Music streams are hard to start & Audio Hijack can't capture output
needs info
Hooten Haller
Ever since Second Life Viewer (7.1.9.10495892574) parcel music has been hard to start. It's fairly repeatable but not guaranteed. _Sometimes_ changing regions out and back will fix it. Always relogging will fix it. Coincident with this, application audio capture apps (I use Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack) are no longer able to capture SL audio output.
The impact is severe for my DJ work. Both symptoms make it very hard to monitor in-world audio.
PS I have the folks at Rogue Amoeba looking into this too, but as they use the new macOS audio capture API the solution is probably in the hands of Linden Lab and/or Apple. I am hoping you can roll back/fix whatever commit broke this.
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Spiffy Voxel
Spotted this Feedback in the weekly update email, wanted to chime in...
I use Audio Hijack here, though in my case it's for DJ-ing and broadcasting and I monitor my output locally.
I've no experienced any issues with parcel music streams not starting, either at my home or at music venues or stores, in either the official Second Life viewer or Alchemy Viewer, other than the usual 'toggle your radio' when a DJ or musician plugs their stream in at a venue.
Hooten Haller what is your system setup? I'm stuck on a 2017 iMac here with Ventura 13.7 so my Audio Hijack is an older version — the newer ones require Sonoma or Sequoia as they use different audio capture system, which I suspect might be behind the other issue you're having. (I'll note that Rogue Amoeba tech-support have been stellar when I had upgrade issues in the past, glad to hear they're on this too.)
Not sure why you're capturing the radio stream, however, unless it's due to the official viewer not showing stream info? (One big reason why I use Alchemy Viewer as my primary.)
Caleb Linden
I gave Hijack a quick spin with 7.1.10.10800445603. My set up was as follows: I set the Music URL (About Land -> Sound -> Music URL) on my parcel to a radio stream (https://radio.intergalactic.fm/2). Confirmed music is playing while in the parcel and stopped playing when exiting the parcel. On Hijack i had the Application (Second Life Viewer) routed through a Recorder and passed on to an Output Device.
I confirmed signal is picked up because the Recorder was able to capture a short piece of audio while recording. Let me know how you set up Hijack
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden I made a very simple session: Application source (SL Viewer) ► Peak/RMS meter ► Output Device (my Studio Display speakers). When there's sound captured I can see it on the meter.
Spiffy Voxel Mac mini M1, 2020 + Apple Studio Display. Running Sequoia 15.0.1, but the problem started in August when I was running Sonoma v14. MacOS 14.4 introduced a new capture API that Hijack _should_ be using; I'm checking with their support at the same time.
(I monitor the music stream so I know what the lag is (often around 30 seconds) so I can switch streams after my gig and to check for in-world issues people report from time to time. I have an in-world object that announces track info and details that even the Firestorm and Alchemy viewer don't have access to.)
Caleb Linden
Hooten Haller: Thanks I changed my Hijack config to contain the Peak meter. One thing i noticed on my setup is that i have to click on Run in Hijack (bottom left) to get the meter to show the signal input. (probably the same as your description)
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden Yes, one must click Run for anything to happen. I am about to try removing the old ACE extension to see if that makes a difference.
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden Uninstalling the old ACE extensions, using the Factory Reset button on AH, and rebooting the Mac did not make a difference. Still stumped as to why my machine is exceptional. I will try my laptop (MBP M2 Max) and my old iMac 2017 (using the old ACE extension) next when I have a moment.
Caleb Linden
Hooten Haller: I wanted to go through the scenarios when you mentioned ``
Ever since Second Life Viewer (7.1.9.10495892574) parcel music has been hard to start. It's fairly repeatable but not guaranteed. _Sometimes_ changing regions out and back will fix it. Always relogging will fix it.
`` . Which type of parcel entry shows difficulty for the music to play? * direct login to the parcel location
* walk/fly into the parcel
* teleport into the parcel location
Does this error happen mostly on first time login or does it also happen when you hang out in world for some time?
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden -I will try to pay attention to these questions over the next week or so.-
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden (Back in the saddle here.) Music stream still can't be captured. I haven't had enough failures to start music to diagnose the other problem.
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden I found _a_ way to reproduce this.
• Switch parcel music to an alternate running source stream. Your viewer can hear the alternate stream.
• Stop your own source from broadcasting.
• Switch parcel music to your (not running) source. Your viewer does not start playing because there's no broadcast.
• Start your source.
Your viewer never notices the stream has started.
(That's kind of fair enough, one doesn't want 60 viewers bombarding a streaming service to see if it is now streaming.) Toggle the viewer play button; the music will not start playing in the viewer. Toggling the mixer checkbox will not restart the stream either. These methods used to work for me. • Cross out of the parcel and back in, or TP out and back in, or Log out and log back in. The viewer will play your music source stream.
I used a Shoutcast 2 streaming service for this test.
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden Crossing out and back into a parcel does not start music. Teleporting out of the region _may_ restart music. Relogging _will usually_ restart music.
Caleb Linden
needs info
Caleb Linden
Hi Hooten, thanks for the report. I would like to confirm that Audio Hijack is not picking up signals from the SL Viewer in general, that is any sounds from Voice Chat or Object sounds etc. Or is it only music streams?
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden
Hijack can pick up Buttons, Ambient, and Sounds, but not
Music
or Media
from the current viewer (Second Life Release 7.1.10.10800445603 (64bit)). Hijack can pick up everything but Media in Second Life Viewer (7.1.9.9555137545).
(I don't use Media, so I don't care about capturing it.)
Hooten Haller
Caleb Linden The Hijack issue has self-corrected and is not a problem for me when using Second Life Release 7.1.10.10800445603 (64bit). I will continue to research the stream-start problem. I can open a new issue if you prefer.