On the hunt for better sound streaming... Testing Cleanfeed (Chrome browser only!)

[Gwydion]

Good morning, all. Been a little absent lately from posting. You all understand... "Adulting" (work/life) gets in the way sometimes. I'm constantly on the hunt for better and easier ways to stream sounds for my 5e games (and hopefully soon Shadow of the Demon Lord). I've piped Syrinscape and desktop sounds over teamspeak and discord with varying degrees of success/quality. I'm currently using VLC to stream audio to players. However, I just stumbled across cleanfeed and I'm impressed so far. https://cleanfeed.net/

Cleanfeed is intended for podcast and live radio interviews. It allows you to stream audio using https only. And before I go any further, it is completely FREE! The rub is you MUST use a chrome browser for now. (So, you and all your players would have to use Chrome which I realize might be a non-starter for some). They plan to add other browser support (and they are in beta right now with IOS support), but right now that is a hard limitation. It is extremely easy to use and from my initial testing it plays well with Voicemeeter Banana (they even reference VMB on their site). I can't wholeheartedly endorse it yet until I do some more in-game testing but so far the latency appears very limited and there is no need to set up additional instances to pipe sounds (like discord/teamspeak) or open a port on your router to broadcast (like VLC). You simply launch cleanfeed in chrome, connect players by sending an email link and off you go. You can change the audio output that is picked up as well (and don't forget to change audio from speech optimized to music optimized). For me, I output my Voicemeeter VAIO and make sure I am only sending syrinscape and desktop sounds through it so that players don't hear themselves twice through discord.

Anyway. I'm going to do some testing during some real games soon and if things go well I will post a youtube video on how to set up with Syrinscape and Voicemeeter Banana for streaming. Just thought I would post this now for other audio junkies who want to mess around and try new things! If you test before I do, let me know how it goes.

Here is another link on the cleanfeed blog on how to set things up if you are interested. Enjoy! https://blog.cleanfeed.net/getting-started-cleanfeed/

[Nemori]

Looks interesting, does it need players to open a new tab in browser?

Some time ago, I was trying to stream audio using icecast/shoutcast, which worked really well, but when I checked my streaming statistics it turned out that most of my players didn't bother streaming the music after the first one or two sessions. It was a bit demotivating :)

Edit: Scratch that, stupid question. I'd be still concerned about the players though :)

[Gwydion]

Looks interesting, does it need players to open a new tab in browser?

Some time ago, I was trying to stream audio using icecast/shoutcast, which worked really well, but when I checked my streaming statistics it turned out that most of my players didn't bother streaming the music after the first one or two sessions. It was a bit demotivating :)

Edit: Scratch that, stupid question. I'd be still concerned about the players though :)

Yes, it does. Basically you email them an invite, they click "accept" and it opens a new browser for them. They accept access to their microphone and they are good to go. It is intended as a two-way communication but you can simply mute their stream in your "studio" (the cleanfeed browser tab you have opened) so it is really just you doing the broadcasting.

I do understand your point about players, though. I use VLC currently and my experience has been pretty good with players opening VLC and enjoying the sounds I am streaming. I try and do a lot of communicating with them as to what to expect and how immersive I think the sounds are.

[Gwydion]

Ok. So I have tested this with a few people on at once and the sounds worked great. I was piping in syrinscape and youtube at the same time and it was coming across well and in stereo from the feedback I received from the guys testing it. I will try it in a game session next time I stream but I am really liking it. Always difficult to get volume just right but that is personal preference. I also found a chrome extension called volume master that allows you to control volume of an individual tab in chrome. That is nice as well as the players can turn it up or down if they download the extension and that way they don't have to mess with the default sound output in windows and turn everything down. Really excited as this is such a simple setup. Hope it holds up over a long session!

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi Gwydion,
Out of curiosity, does this require the VB Audio Cables etc. as set out in the Wiki? I'm assuming that you using the production Syrinscape vs. Master/Minion? I'm all for simplicity (especially where the VB Audio Cable route died on me again and I haven't been able to get it going). Thanks!

[Gwydion]

Hi Gwydion,
Out of curiosity, does this require the VB Audio Cables etc. as set out in the Wiki? I'm assuming that you using the production Syrinscape vs. Master/Minion? I'm all for simplicity (especially where the VB Audio Cable route died on me again and I haven't been able to get it going). Thanks!

You might be able to do it without VB audio cables. Haven’t thought about it but yes I do use voice meter banana. I’d be happy to try and help sometime to get voicemeeter going for u. I’m sure you have tried it all but you never know! Sometimes another set of eyes.

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi Gwydion,
You actually did help me one time (the first time it died on me) over Discord. I was using Teamspeak and VB Cables and we couldn't figure out how it started working again but something we did worked. We got it working for about a month and it died again. I'm up for possibly changing to voicemeeter - really hasn't been something I thought about - I just haven't been using my Syrinscape during the games (although the Master/Minion seems promising). Hmmm....

[Gwydion]

Hi Gwydion,
You actually did help me one time (the first time it died on me) over Discord. I was using Teamspeak and VB Cables and we couldn't figure out how it started working again but something we did worked. We got it working for about a month and it died again. I'm up for possibly changing to voicemeeter - really hasn't been something I thought about - I just haven't been using my Syrinscape during the games (although the Master/Minion seems promising). Hmmm....

lol.... That's right! I do remember... Yes, master/minion does seem promising.

[Gwydion]

Just FYI, I just posted a video on my youtube channel showing how I am using cleanfeed to stream sounds. I hope it is helpful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZf9RXvKU5s&t=5s

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Coming a little late to this thread, but I'm still trying to work through streaming Syrinscape. I am not a subscriber, just did the one-time purchase of some sound packs, so as far as I know, master/minion does not work for me. However, I'm on a Mac, and I don't think I can use voicemeeter either. Is cleanfeed possible to use without virtual audio cables, or do you know another way to do this on the Mac?

[Gwydion]

Hey Gozer. Unfortunately I'm not sure how you could stream syrinscape (assuming you have other computer sounds and are using voice with Discord or TS or something) without an audio routing solution like Voicemeeter. The problem is cleanfeed will capture whatever output you tell it to but if you only have one output on your computer then it would pass all sound including voice that is going into discord as an example which would cause echo issues.

I don't work with Mac's at all but I've seen other products like Soundflower that maybe are worth looking into that function like voicemeeter I think? Good luck. Wish I could be more helpful.

[i3ullseye]

Have you taken a look at Soundpad? It is available on Steam.... and also...

https://leppsoft.com/soundpad/en/

I haven;t used it much yet because I haven't started actually running my campaign yet. But in tinkering with it, it seems pretty streamlined and effective. Takes all the guesswork and overhead of audio joiner software and stuff out of the equation. It just very simply gives you a soundboard and audio player that merges it's output with whatever chat output your are using at the time.

I am playing with the idea of scripting my Launchpad to trigger things, and have it light up and be color coded for easy reference, but that's another discussion hehe.

[dmbrown]

I have a Mac and i have used discord with syrinscape and I routed the audio using this: https://staticz.com/soundsiphon/

They have a 14 day trial so you can test it out and there is a coupon for 10% so it would cost $45.

[Bidmaron]

Save the$45 toward buying Parallels. Then you can do everything just exactly like you can on a PC (including full syrinscape)