Jamulus test session.
Jamulus I : Exciting and Awkward
The team C’s experiences from the first test session of a real time jamable technology for musicians - ‘Jamulus’ in the Physical-Virtual Communication and Music course.
What we planned to do
We were asked to pick a song or music to jam on, before we entered the jamulus server in teams. The team having diverse music tastes and backgrounds(Joni and Wenbo are classical musicians, Stephen and Lindsay are bass players.) we decided to jam on the song ‘I can see clearly now’, not knowing that jamulus had huge latencies because of our physical distances, the song choice wasn’t a good one but nevertheless, the team practised their parts and were ready to jam on the jamulus.
What actually happened
Everyone was rather, being really excited when we entered the server and could hear each other, especially after months of looking forward to being able to experience making music together online through different jamming servers.
Due to the geographical factor, our very first experience to make music online through Jamulus was not optimistic. We felt awkward because we couldn’t really communicate with each other face-to-face. We weren’t able to feel each others’ presences because of the latency and poor internet connections. Stephen was on the upright bass, Joni on Flute, Lindsay on classical guitar and most important of all, Wenbo used his metronome to keep us in time.
In reflections of what we tried out during the jam, we all agreed that we should start with more ambient music and more toward improvisation. It is because playing rhythmical-focused pieces didn’t work out with our conditions - internet, latency, time differences.
Nevertheless, we enjoyed listening to Team B, we found they did a fantastic job. The reason behind could also be because of the locations, most of the members were in the same region and they also chose the right ambient music to jam on. Finally, the experience of our first jamulus experience was awkward and rather frustrating.
Jamulus II : Interesting and Comic
A week later…
Our second attempt to jam in the Jamulus. This time, from our learnings from the past session, most of us chucked away our own musical instruments, Stephan’s bass, Wenbo’s piano and Joni’s flute. Instead we tried to use VST’s on iPads routing it directly into the jamulus, digital piano as synthesisers and experimented with another song that doesn’t require time precision but focuses on improvisation.
Pointers from our last experience were the latency and the lack of face-to-face communication making it difficult for rhythmic music. This time, we visually communicated with each other on Zoom, while listening to each other in Jamulus. Lindsay improvised a really simple but wonderful foundation on the acoustic guitar for us to add musical textures on it. Stephen took the ambient and blissful soundscapes. Joni tried her flute later on and it didn’t work out because of the poor audio input, as well as output. It seems like, musical instruments in the woodwinds or brass family need a dedicated microphone input because of the latency. Secondly, it is because of the loudness of the instruments itself that covers the audio input, finally, it is because of the geographical factor. Guitar, on the other hand, works pretty fine. Wenbo was the star of the show because his mic wasn’t working at first and then when he finally fixed it, his voice suddenly sounded like a girl, surprising all of us, we had a big laugh about it because he couldn’t fix the problem for the whole session. We believe the problem occurred due to the delay and the difference in sampling rate.
Finally, our reflections on the second attempt in Jamulus was slightly better because of the way we tried to approach music-making. Nevertheless, we think it would be the best to play together in the same room.