virtual music jamming software

By Dennis D, 20 March, 2020

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

I was looking for an accessible platform to participate in a music jam session. I see there is jamkazam and jammr applications available on the mac. I have not tried these yet. Anyone have experience in using software to conduct a virtual music jam session?

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By peter on Sunday, April 5, 2020 - 10:34

This can be done with Ninjam: https://www.cockos.com/ninjam/ To learn more about the use of this program see this episode of Eyes On Success: 1337 Jamming with Other Musicians over the Internet (Sep. 11, 2013) Show Notes You’re a musician who wants to play with some other musicians but no one is around right now. No problem! This week we’ll talk with Andre Louis about how you can jam with other musicians in real-time over the Internet. The tool is called Ninjam and Andre demonstrates how it works. --Pete

By Dennis D on Sunday, April 5, 2020 - 10:34

Ninjam looks like an app that does not allow for real-time jamming. Also it looks a bit technical for a simple Mac user. I have never installed a server on my computer. Is there any other applications out there that can provide for a virtual jam session? Even if it is between 2 people?

By peter on Sunday, April 5, 2020 - 10:34

I think that the problem with virtual jamming is the latency time over the net. It would be difficult to play in real time and stay in sync.

The way that Nimjam deals with this is to play, for example, a 32 bar tune that repeats. That way if participants play with someone else they will be playing along with wht what the other person played 32 bars ago. If the song repeats and has the same form throughout (like jazz) this works.

Also, I don't think you have to set up your own Ninjam server since there are other folks out there who have done that and you can join in when you find another connection. Listen to the episode of Eyes On Success that I referenced and this all might become clear. Also, in the show notes associated with that episode you might be able to find the contact info for the person who was interviewed and connect with them directly to learn more.

--Pete

By Toby Snelgrove on Sunday, April 5, 2020 - 10:34

Hey Dennis ... just loaded Jamkazam .. my friends have not liked in yet so I don't know about the lag ... tried to listen in on other jamming but their 'listen" key doesn't not get me connected ... used ZOOM last night with two other ... no latency but spotty connection ... we were not directly ethernet connected .. which they recommend ... I am still working on it .. looks promising ... HOWEVER tried to contact their "help" page but it says "can't find this page" ... humm ... maybe they have dropped the ball ... stay tuned .... cheers, toby

By Dennis D on Sunday, April 5, 2020 - 10:34

Thanks for the update I tried zoom tonight with about six other musicians. Did not go well. Pretty inconsistent many different kinds of connections but they all seem to have a problem except for one guy who was playing the mandolin and he was using his cell phone as a hotspot so much for ethernet connection.
Thanks for looking this up for me I’ll keep trying and post my results here.
Please do the same if you find something worthwhile or even if you find something that doesn’t work better not to have many people try the same thing.

By Dennis D on Sunday, April 5, 2020 - 10:34

Peter,

I cannot seem to find the podcast. to play it. I found a website, but it says I am not authorized to go to that link. Also the podcast is almost 7 years old. That is a couple generations in computer years. Anyway, Can you insert a link to the podcast.

By Johnny on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - 10:34

I have done the same over the last few weeks. Jammr works like ninjam. It delays everyone so you have to play the same progression. You can set the time bpm and the beats per interval. The interval is how long your progression can be. So for a twelve bar blues progression you set the interval to 48 bpi. You have to stay right with the click track to make this work.

By Johnny on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - 10:34

Jamulus and jamkazam both try to remove latency They are pretty hard to get working. Both seem to work best with hard wired connections, including your home network. Wireless introduces lots of phase jitter. Jamkazam is more popular but jamulus seems more stable.

Zoom etc don’t work because they switch audio to whoever is talking, so you can’t jam.

By tyler chambliss on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - 10:34

I've found that jammr is completely inaccessible with voiceover, unless you use the VOCR plugin for VoiceOver because Just like any other QT app VoiceOver doesn't play well with it at all. If you use VOCR you can get by just fine.

By peter on Tuesday, May 5, 2020 - 10:34

Go to www.EyesOnSuccess.net and type "ninjam" into the search field (without the quotes. This will bring up a summary of the Ninjam episode along with links to the audio and show notes for that episode. You should be able to download the episode directly from the link to the audio.

Yes, that episode was a while ago. I don't know what (if anything) has changed about the service and people using it, but I believe it is still around.

Hope that helps.

--Pete

Since early August I've spent most of my time on Jamulus with musicians having a great time.
If you use Chi Kim's accessibility build of Jamulus, you'll have a much, much easier time of it.

Here is Chi Kim's Jamulus page for both Mac and Windows.
Bookmark this page and use it for all future downloads until these changes are officially merged into the main builds.

https://chigkim.github.io/jamulus/

I also made a very short video on what it's like to have an impromptu jam, to show how low-latency it can be under the right circumstances.
https://youtu.be/WjmXZ5DLJ2E

By Kaare on Thursday, November 5, 2020 - 10:34

I've taken a brief look at it. As far as the menus go they're accessible, but my room mate is the guy who does the heavy lifting in the room.

By Matthew Whitaker on Thursday, November 5, 2020 - 10:34

Is it possible you can create a tutorial on the interface from a blind person's point of view? I've been curious and looking for an app like JamKasm.

Does anyone have experience with working with the excessible version of Jamulus with voiceover on the mac? I don't have any vision so I am totally depending on Voiceover and can't use the mouse. I had already installed Jamulus before I read the comment by Jonny.
So I downloaded the excessible version from the link out of this comment:
As far as I know I uninstalled my previous version by removing the App into the trash folder. Then I installed the excessible version I just downloaded.
But I still have many big difficulties.
I can't let voiceover interact with any combobox or textfield, or change anything in my own mix or in what comes in. Voiceover doesn't let me. I can tab to any public server and connect with it. But I can't see if there is anybody in that server before I am connected.
Somebody told me that it works fine in windows with a screenreader. But I prefer not to resort to a windows computer just to have an excessible Jamulus. Can somebody help me figure out what I do wrong?