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[FSX / P3D] Custom Radio Chatter / sound files

roger-wilco-66

roger-wilco-66

Messages
221
Country
germany
Hi,

I searched up and down the net but found nothing and thought I might as well ask here.

So I am out for an application that can feed custom audio files into the sim by the means of the user switching to a pre-defined COM channel.

I somehow seem to remember that there was a small freeware application that did something like this a few years ago, but I lost that information. I think it's main purpose was to feed live atc into the sim, however, it was also possible to play local audio files.

Hints are most welcome :)

Cheers,
Mark
 
Gman

Gman

Messages
554
Country
us-california
I used to just have LiveATC.net open and selected the nearest feed to where I was flying, but the dinosaur computer I have now wouldn't handle it well, and I usually shut down everything from internet to antivirus when I run FSX now.

The program mentioned above sounds good, but would require internet. One of the features it mentioned was the ability to play prerecorded ATC feeds, which reminded me of a program I found for playing music while I fly called radiocd4. It is a gauge which is installed to any aircraft you want to use it in, and it has AM, FM, and a CD player too. When I say AM/FM, I am referring to 6 buttons AM, and 6 buttons FM, all of which can be programmed for an mp3 file in the appropriate folder, and the mp3's can be as long as you wish. I made mp3 tracks in Soundbooth with 10 country songs, 10 pop songs, 10 classical songs, 10 oldies, etc, etc, and assigned each to its own button. It works really well, and even has its own volume knob.
The only drawback in making longer files, is that there is no forward or reverse search function for the AM FM buttons. There is also a CD player, which I have never used, which I believe does have search functions, but I have seen people comment that the CD player was a hit on FPS.

So now, I may just look into recording some long ATC feeds and plugging them into my radiocd4, which would make the lack of forward/reverse a non-issue.

I think radiocd4 was originally made for FS9, maybe even fs2002, but it works perfectly in my FSX-SE.

It used to be available at all the usual places but I think it is now only at Fly Away Simulation. Just Google "radiocd4 Fly Away Simulation" for the link to radiocd4.zip.

Hope this helps, once you organize the mp3's, it works very nicely.
Cheers
Gman
 
Last edited:
Gman

Gman

Messages
554
Country
us-california
As a followup to my previous post, I tuned into Phoenix Sky Harbor tower this afternoon at LiveATC.net, and used a video screen capture program to record a .wmv of an hour of tower comms. I then popped it into Soundbooth and converted it to an .mp3 file, and replaced one of my button assignments on the radiocd4 player. It worked really well.

The fact that it is Phoenix tower is not too much of an issue when flying in a different area, its not like they mention Phoenix all that often, and although they are assigning the Sky Harbor Rwys, as general purpose background chatter it works just fine.

If you like flying choppers, many of the larger airports have separate frequencies for helicopter traffic, which provides appropriate chopper chatter.

The biggest problem with recording the live feeds, is that they don't necessarily have a feed for the airport/area you are interested in. I often fly between Los Angeles and San Francisco, so I may see about recording a half hour in LA, and a half hour in San Francisco, and maybe even find some departure/approach feed in between.

When the files are conveniently named and placed in the same folder, I can easily change from one area to another on the fly (so to speak) by right clicking a button on the player. which opens a browser to the appropriate folder. What is cool about converting the recordings in Soundbooth, is that you can dial up or down on the chatter by adding or removing space between the transmissions, and you can also pump up the volume as loud as you like, because while you can easily adjust it down in radiocd4, it will only be as loud as it was when it was recorded.

radiocd4 is a viable option for background chatter.

Cheers
Gman
 
Gman

Gman

Messages
554
Country
us-california
Well, as a followup to my followup, I looked around at LiveATC.net and got familiar with the archives.

THIS, is the way to go when using radiocd4. They have .mp3's for pretty much all active feeds covering the previous 30 days, which are recorded in 30 min segments. So compared to recording an hour of feed at one airport, in about a half hour or less today I downloaded .mp3 files for 1.5 hours each of KSNA tower, SOCAL approach, NORCAL approach, and KSFO tower. In another 40 minutes, I had added the three files for each area together in Soundbooth, cropped out dead air, and bumped up the volume ending up with four files around 75 mb each, 70 to 90 min each.(since radiocd4 loops the selected .mp3 files, the repeat of a single half hour segment would probably not be noticed, saving the user any need for Soundbooth processing)

I was thinking I could add two more files for the KSNA and KSFO ATIS for the same time segments, put all in a folder and have a pretty cool setup for flights between those two airports. With enough prerecorded files, I could tune my radiocd4 buttons to whichever tower/ATIS/APP/DEP/Ground I might need for all of my favorite flights by right clicking that button and browsing to the appropriate file.

I checked out the link above, and the video explaining how it worked was in French, and I believe it can be configured to provide the actual live feeds from the airport. However, since the user can't interface with the tower, and it uses additional computing power/internet, I am not sure what the advantage of live feeds would be. The interface certainly looks more like an aircraft radio. I think it too can be configured to use the archived .mp3's, so maybe I will figure out how to bring up the English subtitles in the intro video and see if I can get the program running for comparison with radiocd4.

It's just that I already have radiocd4 installed and it only takes a moment to switch from my music files to the airport feeds and back again, but I will take one for the team and try Live ATC Autoplay nonetheless.

I did use the Phoenix recording for a relaxing sunset cruise around the greater Phoenix area last night, it was definitely an interesting addon for flying around the city, I think I will do the same for the city by the bay tonight.

Cheers
Gman
 
DaveW

DaveW

Messages
15
Country
ca-ontario
roger-wilco-66 said:
Hi,

I searched up and down the net but found nothing and thought I might as well ask here.

So I am out for an application that can feed custom audio files into the sim by the means of the user switching to a pre-defined COM channel.

I somehow seem to remember that there was a small freeware application that did something like this a few years ago, but I lost that information. I think it's main purpose was to feed live atc into the sim, however, it was also possible to play local audio files.

Hints are most welcome :)

Cheers,
Mark
Click to expand...


Take a look at FSChatter Live.
 
scotth6

scotth6

Messages
527
Country
australia
I just tried this out tonight after downloading it from Avsim. It has a free 30 day trial, and then it is $10 to register. I was pretty impressed by it, although not that many frequencies and locations are covered. I'm not sure if it can be expanded. To be honest you could probably just listen to live feeds in the background straight from the net, or create your own library of recorded streams as Gman has done, but it is cool how this program integrates it in to the FSX/P3D ATC. It's worth a look at the very least.

I would like to see more areas covered, but that must be dependant on public availability of live streams.

Cheers,
 
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