Frequently Asked Questions!

I’ve been blessed with some magical moments of late, seeing people who are joining our song circle light up on Zoom when we sing a song together live using Jamulus. We’ve missed this so much, right? Many questions have come up along the way; I’ll answer the most popular ones here:

1. Why use Jamulus for live group singing rather than any other platform? C4, a chorus in NYC, assessed all the available online singing platforms and settled on Jamulus. And, they’ve now had 6 months’ experience using it and it’s working great for them. So, we’ve started with Jamulus. In the future, we’ll be evaluating, and possibly using, other platforms as well. Things are moving quickly in online singing technology and that’s a good thing for all of us. Hopefully Zoom buys and integrates one! (If you have a contact there, let me know.)

2. Why do we need to be connected to the Internet using Ethernet (ie. a cable) rather than WiFi? WiFi (like Bluetooth) introduces delay, which, as you know, is exactly what we don’t want in singing together. Note that being connected via Ethernet is not likely to improve your download/upload speed (which you can check via a site like speedtest.net), it just eliminates/reduces delay. When you’re singing with Jamulus online, be sure to turn WiFi and all other programs except Zoom off, and ideally no one but you will be using your Internet connection.

3. Why do we need Zoom, too? So we can see each other while we’re singing together! Of course we mute Zoom — we use Zoom for video, Jamulus for audio.

4. Why is a Jamulus server necessary? The Jamulus server receives each singer’s audio, mixes all the audio streams together, and sends the mix back to each singer’s ears (important to use wired headphones — no Bluetooth, no delay!). Cool, right? Each singer can adjust her/his own personal mix, ie. make any individual singer louder or softer in your own mix. Note that I recommend people mute their own audio in their personal mix, so you’re not hearing yourself sing in your body and having Jamulus “double it up” and sending it back to your ears as well. Unless you’re hosting a choir or song circle or jam using Jamulus, you don’t need a server, you just need someone to give you access to one.

5. Why is your Jamulus server in the cloud? Technically, it doesn’t have to be. However, having it run on the same computer that I’m using to run Zoom and the Jamulus client and sing with everyone…probably I don’t have enough CPU power and network bandwidth for that, and why try when it’s so easy and cheap to set it up on Google’s, Microsoft’s, or Amazon’s powerful computer? I could run the server at home on a separate computer, but again, why use up some of my network bandwidth?

6. What hardware and software do I need to sing with people live online?

   1. a Mac running MacOS 10.11 or later, or a PC running Windows 10 or later.

   2. a modem/router with an Ethernet port (ie. place to plug an Ethernet cable in).

   3. an Ethernet cable — Cat 5, 6, or 7 will work — of whatever length you need to reach between your computer and your modem/router. I had to buy a 100-foot cable to reach from downstairs to upstairs, and it works fine, but if for example you were using a laptop, you may be able to set it up within a few feet of your modem/router.

   4. Wired headphones (eg. iPhone headphones) that plug into your computer, rather than using built-in or external speakers, so as to prevent echo and feedback.

   5. A microphone, of course — built-in computer mics work fine; I use a USB mic which is even better.

   6. If you’re on Windows, you’ll need to install an ASIO driver, if you haven’t already. Macs are much more plug-and-play.

   7. Jamulus — a small, easy-to-use program that takes 2 minutes to download and install.

   8. Zoom!

Please tell your friends about the song circle, and keep sending those questions in via the Contact page. Thanks!