11 ms·
Turn the radio volume down for adverts and DJs talking
- matthewfelgate 4y agoA script for automatically lowering the volume during radio advertisements and DJ announcements and turns the volume back up when songs are playing. It controls a Sonos speaker using the Soco-cli Python library when Tunein is being used.
- progmetaldev 4y agoThis is great. I wish there was a way to limit the volume on Alexa devices for different services, especially Spotify. I like to fall asleep to podcasts, but it wakes my girlfriend up when the commercials start (especially iHeartRadio commercials!), so I either have it so low I can barely hear or I have to fall asleep to rain/ocean sounds.
- midasuni 4y agoYou could just pay for premium
- whall6 4y agoNever
- pfist 4y agoUnfortunately, most podcasts on Spotify still have ads for Premium subscribers.
- chairmanwow1 4y agoDon’t use Spotify. Horrible experience for listening. Overcast is way better.
- progmetaldev 4y agoI actually have the family premium subscription.
- buryat 4y agowhy not just pay $10/month? sleep must worth more than that
- georgel 4y agoMany podcasts insert their own ads, depending on which show they are listening to, in which case paying for Spotify won't make a difference.
- happyopossum 4y agoIME ads inserted natively into podcasts don’t have the same horrible volume differences. Or maybe Overcast is fixing that for me among its many audio tweaks?
- pfist 4y agoThey definitely can. I listen to a podcast about indie horror games on Spotify and they regularly insert an ad that sounds like someone cranked the gain and compression to 11.
- progmetaldev 4y agoI'm on the family premium subscription. These are ads within the podcast itself, unfortunately.
- satvikpendem 4y agoWhen are we getting a SponsorBlock for podcasts?
- matheusmoreira 4y agoSponsorBlock is just a collection of timestamps relating to sponsored content and other annoyances. It should add support for audio only content if it doesn't alteady have it.
- autoexec 4y agoSince podcasts are just MP3s, why not just play them on your phone or laptop or PC and normalize volume? You could even edit the files to remove ads/intro music.
- TowerTall 4y agoWhat about getting some tiny earphones? You get to pick the volume you prefer and your gf does not have to be woken up by annoying commercials.
- metadat 4y agoIf you pay, does it still force commercials on you?
- progmetaldev 4y agoYes, they are within the podcast stream itself. The worst ones are in the content created for iHeartRadio that makes its way to Spotify.
- eastbound 4y agoIt’s funny because broadcasters have notmalized ads at +6 dB compared to the rest of the radio. It’s actually measured in LUFS, and it’s normalized worldwide for radio, podcasts, TV, movies, and commercials, so that commercials are louder. LUFS measures the loudness, which is not exactly the same as volume - it makes quiet moments louder so that everything can be heard while the car engine runs, but the drawback is limited dynamic range, which is not important on podcasts but a little more important in music. It’s double-funny that we can normalize LUFS and we’re still stuck with movie dialogs inaudible and the sound effects earth-shattering. I wish VLC had a better loudness processor, I don’t succeed to configure it to keep the whole movie at the same volume, whether they’re speaking or using automatic guns.
- haimez 4y ago> I wish VLC had a better loudness processor, I don’t succeed to configure it to keep the whole movie at the same volume, whether they’re speaking or using automatic guns. Probably won’t help you if you’re using VLC, but most of the streaming services now have multiple audio tracks in the same menu that would switch to another language called “<Language> - Reduce loud noises” which is pretty much that. I just find it inconvenient as an apartment dweller that the default is to blast the volume during any action sequence.
- subpar 4y agoHere's a great post from a post-production audio mixer explaining the many convoluted steps that go into delivering a final mix with correct loudness specs to end users. tldr, there's a lot of room for error. https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioPost/comments/y2m1u0/comment/is49bla/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioPost/comments/y2m1u0/comment/i...
- dylan604 4y ago>It’s funny because broadcasters have notmalized ads at +6 dB compared to the rest of the radio. This has actually be regulated against by the FCC. While the FCC is pretty much a feckless shell of an org, there are rules and ways to make complaints for their violations[0] [0]https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/loud-commercials-tv https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/loud-commercials-tv
- imtyler 4y agoAw. I want to like this, but I work in radio. If you remove ads then there's no reason for the broadcaster to keep going. I'm not trying to be controversial, but if you remove profit how can the business continue to exist? And if terminating the business is your goal, why? People seem to have a grudge against radio and I honestly don't know why. It's my livelihood. I'm not seeking sympathy, but I am curious.
- jzb 4y agoIt’s been a while since I listened to commercial radio, but it seemed like commercials were at a higher volume than music. Adjusting volume can be useful to keep ads from being jarring. (Also used to work as a DJ, but not since the nineties…)
- gcau 4y agoIf radio ads weren't full of yelling, car-honking, sirens and overly attention-grabbing things, people wouldn't care as much. Same as websites putting up huge, 5MB-big popup ads and not liking that people want to adblock them. Especially worse, is when the ads are far louder than the content itself.
- amatecha 4y agoOh yeah like the ubiquitous "buzzing alarm clock", crap like that should literally not be legal.
- xnorswap 4y agoIn some places it isn't. It's a social issue and you should petition for the change you'd like to see. For example in the UK, advertisers must comply with the Advertising Standards Authority code [1], and section 4 includes: > Radio only – Advertisements must not include sounds that are likely to create a safety hazard, for example, to those listening to the radio while driving. Which while open to interpretation, this would likely include any sirens likely to be confused with a genuine siren. Or: > Television only – Advertisements must not be excessively noisy or strident. ( That one might raise an eyebrow to anyone familiar with the long running "Go Compare" campaign! ) Of course these codes are always written in a way that's woolly and often adverts are only banned after complaints have been made. But the framework is there for standards to be written and upheld. It relies however on people being willing to put in time and effort to complain when standards are broken, and there needs to be effort made to tighten those standards in some areas to stop standards slipping, although in general standards have been tightened rather than loosened over the years. If your experience is very different, consider that it may be worth spending time organising a campaign group to lobby the FTC (or FCC?) to tighten their rules, or organise a group to put in complaints to organisations which have similar "voluntary" codes such as the BBB and also pressure the BBB to tighten their rules to have guidelines prohibiting such noises. Change doesn't happen for change sake, it requires organisation and action, but even a handful of people can effect huge change with a concerted effort. [1] https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/advertising-codes/broadcast-code.html https://www.asa.org.uk/codes-and-rulings/advertising-codes/b...
- thedangler 4y agoI used this API or a similar one long time ago when sonos first came out. The script that I wrote was completely different, I had it do text to speech from people tweeting an account.My friends would use it to make fun of people while we were playing video games. I also used it to always play "Bone Thugs and Harmony - It's The First of the Month" every morning on the first of the month. I should see what is available now.... hmmm
- smm11 4y agoI avoid this by not listening to OTA radio. Nothing to install, nothing to configure.
- ArmandTanzarian 4y agoA good strategy, but this product is for someone seeking a different experience than you.
- ilyt 4y agoIt relies on radio changing metadata when ad plays or DJ talks, do that even happen often ?
- ArmandTanzarian 4y agoNot sure about rest of world, but in the US adverts often play at much louder volumes than the content being enjoyed.
- woodruffw 4y agoFor automated stations it should happen (nearly) instantly. Most "nicer" radios have RDS[1] built into them and high latency would be confusing to users, so updating it quickly is part of having a nice listener experience. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System
- floatrock 4y agoI want something like this for youtube or other streaming services
- melony 4y agoSponsorblock https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock https://github.com/ajayyy/SponsorBlock
- brewdad 4y agoFreeTube has SponsorBlock built in if a desktop app works better for you. https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube
- yummypaint 4y agoFirefox with ublock origin blocks youtube ads seamlessly. I've barely seen an ad in years
- Benlights 4y agoIt blocks in video creator ads not Youtube ads
- ravenstine 4y agoMaybe you have it the other way around? I've been using uBlock Origin on YouTube for years and never see a single dynamic ad.
- rtepopbe 4y agoI think they were talking about SponsorBlock, which was mentioned on another same-level comment. Probably just didn't realize this was a separate sub-chain (or whatever you call it) without that context.
- scrapcode 4y ago
- neilv 4y agoA remaining problem is that you're still listening to whatever they play on the radio.
- jacquesm 4y agoCan't you just use a playlist on some service or your own local MP3 collection or something like that then?
- nichos 4y agoYou could, but it's basically an echo chamber of music. I know services offer discovery, but I often switch songs instantly, whereas if its on the radio, I'm forced to listen to it, and songs often grow on me.
- BLKNSLVR 4y agoYes. This! I like my collection, but I want it to grow, and over the years my musical tastes have matured and changed as I've discovered and listened to more varieties of more genres. Something I've explained to my kids is that you need to know what you don't like in order to better refine and describe what you do like - and this means listening to music that doesn't 'spark joy', because it's educational, and I care about my musical knowledge and journey. Listening to music selected by someone else allows that journey to continue and branch off into unexpected places.
- jakear 4y agoLocal college radio and other small stations tend to be great. Sure the music won't be custom tailored by either "what past-you liked" or neural networks expressly designed to increase Sweden's internal revenue, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the experience of listening all the same. As an extra plus you're likely to get relevant information on local news and events too. Long live public broadcasting!
- kubanczyk 4y agoDamn you, Sweden! /s
- jtvjan 4y agoOn our radio, the "Now Playing" is always frustratingly far behind. It's amazing that yours is real-time enough that you can adjust the volume based on it.
- stabbles 4y agoFunnily enough the ads on this page take as much space as the blog post
- boredemployee 4y agoI wish that script to be used in parties and festivals.
- rahidz 4y agoWish there was something like this (or like Sponsorblock) for podcasts. Would make them actually listenable to.
- aatd86 4y agoAnother way would be to simply throw a limiter somewhere in the chain.
- Minor49er 4y agoThe loudness war already has squashed dynamic ranges so much that music and commercials are both pretty thick blocks of sound. It would be hard to put a limiter into the signal path that would adequately block the commercials and leave the music untouched
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- aatd86 4y agoLUFS limiting :) But you're right. It will probably affect the music especially sinxe it seems that LUFS is not an instantaneous measure.
- Minor49er 4y agoWould LUFs limiting work across all types of speakers?
- aatd86 4y agoProbably not. Although it might be easily implemented in hardware, I think most solutions currently are software. The crux is to pick the loudness threshold and the adequate time-window for Real Time analysis/processing.
- xnx 4y agoThis is the type of next-level ad blocking we need more of!
- askvictor 4y agoThis is purely reliant on the TuneIn API providing song info, and that your radio station is setting that song info, which doesn't happen on the radio stations I listen to. Also, easy to defeat by setting 'track' to (in this case) anything while the presenter is talking/ad is running.
- radicaldreamer 4y agoIsn't this what the "sound check" feature is supposed to do (normalize volume across media)?
- majkinetor 4y agoThis is needed desperatly for regular TV. On some channels ad volume is much higher then mov volume so when ads start during chillex movie you get totally stressed.
- askvictor 4y agoMythTV solved the detection of ads a long time ago. Haven't used it for ages though, as I no longer watch regular TV
- daveevad 4y agoA decent explanation of how to use MythTV to identify commercials is available here, https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/tree/master/mythtv/programs/mythcommflag#readme https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/tree/master/mythtv/programs...
- litoE 4y agoMy Toshiba TV has that feature built-in - they call it "TruVolume". It detects sudden increases in the program's volume, and adjusts accordingly. You can turn the feature on or off. I think it may also turn the volume up when the program's volume goes down.
- woodruffw 4y agoThis won't be relevant for TuneIn (since it's Internet Radio), but you could probably do something similar to this on some FM channels by reading the RDS[1] messages accompanying the broadcast. That would depend on the channel signaling advertising, however, and I'm not sure that's normally included in RDS. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System
- mgiampapa 4y agoJust delay the stream by a few seconds and process before you play it. You could simply do this by inserting some filler audio in the front, or slightly shifting frequency lower until enough of a buffer was built.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoThis is even more important for classical music stations. Most people think that classical music should be quiet, but do you think 100 piece orchestras are quiet? Classical music sounds a lot better when you crank up the volume. Classical is also mixed quieter to give it a larger dynamic range. So when you set the radio volume appropriate for the music, the DJs and ads are insanely loud.
- psd1 4y agoBBC Radio 3 Voices as well modulated as the programming
- bryanlarsen 4y agoNo, it has the same problem as every other classical music station. If you turn up the volume to an appropriate level you get voices yelling at you. The DJ's should be no louder than the quietest part of anything played on the station.
- askvictor 4y agoIs there anything along this vein using ML to actually detect speech vs music (and tag or strip the speech)? Won't work for every situation (reggae radio tends to play music in the background while the presenter is talking, and some ads have music), but I can't imagine it would be the hardest thing to work out.
- quickthrower2 4y agoTo really kill radio a tool to parse those online radio playlists and play them on streaming music service would be cool.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jojobas 4y agoWhat's the point? They'll stop doing their playlists if they ads stop penetrating. You can already make your own playlists or use those created by non-radio people. I only ever listen to radio while driving and I've discovered at least two artists I wouldn't otherwise ever come across. (Shameless plug of Sean Wayland's album Australian Rhythm Changes)
- weberer 4y agoOpen VLC, then hit Ctrl+L to open the playlist menu. Then click Icecast Radio Directory. There's thousands of ad-free streams right there.
- JustSomeNobody 4y agoIt used to be* that this was a requirement for Television (in the US). It seems that has gone so unenforced that nobody cares and just jacks the ad volume up. I wonder if there's a requirement for radio as well. * Probably still is.
- axytol 4y agoYou are correct, at least for US, for reference see: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Loudness_Mitigation_Act https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Advertisement_Lou... Important takeaway from the linked article: "No specific penalties are given" So there is a regulatory framework and, as the article describes, compliant technical means should be in place for devices sold in the respective market. The open question is, how will this be applied in practice as well as how will this extend to radio and why not, to online services such as streaming platforms?
- jansommer 4y agoI've used an app on Android for Spotify called ad-free that does something similar. I think it polls the notification list and somehow gets info on the currently played song, and if the notification is a link to something being advertised, then volume is set to 0. Pretty neat. Edit: Here's the source... https://github.com/abertschi/ad-free https://github.com/abertschi/ad-free
- nkozyra 4y agoMy understanding is there are laws about maximum broadcast volume, at least in the U.S. In general, it's not that the overall volume is louder on advertisements / talking, it's that the compression / limiting makes it seem louder. Music - even heavily compressed modern music - still needs some dynamics, so it generally feels quieter. This is especially pronounced on television.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- waltbosz 4y agoAfter Pandora started blocking adblock users, I wrote a userscript to mute the Pandora volume when ads started and unmute when the music comes back.
- _ZeD_ 4y agoIt's just me or are the Api signature a bit strange? exit_code, previous_volume, error = api.run_command("Main Office", "volume") Why a triplet as return value? Why an error field at all? I really feel this should have been designed differently - eg with exceptions
- brokenmachine 4y agoWhy would you even bother with radio at all if you have to jump through these hoops to make it tolerable?