Ableton Forum

what is the closest we have gotten so far to remote musicians playing together in real-time over the internet? Ninjam?

is it even possible over the internet due to the way packets are handled in TCP / IP?

Are there any good alternatives? High def conference calls?

I predict Ableton will pioneer in this area.

As soon as they are done with Share....

And M4L....

And the Serato collab...

And by that time Live 9...

THEN maybe this will be their new subscription based service. It makes sense as something they'd add to Share as soon as they iron that out. It goes a lot deeper than just streaming audio in real time if you want to get extra stupid with your sets.

ive done it a few times using skype with some people i never met before in argentina. we did a few improvised live jams, i dont know what their set up was over there but i had a mic to record my voice and various acoustic instruments and my laptop using ableton going into my mixer which was then going into skype in my desktop. i recorded everything that was coming out via the headphone socket on the desktop. pretty ramshackle setup maybe but thats the sort of tunes i make anyway and it worked out pretty good overall. no problems with timing or anything....

if anyone wants to have a go at repeating the idea just let me know....x

With Share and M4L you could use the basic principle of online gaming.
Send little messages really fast.

People could play the same set at different locations. Even if changes get made somewhere, with share you only got to upload the samples that were added if any..

hoffman2k wrote:With Share and M4L you could use the basic principle of online gaming.
Send little messages really fast.

People could play the same set at different locations. Even if changes get made somewhere, with share you only got to upload the samples that were added if any..

Yeah, it seems like Live would be a natural platform for this.. would love to see something implemented along these lines.

slatepipe, thanks for the tip on Skype.. interesting..

i did something like this between toronto and shenzhen china...had a lot of problems with ninjam...ended up using tube, which worked pretty well:

http://www.t-u-b-e.de/

If both sides are Macs, you can use AUNetSend and AUNetReceive (both Audio Units that come with OS X).

anamexis wrote:If both sides are Macs, you can use AUNetSend and AUNetReceive (both Audio Units that come with OS X).

Does this only work on local networks or can you use it across the web for 2 people to jam from a distance? Didn't know if you had to log onto some sort of server or something...I'm not too educated in that area. Any input from someone familiar with using this would greatly appreciated!

one person on synth sounds

one person on drum sounds


my friend and i would jam in this setup id have his hardware synth running into ableton as i was changing up the beats and dropping backgrounds made by looping and editing his performance

you dont need to play over the internet, what we need is MICROSOFT SURFACE + ABLETON LIVE

hurlingdervish wrote:one person on synth sounds

one person on drum sounds


my friend and i would jam in this setup id have his hardware synth running into ableton as i was changing up the beats and dropping backgrounds made by looping and editing his performance

you dont need to play over the internet, what we need is MICROSOFT SURFACE + ABLETON LIVE

Yes. This is understood. You don't need to play over the internet, unfortunately this thread is in regards to that. We're talking about 2 people jamming at opposite ends of the country. Not opposite ends of the room or a table. I think we got that science down a looong time ago.

I heard some things about JackTrip...I'm gonna check more into later.

squelcht wrote:

anamexis wrote:If both sides are Macs, you can use AUNetSend and AUNetReceive (both Audio Units that come with OS X).

Does this only work on local networks or can you use it across the web for 2 people to jam from a distance? Didn't know if you had to log onto some sort of server or something...I'm not too educated in that area. Any input from someone familiar with using this would greatly appreciated!

No, this will work across the web, as long as you've got ports forwarded (or no firewall at all). Latency will depend on the connection quality, but you can make it work.

its does say playing live/SLASH/live over the internet tho

in order to maintain quality with sound files wouldn't you need a university grade connection?


i think you could program something interesting with clips in ableton live like each person is working on their own clips and the connection only transmits those said clips instead of the entire song.
so the session view is then divided into "mine" and "your's" with a color designated for each, then a button to switch between the screens so you can see what the other person is doing.

just a thought

hurlingdervish to answer your question, yes, I think you would need an extremely fast connection like a dedicated T1 or you are going to lose audio quality.

The T-U-B-E plugin uses some compression, haven't tested it yet, but it looks like the closest I will get to the ballpark with today's tech. You can send / receive an audio stream to another computer over the net from an AU.

AUNetSend loads in Live but to use AUNetReceive it looks like you need Logic, or Bidule to host it. Bidule can be rewire slaved to Live.

Oh yeah, there's also Skype to test out as well..

I just downloaded this, and will try it out tomorrow with my drummer. If this works as advertised, I will be shitting myself shortly afterwards. Once I've tried it, I'll post results.

http://ejamming.com/

Yeah, that was recommended to me...I heard its pretty damn stable too. However it also cost's money You get a free 30 day trial, then after that it's bout' $10 a month/$90 a year. I'm gonna try out the free trial & see how well it holds up. If it works really well, I just might consider to continue on using it..