Ejamming: Skype For Musicians

eJamming, which makes software that enables people to practice music together if their instruments are Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)-enabled, is announcing a service that works for non-MIDI instruments too: drums, guitars, voice, violins, etc.

The idea is to let musicians practice together even when they can't get together physically, or to let students and teachers work together remotely.

There are really interesting technical challenges to making this work. Not only do you have to transmit very high quality audio, but you have to do it with extremely low audio latency. The eJamming founders, Alan Glueckman and Gail Kantor, told me their audio processor and peer-to-peer technology solves these issues, and they're going to demo their new product on Wednesday at the Demo '07 conference.

But eJamming can't break the laws of physics or go faster than the network it's running on, and it's the first online service I've heard of with geographic constraints. Even with a fast connection, Glueckman and Kantor don't recommend the service for people separated by more than a few hundred miles.

Glueckman says he had his cousin, Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer, in mind when he built this product. The idea being that Aerosmith can still have rehearsals when one or more band members are out of town. Kramer hasn't yet tried the product, Glueckman told me. I also ran this idea by my wife, who plays in a string quartet. She scoffed at it, since so much of performing, rehearsing, and teaching, she said, depends on subtle visual and personal cues that can't be transmitted over a network. The eJamming team hopes to add video to the product at some point.

I can see this working, though, for occasional rehearsals and for informal jamming. There's also a social-network angle to the service, which helps musicians find each other.

The service will go into beta in a few weeks. However, the cost of the service may limit its uptake: It's $15 a month. Per band member. That means a four-member band will have to shell out $720 a year to use it.

Read more at Rafe Needleman's article at News.com.

Comments

[adamjowens]

awesome idea, bit expensive though

[Morning Star]

I think it's a wonderful idea, firstly it eliminates the problems in fiding a suitable space you can all get to easily, something which my bands have found difficult in the past. Additionally you can all use you own equipment without having to lug it all the way to wherever. More exciting are the social networking possibilities, it would make finding musicians that you have musical chemistry with so much easier.

That said as the article stated the network has it's limitations (until we manage build quantum computers), and I agree there would be no substitute for physically getting together/meeting the person you want to jam with. That said though I think it's an excellent start and if it takes off it'll only be a matter of time before someone competitors enter the market and prices come down.

[mcb_69]

good idea, $15 a month isnt that bad if the program was perfect with video, very important for pauses, cues. but that will take some time. this is a mad idea and will form into a whole new way to jam with people all over the world.
think how fast technology evolves and then think of how well this type of thing program will work in 5 year.

[slann101]

i love the idea of being able to jam with friends ive made on UG.

[slayerbizkit]

Ewww, $15 a month? I think I'll put that in my gas tank and drive to my friend's house instead.

[duncang]

As cool as the technology is, I don't think it'll really compare to live jam, with conflicting audio quality and everything else.

[Revalk]

Interesting, I'll give it that. Expensive for sure. The distance thing to me doesn't make any sense whatsoever. A signal sent to my friend in a town 300 km away is going to get the signal just as fast as someone half the world away, assuming you have the same connections and such.

As much as I love music and technology combining, I think part of putting together great music is sitting in a room with the other contributers hanging out and writing. It's a little too impersonal for me.

[thereverendsoup]

Way too much money. And really, it seems like the performance could be pretty dodgy.

Besides, I don't really want to play music with people on the internet. I'd rather jam with my friends, for free.

[deafening]

too much money

i think this will have to wait for a world more populated with fibre optic internet, or even whatever internet advances come next in terms of speed..

this idea isnt ready imo

[Dallen_007]

thereverendsoup wrote:

Way too much money. And really, it seems like the performance could be pretty dodgy.

Besides, I don't really want to play music with people on the internet. I'd rather jam with my friends, for free.

I kinda agree, but you've got to admit it's an interesting concept.

[CobenBlack]

adamjowens wrote:

awesome idea, bit expensive though

720 per 4 person band? not that bad really, its like 200 a year - so just under 20 dollars a month.

id rather jam live, but i struggle to find people, so this would be good for me.

[vjferrara]

i dont think it's expensive at all. my band was dishing out $135 a month for a storage unit. this would be great since we all live about 45min-1 hour away from each other.

[vjferrara]

[quote]Dallen_007 wrote:

thereverendsoup wrote:

Way too much money. And really, it seems like the performance could be pretty dodgy.

Besides, I don't really want to play music with people on the internet. I'd rather jam with my friends, for free.

im not really sure that it is meant for every practice. i think it is just an occasional thing

[guitaringsailor]

Awesome really! definitely worth 15$... i live in a small town and there's not very many musicians around so this will definitely help me out to get my band together now we have a hard time meeting unless it's weekend since sleepovers are necessary. with video even better i'm gonna look into this!

[kop4]

it`s more expensive than world of warcraft
but maybe it`s worth the price..

[NightEmbers]

Cool Idea, in fact it would be perfect for my band who is split up all over Texas but yeah its too expensive, Well to us poor Mexicans anyway

[connortowle]

They have this already, except...it has no geographic restraints. And no cost...so why is this project even underway? Line 6 all the way.

[slayerbizkit]

connortowle wrote:

They have this already, except...it has no geographic restraints. And no cost...so why is this project even underway? Line 6 all the way.

Explain?

[mp3stalin]

slayerbizkit wrote:

connortowle wrote:

They have this already, except...it has no geographic restraints. And no cost...so why is this project even underway? Line 6 all the way.


Explain?

Line 6 Model Amps can link to a computer. i knew you could record like that... but i didnt think it could stream. *shrug* line 6 is good product. im a marshall fan myself... but line 6 isnt bad by any means.

[-Collapse-]

Revalk wrote:

Interesting, I'll give it that. Expensive for sure. The distance thing to me doesn't make any sense whatsoever. A signal sent to my friend in a town 300 km away is going to get the signal just as fast as someone half the world away, assuming you have the same connections and such.

Communications have speed and time just like a car driving on a highway. The further the distance, the longer it takes to reach someone.

Granted it'd only be a fraction of a second difference between around the world and across the street, but when you're playing music together or playing a video game, split seconds matter.

[FretboardToAsh]

adamjowens wrote:

awesome idea, bit expensive though

that's not expensive, a rehearsal room will cost at least the same amount a week

[Craigo]

I'll stick with skype.

[the boogieman]

thats pretty neat idea

its potential thats for sure

[sowhat360]

thereverendsoup wrote:

Way too much money. And really, it seems like the performance could be pretty dodgy.

Besides, I don't really want to play music with people on the internet. I'd rather jam with my friends, for free.

i dont think it's too much money at all, it's actually cheap....bandwidth will cost a lot and it costs WAY more than that to rent practice space

[cynikal123]

this was on digg few days ago..i tried aint and wasnt impressed..its still good but just didnt impress me.

[MTVget0FFtheAIR]

lame.

interesting idea, and cool use of technology or whatever, but still, lame.

[MTVget0FFtheAIR]

FretboardToAsh wrote:

that's not expensive, a rehearsal room will cost at least the same amount a week

yes, but do you really think it is a good alternative to a real rehearsal room? hell no. this isn't a "stop jamming in public places and always do it online instead", it's in addition to live jamming. by the quality they suggest, you can't just rely on this. sooooo it would then be rehearsal room PLUS 720 per year, making it too expensive.

[SylKain]

I've doing similar thing using skype and my pod xt, actually a few months ago I was on vacation and i recorded on the fly through skype a guitar track for a rough sketch demo for my band, the bassist did the same and the end result didn't differ that much in quality than the usual ones we do recording in our homes and then passind through a usb key the cubase project. And we didn't use anything fancy, pods, skype and adequately fast connection. Sure I wouldn't do a record that way, but this thing isn't good for it either, but for on the fly recordings or virtual jam sessions there are cheaper methods already

[Raaaaar]

you dont get that smell of a thousand failed metal bands sweat in your local rehearsal room tho. great idea..i might be doing this in the future as a teacher. maybe berklee could do pay as you go tutorials via this.

[gu1tar4lyf3]

CobenBlack wrote:
720 per 4 person band? not that bad really, its like 200 a year - so just under 20 dollars a month.

its almost like $720 equals $15 dollars a month for each band member for a year..

[Silky Smooth]

Theres always Ninjam

It works pretty good and its free

[Guitar_Poet]

once this is perfected, its going to be huge... once its functional im definitely down.. sweet!

$15 bucks is nothing... millions of people pay $15 a month for WoW, so you can bet musicians will do the same for this.

[ready2breakdown]

slayerbizkit wrote:

Ewww, $15 a month? I think I'll put that in my gas tank and drive to my friend's house instead.

not the good old u.s. of a. you wont!

[_3Lm0_]

Latency Issues ahoy!

[Guitar_Poet]

i am sure someone will write a song titled "lag" after using this...