online jamming?

[Mark Miller]

I imagine that lots of folks here are in the same boat as me, local jams cancelled for now. We're trying to figure out what if anything might work as a platform for jamming together online. Has anyone had any experience with this? Success or failure stories?

Hope you're all finding ways to cultivate happiness with your families and friends during this time.

[Mark Gunter]

I don’t know of any decent platform that would work for that. But you might consider collaborating online with other musicians where you’d record tracks to make a tune. Some of us have had a lot of fun with those type of projects.

[dhergert]

It's a great idea if you are connected to the fastest network with the fastest equipment, but realistically the network lag will kill a jam. Real-time streaming of music video and sound is very intense and synchronizing well enough between jam mates or band mates requires the very best available resources, and with "normal" network providers that is not very likely. There's just too much data passing through too narrow of a pipe.

Some industries pay for and often even receive that kind of service, but for the at-home public it isn't usually available, despite advertisements otherwise.

[albeham]

I don’t know of any decent platform that would work for that. But you might consider collaborating online with other musicians where you’d record tracks to make a tune. Some of us have had a lot of fun with those type of projects.

Mark,

What platform are you using?

AL

[CWRoyds]

As stated above, latency makes it very difficult to jam with others online, and latency gets worse the farther apart the musicians are.
There are services/software that claim it works OK, and many say they do have meaningful jams online, BUT it all depends on your equipment and internet speed.
If you have super fast internet, a good current computer with very fast processor and sound card, and you live nearby your jam partner, it might work well enough to comfortably jam together. Even in best circumstances you will probably feel the lag, but maybe it is good enough.

Personally, I think it will probably only work well enough if you are in the same city, preferably less than 30 miles from your partner.
Try to use the most simple path from instrument to computer to internet.
For example, you might find using the computer mic will work better than trying to use an external mic through a DI box, as even the tiny time it takes the sound card to process that input can add latency.
Hardwire your computer to your router, and do not use WIFI, as WIFI adds latency.

Anyhoo, might not work for you as there are so many variables, but why not try.
Here are some software/service choices to check out.
I have not tried any, so I cant recommend which might be best, although JamKazam is one of the best known.

Jam Kazam: jamkazam.com
Jammr: jammr.net
eJamming: ejamming.com
Ninjam: ninjam.com
Jamulus: sourceforge.net/projects/llcon

Here is a video of JamKazam in use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2reeNKtRjg