Why do so few people jam online? Do you know dedicated software exists at all?

  • Tried Jamulus for the first time yesterday. Also tried Jam Kazam but some really weird stuff in terms of wonky noise and artifact noise was happening with Jam Kazam so I stopped trying it. Jamulus was pretty fun. For the small amount of latency I was experiencing, it was worth the trade-off of being able to join a random jam with strangers and practice the guitar in that capacity. Being able to join an impromptu jam every day with different people is a fantastic learning tool. A little bit of latency like I said, is well worth the trade-off of having to figure out what to play in that moment. And with no video, even a better way to use your ears! I only fooled around with it for a bit, and I didn't try to optimize any settings outside of the main beginner setup. But when I was reading this page, I didn't understand the Jamulus "Golden Rule." See link below:


    https://jamulus.io/wiki/Client…ifficult-to-keep-together


    How do you not hear yourself and just listen for the server sound? Any tips for optimizing sound and overall experience in Jamulus? It was a lot of fun! I am using a PC with a wired connection as well. My latency was at 8 milliseconds which I've read is average. I can definitely tell there's a little latency on my end because my guitar tone just has that weird artificial sound you get from latency. Like I said it's manageable just because it's such a valuable learning tool. But I would like to dig in more and make it better. Any tips or advice are greatly welcome. I was using my Fractal FM3 which also acts as an audio interface.

    Aaaawesome!

    Glad to read another "success" story!


    Yeah, not monitoring locally is a big part of getting it right.

    Again, as before, I will soon be back to spend some more time on this! Sorry, just quickly passing by atm.

  • Regarding the "How do you not hear yourself and just listen for the server sound?", I think you figured it out already. But for those who don't know what it means:

    Consider Jamulus or Jamkazam your DAW.


    There are 2 types of audio interfaces. Those with direct monitoring and those without.

    When you record your Kemper tones into your DAW, you are either listening to your direct output or you have monitoring on in your DAW. Monitoring through your DAW introduces some delay. Which is normal as the signal goes through several stages of converters to eventually get into your ears.


    If your audio interface has direct monitoring, then in all cases you want to use that. It simply means the signal goes from your Kemper to your audio interface and that's when your hear it. It skips the computer altogether.

    You can perfectly fine record your guitar this way. In real time. Because when the DAW plays back the track, in reality it has a slight delay, but it doesn't matter to you. You can play along or record the 2nd guitar track and the DAW makes sure it's in sync with the recorded part.


    If you don't have a direct monitoring option, then you have to adjust to how fast your audio interface and computer is. You have to tell your DAW to enable "input monitoring". Which translates to: I send info to my Kemper, my Kemper sends it to my audio interface > my audio interface can't let it hear me directly so it sends the signal to the DAW. The DAW has to process it and send it back to my audio interface.


    So this typically introduces latency. And depending on your interface, anywhere between 2 and say, 12 ms. And this is if you have your settings configured for live use. For mixing you want to ease these settings to give your CPU some breath. But that's another topic.


    Anyway, the average audio interface should be able to handle 8 ms, without getting sound artifacts. Usually, the lower you go, the more your computer has to work, the more your sound goes bad.

    Anyway, the reason I explained this is, is because this also explains why you want to go through the Jamkazam or Jamulus server before hearing your own sound. You'll get in sync with the rest of the band!


    And how to achieve this is yet another big post. Which I'm not gonna do right now.


    The most easy way is to tell the Jam software to insert A and output B. Where A and B are the inputs and outputs of your audio interface.


    I personally like to use several instruments and mics. So I go through the Reaper software. I add as many channels as I want. I go into Jamkazam, with 10 instruments if I have to. Then Jamkazam sends the signal back to Reaper, where I can record it. And I listen to the return signal, through my headphones. And play along. On my guitar, electronic drums or whatever.
    And because I listen to the return signal, I'm pretty much perfectly in sync with the people I'm playing with!