how do u become shoutcaster?

So you want to be a shoutcaster? Shoutcasting is not as easy as you might think, but with hard work and good support you can reach the dizzy heights of being an internet celebrity and the thousands of hot women that will attract. This readme is from QuadV is an attempt to convince more people to give our game a shot and learn how to shoutcast.

Step 1 – Basic Tech Setup

Lots of people spend lots of money trying to achieve the perfect solution for broadcasting, however for simple online match commentary it’s simply not needed. I (Stuart Saw) am still using the same free headset I got in 2004 and a £20 USB Soundcard (simply because I cast from a laptop). It may not sound studio perfect, but it very much does the job and I’ve not had a complaint yet. Until you know that you enjoy shoutcasting, don’t waste your money with a big investment in hardware.

Software

There are a number of solutions for streaming to a shoutcast server, here is the one I use.

- Download Winamp 2.9 http://www.oldversion.com/download.php?idlong=40b37e878ab1833c7ee775b1ba55119e]HERE[/url] (Not you can do it with winamp 5 also, but 2.9 uses less system resources.

- Download the SAM Encoder
here

First install winamp and then install the encoder. You can reach the encoder from winamp by hitting CTRL + P and going down to DSP & Effect. From there you have your encoder, this is where you put your IP & Password for your streaming server and also your quality settings. To add a server, hit the + button, select MP3 & MP3Pro, under format select MP3Pro and then your quality (I use 96/44 but that’s really based on your connection).
If you don’t have a server and just want to practice shoutcasting then leave the Server Details tab as they are and go to the Stream Archive tab and select where you want to save your shoutcasts to. This will provide you a nice clean recording of all of your shoutcasts.
Make sure on your encoder you have set the sound input to be from your desired SoundCard, you can do this by pressing the top left button on the SAM Encoder (the one left of the + button) and going down to select source. If all is working correctly you should ‘see’ your voice/music in the two bars on the right.

Sound Card Settings – (Warning Vista Users, this may not work for you!!)
You’re going to want to change your soundcard settings for two reasons, firstly to make it easy to switch from playing music and talking, and secondly to collect gamesounds from your match. Why should you collect gamesounds? There are a number of reasons, firstly think of any sporting event and realise that they all take the sounds from the arenas for atmosphere and secondly because no matter how beautiful your voice is gamesounds make it sound better! Rather than being stuck with just your tones to listen to, the listener gets a mixture and thus doesn’t get bored of just one sound for a couple of hours.

To access your soundcard input settings go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Volume Control. The options that you will be presented with are different depending on your soundcard but they generally all mean the same thing.

First go to Options > Properties > Recording and instead of Microphone In you want to select ‘What You hear’ or ‘Record Master’
Then go back to the original playback tab (in Options > Properties) and unmute your Microphone. If you’ve done it correctly you’ll very quickly start hearing yourself in your headphones and that will take some getting used to!

Give yourself a quick sound check, look at the SAM Encoder and talk see how high your volume is going and then play some music and see how high that volume is going. Generally your voice should be a third louder than the music’s top volume. Then go in game and set your game sounds checking them against your voice. You may want to put the gamesounds as loud as your music, but trust me, a little game sounds go a long way! I have mine set (in a Q3 Engine game) at 0.07 and even that’s sometimes too loud! The best way to sound test yourself is to record yourself and play it back and see whether you can hear yourself.

Done? Now you’re ready to cast.


Step 2 – Your First Shoutcasts

Everyone learns at different speeds and everyone evolves at different speeds. Personally it took me 18 months to get to a stage where I thought I was acceptable, in those first 18 months, I casted a heck of a lot of matches and got a heck of a lot of flame for sounding quite dull! That is part and parcel of the job, even now some 6 years into casting I still get flamed sometimes because it’s the internet. If you’re not thick skinned enough to have your performances knocked then you’re not going to last long in casting.

I cannot stress enough though, stick to ONE game when you start casting. I started with RTCW and moved through into its sequel ET, both were games I was playing in clans. If you try to do too much to quickly you will quickly get caught out, stay in your comfort zone as long as you can, learning your trade and your art. Your second cast will sound nothing like your first cast and your tenth cast will sound nothing like your ninth, you will evolve quickly as you overcome a lot of the hurdles in front of you. Self Analysis is very important in achieving progression, make sure you’re listening to your cast and what your listeners think.

If you live at home you’re going to have to get used to not feeling weird that your family are going to ask you why you’re screaming and shouting in your room. Equally you’re going to have to get used to screaming and shouting, its very difficult to shoutcast quietly! You’re going to have to find a way to channel the enthusiasm you have for your game as a player into your voice. When you see a good play or a good shot, you’re going to have learn that instead of just saying nice job as you might on iRC, that you’re going to have to be descriptive and enthusiastic to make sure the listeners grasp that something important just happened.

The most basic lesson you need to learn quickly is not to repeat the same adjectives again and again during a casting. Bob killed Jim, Jim killed bob – there’s a whole dictionary out there filled with ways to tell you about Jim just got mutilated by the evil Bob! The easiest way to move on from this quite natural problem is to write a list of 20 different way to describe it and keep it in eyeshot when you start to cast, it may seem somewhat infant and basic, but trust me it works!

After that, stick at it and review your progress. Go back and listen to your casts and see what you like and dislike about them trying to improve upon certain aspects. Don’t be too hard on yourself as a lot of it is a case of trial and error to see what works or not.

Make sure you’re working with your community, all the games out there need casters and the communities should on the whole be grateful for your efforts. As long as you’re humble and take on board what they’ve got to say then the community sites will prove to be an invaluable resource, posting there will also of course get you listeners too, which is rather important too!

These steps should get you started

Posted by TosspoT @ crossfire.nu

http://www.gamestv.org/faq/

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and the thousands of hot women that will attract.

I'm still waiting...

hahaha no its just u:P