Jamkazam users?

[ebo]

I have started using Jamkazam to get my live music fix satisfied. I’m not that interested in talking about the issues involving latency or sound quality. I want to know how many TalkBass players are participating, and whether your finding it useful? I don’t currently have a band that can make regular practices happen on Jamkazam so I am stuck joining random sessions. Super hit or miss. What are you finding? Are you doing open or closed sessions? Any drummers or other musicians you’ve found worthwhile?

 

[dannylectro]

Not ready for prime time.

 

[Bob_Ross]

I’m not that interested in talking about the issues involving latency or sound quality. I want to know how many TalkBass players are participating, and whether your finding it useful?

It's not particularly useful specifically because the latency is too high and the sound quality is all over the map.

 

[flatwound251]

I have made 5 attempts to use it in the last month, but none have been very successful. We were usually able to make video and audio connections, but latency has been the biggest problem, even when using Ethernet cables. This includes attempts with musicians in my zip code, and also with a musician 1100 miles away, same problem. We also experienced erratic volume problems and sporadic audio distortion problems. I have heard that some musicians are having success, but that's not my experience so far. It might be that the JamKazam server is overloaded these days with so many people trying to use it.

 

[eagle67]

flatwound251, Yeah, the JK service could be overloaded. Or maybe try it with no video. Is your internet service fast? And maybe try it with just one other guy, and if that works, then add more people.

 

[flatwound251]

flatwound251, Yeah, the JK service could be overloaded. Or maybe try it with no video. Is your internet service fast? And maybe try it with just one other guy, and if that works, then add more people.

My internet connection is good, so I don't think the problem is on my end. I did a test with one other musician about 20 miles away with and without video, but no real improvement. To be fair, I give the JamKazam developers a lot of credit for trying to make it work, but it just isn't there yet, at least for general use.

 

[Spacecase]

My internet connection is good, so I don't think the problem is on my end. I did a test with one other musician about 20 miles away with and without video, but no real improvement. To be fair, I give the JamKazam developers a lot of credit for trying to make it work, but it just isn't there yet, at least for general use.

It could be still on your end. Do you know how to run a traceroute? Unfortunately, my ISP is Verizon FIOS, who somehow broke the functionality with Windows. So, I had to revert my Linux system. Here's what the output looks like:

user@my_system:~$ traceroute 45.79.61.39
traceroute to 45.79.61.39 (45.79.61.39), 64 hops max
1 192.168.0.1 0.197ms 0.126ms 0.095ms
2 * * *
3 100.41.21.204 3.540ms 4.810ms 4.889ms
4 140.222.237.227 9.855ms 9.879ms 9.857ms
5 63.65.164.121 9.920ms 12.215ms 9.787ms
6 62.115.124.225 12.383ms 12.311ms 12.437ms
7 62.115.125.128 24.800ms 24.879ms 24.591ms
8 62.115.120.113 40.184ms 39.743ms 39.844ms
9 62.115.172.135 42.289ms 42.422ms 39.866ms
10 45.79.12.5 42.265ms 39.880ms 42.367ms
11 45.79.61.39 42.287ms 42.413ms 42.153ms​

On Windows, the command would look like this:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>tracert 45.79.61.39
​

What it reveals are the number of hops you have to traverse between endpoints and a how long it took to transfer data the data packets. In this case, it's the address of the JamKazam server.

The audio between musicians in a session appears to be set up as peer-to-peer UDP streams. This means the audio is packetized and sent without any acknowledgement it arrived intact. So, the real numbers for the latency will be smaller, but will still depend on the route between you and the others in your session. For those who are local, latency would still be a matter of how many hops it takes when traversing the 'net.

Here's an article on traceroute:

5 Ways to Traceroute - wikiHow

You can also use ping:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>ping jamkazam.com

Pinging jamkazam.com [45.79.61.39] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=56
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=56
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=56
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 45.79.61.39:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 41ms, Maximum = 43ms, Average = 41ms
​

What you need to see is total latency for individual participants in the JamKazam popup panel when in a session. I assume you've discovered how to do this. Ideally, it should be below 30ms, but it's still workable when above it. Here's what you'll see when it's reasonably good. Internet latency for the participant is shown as 15.5 ms.

 

[flatwound251]

It could be still on your end. Do you know how to run a traceroute? Unfortunately, my ISP is Verizon FIOS, who somehow broke the functionality with Windows. So, I had to revert my Linux system. Here's what the output looks like:

user@my_system:~$ traceroute 45.79.61.39
traceroute to 45.79.61.39 (45.79.61.39), 64 hops max
1 192.168.0.1 0.197ms 0.126ms 0.095ms
2 * * *
3 100.41.21.204 3.540ms 4.810ms 4.889ms
4 140.222.237.227 9.855ms 9.879ms 9.857ms
5 63.65.164.121 9.920ms 12.215ms 9.787ms
6 62.115.124.225 12.383ms 12.311ms 12.437ms
7 62.115.125.128 24.800ms 24.879ms 24.591ms
8 62.115.120.113 40.184ms 39.743ms 39.844ms
9 62.115.172.135 42.289ms 42.422ms 39.866ms
10 45.79.12.5 42.265ms 39.880ms 42.367ms
11 45.79.61.39 42.287ms 42.413ms 42.153ms​

On Windows, the command would look like this:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>tracert 45.79.61.39
​

What it reveals are the number of hops you have to traverse between endpoints and a how long it took to transfer data the data packets. In this case, it's the address of the JamKazam server.

The audio between musicians in a session appears to be set up as peer-to-peer UDP streams. This means the audio is packetized and sent without any acknowledgement it arrived intact. So, the real numbers for the latency will be smaller, but will still depend on the route between you and the others in your session. For those who are local, latency would still be a matter of how many hops it takes when traversing the 'net.

Here's an article on traceroute:

5 Ways to Traceroute - wikiHow

You can also use ping:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>ping jamkazam.com

Pinging jamkazam.com [45.79.61.39] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=56
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=56
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=56
Reply from 45.79.61.39: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 45.79.61.39:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 41ms, Maximum = 43ms, Average = 41ms
​

What you need to see is total latency for individual participants in the JamKazam popup panel when in a session. I assume you've discovered how to do this. Ideally, it should be below 30ms, but it's still workable when above it. Here's what you'll see when it's reasonably good. Internet latency for the participant is shown as 15.5 ms.

View attachment 3841751

Thanks, great info, I'll have to do some more investigating!

 

[blakelock]

I have started using Jamkazam to get my live music fix satisfied. I’m not that interested in talking about the issues involving latency or sound quality. I want to know how many TalkBass players are participating, and whether your finding it useful? I don’t currently have a band that can make regular practices happen on Jamkazam so I am stuck joining random sessions. Super hit or miss. What are you finding? Are you doing open or closed sessions? Any drummers or other musicians you’ve found worthwhile?

helpful! but getting back to the OP,
i've poked around a bit and joined random sessions with a couple successful jams. i like to idea of just hopping into a random room and making interesting sounds!! i've found mostly blues/rock stuff with a sprinkle of jazz.