When I write this with that window open, the mike seems to pick up my typing and the sound through my headset becomes a bit.. noisy.

The weird thing (?) is that the outputs are in the "Recording" window, while the inputs are in the "Playback" window (I don't know if these are the actual names of the windows in your Windows, as I don't have English operative system hehe).

Ok. First off, I know it seems counterintuitive, but the outputs in the recording window and inputs in the playback window are correct! So, the speakers VB-Audio Voicemeeter VAIO should be good as the default. Mine reads "voicemeeter input" and "VB-Audio Voicemeeter VAIO" but it looks like that should be the same setting. The Voicemeeter aux output twice has me thrown a little. It almost like something got jacked a bit in the download. Can you first post your Voicemeeter banana panel. Don't worry about my panel settings, but I want to see this screenshot:

21095

[Wolfheart]

Hi again, here's a screenshot.

21097

I'm aware that the microphone is turned down :)

[Gwydion]

Ok. I think I misunderstood what you said previously. Your hardware out at the top right of voicemeeter, which is currently set to voicemeeter aux should be set to speakers/headphones. Once you do that (fingers crossed) I'm hoping everything is good!

[Gwydion]

Is it 1:30 am your time? I think you are 8 hrs ahead of me! I won't be around too much tonight but let me know if you can test it with someone (feel free to use my ts3 channel again) and keep me posted!!!

[Gwydion]

Keep me posted, Wolfheart! I'm very invested in this... Want to know that you are up and good!

[Wolfheart]

Hey Gwydion, thank you for your investment :) I’ve been busy with work and family and all that, and haven’t had the chance to be at it. Maybe tonight. I believe I’m approx six hours ahead of the East Coast :)

[Gwydion]

Hey Gwydion, thank you for your investment :) I’ve been busy with work and family and all that, and haven’t had the chance to be at it. Maybe tonight. I believe I’m approx six hours ahead of the East Coast :)

Yeah. Given I am Denver (mountain time), you are 8 hrs ahead of me! Its 7:30 am MT for me right now.... Hoping we have you sorted! If so, it will be time for a virtual beer for both of us! :)

[Gwydion]

Hey Gwydion, thank you for your investment :) I’ve been busy with work and family and all that, and haven’t had the chance to be at it. Maybe tonight. I believe I’m approx six hours ahead of the East Coast :)

BTW, I understand IRL stuff. Had a birthday party over the weekend with eight 9 yr old girls. Sleepover... Still recovering.. lol. Fortunately my wife is awesome and handled most of it.

[Gwydion]

Hey Gwydion, thank you for your investment :) I’ve been busy with work and family and all that, and haven’t had the chance to be at it. Maybe tonight. I believe I’m approx six hours ahead of the East Coast :)

Just checking in... Not trying to be a pest, just really hoping you've got things rolling now!

[Wolfheart]

I'm here all right, it's just been incredibly hard to find time for nerdities.
Sorry for keeping you hanging!
I'll check my setup right now and then I'll hear from you when you're available.

* So, when and if it works, what do my players have to do to hear the music? I know section A - ("Install TeamSpeak 3")
* And they obviously can't jump into "Gwydion", so where/how do I have my own lil' corner?

Don't answer if it's trickier than brushing your teeth and / or you think we should get the sound done first ;)

[Wolfheart]

All right so now I have:

VLC playing that same song (what can I say me loves it) --> Audio set to "Speakers (VB Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)"
Windows 10 speaker icon --> "VoiceMeeter Aux Input (VB Audio Virtual Cable)"

This does allow me to hear it on my own machine :)

So..do I create a Sub-channel under Game Channels or something next?

[Gwydion]

All right so now I have:

VLC playing that same song (what can I say me loves it) --> Audio set to "Speakers (VB Audio VoiceMeeter VAIO)"
Windows 10 speaker icon --> "VoiceMeeter Aux Input (VB Audio Virtual Cable)"

This does allow me to hear it on my own machine :)

So..do I create a Sub-channel under Game Channels or something next?

Yes! Ok, so here is what you do in TS3:

1 - Login to the FG-server like you did previously
2 - Find the D&D5e section and right-click on "D&D5E" and click on "Create Sub-channel"
3 - in the popup window, name your channel (ie Wolfheart)
4 - If you don't want random people potentially crashing your channel, give it a password (and make sure to give your players the password)
5 - Change "channel type" to "semi-permanent"
6 - Click "ok" (the channel will typically be put at the very end of the D&D 5e channel, NOT alphabetical)
7 - Right click on the newly created sub-channel
8 - Now, change semi-permanent to permanent (This is helpful as if it is semi-permanent the channel will disappear whenever there is a server reboot by the person kind enough to host the entire server for us! Also, if it is set to "temporary" then I believe it will reset each time you leave TS3!)
9 - If you want to sort your channel to appear somewhere else in the 5e channel click on the dropdown "sort this channel after...."
10 - Click on the "audio tab" within the same window you are editing
11 - Take a look at the settings. Its probably voice desktop and the codec probably says opus voice. Look at the bandwidt usage at the bottom of the popup. Mine typically shows 5.71 kb/s. I would hit "ok" now and you are all set to connect just like you did with mine. Test the sound quality. If you want to test it out, go back into the channel to edit (right-click on the channel like before) and go to the audio tab. Click on the music preset and the codec will change to "opus music". The bandwidth usage is now 8.35 kb/s for me. If your machine/internet can handle it the sound quality might improve. One tip. I would recommend NOT changing the quality above 6. You can certainly test it if you want but if you test it and you hear a lot of static or skipping, etc. its probably because you are just using too much bandwidth. I would really just leave everything as is to begin with. So, you can really stop after 9 above and click "ok" and just come back to this post once you get comfortable and want to see if you can get the sound evern better.

Note: If you can't change your channel to permanent it might be that you are not logged into TS3 as an administrator on your machine. That step isn't critical it just avoids the issue of you connecting and wondering where the heck your channel went if there is a server reboot.

That's it! Keep us posted after you've run a session with your players. Crossing my fingers you are good now. Don't forget your players will want to mute their microphones in TS3 (there are buttons at the top of the screen to do that), but not their speakers, as you are doing voice through roll20 and you don't want everyone hearing each other twice!

If you have any other issues as you get rolling, let us know. Back to my coffee! :)

[Nylanfs]

I'm here all right, it's just been incredibly hard to find time for nerdities.
Sorry for keeping you hanging!
I'll check my setup right now and then I'll hear from you when you're available.

* So, when and if it works, what do my players have to do to hear the music? I know section A - ("Install TeamSpeak 3")
* And they obviously can't jump into "Gwydion", so where/how do I have my own lil' corner?

Don't answer if it's trickier than brushing your teeth and / or you think we should get the sound done first ;)

Just win the lottery already...

[Gwydion]

Ok, Wolfheart.... Update please? Inquiring minds and all want to know! jk... But when you do have time I'd love to hear how you're getting along.

[Wolfheart]

Ok, Wolfheart.... Update please? Inquiring minds and all want to know! jk... But when you do have time I'd love to hear how you're getting along.

Our scheduled weekend game was cancelled, unfortunately, so I'm waiting to try the next laundry list :)

[osarusan]

It sounds like a lot of solutions have been proposed in this thread, but just in case people are still looking for a way to get a music+mic setup working in Discord, I thought I'd offer a suggestion based on how I do it.

I don't have any special hardware, just a headset w/ mic. I use Discord and Voicemeeter together to make this work.

https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/Voicemeeter_UserManual.pdf <-- the Voicemeeter manual explains in detail how it works, but if you follow the instructions in "Case Study #1," that's how you make it work. It works perfectly, and I am able to speak to my players and have them hear music without any complicated or expensive software or hardware.

[Andraax]

Only problem with that solution is that your players can't adjust the volume of the background (or mute it entirely) without also affecting your voice.

[Wolfheart]

*Wrings hands* All right, mr. Gwydion. I’ve had one of my players download and install TeamSpeak 3 now, so I will begin on the laundry list now and see if it gets us somewhere..everything possible crossed

[Gwydion]

*Wrings hands* All right, mr. Gwydion. I’ve had one of my players download and install TeamSpeak 3 now, so I will begin on the laundry list now and see if it gets us somewhere..everything possible crossed

Yes!!!! Just finishing up lunch. Definitely let me know! You and I are going to celebrate with a virtual high five when you get it working... :)

[Wolfheart]

1 - Login to the FG-server like you did previously
Done

2 - Find the D&D5e section and right-click on "D&D5E" and click on "Create Sub-channel"
Done - but why the D&D5e section?

3 - in the popup window, name your channel (ie Wolfheart)
Done. But I didn't call it "ie Wolfheart" :p

4 - If you don't want random people potentially crashing your channel, give it a password (and make sure to give your players the password)
Done

5 - Change "channel type" to "semi-permanent"
Done

6 - Click "ok" (the channel will typically be put at the very end of the D&D 5e channel, NOT alphabetical)
Done. Yes appeared all the way down.

7 - Right click on the newly created sub-channel
Done. This is too easy. When does it explode?

8 - Now, change semi-permanent to permanent (This is helpful as if it is semi-permanent the channel will disappear whenever there is a server reboot by the person kind enough to host the entire server for us! Also, if it is set to "temporary" then I believe it will reset each time you leave TS3!)
Ah. Uhm? I right-click and... choose "Edit channel" first? Something missing here. Giving it a try. Unfortunately, upon hitting "Edit Channel" everything is greyed out and I can't do anything with it.

...no explosion, but full stop..

wait a minute..when I right-clicked and opened channel instead, I could now go into "Edit.." again and it is edible.I Mean editable. *changing to Permanent* ...Apply..."edited successfully" .. wooowaawee

9 - If you want to sort your channel to appear somewhere else in the 5e channel click on the dropdown "sort this channel after...."
Sorting the channel after anything is pretty low on the priority list right now lol. But nice to know :-)

10 - Click on the "audio tab" within the same window you are editing
You bet

11 - Take a look at the settings. Its probably voice desktop and the codec probably says opus voice. Look at the bandwidt usage at the bottom of the popup. Mine typically shows 5.71 kb/s. I would hit "ok" now and you are all set to connect just like you did with mine. Test the sound quality. If you want to test it out, go back into the channel to edit (right-click on the channel like before) and go to the audio tab. Click on the music preset and the codec will change to "opus music". The bandwidth usage is now 8.35 kb/s for me. If your machine/internet can handle it the sound quality might improve. One tip. I would recommend NOT changing the quality above 6. You can certainly test it if you want but if you test it and you hear a lot of static or skipping, etc. its probably because you are just using too much bandwidth. I would really just leave everything as is to begin with. So, you can really stop after 9 above and click "ok" and just come back to this post once you get comfortable and want to see if you can get the sound evern better.

So many words.. I have to break this down..let's see....Voice Desktop, yes.. Codec: Opus Voice, indeed... bandwidth..5.71 yes... Ah, so it's set, but I can use these settings to attempt improved sound quality. Since I haven't heard anything through TS3, I wonder if the sound quality is better than in Discord..you know, for the purists in the group. But wouldn't choosing Presets: Music and Codec: Opus Music be better for my purposes? I assume these settings up the bandwidth usage, right. I will put it to the test.

Question Time!

Anything I need to tell my player? Like, he literally installed TS3 moments ago and doesn't know what it is. He needs a username and password, I assume, both for FG-CON server and then the password I set on my channel..

THANKS EVER SO MUCH, GWYDION.
You are a hero among lesser heroes!