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Scott Studios SS32

J

JetBlack1015

Guest
I am helping a friend launch a station from scratch, the rest of the cluster has SS32 that is brand new as of last year, they moved up from DOS SS.

Does anyone know where I can learn more about the program, I have limited experience with it, in fact the last time I used it was in 2000 when it was still a DOS based program.

The dMarc website offers very little.
 
SS32 is not that different than the DOS version to operate. Try to download the manuals (have your SS rep give you the link). The change from DOS was really painless for the jocks. Merge basically works the same.

BTW, I hear dMark is re-writing the SS32 from the first line of code. It's interesting that the last ss32.exe version they released was much smaller (mb wise) than the previous ones.
 
The audio from the Scott/dMark furnished equipment is terrible. We used .wav files before, and the stations sparkled on the dial. Clean, crisp, bright. Now thay sound like AM Stereo on a bad day. The highs seem to roll off around 12k. The bass line is mud, almost synthisized. No change in the Omnia settings. The problem is, it sounds bad even in program line. GIGO. It's the mp2 coding. mp3's are grainy enough.
 
The audio from the Scott/dMark furnished equipment is terrible. We used .wav files before, and the stations sparkled on the dial. Clean, crisp, bright. Now thay sound like AM Stereo on a bad day. The highs seem to roll off around 12k. The bass line is mud, almost synthisized. No change in the Omnia settings. The problem is, it sounds bad even in program line. GIGO. It's the mp2 coding. mp3's are grainy enough.
 
You have a choice of wav or mp2. SS32 will do both. We simply copied all the mp2 over from the DOS and haven't had the problem you're describing. All new music goes in as wav tho.

IF the audio was NOT the mp2 (can't for the life of me remember what the codec is called that some DOS SS used) and was converted to mP2 or wav in TLC then it will sound like crap. Not the fault of the SS32.
 
MP2 vs. WAV vs. MP3

The audio from Scott MP2's is significantly better than any MP3 if you're broadcasting in analog. In case you're not familiar with compression algorithms, MP2 is designed for video, and is a less lossy scheme than MP3. WAV is not compressed, and is better than MP2, but also requires more bandwidth for transfer, and more hard drive space for storage. The difference between original material stored as MP2 or WAV is not as you describe.

Of course, your original audio can suck before you encode it as MP2 or WAV. Also, if you're running digital, you're adding another layer of compression to an already compressed file. That can create artifacts and audio issues, which is why you want an uncompressed format for digital.

On top of it all, the crap that is coming out on CD these days has the dynamic range of a brick. Even if you rip it into a WAV file at a high bit rate (like 44.1K), with good quantization (like 16 bit or 24 bit), it will still sound like clipped and compressed crap because the original waveform is clipped and compressed crap. Radio stations that play a variety of rock music that ranges from the '70s to current have real problems because too many artist today want their CDs to sound "like the radio". That means that studio engineers add compression and clipping and a whole range of processing to the original CD sound. Add more compression and clipping and processing, and you get muddy bass, chopped highs, and lots of digital artifacts. Rip it into a 128 bps MP3, and it will sound like satellite audio, which sucks.
 
Gentlemen, thank you for the info! I'll take it to the corner office. Would everything need to be ripped again if we want to use .wav sted mp2?
 
amfmsw said:
Gentlemen, thank you for the info! I'll take it to the corner office. Would everything need to be ripped again if we want to use .wav sted mp2?
Click to expand...

Although there are programs that can batch convert your MP2s to WAV, you'd be creating WAVs from an inferior source. The better option is to re-rip everything from CD to CD quality WAV - 44.1KHz 16-bit. Make sure you've got plenty of hard drive space.

While you're at it, you'll probably want to "normalize" the WAVs to a set standard so the dynamic range is consistent from cut-to-cut. That way, the processing will have a similar effect from cut-to-cut.
 
JUST been through this. Took all new audio, totally from CD and re-ripped without any encoding in the system.

1000 songs took about 38 gigs off the HD. Not that much, when you think about it....and TOTALLY worth it for overall clarity, punch, and dial presence.
 
The DOS Version used APT-X codec. One of the best codec's, It is capable of stacking several generations without too much degradation. APT-X is used in several digital boxes. Intraplex uses it as well as Moseley on the DSP6000 gear. The only thing I hated about the DOS Scott was the audio cards had a special code that only a few at Scott could get out of Dave Scott himself. If you lost your hard drives, you would have to wait untill someone at Scott could get the codes from your serial # on the cards to make the init string. The DOS Scott was one of the most stable of the platforms I have ever worked with. Can't say anything bad about our Prophet NexGen either, It has been up for over 250 days without a re-boot.
 
Trying to find out the last version of SS32 is. We have V 6.??
We like the program. Most of our issues have been hardware. W/O is going to continue tech support indefinitely. Any thoughts of it running on Win 10? Stay with Win 7? Thank you.
 
Randy Roadz said:
Trying to find out the last version of SS32 is. We have V 6.??
We like the program. Most of our issues have been hardware. W/O is going to continue tech support indefinitely. Any thoughts of it running on Win 10? Stay with Win 7? Thank you.
Click to expand...
You referenced WideOrbit in your post above. They may be your best bet if you don't get answers here. Keep in mind that this discussion thread you've resurrected is from 2006, so it's 15 years old now. Dub Irvin is still listed on WideOrbits website, he was deeply involved with SS32 when he was at Scott Studios and may be the best person to start with - though again, that platform is so old now, the exact questions he and others can quickly help you with may be limited, simply due to the passage of time and their familiarity with newer programs.
 
Personally, I would look at Rivendell which is SS32/WO rewritten in Linux and it's free. Lots of support on the Rivendell FB group. It looks and works just like SS32..but with Linux, is better..and I think it can play more types of audio and use regular sound cards instead of just ASI
 
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