Functionallity & Limitations

Support
#1

Hello there,
I’m here as a roll20 user. As some of you might be aware, roll20 used the fanburst API to allow sounds and music in the game. This will end, with the shutdown of fanburst on the 25th. As a result roll20 has implemented new features to allow users to upload music.
Since I’m now forced to upload all of my music and in some cases, find alternatives to ow unavailable sounds, I now have a good amount of work in front of me. The user Willis H. posted about Syrinscap functionality to replace roll20 in the sound department.
That’s why I am here. I would like to inquire whether Syrinscape can actually to that. I have tried the Syrinscape Online Player (which is still in beta?).

My Questions:

  1. How many people can I broadcast to at the same time ?
  2. Do I have to use the WebInterface for the master player or can I use the desktop app to control the played audio?
  3. I read that I can upload my own music as well (is this correct), if so are there any limitations (length, format, bitrate, size)? Could I upload my entire Witcher 3 Soundfolder and let those songs play in my game? How is copyright handled? How many songs can I upload? Can I make them play like a roll20 playlist (random sequence of songs)?
    4.When I tested the Online Player, it seemed to me the sounds take a while until they actually play, which looked to me like a buffering issue, which worked better the more I used the sounds. Is this normal or a side effect of some serverload/routing issue?
  4. Are there any major problems with the online player that I should know about, after all it is in beta?
  5. To confirm, if I want to stream my music to my players, I would require a subscription, but my players would not, correct?

I think that is all for now.

#2
  1. As far as I know there is not limit. As long as they connect to you as a minion and have the player open they will hear the sounds.

Preface to #2. You need to be a super syrin subscriber and download the soundset editor for this functionality.

  1. You can upload your own music. I have been doing it for quite some time now. They need to be .wav format and have the metadata stripped from them. You cannot upload copywrited music (so no witcher 3), everything needs to be public domain, CC0, or CC attribution. You can upload an unlimited amount of songs, but to use them you need to use the soundset editor to make a custom soundset with the music/sounds you want. Yes they can be random. I have a soundset for battle music and it is one button that plays about 30 songs in random order and fades between them.
  2. The first time you play a sound it needs to contact the server to get the location for the sound so there is a small lag to it. After that there should be almost no lag when playing the sounds again. I believe that @benjamin said that they are moving the player to the server, further cutting down this lag time (i don’t know what exactly they are doing. He could describe this better).
  3. (again) While the player is still in beta I have not run into any problems that have barred me from using it during my games.
  4. Correct. To stream music to your players only you need the super syrin subscription. Your players will need to make a free account but after that they can download the minion player and connect to your master player without spending any more money. I play on Fantasy Grounds and have been using this so that my players don’t have to spend any money to enjoy the game.
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#3

Thank you for the quick reply @davinci522

So the only problem is that I could only add wav files that have are creative common licensed.

As someone who runs a medival fantasy campaign, does Syrinscape have proper battle music with epic proportions?
I’m a bit worried that in some fights or scenes I will simply want a decent song playing, for example if my players explore a ice cavern that is the domain of a demon. I need not only the proper sound effects to make a good scene there but also creepy music.

Does Syrinscape have a good selection and if not, where would I find required songs that I could use?

#4

Syrinscape has a huge collection. They already have sounds for ice caves and demons. And many, many different epic songs. If you don’t find what you are looking for I started making songs to be used with softwares like syrinscape and have a few released so far. I have mainly uploaded my own songs or some of Kevin MacLeod’s music. But I have read on posts that syrinscape is using his music also, so I’m not sure you would even need to upload it yourself anymore. So far there are only a few niche sounds I haven’t been able to find, but more are added every week. They are also making official sounds for DnD.

Here is their release schedule to kind of get an idea of what they have done and are planning to do. https://syrinscape.com/about-syrinscape/soundset-release-schedule/

Also if you can’t find/need a sound there is a place you can post in this forum and other members help point you in the right direction to find it or something similar if possible.

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#5

Thank you again @davinci522

I will probably try this out tomorrow by getting the SuperSyrin Subscription and see if this makes me and my players happy. If I were to need a specific song, I could still use roll20 for that, but hopefully I will not need to do that.

One question of my original set remains though:

  • If I use the online player, do I have to use the web master interface or can I use the desktop app (which looks and feels much better) to control the audio somehow?
#6

to control the audio you have to use the online player. The desktop app doesn’t connect to the online player, it is just a standalone for in person games.

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#7

THANKS @davinci522 for answering these questions! :slight_smile:

Hi @BlueSkyBlackBird

A couple of extra things to note:

  1. You can actually unlock all this functionality with a 30 day TRIAL Supersyrin sub rather than having to pay anything upfront = https://syrinscape.com/freetrial/

NOTE: You need a SuperSyrin to run games with your friends listening to your sounds.

  1. I tried to post about this on the Roll20 forums in response to their audio and storage changes. My post got deleted and i got a strike. Sooo… if you DO find that our solution (which we’ve worked very hard on) is the right thing for people playing with Roll20 THEN it’d be GREAT if users like you could spread the news to other Roll20 players. Does that makes sense.

And MOST IMPORTANTLY: if/when you do run into confusions/limitations LET US KNOW… and we’ll change the Syrinscape Online Player to make it as perfect a tool as we possibly can for what you are needing = this is exactly why we made it.

Start here, and read the instructions carefully:
www.syrinscape.com/online

Then ask for help as you need it. :slight_smile: :vulcan_salute:

Have fun with it all.

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#8

This makes me VERY happy! :slight_smile: :smiley:

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#9

Yes! There really IS a huge range in music…

Check out: (via the video demos)

  1. The somewhat metal+classical+Arthur movie music in the Dragon Heist SoundSets
  2. The more classic fantasy epic music in the “Hell’s Rebels” SoundSets
  3. The Sci-fi movie battle music in the “Starfinder” SoundSets
  4. The Goblin music in the “Burnt Offerings” SoundSets
  5. The spooky atmospheric music in “Spooky”
  6. The mystery storytelling music in “Witchwood”

As they say… just to name a few!!! :slight_smile:

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#10

@benjamin thank you, I have read and tried teh page before to see what I could do with the online player.

I got the free subscription now and will test this out. I also seem to have crashed the program in the first 3 minutes.
I used teh Grioth Battle soundset and pressed the Disturbing Rumble OneShot a dozen or so times. First I got crackling audio and then the web UI froze and the local online player crashed.
Are there any logs I can send in?

Edit:
I took a look into the event log:
ErrorCode 0xc0000005, though that is not that helpful. Do you have any logging done to another directory?

#11

I think there’s a little sensitivity when it is first downloading samples as WELL as playing a lot of them back at the same moment. That’s one of the bugs we are hunting down still.

Question: If you restart the app and then repeat the treatment, does it crash again? A third time?

At least, when you get a crash, a simple kill and restart always seems to fix it, without anyone having to re sign in or anything.

I’ll add your info to our CRASH ticket. :slight_smile:

Keep the info coming!

#12

It seems as if the problem does not occur anymore. I encountered the problem with other OneShots as well but it seems to be as you say, once its fully loaded hammering the buttond oes not crash it anymore.
Thank you.

#13

OK. SO that looks like that’s a specific bug.

Maybe there’s a limit to the length of the cue of things Syrinscape is trying to download.

I’ll see if I can reproduce and then make a ticket for the dev team.

THANKS!!! Keep the feedback coming! :slight_smile:

#14

Late to the party, I know, but I’ve got a couple of observations/thoughts about the original questions.

Regarding uploading your own music, the Creator also accepts .OGG files as well. That’s the format I upload music/long form sounds in.
Regarding copyright, I understood that the requirement for sounds/music to be PD/CC was only if you intended to share the soundscape as Community Content. Including copyrighted music was fine if it was for your own private use only. Has that changed?

#15

Yep that’s still correct. Only you can access the music you upload, so it’s very similar to when/if you add songs from a CD to your iTunes account. You are backing it up for personal use only

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