Introduction
In the first article on Online Music Jam, we shared our experiences with regards to finding and setting up the right hard- and software configurations and jam remotely across the Internet. However, this setup offered only regular, public jam sessions, where other musicians can take part.
Although it is quite easy to exclude others in Jamulus from taking part in your session, it seems preferrable to setup private sessions, where only the bandmates have access to.
There appeared two options that were evaluated:
1) Setup of Jamulus Server for a private jam session
2) Setup of KOORD.LIVE service for a private jam session (in conjucation with Jamulus)
Software setup
Option 1
Although the installation of a Jamulus Server instance and it's configuration appeared to be straight forward, it doesn't really worked out easily. There is some deep dive into port forwarding and opening of Firewalls on the PC/Mac necessary which, in the end, didn't fully worked out. We were not able to establish a private session successfully, although public sessions worked under the same configuration and IP-adresses chosen.
Option 2
In contrast, KOORD.LIVE provides a free and easy way to circumvent all these problems. Within a couple of minutes everything was setup and running and a couple of jam sessions were already performed with excellent results (sound quality, latency etc.).
So, here is a step-by-step process for you to follow in order to easily setup a private jam session with Jamulus & KOORD.LIVE:
- Basically, what you need to do is apply for an account (free) on KOORD.LIVE homepage and follow the instructions (very quick and easy).
- Once logged in, simply press the CREATE SESSION button.
- Next, select a server location next to your location and in a few moments later, KOORD provides the IP-address for your jam session.
- Press CREATE SESSION button and wait some seconds.
- This IP-address needs to be copied into the respective field in Jamulus - and you're good to go! It's that simple. No port forwarding, no struggling with Firewall settings - it's just working.
- This IP-address needs to be copied into the respective field ("server address") in Jamulus - and you're good to go! It's that simple. No port forwarding, no struggling with Firewall settings - it's just working.
- There is no need to start "Jamulus Server" in parallel - only the regular Jamulus App is sufficient.
Conclusion
Today, online music jam is still a challenging topic when it comes to gear setup and internet connectivity requirements. Unfortunately, high-speed internet is not available in all regions equally. A 100 MBit/s line and Ethernet-connection to the PC/Mac turned out to be the minimum requirement to achieve low latency. Moreover, a modern low latency audio interface is required and turned out to be the major contributor to overall latency.
The easiest and best software solution we've identified was Jamulus, which works very stable and reliable and is continuously developed and updated. This software is available across multiple platforms at no cost!
Now, with the easy-to-use and free service provided by KOORD.LIVE, private jam sessions with Jamulus become reality and are working stable at accetable (low) latency and good sound quality - at least in the described configuration shared in the previous article "Online Music Jam".
Links
Setup of Jamulus (basic & server)
Write a comment