self isolation

[AlanK]

So with all the covid19 insanity I'm now working from home for who knows how long as many of you may also be. I was due to have my bros over this weekend to jam/practice and we've decided to abide by the social distancing suggestions and postpone the get together. I'm sure many of you are doing the same wherever you are.. I'm up in Ottawa, Canada so we're just now starting to see the spread pick up.

Just wanted to wish you all good luck, good health, and stay sane. I think I've got enough toilet paper to last a few weeks at least (wtf is up with the hoarding, do the panickers think this flu will give them diarrhea??). In the meantime, I'll have a lot of time to play my drums so I'm grateful to have such an incredible way to fill up time during isolation!

Think I'm going to do some more cover videos and will share them as I get the time. Best wishes to the alesisDrummer community and to all your families and friends.

Alan

[Chaser]

So with all the covid19 insanity I'm now working from home for who knows how long as many of you may also be. I was due to have my bros over this weekend to jam/practice and we've decided to abide by the social distancing suggestions and postpone the get together. I'm sure many of you are doing the same wherever you are.. I'm up in Ottawa, Canada so we're just now starting to see the spread pick up.

Just wanted to wish you all good luck, good health, and stay sane. I think I've got enough toilet paper to last a few weeks at least (wtf is up with the hoarding, do the panickers think this flu will give them diarrhea??). In the meantime, I'll have a lot of time to play my drums so I'm grateful to have such an incredible way to fill up time during isolation!

Think I'm going to do some more cover videos and will share them as I get the time. Best wishes to the alesisDrummer community and to all your families and friends.

Alan

Hey Alan !!
I just got back from the "Wild" (grocery shopping in So Cal).
I think the hoarding is because Politicians/Public Officials etc don't think... in the same sentence.."No need to hoard...BTW you are now required to "shelter in place"..
Schools here (OC) are done for the year..
I was in Vegas yesterday...everything is now shut down for 30 days and mass panic..

There is a free live Musician/Live Music Platform I have been meaning to check out but haven't had the time.I can't confirm/verify if it works well or if it's cr*p..Internet speeds have come along way since it's release
It's been out for awhile,you could check that out with the bros..desktop only for MacOS/Windows..Ethernet port for real-time online sessions (WiFi not recommended)Broadband Internet service with 1Mbps uplink bandwidth for real-time online sessions...
Examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4SSNHkGcfg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dibRmkIaMjs

JAMKAZAM

[Hellfire]

Yes, this is crazy! I had to break down my drum kit so my wife had room to work. We are both working from home and both my kids are home, one doing online classes for collage and the other off for the next 3 weeks (possible the rest of the school year).

I have no idea when I'll get to play drums again. 

Oh well, at least the family is home and safe. 

BTW, JAMKAZAM looks cool!

[Chaser]

Yes, this is crazy! I had to break down my drum kit so my wife had room to work. We are both working from home and both my kids are home, one doing online classes for collage and the other off for the next 3 weeks (possible the rest of the school year).

I have no idea when I'll get to play drums again. 

Oh well, at least the family is home and safe. 

BTW, JAMKAZAM looks cool!

Good to hear family is all good and at home and the one in collage isn't stuck somewhere for Spring break like Florida where they just announced closing the beaches because of the giant crowds of partying collage kids..5 mins ago there was a Statewide "Stay at Home Order" issued here and all non-essential business' must close until April 19..about as close to Martial Law as you can get...so I guess it's time to get caught up on some projects I have been meaning to get to..although I have got a lot of air travel between now and then.
I have a lot of friends that own/operate "non-essential business'" so it's going to be a rough 30 days..

BTW, JAMKAZAM looks cool!

The main issue that I ran into with live platforms was latency..everyone had different audio interfaces and video frame rates etc and different bandwidth..some slower some faster..I think Jamkazam did a kickstarter for an interface so that all musicians would have the same connection and the online program could distribute the signal evenly.

[powerhouse]

I'm here in Maryland on the East Coast of the U.S. and the toilet paper hoarding is in full swing.
I have been on a nearly 2 week quest to find some and finally struck pay dirt the other day. It is absolutely ridiculous.
I saw where some stores had guards stationed in the toilet paper aisles so that employees could restock without getting harassed.
I'm 54 and have never seen anything like this before including 9/11 and Y2K.
I'm a power plant operator/Stationary Engineer and was on watch during both 9/11 and Y2K and stopped at the stores on the way home to asses the situation and everything seemed normal at that time.
Now, you can't find any paper products at all, no medicines including aspirin, the pet food aisles are emptying out, no bottled water, and forget about cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer.
This is crazy!
I have to take my 74 yr. old mother to the store this morning and I'm afraid she wont be able to find anything.
She lives 50 miles from me and I go to her house every other week since it's close to where I work.
I expect the Governor to close down the state like California did and at that point, I don't know what she will do since I'm her only transportation.
I am considered an essential employee so I will have to report to work no matter what so I still may be able to help her out on my home as normal.
Crazy times we have here!
On the plus side, I picked up an Akai MPC live and Novation Circuit so I can make my own songs to jam along to on my drum kit.
I bring them to work and write some songs to them then go home and route them through my mixer. I can mute the programmed drum tracks if I want to or play over top of them. It's very cool!

powerhouse

[Andy Keys]

...toilet paper hoarding is in full swing.
...finally struck pay dirt the other day.

Genuine LOL 

Stay clean and stay safe, everyone.

[AlanK]

Wow yes insaneness ensuing everywhere. Good luck all you guys with your families and obligations and safety in general. My brother moved my aging mom out to near him which is about 6 hrs from where I am and he's basically being a dick and doesn't help her out. My dad's here and we're pretty close so he can rely on me if necessary.

I think I'll be working from home for a month at least. I'm lucky in that I'm alone (second wife and her four yound adult stepkids drove me nuts and I asked them to leave couple years ago.. dodged a bullet cuz although I adore them all they weren't very hygienic and never listened to my advice, so this house would have been covered in germs!). I can play my drums anytime. Well almost.

I'm going to check out that JamKazam, I remember hearing about it a while ago. See if the bandmates are able to join in a session. Thanks for that tip! I think if people here have ideas like that to share during these hard times, this forum will really prove itself to be even more helpful to this community than ever. I've ordered an action cam on Amazon to be left at my doorstep so I may be able to shoot a couple cover videos for fun while I'm off. Definitely gonna start gardening this summer to grow my own veggies, esp if this takes a few months to subside

be well brothers and sisters

[Chaser]

I'm going to check out that JamKazam, I remember hearing about it a while ago. See if the bandmates are able to join in a session. Thanks for that tip! I think if people here have ideas like that to share during these hard times, this forum will really prove itself to be even more helpful to this community than ever. I've ordered an action cam on Amazon to be left at my doorstep so I may be able to shoot a couple cover videos for fun while I'm off. Definitely gonna start gardening this summer to grow my own veggies, esp if this takes a few months to subside

be well brothers and sisters

The last I checked they also added Vst support.I will install/setup and try some different configurations..laptops,PC,different audio interfaces from low end to high end.
Maybe we'll get people on the same time schedule and see exactly if it works coast to coast..country to country etc or if it looks like a Kung Fu movie from the 70's.

[JeroenTune]

good luck to you all !

here in the Netherlands we are on soft lockdown but i only go out for grocery.  me and the mss are still super ok and have a normal suply of food. . panic buying is here as well .. whats with that toilet paper  ?  looks like that is gold suddenly.  i can still play the drums everyday and i found a way to record that on the go pro. 

stay safe.

[AlanK]

Glad to hear you're safe and still playing over there. Same here.. I'm alone, working from home, not minding the peace and quiet until I go down to the drumsets! Maybe the TP hoarding is so they can throw a roll at anyone who comes knocking uninvited?

I ordered a GoPro copycat on Friday, it should arrive today by Amazon.. let them leave it at my doorstep! Then maybe I'll have a second angle in my vids if the thing isn't just a piece of crap.. fingers crossed

[ignotus]

Hi from Spain,

We're well into our second week of lockdown and have enough loo roll to keep us going for now... there was some minor panic buying a couple of weeks ago but things seems to have calmed down.

The situation is pretty desperate now in Spain and getting worse by the day; brace yourselves guys because this is where you'll probably be in a week or two. Take the official numbers and multiply them by at least 10 to get a more realistic idea of the spread.

My ekit is in another house and will have to remain there for the foreseeable future. At least I have an electric guitar here I'll have to learn to play...

There's another online jamming tool called Jamulus, open source software available for mac, linux and windows. It used to be a very niche, little-known application but its use has exploded over the last couple of weeks. Same as the others, you need a good internet connection and audio interface. You can meet up with others by connecting to one out of a list of servers, or you can launch your own server and connect to that - recommended if the people you want to jam with live nearby.

Stay safe guys and gals.

[Hellfire]

Bumping this topic because I think it's important. 

[Ladnerdrummer]

Hello Alesis Folks,
Jim here from BC.  Has anyone tried Jamkazam? I tried with a bandmate last night but not much success. I used a M-Audio Fast Track interface and a MacBook Pro. Motivated to jam again. Anyone out there had any success with JamKazam? Looking for set-up tips.

[Chaser]

I received a "current status" email from JamKazam a few days ago..



Hello JamKazammers –

A number of new users have asked if we are still here, and if the company and the service are still operational. The answer to all of these questions is yes.

To be clear, we are necessarily working on JamKazam part-time at this point. We are short on capital/cash. And we are very overwhelmed by the surge in the use of JamKazam, so we cannot provide 1:1 tech support. Please refer to this forum article for a help index of tutorial videos: https://forum.jamkazam.com/showthread.php?tid=69&pid=171#pid171. Sadly, we lost our more detailed help documentation when Desk.com went away, so please try to help each other as much as you can as a community in the forum.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to support and further develop JamKazam. Recently, we have fixed a number of video issues and other bugs that have cropped up in the service and have increased our server capacity to try to keep up with the surge in demand.

We are also working on a couple of larger enhancements:

    Live Concert Broadcasts – We’ve built a new feature set that will enable bands to live broadcast group performances through YouTube Live and Facebook Live. We’ve also integrated this feature with Eventbrite ticketing, so that bands can sell tickets to their fans/audience for these events if desired. This feature is getting close to release, and we’ll announce this when ready. It is our hope that this feature can help bands generate income from performances while continuing to practice social distancing. If your band is playing together successfully on JamKazam, drop us an email at support@jamkazam.com if you’d like to be an early adopter of this new concert broadcast service.

    Internet Latency Reductions – We are also working on something that has been on our drawing board for years now – a networking service that will actually reduce the Internet latency between the musicians in a session. We have run tests that prove we can do this, and we are building the technology to do it now. We don’t have the capital to deploy the servers and purchase the bandwidth to support this feature at this time, but we are hopeful that we can find a way to pull off the financial part of the puzzle somehow. The latency reductions that are possible are very significant and can make a tremendous difference in online sessions.

We’d like to thank everyone for your patience as we do our best to continue to support and improve JamKazam under adverse conditions. We have considered whether to ask for financial help from our users via a GoFundMe or other mechanism, as we are definitely short of cash in addition to time. We know it’s a bad time to ask for help, so honestly not sure what to do about this.

Hope everyone is safe and well out there.

[Ladnerdrummer]

I got that too. I have a feeling JamKazam is overwhelmed and the system is overloaded. I am wondering if there is a better platform out there, even if there is a reasonable fee?

[Chaser]

I got that too. I have a feeling JamKazam is overwhelmed and the system is overloaded. I am wondering if there is a better platform out there, even if there is a reasonable fee?

It is unfortunate...In business it's all about timing and I don't believe in "dumb luck"
Luck is when opportunity and preparation meet..

There are some others...a lot of these live platforms success depends on distance (latency).
Based on research done at Standford University, musicians can play in sync as long as the latency is 25ms or less.
I (and many others) experimented years ago with a T1 line and there was still latency...since then a lot of internet suppliers have upgraded their lines/networks etc.

Jamulus
Forum is active
 
jammr
Forum is active

jamlink
Forum is inactive

jamlink had Ethernet interfaces that compressed the signal and reduced round trip latency but looks to be dead..the forum is over  2 years old,Facebook page is gone and there's a certificate warning when connecting to the site.
"The average delay introduced by two jamLinks is about 7ms which leaves 18ms for Internet travel time when keeping the total lag at or below 25ms. Using typical Internet service provider networks, this allows for about 500 miles between players."

There are some others that are really good but they are mainly for Live Collaboration etc..
a Premium example would be Sessionwire


There are also a few for Live Performers...but not linking Musicians

STAGEIT
STAGEIT is an online venue where artists perform live, interactive, monetized shows for their fans directly from a laptop, offering fans unique experiences that are never archived.
What is STAGEIT

StreetJelly
Similar to StageIt,online venue where artists perform live, interactive, monetized shows
How it works

[Ladnerdrummer]

Thanks for the reply. I did get JamKazam to work reasonably well yesterday. Takes a lot of tweaking. I may check out some of the others though to see if they are better for me. Cheers, J.

[Chaser]

Thanks for the reply. I did get JamKazam to work reasonably well yesterday. Takes a lot of tweaking. I may check out some of the others though to see if they are better for me. Cheers, J.

There is a compatibility/performance list being compiled for audio interfaces...broken down to 4 categories..it is being updated often.

Audio Interfaces Confirmed Working With JamKazam
Audio Interfaces Confirmed Working With JamKazam, But Not Working Well
Audio Interfaces Confirmed NOT Working With JamKazam
Audio Interfaces Mentioned, But Not Yet Determined If Working With JamKazam

List of Audio Interfaces

Current Versions of JamKazam clients (as of 2020-05-03)
 
Mac: Build 1.20 - "1.0.3669"

Windows: Build 1.20 - "1.0.3657"

I received this update just moments after posting the above..

Hello JamKazammers –

We received an outpouring of encouragement and offers to help from the last email in which we explained our current status, and we'd like to say thank you for this. It really helps us to hear how many of you love the service. Given the number of users who would like to support JamKazam's continued development, we have created a GoFundMe. If you would like to help keep JamKazam alive and innovating, please consider using the link below to contribute what you can, with our thanks. In the GoFundMe description, you'll find a list of things we'd like to be able to do with more funding, including our top target - a feature that will decrease Internet latency between musicians in sessions.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/cy2fsq-keep-jamkazam-alive-amp-improving

We are also announcing the beta release of a new set of features that will let you live broadcast the video and audio of your JamKazam sessions through YouTube Live, Facebook Live, or Twitch. You can broadcast free, public performances. Or you can use JamKazam's Eventbrite integration to sell tickets and generate income from paid concerts. Our new broadcast features also include remote control of all cameras in the session, with support for both individual performer shots and group/composite layouts, to add visual interest during your performances.

Here is a link to the tutorial video for the new broadcasting features: https://youtu.be/-HnbJBbbM_E

And here is a link to a Facebook Live stream that was put together by some enterprising JamKazammers who discovered and figured out how to use this feature before we announced it: https://www.facebook.com/JamkazamLIVEJams/videos/3731738046896854

If you use the new broadcast feature, please email us a link to your performance at
support@jamkazam.com so we can see it. And if you are scheduling an upcoming performance, please email us let us know about it so that we can help you promote it to fans who are missing live music while in quarantine.

Best Regards,
Team JamKazam

[Chaser]

I received an update recently...

Jamkazam reached the 100K goal and has made some improvements


Hello JamKazammers –

First, we’d like to say thank you very much for your support of our GoFundMe campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/cy2fsq-keep-jamkazam-alive-amp-improving. With your support, we met our goal to raise $100K that we can invest into improving the JamKazam service for everyone. Following are the latest updates on what we’ve been doing with the funding and with our time.

Latency Reduction & Connectivity Improvements
In our last email, we shared some data on the latency reduction and connectivity success rates we can see from our new networking technologies. We have been continuing to complete the implementation of this set of technologies. It’s pretty complex stuff, so it’s taking time. There is also a limit to how much we can test it ourselves without pushing it out onto the platform, so the transition period as we release and harden this technology is going to be a little bumpy - but worth it!


Core Feature Enhancements
We’ve made a few changes to some of the core features of the platform to improve things as follows:

    Audio Inputs vs. Personal Mix – The left column of the session screen now serves the single purpose of setting the input levels on any audio tracks you’ve set up. In the middle column of the session screen, we now show your own audio tracks, in addition to all other musicians’ audio tracks, so you can adjust your personal mix/volume of all tracks in the session, including your own – without messing up your input levels.
 
   Personal Mix vs. Master Mix – We’ve removed the master mix button and feature to simplify things by relying on the personal mix. So now if you make a recording or broadcast a session, the personal mix of the musician that makes the recording or broadcasts the session will be the mix that is used for the recording or broadcast. You can now hear exactly what you’re going to get.
 
   Backing Tracks & JamTracks – And finally, we have updated the way backing tracks and JamTracks work in sessions so that all musicians in the session can now control the volume/level of the backing track or JamTrack in their personal mix – not just the person who opens the backing track or JamTrack in the session.


Knowledge Base
We’ve also been working hard on re-building our knowledge base of help articles to make it easier for new and existing users to get the most out of JamKazam. We’ve completed the Getting Started and Setup Instructions sections of the knowledge base. The Playing With Others in Sessions section is still to come - soon!

That’s it for now. As always, thank you for being a part of the JamKazam community. Stay safe, and have fun playing!

Best Regards,
Team JamKazam

Jamkazam Forum

[onyx]

We (Slovenia) are going into our second lock down. Masks are now mandatory inside and outside. By the looks of it everything will close on Monday. On the bright side I did get my drums after 2 months without a set.

Stay safe and keep on drumming! Now let me try Jamkazam.

[onyx]

Tried JamKazam but my latency is too big. My drums are 2 floors away from my router. Another problem I encountered is that I have enough cable, but only one connector. Going to clean my basement now and hope I find more.

[AlanK]

Ive heard that any online jam platform would require hispeed and a direct cable connection, wifi won't cut it and even then it can be spotty. I never got a chance to try it out

[onyx]

It's recommended. However a good 5g+ WiFi might be able to handle it considering your Internet connection is good enough. But not as reliable as wired of course due to possible interpretations.

In my case the only solution is wired. In basement I only get 2g WiFi and even that is at only 50%. Still good enough to access LAN, watch YouTube or Netflix.

[Chaser]

Hello CHASER –

We’re writing to share a few updates on quality, tech support, premium plans, and our next music festival.

Update on Quality and Reliability
First, we are aware that the reliability of the JamKazam platform has moved backward over the last couple of months. The main reason for this is that we have been performing major surgery to enable something very unique and powerful. As we have mentioned before, we have implemented a proprietary media network that can decrease latency in sessions between musicians. Sometimes this proprietary network can shortcut Internet route paths to lower latency, while other times a peer-to-peer network connection will deliver the lowest possible latency. We are working toward a point where the platform can automatically detect which path is fastest, and then optimize the connection between each pair of musicians in a session to use the lowest latency path. This is unique. It is powerful. And it is complex. In the process of taking two steps forward, we have basically taken one step back, and we know that this has caused connectivity issues recently. We released a partial fix for these connectivity issues over the weekend, but there is more work to do here. We are also acquiring a network emulator (using GoFundMe contributions – thank you!) that can help us create and test more networking scenarios that happen out there “in the wild” to make this feature set more robust and more reliable.
 
In addition to these issues, there are application crashes and quality issues that are caused by our “tech stack” – i.e. some third-party technologies on which our app is built. We need to update our tech stack, and this will probably require about 3 months, but once we’ve done this, the reliability of the platform will be much improved.

This is talking a lot of tech. But the bottom line is that we are and will be very focused on improving the quality and reliability of the platform for the next few months. JamKazam’s feature set is unmatched in our category, and our latency is industry-leading as well. But we recognize it’s critical that we now bring our quality and reliability up to the standard that everyone in the community reasonably wants and expects. This is our focus.

Technical Support Position
One of the reasons for adding premium plan options is to enable us to offer 1:1 tech support to our users. We have been unable to offer 1:1 support to our tens of thousands of users, as we simply don’t have the hours in the day to do this. But with the premium plans taking effect in January, we are going to hire a tech support team member to handle helpdesk questions from Gold and Platinum plan members. This will be our first paid position, and it will be a combination of cash and equity compensation. This can be anywhere from a half-time to a full-time role. If you or someone you know is interested in this position, please email us at info@jamkazam.com with a resume and a message about your interest. This person must be very familiar with both Windows and Mac computers and operating systems, networking technologies, audio gear, and the JamKazam platform – and must be patient and a good communicator.

Update on Premium Plans
Thank you to everyone who has signed up so far for our new premium plans. We appreciate your support very, very much! We have now added the ability to pay for premium plans with PayPal, in addition to credit cards. So for those of you who have been asking for this, it’s here. And again, all of our existing users are on the Platinum plan through December 31st. The new plans will take effect on January 1st.

Classical Music Festival
A while ago, we put out the word to ask for musicians who would like to participate in a classical music festival. A number of you wrote to us about this, but we found ourselves too busy to pull this together. We’d like to try again, so if you: (a) are in a group of musicians that currently plays classical music together successfully on JamKazam; and (b) would like to perform in a classical music festival – please email us at info@jamkazam.com.

 We hope everyone is safe and well. We’re working hard to keep improving this platform so that you can maintain your musical connections and enjoy making new ones. We hear constantly that the JamKazam community is a welcoming one, and we hope this remains the case over time. It should be a safe, welcoming, and happy musical harbor for all.

Best Regards,
Team JamKazam

[Chaser]

Hi CHASER –

Today we released a very significant update to the JamKazam application. This update includes some major surgery on the app, and as a result, you cannot rely on the normal self-updating feature of the application. The next time you want to use the app, you will need to go to https://www.jamkazam.com/downloads to download and install the app fresh from our website. For Mac users, we suggest the extra step of going to your Applications folder and deleting the JamKazam app there before going to the link above to download and install the new app. You can then launch the newly installed app, and all should be working properly.

This new update includes a large number of very substantive improvements and fixes. We are aware that updates come with some pain each time, and we are sensitive to this. But we can’t get the platform where we all want it to go without significant changes, so we appreciate everyone’s patience as we continue to work through these big updates. Following is a “release notes” link that describes the changes in this latest update:

https://forum.jamkazam.com/announcements.php?aid=1

In addition to these changes, we recently invested more of the subscription revenues into upgrading our proprietary media network with stronger and more reliable servers to address connectivity issues we were seeing in sessions due to media server problems. Together, these changes will continue to improve the performance and reliability of the JamKazam platform.

There are other very big updates on which we are actively working, and we’ll share more on these soon. More news and notes below.

Music Festivals (Choir/A Cappella & Rock/General)
We have been sidetracked by other priorities, but we’d like to host a couple of music festivals again soon to highlight some of the artists and bands performing on JamKazam. One festival we’ve been meaning to host is with a focus on singers – especially choirs and a cappella groups. We’d also like to host another more general festival with rock, blues, jazz, and other more instrumental genres. If you have a group currently rehearsing together on JamKazam in either of these categories and you’d like to perform/participate in either of these two festivals, please send us an email to info@jamkazam.com to let us know you’d be interested.

Blues Night on JamKazam
We’re also re-starting something we used to do a long time ago, with organic event programming around genres or particular groups. For our first event, we’re planning a Blues Night on JamKazam for next Tuesday, May 25. If you’re interested in playing the blues, fire up your JamKazam app on Tuesday evening/night and join or start sessions with “Blues” in the title. Hope to see you there! More info here: https://fb.me/e/1q2a6MS9U.

Best Regards,
Team JamKazam

May 18th, 2021

App Update

1 - Bug fix to prevent audio subsystem shutdown error on MacOSX
2 - Users should not see 'Network Send Error' messages any longer; networking code is rewritten and simpler.
3 - Groupcasting now enabled; this is a ARS feature which will let clients need less upload bandwidth to use JamKazam with 3 or more people.
4 - Moved network-related controls from Booster+ dialog to Network/Route dialog.
5 - Fixed several bugs that caused app corruption (crashes) in audio processing.
6 - Make the Network/Route dialog honor the ISP bandwidth setting (slow, medium, fast) to configure how client operates with network usage.
7 - Added more logic to avoid no-audio events
8 - User can now change preferred communication path from P2P/ARS/Lowest Latency and see effect immediately
9 - On shutdown, a confirmation prompt is now shown.  In that prompt, a new option to no longer show prompt is provided.
On Windows, closing the app now will always close the app; not just minimize.

New Bug: JamTracks will not open in the app --  we are working on a fix ASAP.
You can continue to use JamTracks in your browser in the meantime.
We apologize for the inconvenience.