Skype for ideas

[Airguitargb]

Skype - Can instruments be heard each end through mic inputs

 

 

 

Hi

 

Hope someone can assist here if possible, myself and a band mate who live to far apart for regular rehearsals are trying to use Skype to play each instrument and here each others parts. practice etc.

 

At the moment we have at one end Bass player with practice amp that the other user is hearing through a laptop mic.

 

The other end is guitar plugged into a POD HD500 which is ocnnected to the laptop by USB.

 

Should there/is there a way of getting both instruments direct into each laptop so we both here the a better sound the other end?

 

I have tried connecting my HD500 to my laptop into the mic in3.5mm jack but nothing.

 

Both laptops are windows PC'd

 

hope soemone knows the answer

 

thanks

[Marshal]

I don't know. But I doubt this will work for you. I'm pretty sure there's a time delay on skype.

[blue2blue]

This would probably be better placed in one of the recording forums here at HC -- but, assuming you guys are trying to play simultaneously, we can just cut to the chase: It won't work.

 

There are some reasons that, even though voices sound quite good over Skype (better than a regular phone line), the data-reduction software they use tends to make music all 'swirly.' It's been a while since I tried, but a number of years ago, when they still had the 'group Skype' thing, I was experimenting with using it, maybe for an online workshop. But even if you used a nice mic and gear and got a good sound on your end, by the time it got through Skype, it sounded like carp.

 

But, the BIG problem, as Marshal suggested, is time.

 

Your audio interface (soundcard) adds a relatively small latency, Skype adds more latency to the signal, and the internet adds loads more.

 

 

But, really, bottom line, the problem is physics. Electric current travels through wire at around 90% of the speed of light, which would be around 167,000 miles per second. Sounds fast? It is. But it's not instantaneous. If you had an old-fashioned all-analog signal chain from, say, LA to NYC (~2450 miles * 2 = 4900 miles), the round trip signal with no other latencies would take around 29 ms. In other words, your pal would hear your downbeat about 14.5 ms after you played it and (assuming he was smack on the one) you would hear his downbeat -- that should be simultaneous with yours in a perfect world -- a whopping 29 ms after you had played the note.

 

But, anyhow, no one has straight wires any more, for the most part. The kind of all analog coast-to-coast transmission lines we had in the past are, well, in the past. Welcome to the 21st century, where everything happens a few moments ago. (Coast to coast roundtrip over the internet with no other latencies typically amounts to 100 to 200 ms and sometimes more, depending on factors that change from packet to packet.)

 

 

Now, just a word of warning. You may see PR from a certain web start-up that claims to have low enough latency to jam across relatively short distances (across town or maybe the next town over) which they insist they are working to improve. It's BS. They're talking about quite long latencies that no sane musician would be willing to put up with. (And they may well have sunk beneath the waves. They were pretty clueless. I had a couple of interchanges with one of their front people here or at another recording BB and the guy had not one clue about how physics, digital sound, or the internet works. Laughable. But sad.)

 

 

________________________________

 

 

However, if you're not interested in real time jamming, you may find that Skype is adequate for passing ideas back in forth in almost real time, quality issues notwithstanding.

 

Another alternative is online collaboration services. There are a number.

 

Our benevelont hosts here at HC even have a hookup with one of them, called GrooveZoo. They have a free tier and, of course, a not-so-free tier (but that's apparently mostly oriented to professional collaborators and working with session people and has some features that help people account and charge for their services). It may well be worth checking out -- even if it doesn't fill your practice needs.

 

http://groovezoo.com

[Airguitargb]

thanks for youtr efforts, i have posted the smae messag eon several other sections as wasn't sure which would get a repsonse. most people are misunderstanding me. I am well aware of latency and delays so understand that you can jam with someone in time.

 

its more to say share ideas, i play a chord sequence and bass player listens his end.

 

thanks anyway