Radio Master

Submit portable freeware that you find here. It helps if you include information like description, extraction instruction, Unicode support, whether it writes to the registry, and so on.
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smaragdus
Posts: 2120
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 am
Location: Aeaea

Radio Master

#1 Post by smaragdus »

Preamble
I am an occasional radio listener yet I have tested many portable and non-portable radio players but I am mostly dissatisfied with most of them- TapinRadio and RadioSure are no longer free, the new versions of Screamer Radio are horrible (the last one which actually worked fine for me was ancient 0.4.4), Pocket Radio Player is not easy to update and to add stations manually. For quite some time I have been using Radio Master which can be easily made portable, has a decent set of features and sports a clean, skinnable interface and extended tray control so it is becoming my favourite radio player. I should mention that I do not rely on presets, I just add my favourites manually.

Synopsis
Program for playing and recording radio channels.
Features
  • Presets (over 3000, organized by genre and by region);
  • Record stations (in mp3, ogg, wav formats, scheduler);
  • Add stations manually;
  • Add stations to favorites;
  • History (10 last channels);
  • Shotrcut keys;
  • Tray control;
  • Tray notifications (balloon tips);
  • Balance control;
  • Peak meter (bars, lines, simple);
  • Skin support (blue, green yellow, silver);
  • Localization support (English, Russian, French, Hungarian, Italian, Polish)
Links
Website
Publisher
Softpedia
CodecPack

Downloads
Direct Download Link

Images

Radio Master version 1.9 - green skin (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - blue skin (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - yellow skin (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - green skin (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - menus (animated image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - settings (animated image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - stations (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - add to favorites (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - favorites (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - tray control - volume (static image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - program in action - show peaks - simple (animated image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - program in action - show peaks - lines (animated image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - program in action - show peaks - bars (animated image):

Image

Radio Master version 1.9 - about (static image):

Image

Portability
Radio Master is offered as installer only but once the installer is extracted program is portable but it is not stealth, it creates the following registry key:

Code: Select all

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Datastead\TVideoGrabber.RadioMaster
Data and settings files (history.dat, favorites.xml, RadioMaster.ini) are saved in program folder.

Instructions
  • Download the installer (RadioMaster.exe);
  • Extract the installer to folder of your choice;
  • The program is in {app} folder- rename it and place it to a location of your choice;
  • Run the executable (RadioMaster.exe);
Requirements
Radio Master should run under Windows XP or higher.

License
Radio Master is unrestricted freeware.

Note
Radio Master is tiny- 1.81 MB installer, 3.72 MB uncompressed.
Radio Master is light- it uses about 35 MB of RAM under Windows 8 x64.
Radio Master is stable- I have never experienced a crash.
Radio Master is in active development- the latest version- 1.9, was released on 2018-05-30.
Most of the programs by Aleksey Taranov- the developer of Radio Master, are portable.

Alternatives
A couple of alternatives to Radio Master:
Details
File details for Radio Master version 1.9 (released on 2018-05-30):

==

Name: RadioMaster.exe
File Size: 1899603 Byte(s) (1.81 MB)
Modified Date: 2018-05-30 23:28
MD5: ee0b21929d3b6d507415d42ce719cabf
SHA1: dabf66f17cda80bd0776437abbea3ece24d62b34
SHA256: 0d99bb8e7a327032de4952d27798efaaaf88a9cef12f8daf9a9977719223c706
SHA384: 4b1dd98e4c31392f06ec8a1d366a039dde1a4728ad6a22d904c8709964a349bb76dedda801228b6e2d1873d92ada9cf1
SHA512: ED5A1E18151B5FBCDAA43C59870B3E51FA2BBA8ADB7B1B8E6A4301021EDB8B27420A141CEF95810A6F2567B7CC1A6EF331D1DBEE4B7E224C9E22F454136343B5
RIPEMD160: 70CCBB0FFA00CD4E3ED435A1195FEC8B16488E92

==
Last edited by smaragdus on Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
zorro
Posts: 81
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:32 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Re: Radio Master

#2 Post by zorro »

Just wanted to shout out "geat find!" - well, it is, sort of:
It's not stealth - entries in registry after first run:
radiomaster.jpg
...I should have expanded the first entry - it stores the last used stations. A launcher would do it, but I think I'll stick with the last freeware version of RadioSure.

User avatar
smaragdus
Posts: 2120
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 am
Location: Aeaea

Re: Radio Master

#3 Post by smaragdus »

@zorro
First, thank you for pointing out that Radio Master creates a registry key which I failed to notice. Second, I apologize for my negligence. Third, I may contact the developer about the registry keys Radio Master creates. Fourth, I edited the post according to your finding.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Radio Master

#4 Post by Midas »

I can confirm zorro's findings (see below).

RadioMaster is still a great find notwithstanding a few visual bugs when running unskinned and radio files management not being all that straightforward to figure out (any help, smaragdus?).

My registry traces dump follows.

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Datastead]
"_GrbId"="C:\\Users\\User\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\v~fA6BEE2D7-9CD3-4A12-A98B-48C31844E443.tmp"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Datastead\TVideoGrabber.RadioMaster]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Datastead\TVideoGrabber.RadioMaster\Global]
"_LastRecordingFileName"=""
"_LastClipPlayed"=""
"_LastTVChannel"=dword:00000000
"_LastTVCountryCode"=dword:00000000
"_LastTVInputType"=dword:00000000

And here's a yaP launcher config for RadioMaster v1.9.

Code: Select all

; configuration file for yaP v0.7.1.5 (http://rolandtoth.hu/yaP/)
; application name: RadioMaster
; version: v1.9
; website: http://www.altarsoft.com/radio_master.shtml

[GENERAL]
application = App\RadioMaster.exe

; commandline = 
; workdir = 

[BEFORE]
regkey = HKCU\Software\Datastead
...
One last note, upon noticing the very welcome recording feature: is RadioMaster able to directly save the stream as is or it always transcodes (like I've seen early versions of OooPlayer do)? Moreover does it buffer the stream so you can get a tune from start (as RadioSure does) or it just records from present point on?

User avatar
smaragdus
Posts: 2120
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 am
Location: Aeaea

Re: Radio Master

#5 Post by smaragdus »

@Midas

Had I detected the registry keys created by Radio Master most likely I wouldn't have posted about it. Somehow I got distracted while preparing the animated images and I searched the registry for "Radio Master" in stead of "RadioMaster"- I saw this checking Registry Finder search history.

I have used only the green skin and I have not seen any visual bugs.

What about radio stations management? As I mentioned above I do not use the presets, I just add my stations to favourites - "Favorites" -> "Add".

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Radio Master

#6 Post by Midas »

Never mind that, my dear smaragdus. If you look around the forum you'll see that I've mistakenly assumed stealthiness and even portability plenty of times. Please keep those post coming, we will sort the shortcoming afterwards. 8)

User avatar
FileHandler
Posts: 137
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 7:11 pm

Re: Radio Master

#7 Post by FileHandler »

Finally a radio player that meets my gusto. I am an occasional listener only, not willing to invest time into figuring out howto's and settings. This one strikes a nice balance, imo. I was able to add stations manually, and they are kept in the program folder. All I need.
Many thanks.

User avatar
zorro
Posts: 81
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:32 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Re: Radio Master

#8 Post by zorro »

@smaragdus:
No problem - I always check new findings. And although it writes to the registry it is a good find - there are so many great programs out there but no one's perfect.

@Midas:
Did you only find the "Datastead"-key? Because as pointed in my screenshot RadioMaster also created the "HSTools"-key below (which is empty).

User avatar
smaragdus
Posts: 2120
Joined: Sat Jun 22, 2013 3:24 am
Location: Aeaea

Re: Radio Master

#9 Post by smaragdus »

@zorro
I checked again the registry, there was no "HSTools" key on my system (Windows 8 x64).

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Radio Master

#10 Post by Midas »

zorro wrote: As pointed in my screenshot RadioMaster also created the "HSTools"-key below (which is empty).
Nope. Even with RadioMaster running, I have no 'HSTools' key. You sure this is caused by RM?

User avatar
zorro
Posts: 81
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:32 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany

Re: Radio Master

#11 Post by zorro »

Well, that's annoying... I was sure the key came from RadioMaster, because just before I cleaned up my system and backed it up with clonezilla.
So, if you two don't have this key, it must be another program - no idea which one.
But: it's certainly one that's here in the database so I'll post a note in the comments as soon as I found it out.

User avatar
Midas
Posts: 6705
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2009 7:09 am
Location: Sol3

Re: Radio Master

#12 Post by Midas »

Midas wrote: One last note, upon noticing the very welcome recording feature: is RadioMaster able to directly save the stream as is or it always transcodes (like I've seen early versions of OooPlayer do)? Moreover does it buffer the stream so you can get a tune from start (as RadioSure does) or it just records from present point on?
I have been happily employing Radio Master on and off for streaming and today I can finally answer my own question above.

Sadly, it's a negative -- so you either record in bulk in the prospect of getting something of value later or have to be willing to live with truncated recordings.

To make matters worse on this aspect, Radio Master also auto-converts stream recordings to MP3, which further degrades sources that aren't mostly high quality to start with -- in my test case, AAC 64kbps...

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