This is a complete “Howto” with the best settings to quickstart a basic webradio station with a playlist, smart crossfades and autodj rotation. We assume, that you install this on a domain “radio.yourdomain.com“.
Setup Icecast2
Install Icecast. During installation you will be asked for some passwords. Write them down, because you will need it for liquidsoap!
apt-get install icecast2
After installation you will find your configuration in “/etc/icecast2/icecast.xml”. It is a xml file, so you can change all later and modify to your needs.
Edit “/etc/default/icecast2” and insert this:
# Change this to true when done to enable the init.d script ENABLE=true
Start Icecast:
/etc/init.d/icecast2 start
You will see your radio page on http://radio.yourdomain.com:8000
Stop Icecast:
/etc/init.d/icecast2 stop
That’s it, that was the easy part 🙂
Setup NGINX (as a proxy)
Install:
apt-get install nginx
Now open http://radio.yourdomain.com and you will see a nginx welcome page. Yeah! But we need some proxying and not a webserver. So let’s go deeper now.
Edit the file “/etc/nginx/sites-available/default” and replace all with this (replace radio.yourdomain.com with your domain):
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name radio.yourdomain.com;
access_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/reverse-error.log;
location / {
proxy_pass http://localhost:8000;
}
}
Restart nginx now, we want to activate the changes:
/etc/init.d/nginx restart
Voila, you see your webradio page on http://radio.yourdomain.com. You do not need the port number anymore.
But we need SSL/https support, so let’s go to the next part.
Setup Certbot and SSL
Enable the universe repository:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install software-properties-common sudo add-apt-repository universe sudo apt-get update
Install certbot:
sudo apt-get install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
Start certbot:
sudo certbot --nginx
- You will be asked to type a number: Chose 1 to activate SSL on “radio.yourdomain.com”
- When you are asked, if you want a redirect, chose “2: Redirect”
- Finally you will see the changes in “/etc/nginx/sites-available/default”
Restart nginx:
/etc/init.d/nginx restart
Update the webbrowser and you will be automatically redirected to “https://radio.yourdomain.com”. Voila, you have successfully enabled an icecast webradio with https support.
Liquidsoap 1.4.1 (the “auto dj”)
Main setup:
apt-get install liquidsoap
And some additonal plugins and tools:
apt-get install libaudio2 libbluray-bdj libcamomile-ocaml-dev libfftw3-bin libfftw3-dev libgd-tools libvisual-0.4-plugins jackd2 liblo-dev file opus-tools pulseaudio libraw1394-doc librsvg2-bin lm-sensors serdi sndiod sordi libsox-fmt-all speex festival mplayer youtube-dl libaacs0 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-bin gstreamer1.0-plugins-base librsvg2-common va-driver-all vdpau-driver-all mesa-vulkan-drivers vulkan-icd vorbis-tools vorbisgain
This has to be done, so the libs are also automatically loaded by Liquidsoap:
mkdir /usr/share/liquidsoap/1.4.1 mv /usr/share/liquidsoap/libs /usr/share/liquidsoap/1.4.1/libs mv /usr/share/liquidsoap/bin /usr/share/liquidsoap/1.4.1/bin
Add a folder for your playlist, music and configuration:
mkdir /etc/liquidsoap mkdir /etc/liquidsoap/daemon touch /etc/liquidsoap/daemon/pid.txt
Save this as “/etc/liquidsoap/crossfade.liq”:
# Crossfade between tracks,
# taking the respective volume levels
# into account in the choice of the
# transition.
# @category Source / Track Processing
# @param ~start_next Crossing duration, if any.
# @param ~fade_in Fade-in duration, if any.
# @param ~fade_out Fade-out duration, if any.
# @param ~width Width of the volume analysis window.
# @param ~conservative Always prepare for
# a premature end-of-track.
# @param s The input source.
def smart_crossfade (~start_next=5.,~fade_in=3.,
~fade_out=3., ~width=2.,
~conservative=false,s)
high = -20.
medium = -32.
margin = 4.
fade.out = fade.out(type="sin",duration=fade_out)
fade.in = fade.in(type="sin",duration=fade_in)
add = fun (a,b) -> add(normalize=false,[b,a])
log = log(label="smart_crossfade")
def transition(a,b,ma,mb,sa,sb)
list.iter(fun(x)->
log(level=4,"Before: #{x}"),ma)
list.iter(fun(x)->
log(level=4,"After : #{x}"),mb)
if
# If A and B and not too loud and close,
# fully cross-fade them.
a <= medium and
b <= medium and
abs(a - b) <= margin
then
log("Transition: crossed, fade-in, fade-out.")
add(fade.out(sa),fade.in(sb))
elsif
# If B is significantly louder than A,
# only fade-out A.
# We don't want to fade almost silent things,
# ask for >medium.
b >= a + margin and a >= medium and b <= high
then
log("Transition: crossed, fade-out.")
add(fade.out(sa),sb)
elsif
# Do not fade if it's already very low.
b >= a + margin and a <= medium and b <= high
then
log("Transition: crossed, no fade-out.")
add(sa,sb)
elsif
# Opposite as the previous one.
a >= b + margin and b >= medium and a <= high
then
log("Transition: crossed, fade-in.")
add(sa,fade.in(sb))
# What to do with a loud end and
# a quiet beginning ?
# A good idea is to use a jingle to separate
# the two tracks, but that's another story.
else
# Otherwise, A and B are just too loud
# to overlap nicely, or the difference
# between them is too large and
# overlapping would completely mask one
# of them.
log("No transition: just sequencing.")
sequence([sa, sb])
end
end
cross(width=width, duration=start_next,
conservative=conservative,
transition,s)
end
Save this as “/etc/liquidsoap/main.liq” and modify it according to your needs. Copy a default mp3 to “/etc/liquidsoap/music/default.mp3”, this will be the fallback for your radio if something goes wrong. Replace “hackme” with the Icecast2 source password.
set("init.allow_root",true)
set("init.daemon.pidfile.path", "/etc/liquidsoap/daemon/pid.txt")
set("init.daemon",true)
%include "crossfade.liq"
myplaylist = playlist(reload=43200,"playlist.pls")
security = single("/etc/liquidsoap/music/default.mp3")
radio = myplaylist
radio = normalize(radio)
radio = smart_crossfade(start_next=8., fade_in=6., fade_out=6., width=2., conservative=true, radio)
radio = fallback(track_sensitive = false, [radio, security])
output.icecast(%vorbis.cbr(samplerate=44100, channels=2, bitrate=128),host = "localhost", port = 8000, password = "hackme", mount = "/stream",name="My cool webradio name", description="A nice description for my webradio",radio)
Now copy all your mp3 files into ” /etc/liquidsoap/music” and run this command to generate a playlist file:
find /etc/liquidsoap/music -type f > /etc/liquidsoap/playlist.pls
If you want to use “ogg” and convert all your mp3 files to ogg, use this:
apt-get install dir2ogg dir2ogg -r /etc/liquidsoap/music
Start Liquidsoap with this command:
liquidsoap /etc/liquidsoap/main.liq
Stop Liquidsoap:
killall liquidsoap
