Jamulus Setup, Tips and Tricks

“The Jamulus software enables musicians to perform real-time jam sessions over the internet.”

Contents

Introduction

How to use it
Installation
Hardware you will need
Getting it Installed
Setup
Technical Notes on System Performance
Frustrations You Will Initially Experience

Introduction

This document is intended to describe the basics of how to use, install and setup Jamulus, based on best practices observed while singing with others over a few months. “The How to use it” section comes first as you may need to refer to it off an on in the beginning. The installation section is only needed once and is placed later on.

Using Jamulus is as easy as driving a car. It takes a little to get used to but ends up being easy – and a great and rewarding skill to have. At the end, there is a list of frustrations you will experience.

For more information:

This link describes Jamulus a little:  https://sourceforge.net/projects/llcon/
A fellow barbershopper, Anand Sitaram, made this guide for Vocal Revolution.
Chris Rimple made this incredibly detailed guide. It is long and technical but great!
Brian Mountford wins the page count for this guide which covers other ways to use it.

How to use it.

This section assumes you have everything installed and setup. If not, look further down this document and follow instructions as needed.

Getting Connected

Start Jamulus.  Hit the connect button. You can also use the View menu > Connection Setup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-          A list of available servers pops up.  Ping time is the internet delay between you and that server. The other columns are obvious.

-          At the top left, select the list of servers you want to see. Most barbershop servers are under the “Genre Classical/Folk/Choir” list.

-          Click on the server you want to connect to.  It will come up on the main screen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s it. You are using it. You are done – but I recommend reading the following at least the first time you use Jamulus.

There is a lot to see here but once you get the feel of it, things are straight forward. The screen has 2 general areas. The left 1/3 as shown above is information on the sound you are sending to others. The right 2/3 above (mostly blank in this case) has to do with how you (and only you) hear others. Let’s start with what you hear.

Adjusting What You Hear

-          For each person, there will be an icon with their country, instrument and name. Above that there are Solo, Mute and Group buttons plus a volume slider, and pan knob (only if in stereo mode) for each person connected to the server.

-          These controls are only for what you hear and no one else.

-          If someone is too loud, you can turn them down or mute them.

-          I recommend lowering your own volume to about 60% when singing in a group but nearly all the way down if just chatting.  This is your sound after it gets back to you from the server and will be a little delayed. It is a little confusing to the brain when you are just talking (so turn it down) but it is exactly in time with how others hear you when singing. When singing, turn it up for a nice blend. I like 60-75% because it is loud enough to clearly hear myself but not so loud that you don’t pay attention to others.

-          The Solo button lets you hear only the track that is turned on.  You can solo as many people as you like. A neat trick is to solo everyone you want to hear.  As these servers are open to the world, people from other places pop in from time.  Usually, this is not a big deal, but sometimes it is annoying.  Instead of muting them, solo everyone else.

-          The Mute button’s function is obvious. Just be careful to unmute later. Jamulus remembers these settings next time you use the program. It is embarrassing to finally realize you can’t hear someone because you muted them!

-          The Group button is a cool feature that you probably will not use much but allows you to put all participants into one of four groups (e.g. Tenor, Lead, Bari. Bass) and adjust their levels all at the same time.

-          The pan knob adjusts where the individual’s sound appears in your left or right ears. I like to put all participants at a different setting. It makes it easier for you to hear and adjust individuals and gives the feel of standing in a physical group.

Adjusting the Sound You Send to Others

The following is all about the left side of the screen – the sound you are sending out to others.

-         The Disconnect button will do so. Only hit it if you mean to.

-         Above that, are buttons to open the chat and settings windows. I typically have them open during a session. People can type things into the chat for various reasons (next song, etc).

-         “Mute Myself” does exactly that. Do so when your wife walks in or the dog won’t be quiet. It is also good etiquette to be muted when joining a server then unmute once it is appropriate. Just don’t forget to unmute when you want to be heard!

-         The buffer and delay indicator lights show the health of your connection. There is not a lot you can do about them so just ignore them.

-         To the left of them is a little VU meter showing how loud the sound you send out is. Adjust it so that the bars light up to about 2/3 to ¾ as you sing at normal levels. You can make these adjustments by getting closer to or farther from your microphone or by adjusting your mic gain on your computer (how depends on your individual computer).

-          The pan slider is where your microphone appears in the stereo spectrum for all users – including you.  Keep it in the middle.

-          The reverb slider adds reverb to your microphone for all users.  A little is OK for a solo, but leave it all the way down for singing in a group. The L & R buttons just indicate whether the reverb is applied to the left or right. Really, just leave reverb off!

General usage notes:

-          Get to and stay at a reasonable distance from your microphone.  It is easy for people to turn you down but they can’t turn you up. Use the input VU meter to assist getting to a good level.

-          Use headphones.  Really.  Do this.

-          Go to a random empty server some time and play with settings listening to your sound.  Adjust each control and get a feel for what it does.  If you can’t tell, get closer to your mike then go from there. i.e. Learn to drive in an empty parking lot before jumping onto the highway with the rest of us.

-          Go to a server with one person and talk to them.  They may be able to help you get used to the system.

-          Your microphone is always live unless you figure out how to make it otherwise.  We can hear the dog, the TV in the other room and the toilet flush. Use that Mute button on the left!

-          No leaning.  Have confidence.  Sing on time and the group will sound great.  Lean and it will slow down and die.

-          Have fun.

Installation

Hardware you will need:

1.       Computer.  Windows, Mac or Linux.  No tablets or phones.

2.       Microphone.  Built in laptop mics are usually plenty good.

3.       Headphones.  Even the dollar store variety or the ones that are probably still in the box you phone came in are plenty.  Speakers might do, but they need to be good quality and placed to avoid feedback or echo to the mic.  This is the single largest problem with connection quality.  Don’t even bother trying laptop speakers.  They are not loud enough and will cause the rest of us to hear feedback, delay and generally crappy sounds. Really, just get some headphones!

4.       Internet.  Wired is best.  WIFI will do, but do us all a favour and plug in if you can.

5.       Fancy audio input hardware is great instead of the above.  If you have it, then all you really need to know is to install Jamulus and use it.

Getting it installed

Download for Windows:   (For a Mac, download is as below but installation will be similar but a little different.)  (Linux is very different.  Google it if you really need it.  Mine worked OK but is not simple for the average user!)

Download it here:   https://sourceforge.net/projects/llcon/files/latest/download

Then click the downloaded file which should show up in the lower left corner of your browser (upper for Mac).

Answer “Yes” to the security question if Windows flashes your screen and asks if you are sure about the program. Same thing for Mac. Just click whatever you need to convince your computer it is OK to install.

“Agree” to the license then hit “Install”.  The bar will move across the window as installation progresses.  It may pause for a bit as it goes.

Close the installation window when it says it is done.

Mac users and anyone with external ASIO hardware are ready to go now.  If you don’t know what this is, you probably don’t have it and need to install the following.

For Windows, download ASOI4ALL universal audio driver.   http://www.asio4all.org/  Click on the latest version.

Similar to above, click the file in the lower left to start installation.  As above, click “Yes” if Windows bugs you then install the program using the defaults it asks about.  Once it installs, you are done with it.  You never load use it as a program.  It just makes your computer sound card work like professional gear.

That’s it.  You should be ready to go.

Potential problems installing or downloading in Windows:

-          Your browser may complain about a security certificate or similar.  Ignore it or temporarily reduce your security settings.

-          You may get an error about api-ms-win-etc-etc.dll not found.  This is fixable but not easy.

o   Google and install MS Visual C runtime libraries.  It is easy and free from Microsoft. If this works.  Good.  If not, it is because the files are there but not in the right place.  Holler and I can help you through it.

Setup

Start Jamulus.  It is on your desktop and start menu.  Pick one and go.

You will see this.  That is the whole program.  Simple. Note that Jamulus is an evolving program. Some things may look s little different in newer versions but the core ideas will be the same.

Your profile

Click the view menu then “my profile” and fill in your info. Hit Close.  You only have to do this once.

General Settings

Audio Hardware

Click “Settings” and lets have a look at your audio hardware.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-          At the top left, under device, either select your fancy audio hardware because you know what you are doing or select ASIO4ALL. Mine is partly fancy and says “Jack”.

-          Select the 5.33ms (128) buffer delay for now. Once you get used to the program, you can go back and maybe select the shortest buffer delay possible. Play on your own later.

-          Hit ASIO Setup (Appears under “device” for windows users – not shown above).

-          The left side will vary depending on your hardware.  You may only see one device.  I have several.  Your mileage will vary.  Make sure the device you want to use has a green icon beside it.  Click to make it so.  If you have choices available (hit the little + sign to see more if there is one) play with them later to get the ones you want.  Turn off any you don’t use to reduce your computer having to monitor them. Some people get stuck at this point. Read what it says and be sure your correct headphone jack is turned on.

-          Slide the latency compensation sliders all the way to the left.  This should be OK for most computers.

-          Put the buffer offset to 2.

-          Check the 44.1 to 48kHz box.

-          Check the force WDM box.

-          Move the ASIO Buffer size slider to 64.  You might have to go bigger on old computers but it adds delay.

-          Close this window.  You won’t need it again.

Set up Sound Quality

-          Back to the last window, Check the “auto” jitter buffer.  This is the enemy for delay.  If you have a slow computer or internet or both, the sound gets warbly or clicky.  The auto slider will add buffer at the expense of delay.  If adventurous, take it off auto and slide the Local one as low as you can tolerate.  Lower values mean less delay compared to other people. Leave the Server one roughly where “auto” put it.

-          Set the audio channels to “Mono in/Stereo out”. If you have a stereo keyboard plugged in, use Stereo.

-          Set the quality to Normal.  Even low is still plenty good and reduces load for slow internet.

-          While you are here, select “Normal” under Skin. You’ll thank me for this later.

-          The bottom right shows some stats once connected. 

-          Overall delay is how long the sound takes from your mic to the server then back again to your ear phones.  70-90 is good enough.  More is lousy and needs fixed.  Less than 45 is great and playable without much thinking.

-          Ping time is the portion of overall delay that is purely internet.  The difference is the total of your hardware plus your jitter buffer settings.  The stats give you a clue of what you can optimize.

-          I like to leave this window open during sessions and tune settings to minimize delay while maintaining quality.

Technical notes on System Performance 

The biggest challenge to online music is that the signals take a while to get where they are going.  By the time signals get through your microphone, digitized by your audio hardware, processed by you CPU, sent to your internet, processed through many internet servers, mixed with other audio at a central server then sent back through the reverse route, delay can be significant.  Programs like Zoom get unpredictable delays that could be a second or more.  There is no way to practically sing like this.

Jamulus has the same issues, but

–        it is audio only, meaning less data

–        it compresses the data very well

–        ASIO is very fast and efficient at digitizing audio

–        And servers can be setup locally so there are not many internet servers to pass through.

This all works to minimize delays and make the system usable for live musical collaboration.  Once you get used to the little predictable delay, it is no big deal.  My experience shows that you should expect 40-70ms +/- round trip delay with a half decent setup.  I find it at worst to be like being 50-60 feet from the other person. 

Frustrations You Will Initially Experience

You will have or witness some of these but usually just for new users.

Delay: When you get it running, you will hear yourself as an echo. This is tough to deal with at first. Drop your personal sound level to 60-75% in the mix and work on making the guy you hear (you from a few milliseconds ago) sound right. It is a mental trick. Eventually, it just works.

Tempo slowdown: Oh yes, the dreaded latency decelerando. Everyone is listening to everyone else’s sound before singing. Physics makes the tempo go slower and slower. It’s just math. Everyone needs to stop being a leaner and just run with the target tempo. Don’t wait. Just jump in. After a bit of time this just works and doesn’t happen anymore. I find it akin to trying to drive straight when you first started driving. You were all over the road & over correcting. Now (I hope) it just comes natural. Some day you will realize that the slowdown went away a while ago.

One thing that can help in the beginning is to choose a strong leader (a lead or a bass). This person needs to set and drive the tempo and not listen to the others. The others need to listen to the lead and work to be with them.

Clicks and pops: Your connection is slower than the buffer sizes can handle. Mess with your jitter buffer and other delay settings to clean this up. Get better internet. GET WIRED. Wireless sucks and even if it works will not be consistent. You may just have crappy internet. Sometimes it will be OK. Sometimes not. Sorry. City users should have no problem. Also, the less internet use going on in your home the better – especially streaming like Neflix or Zoom. They are hogs. Even if you have high speed, your Jamulus signal still has to wait for their internet packets to go though. It’s kind of like getting to a 4-way stop and having to wait for a transport truck to go through first.

“I cant hear you. Turn up you mic”: Microphone level settings vary by operating system an versions. e.g. On windows, you typically right click on the volume icon in the tray. Then to get to the mic volume slider and hopefully gain adjustments, it varies by Windows version. This is one reason I like using a cheap little audio interface. It has volume knobs!  Click here for some assistance adjusting Windows 10 sound.

Squeal: No speakers! Plug in your darn headphones. Some machines like a Mac may require to turn off your speakers separately.

Please send questions/suggestions/corrections/edits to

Rick Rowan,
Royal City Ambassadors
webmaster@royalcityambassadors.com