Once you've mastered streaming music over the Internet, you may want to find some more challenges and multi-streaming might be what you want. This is a technique whereby more than one musician can play over an Internet audio stream. It's not the most technologically elegant musical environment but, wtf, imagine going back in time to tell Mozart about doing this sort of thing. He would tell you to get out of town. (Actually, I imagine he would want to come with you and play with it.)
In quick summary, Internet audio streaming is when you have an audio source such as a microphone or a guitar. The signal from that will take whatever course you like until it comes to some type of audio interface to your computer. The interface is used to link the music to transmitter software that will relay the music signal out onto the Internet. When that signal or stream is started, anyone who knows the URL you are using will be able to hear you. (The URL typically takes the format http://www.xxx.yyy.zzz:abcd where www.xxx.yyy.zzz is the server address and abcd is the port number.)
So, you know how this goes so far. For a single act, you give that URL to the venue owner. He or she plugs it into the land and everyone can listen. This is all very good and it's how most of the acts in Second Life work.
But you want more.
Consider what happens if you give that URL to a fellow performer. That performer can then receive what you play and add music to it before relaying it on to Second Life on his or her own stream. The URL from this stream is what the venue owner plugs into the land and then the dual stream goes live with the audience able to hear both of you.
As to the mechanics of the dual stream, you could receive your friend's audio stream in iTunes or analogous software. You can then balance your audio with what you're hearing. Send all of your system audio out on your stream and both performers will be in it.
There are some quite significant considerations to performing in a dual stream. The first is what separates this altogether from a real life jam. The first performer cannot hear the second. Consider the problem: when you stream your sound out, it may be up to thirty seconds before your friend even hears it. Your friend needs to turn it back around to re-transmit it and that may be up to thirty seconds getting back to you. There is no possible chance in any realm of known physics that can work.
However, despite that limitation of a dual stream, it can bring good things when used imaginatively. Some want to play rhythm, some want to play lead, some sing, etc. If you consider the relative strengths prior to connecting the stream then there will still be a surprising degree of flexibility. Slim Warrior was very big with multi-streams some years ago and would get piles of people onto one.
Voodoo Shilton does quite a bit of dual-streaming. I haven't heard him yet but I'm very curious. He plays very high-level stuff and it's not just a I-IV-V jam. Playing I-IV-V is fun but Voodoo is way past blues world into some whole other place. I'm curious as hell as to what he does there.
You may also have heard of Ninjam and this is software that will permit playing together with others ... almost synchronously. That makes it almost cool. But it's not cool enough. Expectations are way, way too low. We ought to be able to point a few cameras at ourselves to get enough information to shoot fucking holograms at each other so we can see each other while we play at ultra-high audio resolution. We didn't get the Jetsons bubble cars so how about instead we get some kick-ass Internet.
In quick summary, Internet audio streaming is when you have an audio source such as a microphone or a guitar. The signal from that will take whatever course you like until it comes to some type of audio interface to your computer. The interface is used to link the music to transmitter software that will relay the music signal out onto the Internet. When that signal or stream is started, anyone who knows the URL you are using will be able to hear you. (The URL typically takes the format http://www.xxx.yyy.zzz:abcd where www.xxx.yyy.zzz is the server address and abcd is the port number.)
So, you know how this goes so far. For a single act, you give that URL to the venue owner. He or she plugs it into the land and everyone can listen. This is all very good and it's how most of the acts in Second Life work.
But you want more.
Consider what happens if you give that URL to a fellow performer. That performer can then receive what you play and add music to it before relaying it on to Second Life on his or her own stream. The URL from this stream is what the venue owner plugs into the land and then the dual stream goes live with the audience able to hear both of you.
As to the mechanics of the dual stream, you could receive your friend's audio stream in iTunes or analogous software. You can then balance your audio with what you're hearing. Send all of your system audio out on your stream and both performers will be in it.
There are some quite significant considerations to performing in a dual stream. The first is what separates this altogether from a real life jam. The first performer cannot hear the second. Consider the problem: when you stream your sound out, it may be up to thirty seconds before your friend even hears it. Your friend needs to turn it back around to re-transmit it and that may be up to thirty seconds getting back to you. There is no possible chance in any realm of known physics that can work.
However, despite that limitation of a dual stream, it can bring good things when used imaginatively. Some want to play rhythm, some want to play lead, some sing, etc. If you consider the relative strengths prior to connecting the stream then there will still be a surprising degree of flexibility. Slim Warrior was very big with multi-streams some years ago and would get piles of people onto one.
Voodoo Shilton does quite a bit of dual-streaming. I haven't heard him yet but I'm very curious. He plays very high-level stuff and it's not just a I-IV-V jam. Playing I-IV-V is fun but Voodoo is way past blues world into some whole other place. I'm curious as hell as to what he does there.
You may also have heard of Ninjam and this is software that will permit playing together with others ... almost synchronously. That makes it almost cool. But it's not cool enough. Expectations are way, way too low. We ought to be able to point a few cameras at ourselves to get enough information to shoot fucking holograms at each other so we can see each other while we play at ultra-high audio resolution. We didn't get the Jetsons bubble cars so how about instead we get some kick-ass Internet.
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