Remote playing via the internet

[stevie]

This has no doubt been discussed in the past, but is there some software that would allow a band to practice remotely via the internet? I seem to remember that there were problems with time delays. What's the current state of the art?

[paul_c2]

Would be interested too. I had assumed the lag would kill the idea.....but keen to hear if it can be overcome somehow.

[ambient]

No. There’s always going to be a latency problem. Analogue to digital conversion takes time, even if it’s only milliseconds. I’m doing something with some guys at uni using supercollider, that’ll work because it’s all digital.

[sammybee]

Jamkazam works well apparently. Very interesting concept

[stevie]

I guess that shows that it might be possible. But at a price.

[Owen]

Mutter mutter drummer lag mutter might make him play in time mutter mutter mutter

[DaytonaRik]

Myself and one of our guitarists used Skype with no noticeable lag - worked fine for just a couple of us to go through some new ideas.

[Mykesbass]

Seeing lots of music teachers talking about Zoom for online lessons - might be worth looking at for rehearsing. 

[lowdown]

ConnectionOpen works well.

There is a charge, but divided up between the musicians involved, it's quite reasonable.

A DAW will be involved, but any free or LE versions will work.

https://connectionopen.com/?fbclid=IwAR0oEpa0n66Su59d7lyS2qOI5-Xx7E0WlHprWfB2379xzem4Z1VahTbHWQ4

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by lowdown

[EMG456]

On 21/03/2020 at 20:26, lowdown said:

ConnectionOpen works well.

There is a charge, but divided up between the musicians involved, it's quite reasonable.

A DAW will be involved, but any free or LE versions will work.

https://connectionopen.com/?fbclid=IwAR0oEpa0n66Su59d7lyS2qOI5-Xx7E0WlHprWfB2379xzem4Z1VahTbHWQ4

 

 

 

So you have actually used it, @lowdown? Any discernible latency while playing and what type of internet connections were being used?

[TKenrick]

On 21/03/2020 at 20:21, Mykesbass said:

Seeing lots of music teachers talking about Zoom for online lessons - might be worth looking at for rehearsing. 

I've just had my first day of remote school teaching via Zoom - it's ok, but there's still latency as with other software, so I don't know how it would be for rehearsing.

[adamg67]

On 21/03/2020 at 15:51, ambient said:

No. There’s always going to be a latency problem. Analogue to digital conversion takes time, even if it’s only milliseconds. I’m doing something with some guys at uni using supercollider, that’ll work because it’s all digital.

It's really not the A/D conversion that's adding latency for jamming online, it's sending the data across the network. Go in a high end studio and they will be using A/D when tracking, and often A/D then D/A if you've got any effects on the monitoring. The latency for that is tiny with modern hardware and what latency there is comes down to getting the data in and out of whatever is processing it, not doing the conversion - that's why thunderbolt is lower latency than USB. Digital multi effects and pedals do A/D and D/A so fast that no one even realises it's happening, and that's been the case for years.

Domestic broadband isn't optimised for very low latency, you might be lucky and get it good enough or you might not, with a bit of luck you'll get it good enough for a jam.

Using a wired connection instead of wifi can help a lot.

[lowdown]

11 hours ago, EMG456 said:

So you have actually used it, @lowdown? Any discernible latency while playing and what type of internet connections were being used?

A composer I know uses it regulary with a Sax player. They seem to rate it and have a good working routine. The composer uses BT fibre and Ethernet connection (on PC) at his end.

You can download and try free for 14 days. I'm planning on doing that with someone this week. I will update. 

[EMG456]

Excellent- thanks!