Online Early Music Forum

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Online Early Music Forum (OEMF)

music during the pandemic with Jamulus

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Why?

Many of us know that making music over the internet does not work well with meeting systems like Zoom, Teams, Skype, etc (because of something called latency). People have been singing with the sound turned off (effectively solo) or singing along with a track from YouTube or Spotify.

But there is a way to make real harmony online. Since June, we have been singing with Jamulus, which minimizes latency and enables us to sing or play together in very nearly the usual way. We'd love you to join us.

Who, when and where?

All singers and players of early music are welcome. It is mostly vocal but we also know of groups playing viols, cornetts, etc.
We meet three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
from 6 pm to 8 pm.
You will need to run Jamulus and connect to OEMF.
Please feel free to use the server at other times.
You can add an optional video link using Jitsi. Please join with video, without audio. Use Jamulus for audio.

Finding music

We find music online and sing from the screen, without printing it. This allows us to choose suitable music for the voices available.

The OEMF anthology is our list of pieces we would like to re-visit.

Getting and setting up Jamulus

Jamulus has versions for Windows, Mac and Linux but not for telephones.
Please read the documentation, which is excellent.
There are other guides and videos to help get you started.
The Jamulus community are very helpful.
Here is a demo and another demo of what Jamulus can do.
Be sure you have headphones (plug in, not Bluetooth), an ethernet cable (not Wi-Fi) and understand Rule Nº 1.

If it doesn't just work ...

Some Windows machines do not have pre-installed ASIO drivers. You can download a free ASIO4ALL driver.
Some will get a warning from Windows that Jamulus is not software from the Microsoft Store. That is correct - Jamulus is open source software.
If you find your microphone gain (=volume) is on maximum and you still can barely be heard, you may be connected to a 'line level' socket instead of a microphone socket.
There are lots of people ready to help in the Jamulus community.

Starting Jamulus

Now that Jamulus is installed, open it.
Choose View | My profile... and enter your name. Other fields are optional.
Press Connect
At the top of the Connection Setup dialog, press List and choose Genre Classical/Folk/Choir.
Choose OEMF from the list and press Connect in the bottom right.
The Chat dialog is useful in case you are not being heard or don't want to interrupt. It also has a link to this page.
In Settings, choose high quality, Mono in/Stereo Out (unless you really need a stereo input).

Walter Bergmann's golden rules

He came to London from Germany in 1939 and established a reputation as a continuo player (he accompanied Alfred Deller), music editor and a director of the Society of Recorder Players. Some of us remember him teaching a class of 30-40 recorders (ouch!) at the Marylebone institute. His Golden Rules for Ensemble Playing are essential study for all amateur musicians.