What I thought was just a silly-fantasy of a passionate amateur musician like me, has surpassed my wildest expectation and has now turned into an actual product.

After the recent debut of Ninjam, which premiered the immense opportunities available to those who, like me, dreamed of hooking up with far away music partners to jam together online, I wasn't yet ready to see the immediate launch of a new cross-platform software that really defines the opening of a virtual music jamming marketplace. Click on this video clip here below and see why I am so thrilled about it:

Click to view the video

What a fascinating new collaboration and exchange venue this is, both for those who will use it as well as for those who will design and develop the many new tools and services that will grow around this just emerging new marketplace.

A perfect match for MyVirtualBand, this new cross-platform software, which remains for now under Beta testing, allows you to plug any MIDI-enabled instrument into your computer, start-up the virtual jamming software and immediately connect to your preferred music partners online, no matter where they are located.
Thanks to the patented technology utilized, everyone can hear what is being played at each location in perfect-sync. Though this is not real-time as it would be on a normal phone call, we are now getting very, very close to it.

This new amazing software is called eJamming. It runs on Macs and PCs and here is how it does what I would have thought as impossible until not long ago:

Special algorithms inside the eJamming software delay the playback of your instrument or voice until you effectively receive data from your music partners.

According to the company that delay may vary from 15ms (milliseconds) within a city, to 25-40ms within a 1500 mile jam and to 40-50ms across countries. In tests conducted by eJamming, virtual jammers have been able to connect and play between NYC and London with a delay of only 49ms.

"Panels of musicians testing eJamming™, including the most proficient and skeptical we could find, have accommodated very quickly to these local delays (surprisingly quickly), and many musicians have found they can accommodate to the 50-60mS inherent in eJamming from the East Coast of the US to Europe. You just have to feel it for yourself."

A complementary product, still in the development stage and called Music Maker (to be released in 2006) will integrate software functionalities to enable your computer keyboard to become a digital musical instrument of the highest quality which can play back the General MIDI soundbank.

Targeted at young kids, Music Maker will turn your computer into a whole new musical instrument, by re-using the top two rows of your computer keyboard and transforming them into the equivalent of the black and white keys of a piano keyboard (the same is done for your keyboard two bottom rows). Key rows can then be assigned to one among hundreds of different musical instruments.

Music Maker will also provide a tonal range of four and half octaves via the use of the Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys. By pressing the SHIFT key you are shifting UP one octave, by pressing the ALT key you are shifting UP two octaves and by pressing the CTRL key moves you DOWN an octave.

If instead, you are already a professional music maker and you want to connect now with your friends to jam and record online, you can just plug your MIDI-enabled keyboard, electric guitar or bass, drum pads, into the USB port and the eJamming suite will take care of connecting you with your ideal music partners, or with your own virtual band. No more need to go the uncle's Joe garage. Now everyone can jam and reharse from his own studio.


eJamming interface - click to enlarge

eJamming also provides an integral VoIP channel allowing you and your music friends to talk to each other in real-time (by pressing the space bar on your keyboard) as if you were in the same physical space.

eJamming recorded files can also be exported to your favorite sequencing or mixing software for further recording or subsequent editing and mixing. You'll even be able to add vocals locally on your own computer.

Other eJamming applications include the abilities to:
a) write a melody on an existing downloadable eJamming musical track, b) play a solo on an existing eJamming song file,
c) write new chords and arrange all the instrumental parts,
d) create your own song from scratch... and overdub your voice locally on your own computer.

In the near future eJamming Music Maker will allow multiple editing functions, including note and time correction, key changes, reverb and other effects, mixing functions and even notation, for printing out your compositions.

On the technical side, to make e-Jamming work as expected, you need to do three things:

a) Assign a static IP to your computer.
If you don't assign a Static (or, one that doesn't move) LAN (Local Area Network, or the group of computers you've set up in your home or office) IP (Internet Protocol) Address (four groups of numbers separated by periods that locate your computer on your LAN) -- you'll turn on your computer all set to begin an eJamming Session and you'll find out your router has moved the address of your computer - and you'll have to re-configure your router all over again.

b) Set-up port forwarding.
configure port-forwarding on your router. e-Jamming provides a very comprehensive list of router manufacturers that you can consult to find out how to carry out this operation on your specific model.

c) Configure your firewall.
What you need to do here is to add the eJamming Service to your list of software applications that are authorized to access ports on your computer. eJamming uses the well-known GameSpy platform for connecting Players to one another. GameSpy is a secure and protected platform and according to GameSpy, allowing other Players to access your computer through your firewall via GameSpy ports will not compromise your computer's security.

PC System Requirements
Windows XP
Pentium 3 or higher
256 MB RAM
MIDI Controller
MIDI Interface(USB)
General MIDI soundset
Broadband Connection
Mac System Requirements
OS X.3 (Panther)
1 GHz G4
256 MB RAM
MIDI Controller
MIDI Interface(USB)
General MIDI soundset
Broadband Connection

Costs:
Monthly subscription $19.95.
(Please note: During the Early Adopter Test, after your Two Week Free Trial, you'll pay only $12.95/month and you'll pay only $14.95 a month for eJamming for the first six months after the Early Adopter Test is over. Thereafter, you'll pay the Standard Monthly Subscription rate.)

eJamming is a high-tech start-up headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, with programmers, designers and contractors in London, England; San Francisco, Glendale, Los Angeles, Boston and New York. The company has been founded by Gail Kantor and Alan Glueckman in 2001.

A support forum is also immediately accessible for all users and testers of eJamming.

To contact technical support please go to:
http://www.ejamming.com/support_contact.html

Early adopter sign-up (for Macs only - for now)

PC Beta testers program signup.

eJamming launched yesterday its Early-Adopter testing program and it is currently recruiting Early Adopters on Mac OSX, with the PC build beginning testing mid-October.

The eJamming(TM) Station will be formally released on Apple's OSX.3(Panther) and OSX.4 (Tiger) beginning October 14. The release version of the eJamming(TM) Station on Windows XP will launch before year's end.