Mcaster1DNAS

Overview

Mcaster1DNAS (Digital Network Audio Server) is a powerful, enterprise-grade streaming media server for professional audio broadcasting. Built on Icecast-KH and Icecast2, it delivers high-quality audio streaming with low latency, a modern web interface, and excellent reliability.

Key Features

• Secure by Default — HTTPS/SSL enabled out of the box
• ICY-META v2.2 Protocol — Extended metadata: podcast, video, social, track, live programming (spec | guide)
• Built-in SSL Cert Generator — Self-signed certs or CSRs from CLI/WinUI (guide)
• Per-Listener SSL Enforcement — ssl: true or ssl: false per listen-socket
• Static Mount Types — podcast, socialcast, on-demand (guide)
• YAML Configuration — Modern YAML alongside XML (guide)
• Multi-Format Audio — MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, FLAC, Speex, Theora
• High Performance — Low latency, high concurrent listeners
• Real-Time Statistics — Live dashboard
• Song History API — In-memory ring buffer at /mcaster1songdata (guide)
• Track History UI — MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Discogs, AllMusic lookup
• Browser Audio Player — HTML5 player with VU meters
• Windows Native GUI — mcaster1win.exe; VS 2022 (guide)

Project Lineage

We maintain all original credits, licensing (GNU GPL v2), and acknowledgments.

• Icecast2 by Xiph.Org Foundation — the original streaming media server
• Icecast-KH by Karl Heyes — performance enhancements

Song History & Track Lookup

• /mcaster1songdata XML API — Ring buffer of last N tracks (default 25, song-history-limit)
• Track History Pages — /admin/songdata.xsl and /songdata.xsl
• Music Service Lookup — One-click MusicBrainz, Last.fm, Discogs, AllMusic
• Deduplication — Identical consecutive titles silently ignored; ended_at back-filled

See Song History API.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• libxml2
• libxslt
• libcurl
• OpenSSL
• Ogg/Vorbis

Installation (Linux/Unix/macOS)

git clone https://github.com/davestj/mcaster1dnas.git
cd mcaster1dnas
./autogen.sh
./configure 
  --prefix=/usr/local/mcaster1dnas 
  --with-openssl --with-ogg --with-vorbis
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Running the Server

/usr/local/mcaster1dnas/bin/mcaster1 -c /usr/local/mcaster1dnas/etc/mcaster1.xml

Default Access URLs

YAML Configuration

listen-sockets:
  - port: 9330
    bind-address: "0.0.0.0"
    ssl: false
  - port: 9443
    bind-address: "0.0.0.0"
    ssl: true

authentication:
  source-password: "hackme"
  admin-user: "admin"
  admin-password: "hackme"

limits:
  clients: 100
  song-history-limit: 25

SSL Certificate Setup

# Linux / macOS
./mcaster1 --ssl-gencert --ssl-gentype=selfsigned 
    --subj="/C=US/ST=CA/O=My Station/CN=stream.example.com" 
    --ssl-gencert-savepath=/etc/ssl 
    --ssl-gencert-addtoconfig=true -c mcaster1dnas.yaml

# Windows
mcaster1.exe --ssl-gencert --ssl-gentype=selfsigned 
    --subj="/C=US/ST=TX/O=My Station/CN=stream.example.com" 
    --ssl-gencert-savepath=ssl\mycert 
    --ssl-gencert-addtoconfig=true -c windows\mcaster1dnas.yaml

Windows Native GUI

Full native GUI (mcaster1win.exe), Visual Studio 2022 v17, Windows 10/11 x64.

CLI Flags

Building on Windows

Prerequisites: VS 2022 C++ workload, vcpkg x64-windows

vcpkg install libxml2 libxslt curl openssl libyaml ogg vorbis theora speex pthreads
# Open: windows\Mcaster1DNAS.sln
# Build -> Build Solution
# Output: windows\x64\Debug\mcaster1win.exe

See Windows GUI Guide and Windows Changelog.

System Requirements

Platforms: Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS/RHEL/Fedora), BSD (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD), macOS (10.13+), Windows 10/11 x64

Features Roadmap (v2.5.2-dev)

• ✅ ICY-META v2.2 extended metadata protocol — 50+ fields, static mount support
• ✅ YAML configuration support (alongside XML)
• ✅ Per-listener ssl: enforcement
• ✅ Built-in SSL cert generator (--ssl-gencert CLI flags)
• ✅ Song History API — in-memory ring buffer at /mcaster1songdata
• ✅ Static mount types — podcast, socialcast, on-demand
• ✅ Windows native GUI (mcaster1win.exe) — VS 2022, ResizableLib
• ✅ Windows YAML config CRT crash fixed
• ✅ Windows uptime clock + system time status bar
• ✅ Windows real-time log viewer (color-coded, _SH_DENYNO)
• ✅ Windows HTTP admin auth fixed (WWW-Authenticate header)
• ✅ Complete Mcaster1DNAS visual rebrand

Upcoming (Cross-Platform)

• □ Real-time statistics dashboard (WebSocket/SSE)
• □ Dark mode toggle
• □ Stream health monitoring with visual indicators
• □ Historical listener analytics with charts
• □ Automated stream scheduling system

Upcoming (Windows GUI)

• □ Config Dialog Editor — visual YAML/XML editor built into the GUI
• □ Podcast & On-Demand File Manager
• □ RSS Podcast Feed Generator (RSS 2.0 / Apple Podcasts)
• □ Windows Service integration from GUI
• □ Dark mode (Windows 10/11 via DwmSetWindowAttribute)

License

Licensed under the GNU General Public License v2.0, compatible with Icecast2 and Icecast-KH.

Acknowledgments

• Xiph.Org Foundation — Icecast2 and open-source streaming
• Karl Heyes — Icecast-KH improvements and maintenance
• All Icecast contributors — decades of foundational streaming server development
• FontAwesome — icon library used in the web interface

Links & Contact

• Website: https://mcaster1.com
• GitHub: https://github.com/davestj/mcaster1dnas
• Issues: https://github.com/davestj/mcaster1dnas/issues
• Maintainer: David St John — davestj@gmail.com