How Do I Connect My Instrument and Audio Interface to eJamming?

Answer:

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). 

Why we use ASIO:

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.

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.

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.

If all else fails, email Tech Support:

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.

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.