streaming music

[Shep49]

Hello I have an IMac with a 3.4 gh quad processor and 8 g of ram and a vid card with 2 g of it's own memory. I enjoy music rooms and I was wondering if there is a way to stream music properly so I can play tunes in the chat rooms from my Mac?

 

[chas_m]

without a lot more detail about what you mean by "rooms" and "chat rooms" I really couldn't begin to offer any useful advice.

 

[pendlewitch]

Hello I have an IMac with a 3.4 gh quad processor and 8 g of ram and a vid card with 2 g of it's own memory. I enjoy music rooms and I was wondering if there is a way to stream music properly so I can play tunes in the chat rooms from my Mac?

I'm not sure you can do that if you mean an online chat room.

chas_m is right.

Have you checked out Ping in iTunes?

If you mean streaming it to different rooms in your house then there are quite a few ways of doing it.

 

[synctek]

Ok - I would be curious to know what apps are out there for hosting streaming audio from the MAC (specifically Leopard). I just figured out how to share iTunes over the LAN at home to another PC with iTunes - that is a very cool native feature. Does anyone know of an app for Android to stream iTunes (yes he said Android on a mac forum)?

 

[Shep49]

Playing Music in Chat rooms

I ended up buying a new computer iMac 27" 3.4 G processor and 8 Gbytes of RAM with a Video Card with 2 Gbytes of its own memory. I downloaded Sound Flower bed and started using that. My High speed internet is fine . I use Airport Extreme Wireless Router. However the problem of Breaking while i play the music still persists. I am at a loss here as to why this is happening.

 

[chas_m]

Still no idea what you mean by "chat rooms."

With respect, maybe you could try directly responding to the comments posted by others so far rather than just repeating your original post, though I do appreciate your posting some stats on your Mac, that's helpful.

 

[Shep49]

Definition of a chat room

Ok I am a member of a chat site called paltalk. it is a huge social chat site. There are many different rooms. I like to sign in and enter the music rooms to get new tunes and to chat. I like to play music but every time I try the sound breaks and I cannot figure out why. Does this answer your question? Thanks Shep. I use a program called Paltalk Express built for mac users. If you wish to check out exactly what I mean here is the link Cam to Cam Video Chat for Free | Paltalk

 

[chas_m]

Ah yes, that's MUCH MUCH better thank you! I had no idea that Paltalk existed, now I understand much better what you are talking about.

Okay so bear with me a little bit Shep, I still have a few questions, but I want to help if I can so if you don't mind:

1. I'm not clear on whether you're streaming music FROM your iMac or TO your iMac and (if the latter) where the music is originating. I imagine you mean you're playing music from (presumably iTunes) on your iMac and sending it wirelessly to some speakers somewhere via the Airport Extreme. Do I have that right?

2. You have a super-powerful machine there and lots of RAM so I'm pretty confident that you're streaming music FROM the iMac then the iMac is *not* the problem. So the next thing I would suspect is the network. Are you using 802.11g or 802.11n? Other than iTunes streaming and the chat, is anything else that might be using bandwidth running in the background? Are you using the video chat or just regular "typing" chat (video of course takes up a lot of bandwidth)?

3. Related to the question about 802.11 -- how old is that Airport Extreme?

If you're using 802.11g and trying to do both music streaming and video chat, that could be the problem right there.

 

[Shep49]

Re Info

Hi First of all thanks a lot for trying to help me. I appreciate it very much. My Airport Extreme Router is pretty new. I purchased it last summer. Its a very nice unit. It is the 802.11 N Wi-Fi=. It was Apples top one at the time. What I meant by streaming music? Maybe streaming was the wrong choice of words. When I enter the chat room on Paltalk I just would like to play music from my iTunes into the chat room for other users to listen to.However when I attempt it it works for a minute then it starts to break or skip. Most users play music through their sound cards but Macs can't seem to do that. That is why I downloaded Sound Flower Bed. It is a virtual sound card that allows mac users to play the music in a chat room with out going through the mic. I do understand that using video will deter the quality of the sound because it uses up the bandwidth. When I try and play I do not use my web cam at all. However other users in the chat room have theirs on. I should have sufficient Bandwidth as I pay for High Speed Internet.I will contact my provider and check to see what I have. I am wondering if it could be a router issue.I hope this clears some of the questions .

 

[synctek]

I have limited experience with MAC but I would def be curious to know what your internet connection is. streaming music doesn't typically take a huge amount of upload and I would think if you had at least 1MB up streaming wouldnt be an issue. The skipping - at first glance - sounds like a bandwidth issue but if you have a PC I would suggest a test from the MS side of the tracks. I think that would help you rule out bandwidth.

The other test is the Router - are you connected to it via wireless or CAT5? If the MAC is connected via wifi, grab an Ethernet cable and plug your MAC in temporarily and try again.

Good luck!!

Hi First of all thanks a lot for trying to help me. I appreciate it very much. My Airport Extreme Router is pretty new. I purchased it last summer. Its a very nice unit. It is the 802.11 N Wi-Fi=. It was Apples top one at the time. What I meant by streaming music? Maybe streaming was the wrong choice of words. When I enter the chat room on Paltalk I just would like to play music from my iTunes into the chat room for other users to listen to.However when I attempt it it works for a minute then it starts to break or skip. Most users play music through their sound cards but Macs can't seem to do that. That is why I downloaded Sound Flower Bed. It is a virtual sound card that allows mac users to play the music in a chat room with out going through the mic. I do understand that using video will deter the quality of the sound because it uses up the bandwidth. When I try and play I do not use my web cam at all. However other users in the chat room have theirs on. I should have sufficient Bandwidth as I pay for High Speed Internet.I will contact my provider and check to see what I have. I am wondering if it could be a router issue.I hope this clears some of the questions .

 

[pbounds]

Playing Music in Chat rooms

I ended up buying a new computer iMac 27" 3.4 G processor and 8 Gbytes of RAM with a Video Card with 2 Gbytes of its own memory. I downloaded Sound Flower bed and started using that. My High speed internet is fine . I use Airport Extreme Wireless Router. However the problem of Breaking while i play the music still persists. I am at a loss here as to why this is happening.

Several issues you are dealing with Shep... This is coming from an Apple guy that has been supporting Imacs, MACs, iPads, iPhones, all the way be to the Mackintosh days. While Apple devides are great for many technical and marketing software applications, and iTunes does a great job of streamin and playing music locally or from the cloud, there are other variables I will list individually below:

(1) AirPort Extreme obsolete? It was a wireless router that supported 802.11n of Wi-Fi and could be used as a print and storage server as well. But then in 2016, we saw Apple's last version of the AirPort extreme, and it was fully off the shelves by 2018. AIrports are EOL by Apple by many years.

(2) Run speedtest.net from your browser what is your up/down Mbps? Audio AND Video are highly dependant on up and down speeds. This is also limited by connecting speeds with the Wireless chip in your iMac and the outdated wireless receiver in your Airport. Get a network cable and connect it to the Airport and see is the dropouts subside.

(3) Also, the placement of where your Airport is in relation to where your iPad is locatedcould also be a contributing factor, strenght of signal and the connection between those two, Aiport being near your ISP box, and your home office and imac being on the oppostire side or upsairs could be casuing the dropouts and reconnects.

(4) Next let's go over another aspect of your new iMac. while the 'helper' at the Apple store, or whoever you read or listened to, CPU, RAM, and Cores, we'll leave out SATA or NVME drives ATM), all must work in triple to give your system the best performance. When I am explaining this to most 'lay' people, is and this goes for Windows AND Apple systems, I use the analogy/comparison to your car our in the driveway. The CPU is the engine under the hood, the hard drive is the trunk space where your store your suitcases or files to go on a trip, and the Cores represent the cylinders in your engine. Sure, a 4 cylinder car can get up to 70 mph on the freeway, but an 8,10,12 cylinder car will outrun you getting up to speed on the entrance ramp of the freeway... Next, the RAM is analagous to the gas you put in your tank. You can have a vehicle with a great motor under the hood, (in your case 3.4 GHz), and the number of cylinders in realtion to the horsepower or multiple jobs/ things devices you can run concurrently (new MACs and iMacs can be 8,10,14,16 cores). BUT, with not enough gas in the tank it does not matter what size motor you have, or cylinders in your engine, it's the petrol that will get you 'down the road'. That 8G of RAM (or 8 gallons of gas you put in your tank), is not adequate for today's multi-faceted programs you may be running concurrently while wanting to stream music within paltalk.

(5) Now all of that being said, hardware wise, let's turn to the ISP, After you've connected your iMac to the Airport with an RJ45 network cable, and you are still seeing dropouts, move your iMac close to your ISP's box bypassing the Airport and see if that resolves the situation, it may be the Airport is the bottelneck, if it still persists, are you using an OTA(over the air) ISP(internet service provider) solution, e.g. 5Hgz Verison, Sprint, Tmobile, AT&T wireless connection offered by your ISP and maybe that is the issue or what you've contracted for is a lower bandwidth speed from your ISP. You see I did not mention cable or fiber (wired ISP solutions), nor did I mention Starlink, or any of the other satellite OTA solutions coming from geostationary comsats up above. I also did not mention microwave or direct LOS (line of sight) solutions, which are also used out here in the Texas Hill country.

Let me also add that Paltalk, is always under constant development by their programmers, fixing some things and breaking others, and this affects iPhone and Android users, as well as Windows And MAC users as well. Invariably, they always fix fix one issue/problem and create another...

In closing, hopefully I didn't overwhelm you with things to try, but these are issues/limitations one should consider. If I did, I apologize...

Paul Bounds
Houston, TX

 

[pm-r]

Several issues you are dealing with Shep... This is coming from an Apple guy that has been supporting Imacs, MACs, iPads, iPhones, all the way be to the Mackintosh days.

I didn't read your long explanation reply above, but in case you didn't notice but the thread you are replying to was last Act of in 2012 and I'm sure the op got their problem sorted out a long time ago. This thread was current well over 12 years ago.




- Patrick
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[Rod]

Paul, thank you for your post, as stated it's a bit late for Shep49 but don't be discouraged about that. I confine myself to "New Posts" on this site but even then I've been guilty of replying to a "zombie" thread myself. Sometimes this occurs as the result of a web search referring to an old thread. The hit takes you to an old thread and you reply without checking the date. This puts the thread into "new posts" and away it goes. The give away for me was, "hosting streaming audio from the MAC (specifically Leopard)" there aren't many users still running macOS Leopard out there.
Anyhow, do check back from time to time, I'm sure there are users who could benefit from your obviously extensive Mac knowledge.

 

[pbounds]

Thanks Patrick.

A little rusty on Mac Forums. I should have checked the thread dates. too eager to help and now not able to remove my stupidity...Maybe one of the MAc Forum admins will see my error and remove the post. Thank you for the heads up!