
Music monks
Nowadays we are all a bit monks, locked in our cells to meditate on the future of the world asking ourselves what about our skills and consequently our lives

Nowadays we are all a bit monks, locked in our cells to meditate on the world’s future asking ourselves what about our skills and consequently our lives.
The smartest ones have already started with their own live streaming, live from the basement, from the living room, live from the kitchen, drowning the audience with millions of hashtags…
Who gives music lessons or talks about tricks for a perfect mixing, who posts music videos compulsively.
Everything, as long as someone sees me, and my existence starts to make sense again.
Music is aggregation.
I don’t feel like defining music (or art in general).
Its power is so wide and multifaceted that it is impossible to sum it up in a sentence.
But today, when the most forcibly neglected aspect of music is just aggregation, I would like to try to alleviate this lack of rehearsal room, of the stage, of interaction with your bandmates.
It is not possible at this moment to recreate the cigarette break with a beer in hand, discussing what to do about the next dates…
The bass player who didn’t quite understand the last verse before the refrain or the keyboardist who is thinking about purchasing a multi-output sound card, while you are talking to the lead singer will be the next album…
These feelings are not digitally recreated.
You can play together. That’s right.

If we are not in contact physically, the sound of my guitar and your voice or your keyboard can be true.
It is possible to reach something similar to a rehearsal room.
Not in a perfect way obviously but you can; even for free.
With the connection speed increased in recent years for almost anyone, connecting for direct streaming is no longer so unthinkable.

These days, like so other many desperate people looking for a way to play with other human beings, I tried to install and use Jamtaba.
This is open-source software that allows you to connect via Ninjam server to virtual rehearsal rooms and play with other musicians worldwide or with your own bandmates.
The audio quality is more than satisfactory, it also works as VST, and it’s great.
You can activate it on a track of your DAW and use it to send, in addition to the sound of your instrument, also loops or soundscapes in sync with Jamtaba’s internal metronome.

Jamtaba’s metronome is essential because he is the conductor.
Based on this tool, all musicians’ latencies are managed so that everyone gets the overall result of the jam in sync.
The configuration is not complicated at all and overall is a pleasant tool to relieve the pain of the enclosure’s forced to experience.