How do I set up eJamming AUDiiO the first time? (The Complete Guide)
Answer:
Signing up
First thing, click on SIGN UP (just look to the left -- see it) and enter all your pertinent information.
Downloading the Software
Now click on the Download link on the left side of this page and migrate to the Download page; you should already be logged in after sign up, but if not, you will have to enter your User Name and Password. Your personal Subscription Key will also be displayed on the Download page.
Minimum Requirements - Be sure that your computer (whether Mac or PC) meets the minimum requirements (and your audio interface samples at 48kHz), and if you are on a PC, that your soundcard/ audio interface is also ASIO compliant (more on that later).
As for your Broadband Internet connection (either DSL or Cable Modem), the minimum for a two-musician collaboration is a basic DSL connection (a 300kbps upload speed).
750kbps or faster upload speeds are recommended for longer distance sessions with more than 2 other musicians. You can check your upload and download speeds at
www.speedtest.net
Click on the “Download now” link for either PC or Mac to download the appropriate software to your desktop. The software, which comes with its own 32 MB MIDI sound bank inside, will take from 2 – 6 minutes to download depending on your broadband connection (future versions will be released without the MIDI sound bank included, which will be a separate download).
Installing the Software
If you’re on a PC, click the eJamming AUDiiO icon on your desktop which will launch the .msi installer to install AUDiiO on your computer. You’ll have to accept the TOS of course, and you can indicate where you want the program files to be located (if you actually care about that kind of stuff).
If you’re on a Mac, just drag the eJamming AUDiiO icon to your Applications folder and it will be set up on your desktop (or wherever you want to put it using the Finder.
User Name, password and Subscription Key
Open eJamming AUDiiO. Enter your User Name, password and the Subscription Key (which you cleverly copied from either the Download page on the eJamming Website or from the Subscription tab on the My Account link on the eJamming Website).
Be careful if you choose to highlight and copy the Subscription Key as there is a good chance you may accidentally copy blank spaces at the beginning and end of the key itself so just delete those spaces or you may get an “Invalid Subscription Key” error.
Click LOG IN and the software should log you into the eJamming Lobby. Now pat yourself on the back for a job well done – so far.
Passing/Failing the Port Test
Okay, we bet you never thought you’d have to pass or fail a test once you left college. But no such luck. eJamming uses port 26900 to connect you to other users so you can make beautiful music together (or reggaetone, if you must).
The software will run a Port Test to see if that port is available on your router (if you use one), or if your firewall, Windows Firewall or anti-virus software is blocking access to that port. You’ll see the results of the Port Test in the information bar at the bottom of the user interface.
Passing/Failing the Port Test - The Video
There’s a video FAQ (eJamming’s website has a lot of them which show you how to do things) all about the Port Test. Here’s the link to it: http://www.ejamming.com/support/faq/41/
The three methods eJamming uses to open port 26900
Essentially, eJamming AUDiiO has three methods by which it can open port 26900.
1) eJamming AUDiiO can automatically open port 26900 when you first log into eJamming and close that port when you log out on modems and routers that support Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), as long as UPnP is enabled on your modem or router. Consult your modem or router’s documentation to see how to ENABLE UPnP.
2) In cases when you have failed the Port Test and your modem or router supports Network Address Translation (known as NAT), eJamming will attempt a NAT negotiation with the other musicians connecting to a session. If NAT negotiation succeeds, you will be able to join a session, or players will be able to join your session, even if you’ve failed the Port Test.
3) In the cases where both UPnP and NAT negotiation fail to connect you to other musicians in a session, you can always manually forward port 26900 to your computer. The FAQ at http://ejamming.com/support/faq/41/ further explains how to do that. Hopefully, UPnP or NAT will work so you won’t need to ever learn how to Port Forward in this life.
BLAME IT ON YOUR FIREWALL OR ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
If you can’t log in to the Lobby, it’s probably your firewall or anti-virus software that’s overly-protecting you. Check out this FAQ how to fix it: http://www.ejamming.com/support/faq/55/
Essentially, Windows Firewall or the Mac Leopard OS Firewall (or any other Firewall software) or your Anti-Virus software could still be blocking access to port 26900. Open your Windows or Anti-Virus software, click your Exceptions tab and add eJamming AUDiiO as an exception. Windows Firewall also allows you to name a port as an exception. Add port 26900 UDP as an exception and click Okay.
On Mac Leopard, migrate to the Firewall tab (System Preferences>Security> Firewall) and select Set Access for specific services and applications, then click the + sign and select eJamming AUDiiO from your applications list. It will appear in the window of allowed applications.
You should now be able to connect.
The Connection Doctor
If you didn’t notice whether you Passed or Failed the Port Test on eJamming’s opening screen and you’re having problems logging into the eJamming Lobby, open the Connection Doctor (Help> Connection Doctor> Port Test) and the program will tell you if Port 26900 is open or not. If the Port Test fails, you will need to take one or all of the above steps to remedy the problem. If worse really comes to worse, plug your computer directly into the modem, that’s the last resort (or the simplest solution, and tell your family and/or roommates to get a life).
Your Instrument and Your Audio Interface
Ok, before you even think about joining a session, we need to take a moment to set up your sound hardware. If you’re using an ASIO Compliant device (WHICH SAMPLES AT 48KHZ – THAT’S ALSO IMPORTANT), this is no big deal, simply select Preferences (on the PC, it’s in the File Menu; on the Mac under the eJamming AUDiiO menu) and click on the Audio Tab.
If you’re on a Mac, life is easy and beautiful because Apple’s Core Audio is a low latency driver built into the Mac, which makes hardware work great with eJamming® AUDiiO. You can either plug your instrument or your microphone via USB, firewire or mini-plug directly into your Mac or via an audio interface like the Firewire Solo or using a mixer (you don’t really need an interface if you can plug whatever input device you’re using into the Mac’s line in port, but we’ll get into that later),
If you’re on a PC, life is less easy and it can get a little ugly because you’ll have to make sure you have an ASIO-compliant soundcard, audio interface or microphone. Why ASIO? Because Microsoft’s audio framework was not designed for live performance. However, there are still a number of different methods for implementing audio drivers in Windows: MME, DirectSound, ASIO, WDM and UUA (Vista).
In tech talk, all of these different approaches offer differing performance characteristics when it comes to minimum achievable latency. MME and DirectSound are considered the worst, with minimum latencies often in the region of 100mS or greater. ASIO and WDM are the main contenders with ASIO having arguably the lowest achievable latencies compared with WDM.
In eJamming, we use ASIO because the lowest achievable latencies are very low (and we don't want the audio interface adding significantly to eJamming's imposed latencies that facilitate our synchronization system) and also because ASIO is synonymous with professional audio applications.
Hopefully you’ll find your soundcard or audio interface in the audio device inventory in eJamming AUDiiO. If not, you’ll have to download ASIO4ALL. please consult the
ASIO4ALL FAQ about how to get this up and running.
Plug it in, plug it in…
Now plug your stuff in and let’s go. The inputs and outputs of a standard internal sound card on most computers is usually a 1/8” stereo or mono plug. Plus firewire and USB inputs/outputs. Depending on what you’re plugging in there are cables available to hook it up. Once again, you’re just going to have to do some research to see what’s going to work with what you have.
The Audio Input and Output Device Inventory
Open Preferences>Audio tab and check to see if your Audio Device is listed as an input or output device. It is? Great, you’re gold. If not, you’ll need to install ASIO4ALL on your PC. Here’s how:
http://www.ejamming.com/support/faq/33/ Please note that ASIO4ALL is third party freeware, and we are not responsible for writing it, supporting it, or if it eats all the lunchmeat out of your fridge.
In addition, this video FAQ (
http://www.ejamming.com/support/faq/3/) explains how -- if your sound device’s device driver is not multi-client (i.e. if it cannot be used by more than one application at a time) -- then you need to
close all other audio applications that may be using the device when using eJamming AUDiiO.
From there, in the Mic Record Mode section, select the input channel(s) you’re using, whatever that may be on your particular soundcard. Unfortunately there are just too many variations of the ASIO sound card and interfaces to write specific instructions for each one, so you will have to do a bit of research on how your device works and how everything should be connected.
That being said, if you can’t figure something out, feel free to email
TechSupport@ejamming.com and we will help you in any way we can. Or ask in the lobby chat – there are many, many extremely helpful people online at any given time and they may be able to help you immediately without waiting for an Email response from us.
Then, select the outputs you are using, which should be routed to headphones for maximum sound isolation. This will help you adjust to the synchronization system.
Ok, so what if you don’t have an ASIO compliant device? You can still use eJamming effectively, but we still cannot recommend highly enough that you purchase an ASIO Compliant device. FYI: almost any good retailer will take it back within 30 days.
The eJamming Video Tutorials
There are three video tutorials that show you literally step by step how to use each feature of the software. We recommend you watch them, nuke some popcorn, make an evening of it. You can pause and rewind them to review material, and there will be a quiz.
You can see all the tutorials here.
IT IS CRITICAL THAT YOU WATCH THE SYNC DELAY TUTORIAL. Sorry for the shouting, but this tutorial explains how eJamming keeps you in sync with other musicians and what you need to know and do to play well with others. The whole point of this is that you understand the sound of your own instrument will be delayed until you get the audio streams or MIDI data from the other musicians. That’s why we recommend the headphones. Adjusting to the sync delay will take a little practice, but it starts to feel natural fairly quickly and the more you do it, the easier it becomes to adjust to greater sync delays that come with longer distance/3 and 4 player sessions, and the more control you have over your eJamming experience.
Creating a New Session
Ok Biggity Bam - you’ve outsmarted your router, you’ve navigated the port test, you’ve connected your instrument to your computer, you’ve set up ASIO4ALL, you’ve successfully logged into the Lobby, you see the other musicians without day jobs hanging out (or logging in from Japan, Australia, Europe and far away time zones) -- and now you’re presented with the daunting task of what do I do now?
No big deal – this is the EASY part.
Click the Messages icon to see who’s in the Lobby and what they’re saying about you.
Right Click on a User Name to see their profile or send them an IM.
You could join somebody else’s session (the Lobby lists all of the sessions that are currently open). When you click on one of them, a list of that session’s details including all the players in the session will be displayed in the bottom half of the Lobby window.
Or Click the red “New Session” button to start your own session.
Using the Software: the Sync Delay System
When you enter a session, there will be an inherent delay between when you play your instrument or sing and when you actually hear it. This delay is what keeps everything together and everyone in sync. When you join a session or create one, the Automatic Optimizing Sync System should set your Delay and take care of the basic sync settings itself.
Since this is just a Getting Started guide, the sync settings will be explained further in this FAQ in the “Support” part of the ejamming.com website. We recommend using headphones so you hear the delayed synchronized audio signals and less of your original source. They help to isolate you from the world and cause fewer distractions while you adjust to the latency.
Switching from "AUTO" to "MANUAL" Sync Delay
That being said, if you hear drop outs in your audio or other people in the session complain that you drop out, you may need to click on the little arrow near the “auto” sync setting button, set your sync to manual, and add a few milliseconds to the number to get a clean connection. Also the farther away geographically the person you are trying to connect with, the longer the delay must be. This is a limitation of the internet as a whole and we really can’t get around it……yet (or at least until some new Einstein licks that “Quantum Mechanics/speed of light limitation in physics” problem, we’re not there yet, but our Chairman’s muse, Elvin the dog, is ruminating on it).
Bandwidth Hungry Housemates
Another thing that can hurt the latency and stability in a session is when other computers on your home network are also on the internet or actively downloading or uploading things. Face it, eJamming is bandwidth hungry, meaning it uses most of a high-speed internet connection to provide real time jamming. So log off the iTunes® music store, and make sure other people on your network aren’t eating up your bandwidth doing the hardcore or movie download thing.
If there is an open seat in a session, hop in, let everyone know you’re new, and start jamming.
Getting used to the Sync Delay System: Practice
If you want to try to get used to the sync delay, go ahead and start your own session and play around a bit, you can load backing 48khz/16 bit audio tracks or MIDI tracks and jam along and get used to the delay. The process of loading backing tracks is explained in depth in the FAQ section of the support page on the ejamming.com website.
That’s pretty much it, not much to it and once you get it all set up you shouldn’t have to change any settings except the sync setting unless you get a new sound card or computer.
Help when you need it
Tech Support is always willing to answer any questions you may have about setup but your most valuable assets in solving problems are probably the FAQ page or the eJamming community itself. Most of the people there have done exactly what you’re doing now when they first started. So ask ‘em. They’re good people.
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