Jamkazam

[Elio]

I thought that worked out surprisingly well. Once I figured out that I could take metal thrasher guy's volume out of my mix, it was fine. The software seems to have been well thought out in terms of features, but they dropped the ball on testing and UI usability. The features are mostly there, but they aren't always called what you would expect them to be, or located in the obvious places to look for them.

Latency didn't seem to be a major factor until I and someone else played some rhythm. MikeS mentioned that my chords were out of time, although I thought I was dead-on. When I heard someone else's (not sure if it was Doug or Mike), they were just off of the beat by enough to be noticeable. I didn't really notice it when anyone played lead, though -- probably because the rhythm is rhythmic and predictable, so it's easier to tell when the latency occurs.

I am on a Uverse fiber-optic connection at home, with reasonably fast download and adequate upload. I usually use a faster Windows PC for this stuff but decided to switch to an older Mac so that I could use its much bigger screen and ethernet connection rather than wifi. The ethernet connection is going from the main router over the house's AC wiring to a 2nd upstairs router that I use, so my networking is not particularly efficient. Next time, I will try an ethernet connection directly to the main router to see if it changes anything.

Overall, I think it's definitely workable. I think the more we use it, the more we will figure out the little workarounds and ideosyncracies.

 

[MikeS]

I'm using cable internet from Spectrum. My speed tests out as:
78-91 Mbps Download
22-23 Mbps Upload
20-21 ms latency

I'd be interested to hear how that compares to fiber.

 

[Elio]

I'm using cable internet from Spectrum. My speed tests out as:
78-91 Mbps Download
22-23 Mbps Upload
20-21 ms latency

I'd be interested to hear how that compares to fiber.

In its current configuration, unless they bring in another line i am maxed out. I just ran a speed test and got

51 mbps download
12 mbps upload
7 ms latency

My office is on a Frontier (formerly Verizon) fiber optic line where we get about 60 mbps both up and down. We're have two web servers running, along with a lot of remote access to a couple of workstations and no real issues related to bandwidth.

 

[PapaRaptor]

If I can find it, I still have one long Cat 5 cable that I can probably hook up to my computer. Times like this I miss my old house in Florida. When we first bought it in 2003, I dropped Cat 5 wiring into every room that all ran to a router and switch in the garage. This house is bare bones, with a cable drop into the family room and nothing else in the house except for old telephone JK wiring (two pair, not twisted, the stuff your grandmother's house had stapled to the baseboard). Twenty years ago, I wouldn't have thought twice about crawling around under the house and adding drops, but at my size and age, I'm not inclined to slide along like a beached seal under the house. Too many creepy things!

 

[MikeR]

I'm thinking I've got no chance of even making this work locally with these numbers:

14 Mbps download
0.6 Mbps upload
34 ms latency

 

[PapaRaptor]

I'm thinking I've got no chance of even making this work locally with these numbers:

14 Mbps download
0.6 Mbps upload
34 ms latency

You have my sympathy.

 

[Elio]

I'm thinking I've got no chance of even making this work locally with these numbers:

14 Mbps download
0.6 Mbps upload
34 ms latency

Ouch, that upload may rank you. Jam Kazan has a network test option that will tell you how you network will do

 

[david moon]

It's not the distance (although that is certainly a factor), but the number of switching points along the transmission path that determine latency. Every switching point introduces some latency. The fact that packet switching for real time communications is at all usable still amazes me.

True, and the distance will not necessarilly be a straight line. But it does tell you best case lower bound.

 

[MikeR]

Ouch, that upload may rank you. Jam Kazan has a network test option that will tell you how you network will do

I tried it and it didn't even pass the audio test, so it didn't bother to try video. Guess I have to be in SoCal (where I've got cable internet) to use JamKazam.

 

[david moon]

It's like women and having babies.
If they REALLY remembered, they'd never do it again.

In your profile there is a "history" page. I was surprised that it was 5 years ago that I last looked at this.

 

[david moon]

Well I figured out how to turn down my mic volume in Windows. I assume it doesn't interact with JK. It was realy "hot" last night. Tonight I did some ral work-at-home til about 10 PM.
Went on to JK and tried to join a few sessions. On one I got audio but everyone was leaving. Others I was told I would have to be accepted and nothing followed. So if someone is going to set up a BGU Sunday session please post here.

 

[TwoNotesSolo]

Let me know if you try it again. I am signed up but sessions in my list are either listed as Poor or Unknown latency

I tried setting up a Jamulus server on my home computer and tried with a band member but hit round trip time was around 75ms and it was really hard to stay together

Jammr is interesting: it's based on a metronome and chord progression, so it literally delays your playing till the next progression around. Great for noodling but not that interesting

 

[Elio]

Well I figured out how to turn down my mic volume in Windows. I assume it doesn't interact with JK. It was realy "hot" last night. Tonight I did some ral work-at-home til about 10 PM.
Went on to JK and tried to join a few sessions. On one I got audio but everyone was leaving. Others I was told I would have to be accepted and nothing followed. So if someone is going to set up a BGU Sunday session please post here.

The thing that made it useable for me yesterday was when I discovered that you have a mixer that lets you control your own personal mix. When overdriven shredder guy showed up, I just turned him down all the way while cranking up Mike, Doug and Lloyd, and then didn't hear a peep out of him.

 

[PapaRaptor]

The thing that made it useable for me yesterday was when I discovered that you have a mixer that lets you control your own personal mix. When overdriven shredder guy showed up, I just turned him down all the way while cranking up Mike, Doug and Lloyd, and then didn't hear a peep out of him.

I had him muted out most of the time as well. There was a bass player running around in there, as well who I had muted nearly all the time. Too bad there isn't a private way to spread that information around about muting during the session. I wonder if the session owner can mute a player for the entire group?

I think anyone running a session for BGU members should set it up in step 5 to only allow entry upon approval.

 

[MikeS]

Don't let the "Failed audio test" or "Poor or Unknown Latency" stop you. I failed it. but it still worked.

 

[Elio]

I had him muted out most of the time as well. There was a bass player running around in there, as well who I had muted nearly all the time. Too bad there isn't a private way to spread that information around about muting during the session. I wonder if the session owner can mute a player for the entire group?

I think anyone running a session for BGU members should set it up in step 5 to only allow entry upon approval.

I was trying to figure our if there is away to assign a password top a private session, bit it looks as though though have to specifically invite individuals that you want to be in it.

 

[Jim_Schmidt]

Have you all done any more experimenting with Jamkazam? I don't know if my internet would allow me to participate in any BGU stuff, but I'm looking for a way to do some stuff locally where the round-trips would not be so far.

Another question: are you guys using outboard gear for amp/effects, or can you run, say, Amplitube somehow?

 

[Elio]

Have you all done any more experimenting with Jamkazam? I don't know if my internet would allow me to participate in any BGU stuff, but I'm looking for a way to do some stuff locally where the round-trips would not be so far.

Another question: are you guys using outboard gear for amp/effects, or can you run, say, Amplitube somehow?

If you set up a JamKazam account, you can do a network test that will give you an indication of how well it will be likely to work. I've done it with network performance ranging from borderline poor to good and haven't had any real issues. I have a Fender amp with a USB interface, so I just plug into the computer and I'm good to go. Otherwise, it seems to work equally well through a digital interface. I have a Behinger UMC22 that I try either mic'ing the amp to the next time, although it's hard to do that quietly without headphones when others are home.

 

[Jim_Schmidt]

Thanks. I've been playing around with it a bit. It seems to work, tho' it's hard to tell without an actual session. I can't get it to recognize the VST plug-in for Amplitube, but it seems to be picking up the sound coming from the standalone application.

 

[david moon]

I was on it last night. Got into a couple of sessions. Sound quality and latency was OK. Then I started getting messages that my output device was not connected. Then that my input and output sample rates did not match. Went into Windows Settings>System>Sound and it dumped me back to the desktop. I was using the internal mic and headphone out of the laptop so I hooked up the USB audio interface, still error messages.

I give up. The software is buggy, has an ugly user interface and apparently has corrupted some settings on my computer. I uninstalled the app. Not worth the aggravation.