I use this page to collect the articles, videos and help docs I’ve made about networked music making. (For information on the artistic projects I’ve been involved with, please see my Telematics page.)
Suggestion for getting started: SonoBus
If you are new to this and looking for a user-friendly app to play music with people via the internet in small groups with the lowest possible latency, I recommend SonoBus. It’s an excellent new app that just came out in Oct. 2020. You should use it on an ethernet (wired) connection, not wifi, and with an external audio interface and mic, not the mic/computers built into your computer. There are some settings you can adjust if it doesn’t immediately work well, and you can get help using the links under Support at the bottom of their webpage.
An introductory article for musicians and educators
In September 2020, I shared a new article that brings together many conversations I’ve had over the first six months of the pandemic, called Networked music performance: An introduction for musicians and educators. There’s also a shorter version in a guest blog post for SmartMusic.com. It covers the main practical considerations of playing music with people via internet, and ends with some broader ideas on how to use networks for teaching and social transformation.
A sprawling technical googledoc
Notes on Telematic Music Production including some tech notes and links, and production suggestions for large-scale telematic concerts. It’s not the best starting point so if you’re new, I suggest the article/post above for an overview, and the first doc below for a quick way to try out an app.
Shorter help docs on specific topics
- Quacktrip and Nettie McNetface basic usage, a doc on how to get started with these 2 apps recently developed by Miller Puckette. This doc is aimed at novice users, to complement the instructions included in the apps themselves.
- Jacktrip remote server notes, notes from a session with Bonnie Kwong. These are instructions for setting up a remote Debian server on the Linode hosting service to use for running a JackTrip server.
- Nettie McNetface remote server notes, a “how-to” doc for setting up a remote Debian or macOS server to use with Nettie McNetface.
A short series of introductory videos
Intro to Networked Performance @ Home is a short video series I made at the start of the pandemic in April 2020. They feature some FAQs, audio examples of duo playing 70 miles apart, a quick screencast to show basic JackTrip usage, and a short video about latency at longer distances.
JackTrip Basics videos
These are two 2013 videos on using JackTrip on macOS. The install instructions are no longer current, but I am leaving them online because the basic principles for multi-channel and multi-site connections (shown in part 2) still apply. For help with installation and more recent features and versions, please see the video series created by as Jan Stoltenberg (Mac) and Synthia Payne (Windows) and the help resources at jacktrip.org.