Rehearsing online (not jamming) experience (NINJAM, Whatsapp, FaceTime, Zoom, etc)
Hi! I'm sharing my experience after 2 weeks trying to have a real time rehearse with my band, using many tools available on the market:
Tested Tools
- NINJAM (Cockos): great for jamming. Had the most lag with the real time experience. Here you can include jammr, jamkazam, etc.
- Zoom: it has some type of gate which cuts the signal. Low end signals increase the gate. Excessive lag.
- Skype: excessive lag for real time experience.
- Hangouts: excessive lag for real time experience.
- Whatsapp: excessive lag for real time experience.
- FaceTime: less lag of all, still limits the real time experience. Only for Apple users.
Some extra tech info
- Average Internet connection = 50/50 Mbps
- All 3 musicians didn't use video option so the bandwidth was focused on "sound data"
- We did tried routing the "sound data" through DAW effects/distos/etc as well as physical amplifier through the cellphone's mic.
Conclusion
As of today March 30th 2020, lag is the limiting factor to experience a real time virtual rehearse. So we went back to safe ground:
1- Create the tempo map
2- Share a common DAW project with the tempo map
3- Each musician record at home
4- Someone edit and mix the Demo.
NINJAM Protocol
Justin did a great jo adding new private servers so there's no need to create your own, this function is being tested and I will encourage anybody who wants to jam (this is far much different than a real time experience rehearse, as everybody sticks to a virtual metronome but the time it takes to travel from your computer, to the server and then to the rest of the musicians is where the real time experience is lost (lag). BUT it's great to have some fun with people around the world or even your friends.
I will add any additional info I may discover. Max.
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