NetChorus is a software music player with a difference. Unlike
other MP3 players, NetChorus can seamlessly synchronize its
playback with other
NetChorus
players on the network, turning your networked PCs into a
single, giant audio system. NetChorus is a pure software
solution requiring no special hardware.
If you have any questions about NetChorus then please email us. We
usually respond to emails within a few hours, and almost always within a single
day. In order to get expedited service, existing customers should include their
order name when emailing.
If you have a technical question about NetChorus then please provide as
much detail as possible when writing so that we have the best chance of
answering accurately. Please provide the following details:
Which operating system you are using (eg Windows XP service pack 2).
The specification of your machine (Processor type and speed, and amount of
RAM) eg Pentium III 700Mhz, 64MB.
Please list any major software you may be running at the same time as
NetChorus, such as firewall or antivirus software.
Buying NetChorus is quick, simple and
safe using any of the payment methods detailed below:
All
NetChorus products come with free technical support and regular free
updates. Registered users also receive major discounts on future
releases from Rallentando Software.
Buy securely online with a Credit/Debit Card (recommended
method): the easiest way to buy NetChorus takes just a
few minutes online. This method is guaranteed secure and very
quick - you receive your purchase almost instantly via email!
Buy with PayPal: Pay with a bank account - no credit
card needed.
Buy over the Phone: using our Toll-Free Phone Number.
Fax/Mail Orders: Send your order to us directly.
To buy NetChorus using any of these methods or for more information
visit our website at:
NetChorus is 'shareware'
which means you can
try the software before you buy it.
When you buy (or 'register') NetChorus you receive a license for your copy of the software.
Immediately after we have processed your payment
details, you will be sent your personalized registration information (license) with
which you can instantly activate your existing copy of NetChorus,
permanently enabling all program features.
We will include instructions on how to do this.
NetChorus can be emailed to you instantly
and can also be shipped to you on CD for easier
installing. You may also buy
NetChorus products as a gift for someone else.
Discounts are available for volume purchases.
Purchasing your copy of NetChorus is
quick, simple and guaranteed safe using any of the methods above.
We take the privacy of our customers very seriously. We will
not share your information with any third party under any
circumstances. With our customers' express permission, we will
optionally send out periodic email updates containing details about updates
and new versions of our products as and when they become available.
Synching digital music playback on
two or more PCs (and keeping it in sync) is a tricky technical
task, but once setup is completed NetChorus hides all the complexity and behaves just
like a normal digital music player.
The simple steps below can be applied if you already have one or more
networked PCs in a common workgroup or domain, and songs in your music
collection are available (with a common path)
to all PCs on the network:
Install and run NetChorus on one or more of your
networked computers
Cue up your favourite song(s) on one 'lead' player, this will be the NetChorus
Server
Set all other NetChorus players to Client mode
On the lead NetChorus player start Server mode
Playback begins on all the players at once!
Detailed instructions for installation, setup and use are below.
A network connection between the computers running NetChorus
(NetChorus works
with all kinds of networking technology, including WIFI, traditional wired
Ethernet and 'power line' networks)
Click on one of the download links on the download page of the
website.
You will be asked if you want to save the file or run it from its
current location.
Choose "save" and select a place on your computer hard disk where you
will be able to find the file once it is downloaded.
When downloading is complete, run the file by double-clicking its
icon. The download file is a compressed setup "executable" which means
that when you run it an installation program will launch automatically,
and you can follow the step by step instructions from there. Note that in the "full" downloadable NetChorus installations an additional
procedure is included to install a special MP3 "parser and decoder"
which helps NetChorus achieve maximum performance when playing MP3 files.
See Use custom MP3 Parser/Decoder
You may be asked to restart Windows in order to complete the installation.
Repeat the process above for all the computers on which you would like to
run NetChorus (you can also copy the installation file from one computer to
another rather than re-downloading it).
This is the main interface of the program. From here you can:
Enter player modes: Server or Client
Start or stop playback
Move to the next or previous song track in the Now Playing list
Open/close other program interface windows
View the help documentation
Buy a copy of NetChorus
Note that when NetChorus is minimized it is minimized to the Windows System
Tray (bottom right of screen), not the Windows Taskbar which saves valuable
space at the bottom of the screen.
Double-click the NetChorus tray icon to restore (or hide) the Player and other
NetChorus windows.
This interface manages the current playback queue. From here you
can:
Add/remove/reorder music tracks
Open existing playlists
Start playback of a certain track
View certain details about each track, such as file name and location
Adding new Music Tracks
You can use the mouse to drag/drop new tracks from another file list such
as Windows Explorer, or another music application such as Windows Media
Player.
This window contains a list of all the major NetChorus events, commands and
any errors which occur. It is not necessary to keep this window open
when running NetChorus though it may be useful to watch the output whilst you are
setting up NetChorus and optimizing the program configuration.
When you first install NetChorus, the sample music file included with the
installation program is added to the Now Playing screen. This allows
you to test your NetChorus installation without even adding any of your won music
to the NetChorus Now Playing playlist.
NetChorus can generally be installed in any location on your computer,
however, in order for this sample file to work on all computers on the NetChorus
network, it is necessary that NetChorus be installed in the same location on each
computer, usually:
To understand why this path must be consistent for all NetChorus players, see
NetChorus Music Sources.
Don't worry if you not all copies of NetChorus are installed in the same path,
as above. As long as your music collection is available to all
computers on the network NetChorus will work fine. See also:
Finding and Sharing the Network Path for Your Music Collection.
Each copy of NetChorus running on your network can operate in one of two modes;
Client or Server.
There can only be one NetChorus server running at any time on a given network, and
all other NetChorus instances must run in client mode or must take over the 'lead
role' and become the new server, at which time any current server will
automatically enter client mode.
The NetChorus server is the instance of NetChorus which loads and plays songs in turn
from its Now Playing playlist. As each song is loaded, information about
the song location is passed from the server to all NetChorus clients on the network.
The clients in turn load the song and when all instances of NetChorus on the network
are ready, synchronized playback commences across the network.
Once playback of a song has completed, the NetChorus server takes the next song in
its playlist and the process continues as before.
Each NetChorus client and server instance can be configured to run so as to
optimise performance of your music network. The NetChorus client and server
modes can be configured using the Settings window.
Wait for clients: Determines
whether the server will wait for feedback from NetChorus clients when cueing up
a song, or whether it will simply start playback on the local computer as
quickly as possible. Default: ON
Server timeouts: These values are
only applied if the Wait for
Clients option is checked. These values
determine how long the server will wait for the NetChorus clients at each stage
of starting song playback
Connect: How long the server should wait
for clients to connect to it. On most networks this takes less
than a second. Default: 500ms
Load: How long the server should wait for
clients to load the song. This can vary a good deal depending on
the size and location of the song, as well as the network speed.
Some songs also take longer to buffer depending on how they are encoded.
On most networks this action takes less than a few seconds, however the
timeout exists in case one or more clients fail to load a given song in
which case the server would wait around forever for those clients.
You should set this value to accommodate the PC with the slowest network
connection (see Network
Connection Types and Speeds). Default: 30s
Cue: How long the server should wait for
clients to seek to the current position in the song. This is
usually determined by the PC speed of each NetChorus instance. You
should set this value to accommodate the slowest (or oldest) PC on your
NetChorus network. On slower computers this can take a few seconds but
most PCs will be fine with the default setting. Default: 2s
Server fade in if not waiting:
This value controls how quickly the server fades in playback as soon as it
is ready to play (after loading and cuing each song). This value is
a manual alternative to having the NetChorus server coordinate the playback
start time (synchronization) with NetChorus clients on the network and is only
applied if the Wait for
Clients option is not checked. Use of this option is only
recommended if automatic synchronization is consistently unsuccessful with
the Wait for
Clients option enabled. Default: 800ms
Wait for other clients: Determines
whether this client will wait for feedback from the server about other NetChorus clients when cueing up
a song, or whether it will simply start playback on the local computer as
quickly as possible. Default: ON
Client timeouts: These values are
only applied if the Wait for other
Clients option is checked. These values
determine how long this client will wait for other NetChorus clients at each stage
of starting song playback
Client cue: How long the this client should wait for
clients to seek to the current position in the song. As with
server cue times this is
usually determined by the PC speed of each NetChorus instance. You
should set this value to accommodate the slowest (or oldest) PC on your
NetChorus network. On slower computers this can take a few seconds but
most PCs will be fine with the default setting. Default: 2s
Client fade in if not waiting:
This value controls how quickly this client fades in playback as soon as
it is ready to play (after loading and cuing each song). This value
is a manual alternative to having the NetChorus server coordinate the playback
start time (synchronization) with NetChorus clients on the network and is only
applied if the Wait for other
Clients option is not checked. Use of this option is only
recommended if automatic synchronization is consistently unsuccessful with
the Wait for other
Clients option enabled. Default: 500ms
Client Synchronization:
Determines how closely should the client try to emulate the server in
playback position. Typically synchronization of < 100ms is required
for satisfactory results and the avoidance of perceivable echo between
various NetChorus players. Making the synchronization requirement
"looser" will make it easier for NetChorus players to get up and running with
the playback of a given song, however "stricter" synchronization will
result in better listening results. Select the strictest setting
which works consistently on each of your NetChorus clients. If the
setting is too strict, the synchronization will take longer, or may fail
altogether. Default: Normal Synchronization
Playback Device Latency:
With this advanced setting you can manually force a certain delay or
compensation for the various audio hardware in the client PC. In
general this should not be required however if, when synchronized, the
client is consistently ahead or behind of the server then add a positive
or negative millisecond value (eg 50) accordingly. Default:
Blank or 0
Dependent on the operating system type and configuration, it may be
necessary for clients to supply authorization credentials to the server
before proper playback synchronization can take place. This is
particularly true of Windows Vista operating system with its enhanced
default security features. You will be prompted with the
Login Screen (detailed below) whenever
authorization is required.
In order to connect to the server, you must supply each connecting client
with both the USERNAME and PASSWORD of a valid user on the server PC.
In the case of Windows Vista, connection may not be possible unless a
PASSWORD has been set for the USERNAME used to connect (ie a PASSWORD MUST
be set, it cannot be blank). This is a security feature of Windows
Vista.
Login Screen: If the Login
dialog appears when a NetChorus client receives information from the
NetChorus server, you must supply the USERNAME and PASSWORD of a valid
user on the server PC. If the server is running Windows Vista,
the PASSWORD cannot be blank!
Remember Login: If you check
this option you will only have to store login information once and
NetChorus will remember the details for each connection made. Please
note that stored passwords are not encrypted.
Use custom MP3
Parser/Decoder (if installed): The NetChorus installation
download may include a special MP3 "parser and decoder" which helps NetChorus
achieve maximum performance when playing MP3 files. If you have not
installed the custom parser and decoder then visit the NetChorus website and
download the appropriate installation package. If this option is
enabled and the parser/decoder is not installed or NetChorus cannot find it, an
error message will be output to the NetChorus log window
each time NetChorus starts playback. Default: On
Play VBR files (custom MP3
Parser/Decoder recommended): For best results it is highly
recommended that Variable Bitrate (VBR) MP3 songs
only be played if the custom parser and decoder is installed and
activated (see above). If you have not installed the custom parser
and decoder then you should uncheck this option so that VBR files in the
Now Playing playlist are automatically skipped. Default: On
Show Tooltips: Tooltips can
help identify the purpose of each interface control when first using NetChorus.
Default: On
Restore
default window positions and sizes: Hold Ctrl+Shift
keys down when starting NetChorus. Resets all window positions, useful
if, for example, one is hidden off screen.
Any song to be played back by NetChorus must be available to all
NetChorus instances on the network.
Your music can be stored anywhere on the network, or even in several
different places. However it is a key NetChorus concept that each NetChorus
instance must be able to find each song announced by the NetChorus server, and
that the relative path for the song must be correct for each computer
running NetChorus.
Relative Song Paths
When the server cues up a certain song, it will tell NetChorus clients to cue
up that same song using the full path of the song's location. So for
example if the server loads a song from the hard disk of the PC running the
NetChorus server with the following path:
C:\Program Files\Rallentando Software\NetChorus\Resources\Samples\Hussalonia -
The Public Domain EP - There's More Than That To Being Poor.mp3
...then each client will try to load that same song in the same way.
In the case above, the song is stored on a local disk drive (the C: drive)
rather than a network drive address which is meaningful to other computers
on the network. So each NetChorus client will try to load the song from
their own C: hard drive. If a NetChorus client does not have a "C: hard
drive" or the song is not stored in the default "Program Files\Rallentando
Software\NetChorus\Resources\Samples" folder, then playback will fail for that
client.
In most NetChorus configurations, a copy of every song in your music library
will not be stored on a local drive of each and every computer on
your network (ie your music is unlikely to be "mirrored" across multiple computers).
More likely, you will have a single computer or a dedicated disk drive in
your network which holds your music collection. In this case, you must
create playlists with song paths which are relative and available to
all NetChorus players. See
Sharing Your Music
Collection on the Network and
Finding the
Network Path for Your Music Collection below.
If your NetChorus players are all going to access the same music collection
for playback, then that collection must be available on the network as a
"shared folder". If you have not already shared your music folders
with other computers on the network, follow the steps below. Otherwise
jump to
Finding the Network Path for Your Music Collection.
Sharing folders in Windows Vista is slightly more complicated.
To enable file sharing, do the following:
To share a folder in Windows Vista, do the following:
Ensure that file sharing is enabled as described in the “Enabling File
and Printer Sharing Options” section of
this article.
Click Start, and then click Computer.
In the Computer window, navigate to the folder containing the
folder that you want to share.
Right-click the folder that you want to share, and then click Share.
The File Sharing window is displayed.
If you have password protected sharing enabled, use the File
Sharing window to select which users can access the shared folder and
their permission level. To allow all users, select Everyone in the
list of users. By default, the permission level for a selected user is
Reader. Users cannot change files or create new files in the share. To
allow a user to change files or folders or create new files or folders,
select Co-owner as the permission level. Figure 5 shows an example of
configuring users and permission levels in the File Sharing window.
If you have password protected sharing disabled, use the File Sharing
window to select the Guest or Everyone account. This is equivalent to
simple file sharing in Windows XP.
Each computer in your Windows network has a unique name, perhaps "Office"
or "Bedroom" or "John Smith's Computer". To find the name of your
Windows computer:
Right-click "My Computer"
Choose Properties
Click on the "Computer Name" tab
You can also find the name of your Windows computer by starting NetChorus,
opening the Settings window and reviewing the
"Name" information.
Let us assume that all your songs are stored in the "Music" folder on the
"C:" drive of your computer which is named "Office". You will need to
have "shared" that folder on the network so that other computers can access
the music collection. If you shared the folder with the share name
"Music Collection" then the network path for your music collection will be
something like:
\\Office\Music Collection
So a song stored in the local C: drive folder with the following path:
C:\Music\Hussalonia\The Public Domain EP\There's More Than That To Being
Poor.mp3
will have a shared network path of:
\\Office\Music Collection\Hussalonia\The Public Domain EP\There's More
Than That To Being Poor.mp3
and it is this network path which you must supply to the NetChorus
Now Playing playlist if you want other
NetChorus players on the network to be able to find and play each song.
Note the leading double backslash with this kind of file/folder path.
Using the address bar in Windows Explorer, enter just the computer name
of another computer on the network (for example the computer named "Office")
preceded by a leading double backslash eg.:
\\Office
Hit enter and wait. It may take a little while for Windows Explorer
to complete the connection however the right window pane should eventually
show the shared folders on the "Office" computer and your music collection
folder if you have
shared it.
If this does not work (eg. the connection times out), or you receive an
error message, check that all computers are in the same
domain or
workgroup.
If identical copies of your music collection are stored on multiple computers
(the music collections is "mirrored") then we
want to take advantage of the efficiency of this arrangement - it's the
optimal NetChorus music storage arrangement as it means that all NetChorus players are
able to access songs stored on their PC's local drives, which results in very fast
load and synchronization.
But what if the identical mirrored music collection locations are different on each
computer? Eg.:
PC1 music collection path: "C:\Music"
PC2 music collection path: "D:\Audio
Tracks"
Clearly if the NetChorus server is on PC1
and PC1 passes the "C:\Music\Favourite
Artists\Song.mp3" path to the NetChorus client running
PC2, then PC2 will not be
able to open the file as the root folder and drive of the received path does
not refer to any actual file on its local drives.
In this case we could use just one of the music collections by making it
available as a
shared network folder, but the optimal method would be to map each local
drive to a common drive name so that a NetChorus playlist item path can refer to
different physical locations depending on which NetChorus PC is
interpreting the song path.
For example PC1 may have music stored
on a local hard drive, perhaps the song "Song.mp3" in the "Music\Favourite
Artists" folder on the "C:" drive. PC2
on the other hand may also have the same song music stored on a local hard
drive, but in this case the "Audio Tracks\Favourite Artists" folder on the
"D:" drive.
PC1 song location: "C:\Music\Favourite
Artists\Song.mp3"
PC2 song location: "D:\Audio
Tracks\Favourite Artists\Song.mp3"
In this case we can use the Windows "subst" command to map the
local drive on both PC1 and
PC2 to a path with a name common to both
PCs.
On PC1 we use the command:
subst M: "C:\Music"
On PC2 we use the command:
subst M: "D:\Audio Tracks"
Now two new "virtual" drives have been created, one on each PC:
On PC1 "M:\Favourite Artists"
refers to the actual location: "C:\Music\Favourite Artists"
On PC2 "M:\Favourite Artists"
refers to the actual location: "D:\Audio Tracks\Favourite Artists"
This means that songs can be added from the local music collection on
either PC via the new M: drive path and either PC can accept song
paths with the M:\ root from the other PC and refer to their local music
source.
The subst command can be run from the command line or by running a
.bat file from Windows. For more information on the subst
command, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subst.
NetChorus will work on any typical computer network setup. As long as
all computers running NetChorus on the network can "see each other" then NetChorus
will work without additional configuration.
All computers running NetChorus must be connected to one another on the "same"
network, and specifically all computers must be in the same domain or
workgroup.
You can see which domain or workgroup your computer is in by starting
NetChorus, opening the Settings window and
reviewing the Name/Workgroup/Domain information.
Click the Computer Name tab, and then
click Change.
Type the new computer name in the Computer name
dialog box.
Type the new domain or workgroup in either the
Domain dialog box or the Workgroup
dialog box.
Click More to change the primary
Domain Name System (DNS) suffix. Note Windows XP Home Edition is not designed to join domains.
Windows XP Home Edition is only designed to join workgroups. Therefore,
use Windows XP Professional to join domains.
Click OK three times, and then restart
the computer.
Typically, traditional wired Ethernet is the fastest network
connection type, followed by power line network connections, and WIFI connections
whose speed will vary depending on your WIFI
bandwidth and WIFI signal strength for each wireless connection.
NetChorus supports many network protocols for communicating between the
various NetChorus players on the network (eg TCP/IP).
If you have NetChorus running on PCs with very slow or "lossy" network
connections to one another, then NetChorus clients may keep dropping out, or may
fail to start playback altogether in which case check the Client Synchronization settings
and select "looser" synchronization.
Some dedicated network storage drives (eg a WIFI or Ethernet connected
standalone hard drive, part of a Storage Area Network
SAN), or even older USB (v1.x) drives may "serve up" larger song tracks
across the network much
more slowly than a typical networked PC hard disk. If you find that NetChorus takes a
long time to start the playback of a song for one of these hardware related
reasons, consider copying or relocating your music collection to a hard disk
on the fastest PC in your network and then make that source available to the
network. See
Sharing Your Music Collection on the Network.
If NetChorus clients fail to start playback, or keep dropping out, check
the Client Synchronization
settings.
If certain tracks will not play in sync, but others will, ensure that
you have downloaded and installed the custom parser and decoder
distributed with certain NetChorus installations. See
Use custom MP3 Parser/Decoder
If your network hardware is a performance bottleneck when accessing
larger music files (eg your music collection is stored on slower WIFI or USB v1.x storage drives),
consider placing your music collection on a PC hard disk and making it
available to the network through
file sharing. See
also
Network Hardware
Performance Limitations.
