Get started with BUTT for live broadcasting

BUTT, short for Broadcast Using This Tool, is a free, lightweight program that sends audio to your station. It is the simplest way to go live with a microphone or mixer, and it can record your show to a file as it streams. This guide covers installing it, connecting it, choosing your audio and going live.

Before you start. Read this first. BUTT sends whatever is coming into the audio input you choose. That is normally a microphone, USB mixer or sound card, and BUTT cannot play music files itself. To broadcast music from a player on your computer, you also need a way to route that sound into BUTT. This guide shows how, in the section on audio.

Where to find your connection details

Every program on this page needs the same five details to reach your station: a server address, a port, a username, a password and a mount point. You copy them from your control panel. It takes about a minute, and you only need to do it once for each program.

1. Log in to your control panel

Use the control panel link and the username and password from your welcome email.

2. Go to the dashboard and click How to connect

After you sign in you arrive at the main dashboard. Next to the preview player you will see a blue link called How to connect. Click it.

3. Copy your five details

A window opens with your connection details. Keep it open while you set up your software.

Steps

1. Go to danielnoethen.de, open the BUTT download section and choose your system: Windows, Mac or Linux.
2. Windows: run the installer and follow the wizard. It can be installed without administrator rights. Mac: open the disk image and drag BUTT into your Applications folder. If macOS warns about an unidentified developer, right-click the app and choose Open.
3. Log in to your control panel. On the dashboard, click the How to connect link next to the preview player and keep that page open. You will copy five details from it: the server IP, port, username, password and mount point. The pictures at the top of this page show where to look.
4. Open BUTT and click Settings. The window has tabs including Main, Audio, Stream and Record.
5. On the Main tab, in the Server section, click Add.
6. Enter a Name for the connection, such as your station name. It is only a label for you.
7. Set the type to IceCast.
8. Enter your server IP address in Address and your Port.
9. Enter your Password, then your IceCast mountpoint exactly as shown, including the leading slash, and your IceCast user.
10. Click Add to save the server. Back in Settings, check it is selected in the server list.
11. Still on the Main tab, fill in the stream info: your station name, genre, description and website. These details cannot be changed while you are live, so set them now.
12. Open the Audio tab. Choose your Primary audio device: your microphone, USB mixer or sound card. Set the sample rate to 44100 and the channel mode to Stereo.
13. In the audio codec section, choose mp3 and a bitrate within your plan.
14. Click Save and return to the main window. Speak or play something and check that the level meters move.
15. Press the play button to connect. Do not press the red record button, which only saves a file. A timer starts, and your live broadcast is now interrupting your AutoDJ.
16. To finish, press stop. BUTT disconnects and your AutoDJ resumes.

Settings at a glance

Broadcasting music and your microphone together

BUTT listens to one input device, so for a mix of music and voice you need to bring both into that single input. There are three common ways.

• Use a mixer. A USB mixer or audio interface takes your microphone and your computer’s music, and presents the blend to BUTT as one input. This is the most reliable setup.
• Use a virtual audio cable. Free tools can route your computer’s sound into BUTT as if it were a microphone: Voicemeeter on Windows, or BlackHole on a Mac. Play your music through the virtual device, then choose the matching device in BUTT’s Audio tab.
• Use Stereo Mix. Some Windows sound cards offer a Stereo Mix input that captures everything the computer plays. If yours does, enable it in Windows sound settings and choose it in BUTT.

If you want a program that plays music and mixes your voice for you, Mixxx is built for it. See the Mixxx guide.

Recording your shows

BUTT can save your show as you broadcast. Open Settings, then the Record tab, and choose a folder and file name. The name can include the date and time so every show gets its own file. You can pick a format such as mp3, Ogg or WAV, and the recording quality is separate from the stream quality. You can also tell BUTT to start recording when it connects and stop when it disconnects, or to start a new file every so many minutes.

Showing the song or show name

On the Stream tab you can type the current song name by hand, or have BUTT read it from a text file or web address, so listeners see what is playing. Because streams run a few seconds behind, there is an option to delay the update so it matches what listeners hear.

Reconnecting automatically

If the connection drops, BUTT keeps trying to reconnect until you press stop. There are also options to start streaming when BUTT opens, and to connect or disconnect automatically when it detects sound.

Check that it is working

Open your radio page, or press play on the preview player on your dashboard, and listen. Expect a delay of a few seconds between what you do and what you hear, because every internet stream has some. For the most honest test, listen on a phone over mobile data. If you can hear your show, you are live, and your AutoDJ is paused until you disconnect.

Troubleshooting

• I picked my microphone, but music is silent. BUTT only hears its chosen input. Use a mixer, a virtual audio cable or Stereo Mix as described above.
• The meters do not move. Choose a different Primary audio device and check your operating system has not blocked microphone access.
• It will not connect. Open How to connect again and compare every field character by character, or copy and paste each one. The server must be entered as an address or IP only, with no http://, and a mount point must begin with a slash.
• It says the password is wrong. Use the source password shown in How to connect, not your control panel login password.
• It connects but listeners hear nothing. The program is sending silence. Check that the right input is selected, that the level meters move, and that nothing is muted.
• The audio stutters or drops. Your upload connection is the usual cause. Close video calls, cloud backups and other uploads, use a cable instead of Wi-Fi, and try a lower bitrate.
• The audio sounds too fast, slow or distorted. Make the sample rate the same everywhere (44100 Hz is the safe choice) and keep your levels out of the red.
• My AutoDJ did not come back. Make sure the program has fully disconnected, then wait a short while. If the station is still silent, email support@citrus3.zendesk.com.

Each time you want to go live, open BUTT and press play. When you press stop, your AutoDJ carries on.

Next guide: Set up Mixxx for live broadcasting