DaytonaRik

55 minutes ago, gjones said:

Interesting video, on how a band called Mamas Gun from Brighton, managed to gig online while under lockdown

I've seen various videos online of bands playing live together using JamKazam - the issue is usually the internet latency rather than any local interface latency and that's something that you just can't magic away with a piece of software, no matter how much you wish that you could.

The description of the software seems very similar to JamKazam's layout - a fader for each other channel coming into your session acting as local monitor levels along with one or more faders for your own gain for the instrument(s) that you have going into the session.  Additionally, the 'owner' of the session has access to anther set of faders to control the output levels to downstream systems e.g. YouTube, recording software etc.

32 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I had a reply from JamKazam regarding subscriptions and it’s pretty much what we thought it would be....

”Each musician on JamKazam must have a JamKazam account, and each musician’s account will be set to one of the plan levels: free, silver, gold, or platinum. Musicians on any plan level can play with each other in sessions. Musicians with lower plan levels will be subject to the constraints of those levels. So, for example, if a free plan user runs out of their 4-hour play credit for the month during a session, they will have to drop from the session. As another example, a platinum player will be streaming 512kbps audio streams to everyone in the session, while a free player will be streaming 128kbps audio streams to others. As another example, a free player can’t make a recording while in a session, but a gold player can – and the gold player’s recording will cover everyone in the session – including the free player’s part. If the members can't afford $10/month, you could probably get by OK with one Gold plan for yourself (to get higher level features like recording and broadcasting), and Silver plans for the others (or even Free plans if others will play 4 hours or less per month).”

This appears to be a gamble for them. Whilst I don’t expect anything for free, I think the tiering structure has been brought in at the wrong time. Whilst I can easily afford it, I’m not sure I would be inclined to at this moment due to the lack of gigs in my diary. I would imagine that a decision has been made, possibly a necessary one, that they need to start recouping their outlay now. I just wonder how many people are going to start paying them in three weeks time.

I’m happy to say that the glitches I suffered from last week seem to have been ironed out. Ironically, I stepped in at the last minute for a rehearsal last night for @Paul S who couldn’t make JamKazam work. Have you got it sorted yet mate?

For the three of us who use this to rehearse, it's as much a social thing as it is a rehearsal - there's always lots of chat between us (we also work together, albeit remotely at the moment) and it's a chilled, relaxed way of being able to continue to make some music during these strange times.

I think that the guitarist and myself going for the $10 option as we frequently get together mid-week to work on things, with the vocalist just going for the $5 option which should give her enough time for the weekly get togethers.

As you've said, they have to recoup their costs somehow and although the GoFundMe effort was well received there needs to be a steady predictable revenue stream if they are to expand and grow the service.

3 minutes ago, taunton-hobbit said:

I'm sure that can't be legal.............

😎

I guess it's back to the same 'interpretation' as earlier this year?  Frank Williams always used to tell his engineers to look at the FIA rule book twice, once to find out what we are allowed to do, and again to find out what we're allowed to not do!

Without a clear definition then a lot of venues and bands will try to get back to gigging.  As has been mentioned previously, whether this is within the 'spirit' of what the restrictions are trying to prevent is another matter.

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Not sure - be interested in finding this out myself!

Do things like this help?  Pubs opening as 'music venues' when they're clearly, well, a pub with a live band?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9029715/Pubs-sell-tickets-live-music-nights-order-drinks-WITHOUT-substantial-meal.html

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

And I see that live music venues can open at 50% capacity and serve alcohol to ticket holders?

How are they defining 'live music venues' this time around?  Any ideas?  Are they treating something like an O2 Academy type venue differently to The Dog and Duck with a three piece band on a Saturday night?

If you can live with the aesthetics then another vote for the Spirit.  Mine tips the scales at bang on 3kg 

12 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

How did you get on with JK yesterday?

One the guy who has started the session closed it down and relaunched then it was absolutely fine.  To start with he described it as 'listening to someone with a faulty guitar cable' but it settled quickly.

I used it Thursday - about to have an online rehearsal today.  Have you hit the 'resync' button?  That usually fixes the odd connection problem I've had in the past

48 minutes ago, Skybone said:

The Walnut Faker was ordered before lockdown, but arrived sometime into it. Now has different pickups, sounds and plays superb.

The 4003 just so happened to be relatively close and a very good price. One of those "I'm going to regret it, but what the hell" moments. 

 

 

You live once dude - enjoy!

9 hours ago, jimmyb625 said:

A gig tonight for the band I do tech stuff for.

All punters seated, table service only, masks when not seated and a noise limit of 85db.

 

 

Let's see this stay beneath 85db!

20 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

I suspect you are probably correct, but that does seem a bit bonkers. If four are on the premium plan and invite someone in who isn’t, it doesn’t seem right that the four are not getting what they are paying for. 

A difficult one, but to my mind the four who are on the premium plan are getting what they paid for - unlimited sessions with no time length.  Exactly the same as the free user is getting what he has signed up to - a maximum of four hours with a maximum length of one hour.  It's not an agreement for your band to have the same access, it's for the individuals within that band to reach agreement to how they intend to use it?

Maybe a band discount would be a good model too with that value based on the number of members? 

10 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Yeah, I knew this was coming as it has been on their web site for a while, but didn't know when the 'go live' date was.

I'm a little confused about the bands. If I were to sign up to 'platinum', surely not all of my band would be expected to do the same to enjoy the same benefits? I'm hoping, in theory, one of us could sign up to the higher spec plan and as long as I'm in the session, anyone I rehearse with will benefit.

I suspect that the it will be on a per-band-member basis - potentially if 3 of you sign up for one tier, but one stays as a free user and the 4th hour or 4th session (whichever comes first) then that's their lot for the month but the rest of you can carry on?

15 minutes ago, pete.young said:

And right on cue, I've just had an email from them saying they are going to start charging for the service from January next year. There will still be a free version, but it will be limited to 4 hours per week, 1 hour duration and 4 participants with no recording, so really only any good for trying the service out. Looks like it will cost upwards of $5 / month for a basic useable service.

I got the same email - given that the other 2 band members who use this live 60 miles away at $10 per month I'd still be better of with this so it's still carry on as you were re JamKazam for me but I will expect bugs/glitches to be resolved promptly given that I'll actually be paying for the service and not getting a freebie.

You sir, are a star!  The rendering files (stems) to an external folder is definitely the way to go - everything sounds much better than way.  I'll have to remember to turn of things like Slate Virtual Mix Rack so he gets the 'raw' tracks to mix though

Thanks for you help @Dad3353 

Cheers @Dad3353 - for my test I highlighted a single track, right clicked, and then made this selection.  There are plenty of YouTube vids out there highlighting this method but this was the first time that I'd wanted to export a VST as an Audio track - the results of the drums were less than stellar hence I tried it on a guitar track with equally unimpressive results.  The final test on a recorded audio track applying VST for EQ, compression etc worked fine which leads me to wonder if it's more VST than Reaper related per se?  I've seen examples of an entire kit being rendered down to the component parts as audio files...but to my ears the results are just unacceptable 

All,

I use Slate Drums 5 and Bias FX 2 for processing drums and guitars respectively and recently found a feature that allows you to convert a midi track to audio, applying the channel of the drum VST in the process.  Excellent I thought, just the ticket for sending some audio files to a mate that doesn't have Slate Drums 5 for mixing.

Except the resulting files are awful - thin, weak, no real definition. I tried the same thing with Bias FX 2 and the guitar tone is just plain nasty - thin, trebly, waspish even.  Just plain nasty.  However - If I take a recorded audio track e.g. vocals and apply say EQ or compression then the resulting files are exactly as I would expect them to be.

This only applies to the individual track render when it has a VST instrument associated with it - when I render the master mix to .WAV then everything sounds spot on.

Any advice from our resident Reaper users would be very welcome.

Ta!

6 minutes ago, ordep said:

Before I bought my Focusrite Solo, I am using my HX stomp as my interface. As good as the one I am using now IMO. Only reason for getting the Focusrite is I need the Mic input so I can converse during jams. 

JamKazan allows you to setup the host device's internal mic (if present) as the talkback mic negating the need for multiple interfaces.  Of course, if you also sing, play keys etc then you'll need multiple input channels, either via the interface itself or a mixer in front of the interface. 

The Behringer XR18 mixer works well as a USB interface but has a limit of 48khz.  I do have an X32 Rack but I've not tried that as an interface yet.

9 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

The ones that seem to work for the people I play with are the Focusrite or the Behringer. I think the two input Behringer is about £30-40. I believe it's what @Paul S has. I was lured by the lovely dark red of the Focusrite. Good job I don't play keyboards any more or I would have a house full of Nord's 😂.

Our guitarist has the Scarlett 2i2 but the Solo version which has 1 x combo socket and 1 x 1/4" should be fine for most people. 

7 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

The ones that seem to work for the people I play with are the Focusrite or the Behringer. I think the two input Behringer is about £30-40. I believe it's what @Paul S has. I was lured by the lovely dark red of the Focusrite. Good job I don't play keyboards any more or I would have a house full of Nord's 😂.

We are easily persuaded!

Another (mostly) satisfied JamKazam user here.  Agree with all of the above - a hard wired connection to your router and a reasonably fast interface are a must for best performance.  We rehearse as an acoustic three piece without too much trouble, but I've yet to try it as a full band relying on a drummer for timekeeping.

JamKazam can be a little flakey sometimes, and whilst it does support VST plugins (I use Reverbsuite for vocals and Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack for my bass channel) ) it has a nasty habit of not saving the last settings that you used for that plugin, and it can occasionally just crash when loading the VST to reset everything as you want it.

The software supports multiple channels so if you are a singing musician then you can setup JamKazam to run different plugins on different channels depending on what you have plugged into that interface channel. 

I've used it quite happily with an XR18 as an interface, but get much lower latency with my Thunderbolt Focusrite Clarett 2Pre.

It's certainly much better than Zoom, FaceTime or any other 3rd party audio chat software, and when it's all setup and working it certainly does the job.

5 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Happy to take wagers - £10 says I'll have played at least 2 gigs with my bands by mid May 2021. PM me if any Cassandras want to take me up on this. I'll donate any winnings to charity 😉

Plenty of bands/venues were either breaking restrictions or finding ways to bend the rules to their favour from the start...if people really want to gig then they'll find ways to.  I'm happy to look at alternatives - home recording, music college recording courses etc. until we have absolute agreement between every band member that they even want to consider looking at gigging again.

3 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

First vaccine approved for use this morning. Roll out should start next week.

I'm sticking to by May 2021 for many of us being back to gigging. 

20021 IOM TT is already cancelled - they obviously don't share your optimism

On 25/11/2020 at 13:42, Sibob said:

Maybe, but similarly, Cab sims in my mind are essentially just EQ presets based on some 'classic sounds'. 
I don't know where you are in the mix process, if it's just your bass you're recording, or whole songs etc. But some light compression and some EQ'ing to the tracks taste is usually enough to get a bass sitting nice in a mix.

Si

Sort of - but in a much more complicated way.  With an IR, the response of the entire signal chain - preamp, mic, speaker and cabinet - is recorded and that resultant response curve is applied to the amp tone...be that a physical head or the output from a plugin.  So yes, an EQ but far from a simple preset.  The IR includes the subtle characteristics of different mics, rooms, even minor differences in the same brand/model of speaker.

That's a horrifying thought - I really hope that the medical team (who can perform wonders) manage to retain as much use of his hand as possible so that with time, patience and physio your drummer continues to be able to play.  When I think of the daft things I've done on motorbikes, snowboards, and mountain bikes I'm stunned that I've never had a serious injury.  It does make you wonder!