Online rehearsal

Cols

The band rehearsals are on hiatus during lockdown and everyone’s going stir crazy.  Are there any viable ways to play together online, or is latency going to be an intractable problem?

roberty

Cols said:

The band rehearsals are on hiatus during lockdown and everyone’s going stir crazy.  Are there any viable ways to play together online, or is latency going to be an intractable problem?

I don't see how you could do it tbh. Open to suggestions tho. This is the sort of thing 5G is supposed to solve, right?

sw67

We are going to try this next week -    https://www.jamkazam.com

HAL9000

I tried it last week with both Zoom and FaceTime. Sadly latency is indeed a problem. Nothing to do with the Apps, it’s just the way the internet is. The only thing that remotely worked was for one person to play (whilst, from his POV, muting everyone else) while the others to played along to him.

midlifecrisis

I worked out how to beet the latency problem.
Simply play everything a little bit earlier..... no need to thank me.

Cols

midlifecrisis said:

I worked out how to beet the latency problem.
Simply play everything a little bit earlier..... no need to thank me.

In a similar vein, I managed to ditch my delay pedal by just playing every note twice.

Cols

sw67 said:

We are going to try this next week -    https://www.jamkazam.com

Tried it this evening.  It worked, after a fashion.  Drummer couldn’t connect and there were technical challenges with sound balance, video link and chat mics, but there didn’t seem to be too much lag.

hotpickups

Cols said:

sw67 said:

We are going to try this next week -    https://www.jamkazam.com

Tried it this evening.  It worked, after a fashion.  Drummer couldn’t connect and there were technical challenges with sound balance, video link and chat mics, but there didn’t seem to be too much lag.

A band I'm in wanted to do this via zoom or whattsapp but I've found that the laptop's microphone senses who is speaking and cuts off the others. Is that true with Jamkazam @Cols ?

Cols

Doesn’t seem to be an issue with muting others (however much I might occasionally want to).  I think regular stuff li,e Zoom or Skype has too much lag for effective practice.

FarleyUK

I've been looking in to getting something setup with Jamkazam.... but then realised the issue is the other band members, not the tech as such.

Basically, neither the drummer not the singer / bassist have an audio interface - so pretty sure they cannot connect or use the software in any way. Massive pain in the arse!

DrJazzTap

I missed out on a video call with the guys in the band, more to chat with somebody to be honest.

Trude

Am I missing something, or does the Jamkazam website not state anywhere what kind of product it actually is (ie Windows, Mac, iOS or Android app, web etc) or what the tech requirements are? 

Do you only find out after signing up?

Cols

Try this link:

https://forum.jamkazam.com/showthread.php?tid=114

Trude

Thanks @Cols!

They don't recommend WiFi and say you should use Ethernet for real-time sessions.

 That rules out most recent laptops  where things like Ethernet ports are no longer considered important!  Are USB-Ethernet adapters good enough for this kind of thing I wonder?

Cols

My bass player used WiFi and didn’t notice any difference versus Ethernet cable.  He was right next to his router though.

Trude

Cool, that's good to know. Worth a try then!

ZenOvertone

How is everyone's online jamming/rehearsing going, we're trying similar software but wondered what the best so far is to avoid frustration (and cope with the less technically able band members beforehand!)?? 

NelsonP

I'm starting to look at this. Jamulus looked good but it's not certified so I'm not sure I want to install it on my PC due to security concerns. Currently looking at jamkazam and others...open to good suggestions.

Trude

I did try Jamkazam, but found the app itself so clunky and complicated to set up that I gave up.  It looks like it's not been updated for quite some time either, which is never a good sign.  

vonLayzonfon

We tried the usual suspects and failed.  There are several barriers to overcome:

1. Equipment level of band members.  Ideally everyone needs an audio interface, half-decent computer and the drummer ideally needs an electronic kit.
2. Technical ability of band members.  Assuming they have an audio interface they will probably be able to use it, although our bassist bought one specially for the job and it took several days of frustrating phone/video calls to get him up and running with it properly.
3. Enthusiasm of band members.  Never actually managed to get everyone together even for a test run.  Quiz night on Zoom - no problem.
4. Physics.  "Ye cannae change the laws of physics!"  Network latency is the ultimate killer, even if you manage to get everyone on hardwired connections.

Jamulus came closest to being usable but the only test we ever ran was with just three of us (me, bassist and drummer) and the drummer was trying to use his acoustic kit - Jamulus recommend you listen to the transmitted signal from the app, rather than the local one, so everyone gets delayed by more or less the same amount.  Obviously you can't do that with acoustic drums.  Anything beyond largo was basically unworkable.

Jalapeno

Necro - reboot

Had someone else extolling the goodness of Jamulus to me, they run the server in AWS Lightsail (< £4/mth)  so everyone at least gets the same experience.

Any new thoughts on Jamulus ?