Ninjam

NINJAM

NINJAM Console
Original author(s)	Brennan Underwood, Justin Frankel, with notable work by Tom Pepper
Developer(s)	various
Initial release	July 9, 2005
Stable release	v0.06 (client & server), / July 20, 2005 (client), May 3, 2007 (server)
Operating system	Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
Available in	English
Type	Collaborative musical jamming
License	GNU General Public License
Website	www.ninjam.com

NINJAM stands for Novel Intervallic Network Jamming Architecture for Music.

Creating music naturally relies on players' ability to keep time with each other. Latency between players causes natural time keeping to be thrown awry. The internet does not provide a low-latency data exchange mechanism that can be used over global distances.^[1] In order to achieve some semblance of latency-free collaboration, a workaround is needed.

NINJAM provides a non-realtime mechanism for exchanging audio data across the internet, with a synchronisation mechanism based on musical form. In other words it provides a way for musicians to "jam" (improvise) together over the Internet; it pioneered the concept of "virtual-time" jamming. It was originally developed by Brennan Underwood, Justin Frankel, and Tom Pepper.

In NINJAM, this is achieved by delaying all received audio until it can be synchronised with other players. The delay is based on the musical form. This synchronisation means that each player hears the others in a session and can play along with them. NINJAM defines the form in terms of the "interval" - the number of beats to be recorded before synchronising with other players. For example, with an interval of 16, four bars of common time would be recorded from each player, then played back to all others.

Technical background

Each player in a NINJAM session feeds audio data from their client to a server via a TCP/IP connection to a specific port (commonly in the range 2049 upwards, depending on the host).

The "client" here is only the component that the player uses to connect to a NINJAM server, encode and transmit their audio stream, receive and decode remote players' streams and handle the chat (IRC-like) session. Each player will also need some way of feeding audio information to the NINJAM client - either by using the client as a plugin in a DAW or by using the standalone version with a direct audio input.

Each client's data is synchronised against a distributed clock. This clocking is then used to distribute the data out to all the other clients so that they can play all the remote streams in sync. The server does little apart from manage connections, chat and data streaming.

Comparison with alternatives

eJAMMING

• synthtopia article.

Subscription service relying on low latency internet connections. NINJAM is not tied to a single supplier and does not rely on being local (in internet geography terms) to the people you want to jam with.

This is a quote from the article: “For the first time, any musician–vocalists, acoustic guitarists, horns, strings, even harmonica players and accordionists–can play together with others over the Internet in sync,” said eJamming Co-Founder and Chairman/President Alan Jay Glueckman.

RocketPower

Articles

• sfgate
• BBC article

Subscription service relying on a central server. Appears to be "track at a time". NINJAM calls this "session mode" in the REAPER-tied client. Only currently offered on the Cockos server.

RiffLink

• sonomawireworks article.

Appears to be another "track at a time" collaboration system like RocketPower.

Overview of usage

Clients and client setup considerations

Common considerations

All clients feed data at 0dB to the server, regardless of local monitoring levels. When setting up, set the NINJAM client "local" level to 0dB. "local" does not affect transmitted volume. The slider labelled "local" only affects what you hear locally, not what others hear. You must adjust your input level - before the NINJAM client in the signal path - to affect what remote players are hearing.

There is only so much headroom in an audio channel. Never peaking above 12dB and having a "loud" level around 18dB ensures space in the mix for others.

REAPER-tied VST effect

Probably the most commonly used option (based on number of posts on the NINJAM support forums) but requires that you use REAPER.

Open Source AU plugin

Derived from the Open Source Standalone version, works on Mac AU hosts. Similar considerations to REAPER-tied VST effect above.

Open Source standalone clients

Standalone clients are available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. As the Linux version works with JACK, it can have audio routed to it from any JACK client. On Windows, use with virtual audio sources is problematic as there is no comparatively easy routing mechanism. Hence it is more suited to real instruments, where it provides a simpler alternative to the complexity of running a DAW just to access NINJAM.

Server and server set-up requirements

More detailed set-up and configuration is available ^[2] on the NINJAM web site

Bandwidth

All figures are approximate, but are based on figures from Cockos Inc. web site. ^[3]

The bandwidth requirements are not trivial; outbound bandwidth is the major requirement. A 4 person session will require approximately 768kbps of outbound and 240kbps of inbound bandwidth. An 8 person session will require approximately 3mbps of outbound (and 600kbps inbound) bandwidth.

O/S, Hardware & NINJAM

Win32

Win2000 or later, CPU 500 MHz, RAM 4MB, NINJAM v0.06

OS X

OS X 10.3 or later, G3. RAM 4MB NINJAM v0.01a ALPHA for OS X

Linux

It is claimed ^[4] that the server source code compiles on Linux, FreeBSD, Darwin/OS X, and Windows. There is no information available regarding what versions of Linux & FreeBSD are required nor of the hardware required to support the application running under those OS's.

Development status

This is a GPL project, source code is available but development appears to be stalled.

See also

The NINJAM servers hosted by Cockos record and index their content at NINJAM AutoSong under the Creative Commons license. As of Jan 2010 there was something over 23,000 plus hours of content, or approximately 1.2TB. ^[5]

References

1. ^ , http://www.prorec.com/Articles/tabid/109/EntryId/263/Real-time-Remote-Collaboration-via-NINJAM.aspx, retrieved 2010-01-13 
2. ^ , http://www.ninjam.com/server-guide.php, retrieved 2010-01-13 
3. ^ , http://www.ninjam.com/download.php, retrieved 2010-01-13 
4. ^ , http://www.ninjam.com/download.php, retrieved 2010-01-13 
5. ^ , http://autosong.ninjam.com/, retrieved 2010-01-13