Virtual Jam Room Rules/ Guidlines

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Chuck

Moderator (One of the Men in Black!)
Staff member
I said there wouldn't be any set rules, but Marv changed my mind. So here are the Rules that Marv recommended that also had a lot of support from other members!

1. Download
2. Record
3. Upload.

Have fun!


Now for the Guidelines! These are things that make it easier for some of us to participate.

1) Post the track (If you are initiating the Jam) with your contribution.
2) It would be nice if you would post the Key.
3) Posting the raw track is optional. If it isn't there, and you want it, PM the poster.


Note: Be careful of Copyrights. Don't post any raw Jam-tracks that Griff sells (Griff doesn't mind if we use his tracks but we don't want to put them out there for free.


4) Updated by Paparaptor:
The method of marking one's territory has changed. The most commonly used method is timestamping your contribution.
E.g. I'm in at 1:55 and out at 2:45. This lets listeners find your solo quickly and it lets the next player know where you ended your solo. It provides a nice frame of reference when listening to a complete track and knowing exactly who is playing at any given point in the track.
5) Posting Equipment used is optional. If it's not there and you want to know, just PM the poster.
6) Recording Light on! is a good idea if you want to make sure you get your spot. Simply Line through it or remove it once you post.
7) Don't be a Hog, One bite at the apple please. 12 or 24 bars is the norm on slow to medium speed tracks. 36 is fine for faster tunes, 8 or 16 for 8 bar songs. It's not a hard and fast rule and no one will get upset if you really get into it and run long every now and then. (If the the track is not finished within a reasonable amount of time (Week or so), then it would be okay for someone to finish it off.
8) TUNE YOUR GUITAR You can play the most brilliant solo ever, but if your guitar is out of tune, it just isn't going to sound right. Tune it every time just before you record. Thank you!


I borrowed a post for an example;


RECORDING

8 Lane Highway in A In from the beginning through 1:20.

American Strat, Bridge, Delay, Reverb, Phaser, Post Gain.

Just trying out different sounds.


Remember, these are only Guidelines! Sometimes, it's a good exercise to try and figure out the Key, and how many spots are left for yourself!
 
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PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
Another quick note. Since we're all using MP3 files here in the VJR, if you possibly can do it, set your DAW software to save at 256k (or higher if you like).

MP3 format is a "lossy" format, meaning that the compression it uses loses something of the original recording. This generally isn't an issue, but every time you download, record and upload again, you're going through a decompress cycle as the DAW software works in uncompressed format. You're uncompressing the lossy file saved by the previous player. Then you record and upload. You're doing a lossy conversion before you upload, converting it back to MP3 (in order to keep the files relatively small). With lower than 256k, the loss starts to become pretty evident after about the third player has made his contribution and the backing track starts to sound like it's under water.

Other common (lower) rates are 192k, 128k, 96k, and 64k. Anything below 192k becomes much less musical very quickly. 128k and below won't survive more than one or two more download/record/upload cycles before the backing track starts sounding like mush. Since most of the tracks lately are running somewhere around 10+ minutes, there are a lot of spots open and lower sampling rates make the later portions of the track sound pretty crappy.

Most DAW software will stay at the level you set it when you save a file, so the next one will be at the same quality.

Of course we could all fix this by using WAV files, which are lossless. Unfortunately, the file size for a WAV file is around 10 megabytes per minute. By comparison, a MP3 file at 256k is slightly less than 2 megabytes per minute.

This is by no means a requirement, but if you ever wondered why some of the later recordings don't sound as good, quality-wise as the eariier ones, this is the culprit.
 

PapaRaptor

Father Vyvian O'Blivion
Staff member
If you are new at this and want a little tutorial on it, please note that you cannot upload your contribution directly to the forum. Griff simply doesn't have the file storage space on the server to accommodate all those files.

In order to upload and post your contribution, you need to use a third party file-storage/sharing service, such as Dropbox, Soundcloud, Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive, iCloud and possibly others. If you're unfamiliar with this, Dropbox is arguably most popular among BGU members. There is a tutorial on how to create a Dropbox account, save a file to dropbox and then link it to the forum. You'll find it here: Creating a Dropbox account - Uploading and Posting

If you have any problems or questions, feel free to start a thread in the VJR if it is specific to downloading/uploading for the VJR.
 
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