i have been using Roll 20 for a long time for maps and tokens, but my players are at the table with me. We’re moving online overall it’s been a pretty easy experience the only challenge has been to have background ambient music being played. I tried uploading a couple songs through roll20 but there’s massive restrictions with the size of the file so I really can only upload one song. I don’t want to spend any more money.
So my question is how can I run roll20 but also play various ambient music in the background so that my players that are on roll20 can hear it?
researching this some people use Discord or zoom or something like that. Is that realistically the only way to play ambient music? The other concern I have is I have a headphone with a mic so will that ambient music even be picked up with the mic.
Any real world solutions that you have successfully done this please let me know thanks.
If your sound card is capable of doing such(I have an Asus Essence STX II) by way of a "Line In" connection that accepts signals from other devices such as iPads, iPhones, tablets, and the like, plug a tablet(I use an iPad Pro) into the sound card's Line-In and make sure the Line-In under your soundcard settings is engaged.
Most tablets have a headphone jack for wired headphones. That's how you'll connect there. The other end goes into the soundcard's Line-In.
Then, just queue up whatever sounds you want to play, and you and your players *should* hear it.
Discord for voice and background music. Roll20 for maps as needed, game is largely TotM. Use Rythm bot for music, which plays from different sources such as Youtube. You can't play multiple tracks at once, and right now you can't play videos that are 3+ hours, but what you CAN do is create playlists in Youtube and copypasta the playlist link and it'll play the full playlist in order. (I have a separate Youtube account just for my curated playlists and have... 100+ playlists?) This is ideal for me as one of my players doesn't want background music (can't pay attention with it) so they can just mute the bot. This way is good because it's really easy to adjust individual player volume, including the music bot. It's not perfect, it has its issues, but it's my go-to method.
Syrinscape also has multiple ambient "playlists" that you can play around with. The default ones all have a "share" option where you generate a link to give your players and they can hear what you're doing in real time. The only downside is custom "playlists" don't have this feature, and you can't just upload anything you want. That said, they have some great ambient tracks to make the mood eerie, exploratory, unsettling, adventurous, epic, and more, so give it a looksie.
IF you are playing online I like to use "Watch Together" Its free and all you do is create YouTube play list everyone logs into the room and what you play is what they hear. I also like the functionality of zoom to be able to pipe your computer system sound into the room. This way just can play media from any soundboard or playlist you have and everyone hears it from their speaker or headset. Same with Watch Together. I play alot on roll20 and as long as you prep your play list and effects its easy to manage in the moment.
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i have been using Roll 20 for a long time for maps and tokens, but my players are at the table with me. We’re moving online overall it’s been a pretty easy experience the only challenge has been to have background ambient music being played. I tried uploading a couple songs through roll20 but there’s massive restrictions with the size of the file so I really can only upload one song. I don’t want to spend any more money.
So my question is how can I run roll20 but also play various ambient music in the background so that my players that are on roll20 can hear it?
researching this some people use Discord or zoom or something like that. Is that realistically the only way to play ambient music? The other concern I have is I have a headphone with a mic so will that ambient music even be picked up with the mic.
Any real world solutions that you have successfully done this please let me know thanks.
If your sound card is capable of doing such(I have an Asus Essence STX II) by way of a "Line In" connection that accepts signals from other devices such as iPads, iPhones, tablets, and the like, plug a tablet(I use an iPad Pro) into the sound card's Line-In and make sure the Line-In under your soundcard settings is engaged.
Most tablets have a headphone jack for wired headphones. That's how you'll connect there. The other end goes into the soundcard's Line-In.
Then, just queue up whatever sounds you want to play, and you and your players *should* hear it.
Give it a try!
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Personally, my group setup is this:
Discord for voice and background music. Roll20 for maps as needed, game is largely TotM. Use Rythm bot for music, which plays from different sources such as Youtube. You can't play multiple tracks at once, and right now you can't play videos that are 3+ hours, but what you CAN do is create playlists in Youtube and copypasta the playlist link and it'll play the full playlist in order. (I have a separate Youtube account just for my curated playlists and have... 100+ playlists?) This is ideal for me as one of my players doesn't want background music (can't pay attention with it) so they can just mute the bot. This way is good because it's really easy to adjust individual player volume, including the music bot. It's not perfect, it has its issues, but it's my go-to method.
Syrinscape also has multiple ambient "playlists" that you can play around with. The default ones all have a "share" option where you generate a link to give your players and they can hear what you're doing in real time. The only downside is custom "playlists" don't have this feature, and you can't just upload anything you want. That said, they have some great ambient tracks to make the mood eerie, exploratory, unsettling, adventurous, epic, and more, so give it a looksie.
IF you are playing online I like to use "Watch Together" Its free and all you do is create YouTube play list everyone logs into the room and what you play is what they hear. I also like the functionality of zoom to be able to pipe your computer system sound into the room. This way just can play media from any soundboard or playlist you have and everyone hears it from their speaker or headset. Same with Watch Together. I play alot on roll20 and as long as you prep your play list and effects its easy to manage in the moment.