Kalamazoom

burlew

Blues Junior
Just wanted to offer my thanks to all who had a hand in pulling this together.

Such a disappointment not to be able to travel and see you all in person. But it did my heart good to spend time with you on Zoom.

Keep safe.

God bless

db (and Shortie)
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
When I first heard about this I though "What's the point? It will just remind us all of not being able to get together". Well,, I was wrong.
It was great to see everyone and listen to them playing solo.
Thanks to everyone that put it together and thanks to everyone that attended.
 

jmin

Student Of The Blues
Just wanted to add my thanks to those who organized and pulled off the Kalamazoom jam. It was a lot fun getting to see everyone and hearing everyone play. I really enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to the next one. I'm gonna have to practice...both playing and drinking!
 

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
When I first heard about this I though "What's the point? It will just remind us all of not being able to get together". Well,, I was wrong.
It was great to see everyone and listen to them playing solo.
Thanks to everyone that put it together and thanks to everyone that attended.
Thanks Mike and all. My first thought when Tommy had to cancel was maybe we can just do it another state, but there were only a handful of people still willing to attend, and then what happens if you do get together, and someone gets sick?

So I bounced the Zoom thing off Tommy and I bounced it off Lloyd, and I was concerned that the whole playing by yourself thing might seem a little hokey. But there was no way to find a collabarative app that would be scalable, and then you still have to deal with the whole latency thing.

Again appreciate all the hard work Tommy put into putting the live jam together, it was a shame it couldn't come off. Big ups to Lloyd for co hosting, all the help with the technical aspects, and making sure he had pants on while he was hosting.

And thanks for all who attended it was great to see some old faces, some new faces, play some tunes, drink a few beers, tell a few stories.

Solo my brothers, and that's what everyone did, played solo...my brothers. :)
 

sloslunas

NM Blues
Thanks Mike and all. My first thought when Tommy had to cancel was maybe we can just do it another state, but there were only a handful of people still willing to attend, and then what happens if you do get together, and someone gets sick?

So I bounced the Zoom thing off Tommy and I bounced it off Lloyd, and I was concerned that the whole playing by yourself thing might seem a little hokey. But there was no way to find a collabarative app that would be scalable, and then you still have to deal with the whole latency thing.

Again appreciate all the hard work Tommy put into putting the live jam together, it was a shame it couldn't come off. Big ups to Lloyd for co hosting, all the help with the technical aspects, and making sure he had pants on while he was hosting.

And thanks for all who attended it was great to see some old faces, some new faces, play some tunes, drink a few beers, tell a few stories.

Solo my brothers, and that's what everyone did, played solo...my brothers. :)
Can't say enough Kevin for what you and Lloyd just pulled off. You brought a lot of brothers together. That is never an easy task, but you boys did a superb job!!

Steve
 

dvs

Green Mountain Blues
I agree with all of the above. It was a lot of fun and a very welcome (albeit inadequate) substitute for meeting up in person. Many, many thanks to the instigators/organizers of Kalamazoom (Tom, Kevin, Lloyd), and of course to everyone who showed up - it wouldn't have been the same without you!
 

Silicon Valley Tom

It makes me happpy to play The Blues!
My thanks to all. It was a fun event, and made me feel good. I am still working on getting video and audio. Just a "minor problem". ;) At least I got to see everyone. A special thanks to the guys who put this together.

I do have a question:

How is one person selected to be "on screen"? I imagine one person is "in charge", but it really interests me as to what is going on behind the scenes. :):cool:

Tom
 

Crossroads

Thump the Bottom
My thanks to all. It was a fun event, and made me feel good. I am still working on getting video and audio. Just a "minor problem". ;) At least I got to see everyone. A special thanks to the guys who put this together.

I do have a question:

How is one person selected to be "on screen"? I imagine one person is "in charge", but it really interests me as to what is going on behind the scenes. :):cool:

Tom

Tom it was great having your picture with us :)

Normally the app moves back and forth between who's ever speaking. There are some controls you can use as admin one is the spotlight feature. When you spot light someone the camera stays on them until you take it off.

Lloyd and I were co- hosting and worked pretty seamlessly behind the scenes, though he did the lion's share of the work on the second day. It was nice having two people do it because if one person gets involved in trying to make a video work or trying to help someone straighten out their camera or mic the other person can make sure everything is tended to.
 
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blackcoffeeblues

Student Of The Blues
Here is how forgiving your Brothers are---all the time I was playing I kept thinking "something ain't right here" I did a song with a backing track and it just didn't feel right---the other 2 I did with just my guitars---and again kept thinking "something ain't right here." so this morning I got up and checked- tuned with my the old KORG (1994-6)---it said dead on---so then I plugged my guitar into my Zoom Recorder Tuner and it was a little over a 1/4 sharp, I retuned to 440 ran the backing track WOW what a difference that made---OH WELL. Live and learn-
 
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artyman

Fareham UK
I've never been to a BGU live event in the USA my interaction with folk is through the forum, particularly the Virtual Jam Room, whilst it isn't the same as standing next to folk and playing live, seeing and hearing folk is a step up from the VJR and I enjoyed it. I hope my contributions were up to scratch. I'm hoping that the BGU-UK event is going to happen at the end of October, I've booked my room at The Bell", I'm keeping everything crossed.
 

MikeR

Guitar Challenged
Staff member
Big thanks to Lloyd and Kevin for setting this up and running it so well. Would loved to have been with you all in Kalamazoo, but this was the next best thing. Unfortunately, we couldn't make the newbies buy the beer. :Beer:
 

Elio

Student Of The Blues
I will add in my thanks to Lloyd, Kevin, and Tommy for putting this together. My plan was to hang out with you all in person in Kalamazoo. As it turned out, life threw some unexpected curve balls at me and this ended up being a particularly stressful month and week, and there was a chance I might have had to have bailed from the physical trip at the last minute. I'm glad I didn't have to face that decision but with that said, having the chance to relax with a beer, play a couple songs badly (I always sound so much better when no one else is listening), and hang out with you guys virtually was really cathartic. Thanks again for the opportunity!
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
Just curious about scalability & flexibility of platforms like JamKazam.

On the scalability side: While I was on the Kalamazoom call, I think the highest number of participants that I saw was about 13 or 14. Did we ever get more than that?

On the flexibility side: I know that Jamkazam can support players and and "audience" (or at one time it did). 14 people all set up as players might exceed the bandwidth capabilities, but I KNOW it can support three players. If we had the ability to have three players collaborate and the rest set up as "audience" plus the ability to change individuals roles (swap people back and forth). I'm wondering if that might work.
I haven't used JK since some time last year, so I don't know if it's gotten any better or not. Thoughts?
 

artyman

Fareham UK
I think you need Windows 64bit to use Jamkazam and I only have the 32bit version, so some folk may have problems with it.
 
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