My station installed Salamandra automation this morning. So far works really well. I especially lie the audio processing function. The AGC does a excellent job keeping levels where they should be. I don't use the compressor portion. As I have external compressor/limiter. I like the dark theme, it's not as hard on the eyes. Seems to be really good software, so far. Will provide another update next week, when it connects to live feeds and see how well that works. Big Improvement over Zara so far at this point.
It seems I installed Salamandra years ago just messing about, but dont really remember anything about it. I've tried many but have always stuck with Zara - mainly because I didnt want to engage into a learning curve to use something else. Zara is so straight forward and simple.
But you caught my attention when you mention that Salamandra has processing built in (I no longer have any processing gear). I'm going to have to take another look at it. Is Salamandra as lightweight as Zara? You know, on system resources?
Incidentally, just came across yesterday one I never heard of which seems to have been around awhile called Xautomation that looks interesting. Its Italian, but fortunately Chrome translated the page. I was going to look into it when I get another windows pc;
https://www.radiospeaker.it/blog/software-regia-automatica-xautomation-fm/
Keep us updated on how Salamandra works out for you.
I see theres been a long discussion about Salamandra here about a year ago https://www.part15.org/community/general-discussion/salamandra-automation-update/
Are you sure we talking about the same one? Mine looks nothing like what you posted...
I see that now. Seems to be lightweight not much different in that department, that I've noticed yet...
Any big advantages to using Salamandra?
Update, It works wonderfully. After 5 days of continuous 24/7 operation, live feed connects and disconnects. I would defintely Recommend it for automation. The AGC feature is a plus.
@centinel It's based on Zara, but with more features that are very useful and more flexible.
The built-in processor allows the user to custom adjust the sound. I Recommend it's use for any station looking for a good stable flexible automation system.
@wefr Alright, I'm a little confused Roy, When I go to https://github.com/ocarolino/SalamandraRadio It looks completely different than the image you posted and it doesnt say anything about proccessor capabilities.
Ok, Although it doesnt mention it on the features page, it is shown in the releases history that in March of this year it added:
- Sound Effects: AGC, Compressor and Equalizer. They can be activated/deactivated individually and their individual parameters can also be configured.
I wonder how useful they are? Though I prefer external processing, wonder how useful this would be in a pinch. A built in stereo to mono capabilty would be cool.. not sure if any automation software has that.
I also note Roy said he's using "dark mode" which explains why his screenshot looks different than shown on the site.
I am wondering if it will run on XP? It says its comparable with Windows 7 so I'm guessing it might.
A dedicated pc with a stripped down (nlight) version of XP is the direction I'm going, it worked so well with Zara that way. 100% trouble free for weeks even months on end without even a reboot.
I think I'm going to play with Salamandra as soon as so get another Windows pc and a copy of XP from ebay to put on it.
I wonder how effective the processing feature would be if Salamandra like other programs uses you computer sound card for the audio and would it actually work like having external hardware processing after the audio output like a Schlockwood for example?
If it actually works I'd be interested in trying to see.
Some more expensive laptops do come with EQ and compression in the sound settings and I think that would work better but I'm not spending $1500 or more for a computer to get that. A Schlockwood is much less.
Does anyone have experience with the audio processing included with Salamandra? How does it work?
I tried it(Salamandra) a while ago and there were a few inconvenient things about it I didn't like and stayed with Zara. But back when I tried it there was no processing with it. In a previous post I gave my opinion on the pros and cons of Zara, Salamandra, and Play It Live, and Zara was the clear winner for me.