A step-by-step guide for one way to achieve music streaming from record players, USB turntables, or other analog sources via local URL to Music Assistant (MA), Sonos or Pi Musicbox, et al on a Raspberry Pi.
So you can use this solution regardless if your vinyl record player / LP turntable (or other audio source) includes a USB interface output port with built-in USB audio codec or if you need to buy and use a stand-alone USB Audio Device for external analogue-to-digital conversion.
These solutions utilize a USB Audio Class 2.0 pipeline that can support high-definition audio formats up to 192KHz and 32bits using a standard digital audio interface.
To facilitate streaming audio from an analog vinyl record player and/or LP turntable with a built-in USB port for audio output you are going to have to have a few things:
- USB Audio Device or a record player/turntable with a built-in USB audio codec output:
If you already own a record player/turntable that only has analog audio output (.i.e. it does not have a embedded USB audio codec output) then the easiest option is to use an external stand-alone USB Audio Device for analogue-to-digital conversion.
USB Audio Device adds the analog line-in interface ports and ADC (analogue-to-digital converter) that is needed for capturing the raw audio from your analog audio source (e.g. vinyl record player/turntable or cassette player) and make the analog audio stream available for streaming.
- Behringer UFO202 (with pre-amp)
- Behringer UCA222 (without pre-amp, replaces the UCA202)
- Behringer UCA202 (without pre-amp)
- ART USB Phono Plus (a standalone pre-amp with USB interface that needs external power-suppy).
- IK Multimedia iRig Stream (without pre-amp)
- IK Multimedia iRig Stream Pro (with pre-amp)
- Another option as ADC instead of a USB Audio Device that should provide the same function but have not been tested here are HiFiBerry's ANALOG INPUT products like "HIFIBERRY DAC+ ADC PRO", "HIFIBERRY DAC2 ADC PRO", or "HIFIBERRY DAC+ ADC" as input. As a bonus those should provide a very clean and almost the look of an all-in-one commercial appliance:
Note! If your record player/turntable does not have a built-in pre-amp for analog output then you either need to buy specifically a USB Audio Device with pre-amp (or a seperate phono preamp to put inline) as otherwise you will not get a signal that has been amplified enough to allow good digitalization.
The alternative to above is to simply buy and use a "USB turntable" which is a vinyl record player that already has embedded USB audio codec output, like example one of these:
- Audio-Technica has several various different models of USB turntables:
- Audio-Technica AT-LP5X
- Audio-Technica AT-LP60XUSB
- Audio-Technica AT-LP120XBT-USB
- Audio-Technica AT-LP120XUSB
- Audio-Technica AT-LP60-USB
- Audio-Technica AT-LP120-USB
- ION Audio Classic LP | 3-Speed USB
- Sony PSLX300USB
- Raspberry Pi 3 (or older, but why?) with accessories like an SD-card and power-supply:
- Operating system:
Use Raspbian Jessie Lite and follow the installtion instructions below.
Grab Pi Filler to write the image file (.img) to your 2GB or larger SD card.
Download VirtualBox and the VirtualBox Extension Pack (needed for USB 2/3 SD card readers).
Download an Ubuntu VirtualBox image so we can access the EXT4 filesystem on the RPi boot card.
Load up the image, insert the microSD card, select the card reader from the VirtualBox USB menu bar icon, and edit the /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file. Add a network entry (or several) for your wi-fi network:
network={
ssid="MyWiFiNetwork"
psk="mywifinetworkpassword"
}
Eject the SD card reader from Linux and your Mac, and put the card in the RPi.
Power up your RPi, wait a minute or so, and now try sshing into the box with ssh [email protected] and the password raspberry
Change the Raspbian source repo
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
change this all to (rasbian jessie is now legacy)
deb http:https://legacy.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi
# Uncomment line below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source'
deb-src http:https://legacy.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi
Update your Raspbian install:
sudo apt-get update
Set your Raspbian system hostname by editing /etc/hostname and change raspberrypi to:
vinyl
and also the line in /etc/hosts from raspberrypi to:
127.0.1.1 vinyl
Then install a bunch of needed packages:
sudo apt-get -y install aptitude apt-utils sudo unzip autoconf libtool libtool-bin checkinstall libssl-dev libasound2-dev libmp3lame-dev libpulse-dev alsa-utils avahi-daemon darkice
We will install the darkice package, but compile it later to add AAC+ support
wget http:https://tipok.org.ua/downloads/media/aacplus/libaacplus/libaacplus-2.0.2.tar.gz
tar -xzf libaacplus-2.0.2.tar.gz
cd libaacplus-2.0.2
./autogen.sh --with-parameter-expansion-string-replace-capable-shell=/bin/bash --host=arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi --enable-static
make
sudo make install
cd ~
mkdir src
cd src
apt-get source darkice
cd darkice-1.2
./configure --with-aacplus --with-aacplus-prefix=/usr/local --with-pulseaudio --with-pulseaudio-prefix=/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf --with-lame --with-lame-prefix=/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf --with-alsa --with-alsa-prefix=/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf --with-jack --with-jack-prefix=/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf
make
sudo make install
# this section describes general aspects of the live streaming session
[general]
duration = 0 # duration of encoding, in seconds. 0 means forever
bufferSecs = 1 # size of internal slip buffer, in seconds
reconnect = yes # reconnect to the server(s) if disconnected
realtime = yes # run the encoder with POSIX realtime priority
rtprio = 3 # scheduling priority for the realtime threads
# this section describes the audio input that will be streamed
[input]
device = hw:1,0 # OSS DSP soundcard device for the audio input
sampleRate = 48000 # other settings have crackling audo, esp. 44100
bitsPerSample = 16 # bits per sample. try 16
channel = 2 # channels. 1 = mono, 2 = stereo
# this section describes a streaming connection to an IceCast2 server
# there may be up to 8 of these sections, named [icecast2-0] ... [icecast2-7]
# these can be mixed with [icecast-x] and [shoutcast-x] sections
[icecast2-0]
bitrateMode = cbr
format = mp3
# format = aacp
bitrate = 320
# bitrate = 64
server = vinyl
port = 8000
password = vinyl # or whatever you set your icecast2 password to
mountPoint = listen
name = Vinyl
description = DarkIce on Raspberry Pi
url = http:https://vinyl
genre = vinyl
public = no
localDumpFile = recording.m4a
sudo aptitude install icecast2
For the hostname, use vinyl, and for both hackme passwords, use vinyl
Then, for the admin password, set it to vinyl as well.
Note: heaven forbid you mess up the icecast2 text GUI config... you'll need to run
sudo apt-get autoremove icecast2
sudo apt-get purge icecast2
and then reinstall it
sudo aptitude install icecast2
to get that crappy GUI back... unless there's an easier, undocumented way? and even then, where are the icecast.xml config files? not in /etc/icecast2/ ...
Edit /etc/icecast2/icecast.xml and set burst-on-connect to 0 to lower latency on your local network:
<burst-on-connect>0</burst-on-connect>
These are from an Ubuntu install and don't exactly match the startup script, but they are close enough and do solve the startup problem
In /etc/init.d/darkice find:
DAEMON=/usr/bin/$NAME
and change it to the AAC+ complied version:
DAEMON=/usr/local/bin/$NAME
In /etc/init.d/darkice find:
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE \
and replace it with:
start-stop-daemon --start --quiet -m --pidfile $PIDFILE \
In /etc/init.d/darkice find:
stop_server() {
# Stop the process using the wrapper
start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE \
--exec $DAEMON
errcode=$?
add after (with the new line):
rm $PIDFILE
In /etc/init.d/darkice find:
running() {
# Check if the process is running looking at /proc
# (works for all users)
add after (with the new line):
sleep 1
In /etc/default/darkice check that you have
RUN=yes
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Add default user nobody to the audio group (in my case, to work with ALSA):
sudo adduser nobody audio
Fix upstart problem (it seems Darkice is trying to start on boot too early):
sudo update-rc.d -f darkice remove
sudo update-rc.d darkice defaults 99
It should work now, so connect your streaming client up to (http:https://vinyl.local:8000/listen.m3u) and put on a record.
On Music-Assistant, add the URL to your radio station through the GUI.
On Sonos, add your streaming turntable URL (http:https://vinyl.local:8000/listen.m3u) by adding a custom Internet radio station.
On Pi Musicbox, add the URL to your /boot/config/radiostations.js file or use the GUI.
Or switch to Volumio.
is located at (http:https://vinyl.local:8000) and is good for checking the status of connected clients
Check the temp of your RPi 3 with
/opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp
if you're running without a heatsink, best to keep it below 70C
While AAC+ is neat, on a local network you might as well stream 320Kbps MP3 for better sound quality, or if you're so inclined, uncompressed WAV
- http:https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2183222
- https://github.com/quebulm/Raspberry-Pi-Vinyl-Streamer/
- https://maker.pro/raspberry-pi/projects/how-to-build-an-internet-radio-station-with-raspberry-pi-darkice-and-icecast
- https://github.com/aschober/vinyl-cast
- https://www.instructables.com/Stream-AUX-and-Bluetooth-Through-Raspberry-Pi-to-W/
- https://dupontgu.medium.com/how-to-stream-your-record-player-throughout-your-home-for-cheap-fb044368a240
- https://www.instructables.com/Add-Aux-to-Sonos-Using-Raspberry-Pi/