Configure_the_app

Configure The App

First of all, make sure you've got the application and its prerequisites.

{APP_DIR} constant

Below, {APP_DIR} is the application folder. Also, you can use a predefined constant {APP_DIR} in any filenames or paths. {APP_DIR} will be replaced with a full path to the application directory excluding a trailing path delimiter. For example, if application executable is C:/Program Files (x86)/MesonCast/mesoncast.exe, then {APP_DIR}/plugins expands into C:/Program Files (x86)/MesonCast/plugins.

Note, that on OS X, {APP_DIR} points to an application executable directory too, not to an application bundle directory. For example, if MesonCast is installed into /Applications, then {APP_DIR} expands into /Applications/MesonCast.app/Contents/MacOS.

INI files

The configuration files for MesonCast are in standart INI format. The standard binary packages come with mesoncast.ini.template file, which contains some instructions about parameters you may use.

There are some possible caveats regarding INI files used by MesonCast:

• All INI files must be in UTF-8 (preferably without BOM signature at the beginning). If you're not sure whether your file a signature or not, then leave the first line empty (or make it a comment)
• You must escape "\" symbols. So, instead of "C:\user\music" you should use "C:\user\music". On Windows, you can use "/" instead of "\", so it will be "C:/user/music"
• All keys must only have ASCII characters and must not contain spaces
• All text is case-sensitive
• If you're not going to specify any parameters in a particular section, then you can omit section's declaration
• If some param cannot be parsed or is wrong, then the default value for that param will be chosen
• When specifying a bool param, all values except "0", "false" or empty string evaluate to true

Main configuration file is {APP_DIR}/mesoncast.ini for Windows and Linux. For OS X it's /Library/Application Support/mesoncast/mesoncast.ini. MesonCast installers create this file automatically. If this file doesn't exist, then you must either create it or rename APP_DIR/mesoncast.ini.template (from sources archive) to {APP_DIR}/mesoncast.ini or /Library/Application Support/mesoncast/mesoncast.ini respectively.

Also, you can change main configuration file location using command line arguments like this:
mesoncast --ini="/path/to/file.ini", or
mesoncast --ini="{APP_DIR}/file.ini"

Sections

Below is a list of sections in mesoncast.ini file and their respective parameters. Note, that almost all parameters in this configuration file are optional. The only required section is stations. Bold values in "Valid values" column are default.

• [engine]
• [plugins]
• [stations]

[engine]

Param	Valid values	Description
enableAccurateSendIntervals	true, false	Set this option to true in order to be able to use TRANSMITER.useAccurateSendIntervals option in station's ini file. See the description of the latter option for more details. In order to use this option, you must have real and working sound output device. If your system has a real output device, then the default value for this option is true, otherwise this option false by default.
frequency	44100, 192000, 96000, 48000, 22050, 16000, 11025, 8000	Output sample rate in Hz. Only for Linux. It's highly recommended, that you do not change this param, since it has nothing to do with an actual output sample rate. This parameter is used only to initialize a sound engine when enableAccurateSendIntervals=true.
loadPlugins	true, false	Set to true to be able to use plugins. Read more about plugins.
use8Bits	false, true	Use 8-bit resolution, else 16-bit. This param is only needed to set 8bit resolution for every station.
useMono	false, true	Use mono output, else stereo. This param is only needed to set mono output for every station.

[plugins]

Here you can specify paths to plugins to load and/or paths to directory to load plugins from. Paths can be absolute or relative to app's directory. Specify paths one per line in the following format:

<whatever>=<path to plugin or folder>

Key name can be anything in ASCII. If you're loading a folder, MesonCast will scan for .dll or .so files in it, depending on OS. The search will not descend into nested directories.

Examples:

allPlugins=./plugins
my_plugins=C:/user/plugins/
flac=/var/www/mesoncast/plugins/flac.so
allAppPlugins={APP_DIR}/plugins

Plugins are BASS library add-ons. You can get them at http://www.un4seen.com/bass.html#addons. Only download plugins for architecture MesonCast is built for (x86 or x64). If you're using pre-built binary packages, then almost all possible plugins are already included, and all parameters are set, so you don't need to to setup anything.

To enable plugins functionality, you must set ENGINE.loadPlugins to true.

Note: in OS X, these parameters are ignored, and all plugins that reside in APP_DIR will be loaded.

[stations]

Specify paths to stations' ini files here, one per line (the same way as in plugins section). If a relative path is specified, it will be relative to this INI file.

Examples:

station1=./stations/station.ini
my_station=C:/user/stations/mystation.ini
station_one={APP_DIR}/stations/one.ini

When done configuring the app, you may setup your station(s). For more information see "Configure stations" article.