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[klaus]

I have been looking for an app that allows for playing with my bandmates over the internet in real time.
My Sennheiser 409 is hanging ready over the Greenback, plugged into my Focusrite interface, Macbook Pro ready to receive sweet Strat tones, but....

the big problem: latency. It's impossibly frustrating when the note or beat I am playing does not arrive at each band member's ears at the same time. You can't make music that way.

Along comes a free app "jamkazam.com" which promises "low latency" for playing music with others regardless of geographical distance.

I downloaded the app, and it's been downhill from there: lots of "404" pop ups, techno-gibberish about routers, "enabling UPnP" and other stuff about connectivity. I am on day 2 trying to make this work.

Should I even continue? Is there actually an app that can overcome the delay commonly associated with live transmissions?

[gtoledo3]

I haven’t used it for jamming, but I think if that what likely works best at this moment is Zoom Cloud Conferencing. That said, the amount of latency is dependent on a number of variables.

This link shows an overview of how granular the configuration can be:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/202920719-Meeting-and-phone-statistics

This has risen to prominence for broadcasting and podcasting in recent weeks.

[klaus]

Thanks.
I just made a through-put test for jamkazam, and its latency end-to-end was a totally unacceptable 130ms.
I have written tech support what they have to say about the minimum latency one can realistically expect.

[RadarDoug2]

Klaus, I think anything you try over standard internet will have delays, standard internet is not at all concerned with delay, just getting the message there eventually.

[Mannix]

One things for sure, after this crises, I'm sure there will be some public apps devoted to this that will be a lot more solid.

[klaus]

So is 4ms ping, 25.37 Mbps download, and 10Mbps upload speeds good enough for seamless on-line jamming?

[Eddie Eagle]

Connection Open has been around for a number of years for musicians to cyberplay together with little if any latency.
https://connectionopen.com/

It recently gained more popularity for voice talent like myself. Although I use Source Connect Standard with ad agency studios as it's the current standard along with IPDTL and Session Link (for my Euroclients)

CO seems to have the better latency. 

[klaus]

Thank you. I will investigate.

[Eddie Eagle]

Just got an email from Connection Open if you checked it out. They now have stereo support.

[klaus]

Update, Fall 2020. From my own experience and from talking to professional musicians whose livelihood depends on it, there are still no apps that allow for synchronized real-time jamming or playing, especially when tight rhythmic cooperation is required. The latency issue has not been resolved.

[mbrebes]

Digitizing audio into a device (computer, phone, interface, etc.) has a latency of at least 5-10 msec through the device.  I find this barely acceptable.  With two devices, on the same Gigabit network, network/device latency is at least 10-20 msec, which is not acceptable to me.  Now move the connection onto the internet and it gets even worse. As an example of what you can realistically count on via the internet, Cubase's VST Connect (for recording remotely) defaults at a latency of 1 minute from the host to the remote record and back.