Comments on: Ninjam – Skype for musicians

By: AndyMc

AndyMc — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:44:42 +0000

Another thing NINJAM has become great for is a training tool, the amount my abilities have improved since using it is hundreds of pecent more.

I’m a Keys player and I’ve always worked on trying to make synth instrument’s sound like a real instrument. This learns you real instruments from others playing them as well as where they should fit in the music.

Thats 2 Massive Programs Justin has made, Wimamp and now NINJAM. :D

By: The Chairman

The Chairman — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 06:57:46 +0000

Ninjam seems fun in principle, with the following caveats:

1. After listening to about twenty of the “archived” jams, I’ve come to the conlcusion that it all sounds pretty much like “porno film” music — one chord for forty-five minutes, with a lot of clunky not-quite-on aspects. This could definitely be fun — if kept in proper perspective.
No, you’re not going to be able to create very detailed or structurally-complex stuff as far as chord changes or actual melody-lines or suchlike, but it does have a fun, order-from-chaos kind of vibe to it.

2. If you DO want to do some sort of more “serious” type of collaboration, there’s already a lot of people putting stuff like that together using sites like soundclick, for example. There’s a bunch of people on there calling themselves “the collaborators” who upload tracks, and then have other people send in their additional tracks, etc. — up to the point of creating a final mixdown — a “virtual group” where nobody has actually ever been in physical proximity. So no, I don’t think it’s “either/or” here.

Ninjam sounds like fun — hafta grab me a copy. :)

By: Heuristics Inc.

Heuristics Inc. — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:27:57 +0000

You hear your own music in real time (as long as your soundcard doesn’t have too much latency) but your compatriots jamming in other places will be delayed to your ears. They on the other hand will hear themselves in real time and you will be delayed.
And no, it’s not really possible to do real-time over the internet. Still. Even small delays are noticeable in sound.
-bill

By: Latency an issue

Latency an issue — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 09:30:30 +0000

Surely it’s technically possible to transmit and listen in real-time? Especially on fast internet connections??

Perhaps it has something to do with compressing the audio?? I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect good musicians to have to put up with a delay between when they hit the string and when they hear the sound…

If they could get it in real time it would be really great..

By: Another Justin

Another Justin — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:45:48 +0000

Ive been using ninjam for some weeks now, and i must say its a god send, my playing has improved, and its great to be able to play with people from all over the globe. as for the latency, well its wierd at first but when you get used to it you dont think about it.

By: David ÃƒËœ - UniGTR+ Center

David ÃƒËœ - UniGTR+ Center — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 21:23:09 +0000

re: 1st post and demo from Brad …

… cool flangy fade-out …

By: David ÃƒËœ - UniGTR+ Center

David ÃƒËœ - UniGTR+ Center — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 21:15:56 +0000

… hey sounds “interesting” .. look 4ward and keep an ear on it

By: Alan Glueckman

Alan Glueckman — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 18:25:15 +0000

If you want to try out real time jamming over the Internet, now you can. We put the Early Adopter test version of the eJamming Station for the Mac up yesterday (the PC version is coming in mid-September). Ypu can sign up, download the software for a free trial and start eJamming now! Just want to let everybody know that this is still in beta, so expect some bugs and not all functions are fully enabled today, but we’ll be releasing new builds each week.
Hope to see you in the eJamming Venues!

By: Colin Laird

Colin Laird — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:03:35 +0000

I agree. This thing looks interesting and could be just as important as midi was for isolated synths n drum machines. Think how much music changed as a result of sound generating devices being synced up to a sequencer via the midi standard. Here we have sound generating humans linked together and (hopefully) a resurgence of improvisation and originality in music.

By: Insomniak

Insomniak — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 23:19:30 +0000

Cool idea, Im going to have to try this out.

Won’t be the same as having the people in the same room but could be interesting.

Unique limitations (such as the time delay) can also provide creativity and inspiration not normally found when working in more predictable ways.