What's the best way of rehearsing remotely / online?

[fretmeister]

The Focusrite stuff is very good for the money. The drivers are stable and the preamps are good quality.

Definitely a good choice for a first interface.

But, if anyone has a Helix related unit, then that can be used as an interface as well so you might not need a separate one.

[ordep]

37 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

The Focusrite stuff is very good for the money. The drivers are stable and the preamps are good quality.

Definitely a good choice for a first interface.

But, if anyone has a Helix related unit, then that can be used as an interface as well so you might not need a separate one.

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. 

[DaytonaRik]

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. 

[Paul S]

1 hour 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 😂.

Yes, being a died in the wool tight wad I bought the cheapest one, the Behringer UM-2.  For windows you need to download the driver from the Behringer website but that is easy enough and it works just fine.  I even managed to record some stuff for the first time.  If I did it again I'd probably also get the Focusrite one, though. 

[Teebs]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

But, if anyone has a Helix related unit, then that can be used as an interface as well so you might not need a separate one.

 

28 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. 

Hmmm...

So this might mean I could use my Plex as an interface in the short term? (Dependent upon latency).

 

 

 

Probably invest in a Focusrite longer term though.

Edited December 3, 2020 by Teebs

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Teebs said:

So this might mean I could use my Plex as an interface in the short term? (Dependent upon latency)....

Yes, it does; t'will cost nothing to try (if you've the usb cable, naturally...).

Edited December 3, 2020 by Dad3353

[SpondonBassed]

2 hours ago, Teebs said:

A bit more complicated than I'd thought...

I see what you did there.  Have a banana*.

*May contain traces of Nepeta Cataria.

[fretmeister]

2 hours ago, Teebs said:

 

Hmmm...

So this might mean I could use my Plex as an interface in the short term? (Dependent upon latency).

 

 

 

Probably invest in a Focusrite longer term though.

Yes.

 

Plug it in. See what happens. Might have to get drivers from the GK website depending on what it needs.

 

 

[fretmeister]

3 hours 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. 

I have a Helix rack so I've got a mic input and phantom power built in. It's very good for vocals too.

The Floor and the Rack is an 8 in / 8 out interface so as it happens I replaced a Focusrite 2i4 with the rack.

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I have a Helix rack...

Good Stuff, Shirley, but a quite different budget. 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Dad3353

[pete.young]

I have been experimenting with JamKazam and it works very well. I just plugged my mac plus into the router, followed the set-up steps and it worked fine. It does seem to need reasonable upload speed but since I went onto 100Mb FTTP it's been rock solid.

I use an old and cheap Presonus Audiobox USB which I picked up second hand on basschat several years ago, so you don't need to spend a lot of money to get something that works.

[EBS_freak]

I’ll just drop this link here for you peeps - 

 

https://www.jacktrip.org/studio.html

[Phil Starr]

8 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

I’ll just drop this link here for you peeps - 

 

https://www.jacktrip.org/studio.html

This looks really interesting, for those who haven't clicked on the link:

It's going to be a paid for service run by a not-for-profit organisation and based on work by Stanford University in the States. The prices aren't clear yet.

Basically they are cutting the latency with an external box which cuts the latency to 1mS and replaces your sound card. Then there will be cloudhosting managing the connections. There are a few other tweeks like adding in an unbalanced connector for your mic and wiring everything direct. The boxes aren't available yet but will be managed by a Raspberry Pi and another board. you can buy a kit of parts from Amazon but they only have 16 sets. Looks like you can buy the kit for £150-200 or use their information to build your own. You'll also have to pay for the stuff they are doing in the cloud. There are so many details on their site I may have missed something. 

Edited December 4, 2020 by Phil Starr

[pete.young]

15 hours ago, pete.young said:

I have been experimenting with JamKazam and it works very well. I just plugged my mac plus into the router, followed the set-up steps and it worked fine. It does seem to need reasonable upload speed but since I went onto 100Mb FTTP it's been rock solid.

I use an old and cheap Presonus Audiobox USB which I picked up second hand on basschat several years ago, so you don't need to spend a lot of money to get something that works.

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.

[DaytonaRik]

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.

Edited December 4, 2020 by DaytonaRik

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

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.

[DaytonaRik]

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?

[hiram.k.hackenbacker]

1 minute ago, DaytonaRik said:

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?

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. 

[Phil Starr]

That makes JackTrip look more interesting, at least you know the money is being put back into music.

One of my band members suggested SonoBus  SonoBus User Guide 

[DaytonaRik]

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? 

[julietgreen]

On 03/12/2020 at 08:28, ordep said:

We use Jamulus + Zoom (optional) and it has been ok so far. 

This. Without a doubt. It's been impressive.

 

[julietgreen]

On 03/12/2020 at 08:39, Phil Starr said:

In terms of rehearsing together I don't think any of the platforms are going to work because of the time delay (latency).

My last WorldJam live gig was a version of 'Dark Eyes' with a singer in Russia and a violinist in USA. Myself and the two guitars were in the UK. Live. Admittedly the first two haved learned to deal with latencies of up to 150ms, but for those of us in the UK, they're usually somewhere between 20 - 50.

[julietgreen]

So for those of you who are not sure about latencies, check out WorldJam on youtube. We are playing live. They delay the stream slightly to sync it better with the zoom visuals, but everything is done through Jamulus. It's free and superior. Opened up a whole new world of performance for me. Like I said, here are a group of us performing together across the world, at the same time, last Saturday. The violinist and the singer are the masters of delay, but it comes after a while.

[Teebs]

37 minutes ago, julietgreen said:

So for those of you who are not sure about latencies, check out WorldJam on youtube. We are playing live. They delay the stream slightly to sync it better with the zoom visuals, but everything is done through Jamulus. It's free and superior. Opened up a whole new world of performance for me. Like I said, here are a group of us performing together across the world, at the same time, last Saturday. The violinist and the singer are the masters of delay, but it comes after a while.

That's brilliant.

[41Hz]

I’ve tried jamkazam and jamulus.

Jamkazam has more features like being able to play a backing track etc., however I’d probably go with jamulus in the first instance as it’s simpler, easier to setup and is open source/free. Jamkazam have just started charging for all but a limited service.