Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by TheOtherHobbes 222 days ago
Everyone has a browser, not everyone has a DAW, and even fewer people have the same DAW.

Doing this in a browser is ridiculously inefficient.

But if you just want a limited-track scratchpad for virtual jamming, it's the most accessible option.
1 comments
PaulDavisThe1st 222 days ago
The bigger, broader problem is that "virtual jamming" just doesn't seem to have taken off the way some folks thought it would.

It's not a useless thing to be able to do, but there are few people who seem to want it at the center of their music-making activity. At least that is the way it seems to me. It initially appeared to be an immensely cool new capability, and in many ways it really is. It just isn't a thing that many people want to do.

link
duped 222 days ago
I've seen a few products that are in essence, "virtual jamming" but they're not marketed like that. For example a bunch of live sound mixers come with an iOS app for live monitoring that you can use to feed monitor mixes straight to musicians' devices. Super useful if you have an iPad controlling Mainstage, a monitor mix, and sheet music. Another that's less obvious are live transcription/hearing assistance where you want to use your phone to tap into the output of the recording console's mix, or a translation/audio description mix.
link
PaulDavisThe1st 222 days ago
That's a completely different concept from "virtual jamming", which requires moving audio back and forth over a WAN.

The sort of live sound mixers you're describing just send control signals between the pad and the mixer, no audio flows to or from the pad.

link
duped 222 days ago
There are monitoring apps that do send audio to the device. I'm not talking about mix control apps. These are wireless replacements for dedicated monitor mixes that run over WiFi.
link
PaulDavisThe1st 221 days ago
Right, but those are entirely different from the control protocols used between the pad and the mixer ...

... and it is still different from virtual jamming, which more or less definitionally requires a WAN. If you're all within wifi range of the mixer, you're actually jamming :)

link