Online Sessions

[mandolinz]

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif
Would it be possible to have an online session page for mandolin cafe? Lots of players would be able to meet at the one place and have a session. All each person would need would be a webcam and a microphone.What do you all think?

Cheers!

[Brookside]

I had a very looong talk with my brother about this not to long ago. #He is a technical sort who understands all of the problems associated with this. #Unfortunately I am not, so I must be very vague. #I would imagine that not too long in the future there will be websites where musicians from around the world can link up and jam together in real time. #The problems lie in the fact that any delay between the parties (in transmitting and recieving data via the internet)will make for a pretty sorry jam session. #As it was explained to me, we just aren't there yet. #The average person's internet connection is getting better all the time, but not yet good enough. #Not to mention that everyone who participates would have to have the best connection available. #You can't have 3 guys on a T3 and one on a 56k modem.

[PCypert]

It'd be neat, but not in the near future. My friends used to be addicted to some online service that had webcam, etc. He got me a trial membership. We both had cable, lived about 5 miles from each other, and the service sucked. It did what it was supposed to do. The sound was horrible. You could hear people in real time. But forget about it for finely tuned acoustic instruments. The video is jumpy even on high speed internet, not to mention the shoddy quality from those little web cams. I could forsee us having a place where we could visually chat with each other. We could see the banjo players mullets and staches and get a good laugh http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I think we're still a way off from being able to jam together. Stuff's moving so fast now I might be in the dark on something just around the corner that will make this possible. I bet we'll see it as soon as it's available.
Paul

[Coy Wylie]

Video would be a problem, but audio might be doable. There are thousands of people from around the world who use headsets with mic to talk strategy while playing computer games. The audio quality is quite good for voice.

[Brookside]

The tolerance for delay during the use of Roger Wilco (the gaming aide you are referring to) is much greater. The slight delay is a far greater problem when 4 musicians are all playing out of sync with one another.