kk2002

>I am currently checking out Radio D-Dur; from what I have seen thus far, it appears to be the finest classical music radio station on this planet! Unfortunately, however, I do not speak the Czech language; decrypting the programming and musical programming is not easy, even though my educational background, linguistic aptitude, and musical knowledge are proving to be very helpful. I wish that this operation would publish the musical program schedule in English, if not also the time zone translations for key cities around the world. Agreed, musicone, it's a barrier to international understanding, but one shouldn't look a gift- horse in the mouth! At least they offer a round-the-clock schedule (which is about 95% reliable) in which the names of the composers are the same as in other languages, and much of the rest can be figured out. In doubftul cases, an online Czech-English dictionary may help. >This URL finder unfortunately does not work for Musiq3. If you have a _recording URL_ for this radio station, I would be very happy to have it... Musiq3 has an irritating habit of changing the stream URL almost daily, can't think why. Best to go the the site and start it up from there ("écoutez en directe" at the top right-hand corner of the homepage). >I also listened to Bartok Radio 4, which is excellent. There is a 256 kbps recording URL (actually an archive): Beware: Bartók Radio often caps the connection after 30 minutes I could not find any recording URL for (Norway) Alltids Klassisk, or for (Austria) Radio Stephansdom. Do you have something? Alltids: mms://straumr.nrk.no/nrk_radio_alltid_klassisk_h Stephansdom: http://srvhost24.serverhosting.apa.net:8000/rsdstream128 Here's the trick: on the radio station's homepage, click on the "listen live" URL and copy it with Strg+c. Open VLC Media Player and select "open network stream". A dialogue box will open. Paste the URL on the bottom line, overwriting the "udp//@" that's already there. After a brief search, VLC Media Player will tune in to the station. Go to "View -> Stream and media info ->". There you will find the actual streaming URL, which you can copy and paste into the streaming software of your choice. >I am unaware of any such "limitation" in the Frequency Modulation process. This sounds strange to me. Do you have any reliable technical reference that explains what this is about? Although I have not been involved in the design of FM systems, I have difficulty accepting this, since I can see no reason for it. Are you _sure_ that this is not an "old wive's tale"? Unless you happen to live close to an original transmitter, as likely as not the FM broadcast will reach your local transmittor by HQ land-line. The frequency range on these, at least in Europe, does not allow for much over 12kHz. Almost every station also limits the dynmaic range too, for the sake of motorists etc., who woudn't hear anything at all at very low levels, and to prevent clipping at higher dynamic levels. Finally a new URL to add to my list: Bayern4, the Bavarian Radio's classical music station, has just returned in HQ sound after an absence of several weeks. Its a mp3-based transmission at 192kB, 44.100Hz, offering much classical music during the day, and non-stop (except for newscasts every two hours) from midnight to 6 a.m. CET. Here's the streaming URL: http://www.dabmon.de:8000/stream/17.mp2 Happy listening! kk

You can tune in to HQ round-the-clock classical broadcasts via Internet in several European countries. One of the finest and most reliable is Radio D-Dur in the Czech Republic. Try the OGG 256kB or WMA 196kB channel at http://www.rozhlas.cz/d-dur/english From Holland there's even a (mostly) classical channel in 5.1 surround sound at an amazing 384kB: mms://livemedia.omroep.nl/concertzender-5channel as well as five 2-channel classical stations (baroque, classic, contemporary, jazz and non-European) in very fine 128kB quality. HQ classical transmissions are also available from Belgium (musiq3), Austria (Radio Stephansdom), Hungary (Bartók Radio) and Norway (Alltids Klassisk), all of which offer better quality sound than FM or cable radio. Reason: there's no high-frequency cut-off (FM tapers off around 12 kHz, sometimes even lower) and there's no need to limit the dynamic range (most FM transmitters do this to prevent distortion). Turn on a VU-meter on your computer and you'll see that on a FM broadcast, "silence" comes over at around -30dB. With online radio, the same "silence" usually clocks in at -60dB or even lower. Musikone is right (as ever): anything below 128kB is less than CD quality, and doesn't really come into consideration for classical music. Also, the quality of compression varies widely. I have listed the stations that, imho, offer the best quality sound. ogg usually sounds better than mp3 (on line, at least). wma, which is much used, is good too. Real Audio is widespread (the BBC uses it exclusively, for example), but cannot compete for sound quality with the ones I have mentioned. Navigating the home pages is an art in itself, but many stations offer at least an overview page in English. For further URLs, go to http://delicast.com which offers a worldwide overview of all genres of online radio and podcasts, also of online TV.

With all due respect, Windows Vista cancels the download itself. This is a problem that NCH will have to address very soon, should in fact have already addressed, since Vista has been with us for several months now. As a new user, the problem with saving and loading flac files has been driving me crazy, because I use them all the time, to save disc space. It's partly a Vista thing. WavePad downloads filters from the Internet and tries to install them into C:\Program Files. But unless you happen to be running the program as Adminstrator (which is not recommended!), that doesn't work. What's more, the flac filters provided by NCH don't work with Vista. Here's a workaround. Acquire a copy of "flac.exe" (it's freeware and available from numerous sources). Copy it into C:\Program Files\NCH Swift Sound\Components\flacdec (under Vista, you have to give yourself Administrator's rights to do this). Then delete "flacdec.exe" in that folder, as provided by NCH, and change the name of the new file from "flac.exe" to "flacdec.exe". Do the same, again using "flac.exe", in the folder C:\...\flacdec, this time changing the file-name to "flacenc.exe". Bingo.