Archives October 2021

Use Raspberry PI to Route Spotify over USB to your Behringer XR18 or Mackie DL Series mixer

A common task when doing concerts is to have pause music during the gig breaks – and of course “YES” you can always have an extra iPhone or computer running with Spotify installed and use two analog inputs on your mixer. (Simple!) – But to raise the bar slightly and make something a little bit more advanced – I came up with the following solution as a spin-off when researching and developed the USB multi-track recorder Z-LiveRec for mixers like Behringer XR18 and Mackie DL16/32S and using a Raspberry PI as the heart. 🙂

Multi-tracks over USB 2 or 3 is a fantastic idea, which is used by most mixer vendors on the market. You can both send and receive up to 16 or 32 or even 64 tracks (dependent on your hardware) at the same time. So there is some scenarios which you can use here. One common is to utilize plug-in effects in a DAW tool like a cool echo or reverb…and address it as a effect on your DL32S, send it to a Mac over USB to the DAW/plug-in and immediately get the signal back over USB to your mixer again. See the video recording describing this on the following link.

For Raspberry PI there is a Spotify Connect Client called Raspotify available which can be used as extension adding an extra sound device on the network seen from any of your PC, Mac, Iphone running Spotify client etc. Simply – you are able to tell Spotify to send the music to your Raspberry device and then use the headphone output etc to hear the music. In this case your PC/iPhone/iPad etc controls the music…and the Raspberry just executes the task and playing the music stream. Benefit received: You could stand in the audience and trigger the music from your iPad running Master Fader and the Spotify client wirelessly!

But to use two analog inputs connected to your Raspberry PI on your mixer to play this digital stream feels in this case feels a bit annoying. (Especially for me which is using my DL32S to record and play 32 channels over USB using the Z-LiveRec App.)

However, I found the following scenario which enable me to use the Raspberry PI to also send the Raspotify music stream over USB to my mixer. So the Spotify music stream is now been sent to return channel 1&2 on my mixers (Behringer XR18 or DL16/32S or DL32R mixer)

To configure a Raspberry PI to handle this you need to do two steps:
a) Install the Raspotify Client,
b) Configure Raspberry to send the information further over USB to your mixer.

So lets get down to business – how to do it?

  1. After connecting your mixer via USB to the raspberry PI.
aplay -l

Run the command “aplay -l” in a terminal window on your Raspberry PI and look for the USB Card number for your mixer. (e.g. 1 or 2 – this could differ when running on a hdmi screen when doing the configuration – until running on a 3.5″ touch screen)

2. Execute the command in a terminal window on your Raspberry:

sudo nano /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf

Look for the lines: (A couple of pages down)

"defaults.ctl.card 0"
"defaults.pcm.card 0"


Change these from 0 to your Card number from what is reported by "aplay"
"defaults.ctl.card 1"
"defaults.pcm.card 1"

Save the file by pressing CTRL X - press Yes...and then return to save. 

3. Install the Raspotify Client: (In a terminal window on your Raspberry PI)


curl -sL https://dtcooper.github.io/raspotify/install.sh | sh

4. Now, edit the Raspotify configuration file (Set in your parameters and uncomment some configuration in this file)

sudo nano /etc/default/raspotify

DEVICE_NAME="Mackie DL32S"
BITRATE="320"
OPTIONS="--username <your_spotify_name> --password <xxxxx>"
BACKEND_ARGS="--backend also"

Save the file by pressing CTRL X - press Yes...and then return to save. 

5. Now, patch the asound.conf file (This file may not exist – so nano editor will create it. Please note that you need change the CARD=X to your mixer environment reported by aplay on step #1.

sudo nano /etc/asound.conf

pcm.!default{
type asym
playback.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmix:CARD=1,RATE=48000"
}
}

Save the file by pressing CTRL X - press Yes...and then return to save. 

6. Last – do a reboot of your Raspberry!

The Raspberry needs to be on the same network as your mixer (Either over ethernet or via WI-FI) – The whole network needs to have access to internet to get the music stream and the Spotify Connect run.

But you will now be able to see your DL-32S in the Spotify application as a device from your PC/Mac/Iphone/iPad and if you hit play…the Rasberry will start to play music and send it over USB port 1&2 to your mixer…to be recieved on the Return channel 1&2 on your mixer.

Pretty neat? 🙂

Z-LiveRec 2.21 launched!

Z-LiveRec 2.21 is just launched and have been updated for both the trial/demo and the full version.

Changes

  • Z-LiveRec V2.21 launched 2021-10-14
  • Fixed a bug with Buffer-Overruns that was not reported in the log file – Z-LiveRec.log
  • More information added to the log file handling, Z-LiveRec version, date of recording etc.
  • License key handling – showing green/red license button before/after registration.
  • Auto start option stored in license settings GUI – this checkbox adds the Z-LiveRec.exe to run after the OS been booted. Please note: This requires Z-LiveRec.exe needs to be present on the internal storage for the OS.
  • GUI checkboxes and dropdowns added under the license button/dialog for the full version of Z-LiveRec where it is possible to:
    • Enable windows borderless mode – make the app to stay in focus – good when running on 3.5″ screens.
    • Add the log function and verbose level in the GUI.
    • Switch on/off the auto start function – reboot of the OS required.
    • Handle buffer settings for the recording process.
    • All these parameters are stored and can be edited in the Z-LiveRec.cfg file. (if using the Trial/Demo version – auto start will not be supported)
  • Fixed an error with rights issue the auto update function for previous versions of Z-LiveRec – when looking for newer versions – it will now enable cloud updates for future upcoming releases. Existing users of older versions (2.19 & 2.20) must manually download the latest version through www.z-liverec.com through their account or unpacking the downloaded z-liverec.zip file which can be found in the same directory as the current exe. But after 2.21 release, the auto update function will be present for future releases.
  • Existing and registered users of the full version can download the latest version for free!
  • Unregistered users of the full version will allow up recordings up to 500 MB storage (was 350 MB) – Unlimited for registered users – Files in W64/CAF format have successfully been recorded to 50GB+
  • The Trial/demo version is always free and will allow up to 200MB of recordings.

The new settings GUI found under the “License” for the full version of Z-LiveRec.