covid-19 and work

[Phil O]

A couple of years ago I bought a 20 inch Yamaha bass drum for my kit (it's the only way to fit my kit in the back of my Jeep). For whatever reason the inside of the drum is unfinished. Today I took advantage of my free time and stripped the hardware and stained the inside. Tomorrow I'll lacquer it. The next day I'll put it all back together. By the next day I'll know what retirement will feel like.

Philippe

[mikehalloran]

I may have to upgrade to a paid version of Dropbox. Looking for a way around that. GoogleDrive is great for many things but as a DropBox substitute, not so hot.

Two of my church bands think it's possible to rehearse over the internet using various apps and computer mics/speakers. I'll spare the tech discussion on why that doesn't work at all. My choir thinks that can work, too, so I'll run them through the same thing to prove what I already know.

The fellowship was great even if the music was impossible.

A couple of my musicians have new fast USB 2 interfaces. That could possibly work but I think the silicon valley residential networks are too slow. We'll try proof of concept mid-week. We have two choices: AT&T over copper or Comcast over copper in the middle of the high-tech universe — sheesh!

I'm happy to get into the nuts and bolts on this but think it should be its own thread. Anyone interested?

[rickorick]

Hi Mike I'm interested. I'm teaching piano and guitar and I've been going to the students houses
and now they all want video lessons. I have no video gear but I have audio gear. But the computers
are old. I do have a 2011 Mac Pro 8 core 2. something, it's a spare. It's running on spinners but I could
put a SSD in it and upgrade the OS. I have a MOTU 896mk3 hybrid and I could get audio in and out of it, I have
a mixer, monitors etc. I don't know what software would be good or what kind of camera/s I could
get. I don't want to spend a bunch of money but I think it should look good. I'll take any ideas. And
of course as soon as I spend all my money the crisis will be gone and we can all come out of the shelters. Thanks Rick

[rickorick]

When I said 2. something I meant the speed, it's a 5,1

[Phil O]

I may have to upgrade to a paid version of Dropbox.

I'm not familiar with Dropbox. I recently transferred some files using the free version of WeTransfer. They have a paid version as well. Might be worth checking out.

Phil

[HCMarkus]

Hi Mike I'm interested. I'm teaching piano and guitar and I've been going to the students houses and now they all want video lessons... I do have a 2011 Mac Pro 8 core. I have a MOTU 896mk3 hybrid and I could get audio in and out of it, I have a mixer, monitors etc.

I don't know what software would be good or what kind of camera/s I could get.

Thanks Rick

How about FaceTime... if your students have access to a Mac Laptop or iPhone, it is bi-directional and even allows you to use a remote camera/audio interface. Pick up a camera for your Mac Pro (no such thing as a 2011, probably a 2010 or 2012 5,1) and you should be good to go with the other equipment you already have.

From Apple:

In the FaceTime app on your Mac, choose one of the following from the Video menu.
Choose Use System Setting for your microphone or output device.
If you select this, FaceTime uses the audio devices set in the Output or Input pane of Sound preferences. For more details, see Change the sound output settings or Change the sound input settings.
Choose a specific camera, microphone, or output device to use.
If there aren’t any devices listed in the Video menu, FaceTime uses the built-in camera, microphone, and speakers.

Put you and your students in earbuds so they can hear you over their piano.

[rickorick]

When I said 2011, I looked up the serial number and the site said it was built in 2011. I get that it is
a 2010 but it was built in 2011. If one believes whatever that site was. Does Face Time work on a Mac
Pro. I would like to be able to set up 2 cameras and use a good mic, I have a Beta 87 and a 414. I figure if I'm going to do this might as well look good I know I can make it sound good. I just know
nothing about cameras and video, even what would be possible with FaceTime. I know I'm drawn to
the better sounding and looking videos on You Tube. Like Nick Batt on Sonic State, he looks and sounds great on his weekly podcast. I basically have everything I just need software and cameras.
I even have some band lights I could use.

[HCMarkus]

Remote Lessons
I'm no expert on this, but it is important to remember that a teacher giving a one-on-one lesson has very different needs than a person presenting a YouTube video. The YouTube video can be recorded and edited before it is posted, and if it is live-streamed, it is still a one-way thing, with the exception of chat messages coming in for the presenter to respond to.

Teachers need real-time bi-directional audio and video. That's why I suggested FaceTime; it's free, readily available, and yes it should will run on your Mac Pro if you connect a camera and audio interface. If you set up lights and good audio, you could look and sound great!

Zoom is popular. It looks like the basic plan FREE, allows one-on-one:

https://zoom.us/pricing

A question I have is, what equipment will your students be required to have? Good luck with this; and please let us know what you discover!

As for your Mac, built in 2011 suggests its a 2010. No big deal... I just get worried that we might not be talking about the same thing. You've got a strong 5,1 Mac Pro, which (by the way) you could really easily convert to a 12 core by simply dropping in two X5680 CPUs for about $80 for the pair from eBay. Make it your studio Mac and use the hex machine for your teaching!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-X56 ... SwZcJeZFPP

[rickorick]

Yes I know about the teaching is kind of one way, but if I can find the right gear maybe I can build on what
I have. When I watch the Sonic State podcast Nick looks and sounds great and it's live every week.
And he is using a Rode podcaster mic which isn't a 414 I would like to know what else some of these
guys are using camera wise. I did look at Zoom one of the moms sent me the link and I watched a bit of
a video and got the jist of it. And I've read every one of your posts about upgrading the processor and
I checked with a shop here and the guy said he would put them for me if I got them for $120. And the 6 core runs great I just haven't had a reason to do the upgrade on the 8 core but I have it and I didn't pay
to much for it. It also has DP on it so I could use that if I had to for something, playing backing tracks
etc. Thanks for the info so far.

[mikehalloran]

In a nutshell, both zoom and https://8x8.vc/ work for one on one. You do not have to install the annoying Chrome extension that pops up when you access 8x8.

zoom is an app, 8x8 works in the Chrome browser although there's an app available. I don't know if multiple simultaneous sessions are included in the free version — in both cases, I was logging into others' accounts which is quite easy. With zoom, I had to go to the Security panel in System Preferences to allow it access to my camera — easily done. 8x8 just did it — perhaps because it's a browser page.

I did sessions in both on Saturday with two groups of 4 each. My takeaways:

Both are videoconferencing apps. If you've used FaceTime, this is similar. Teaching can certainly be done but playing together cannot for two reasons: 1) Latency 2) Noise suppression, gating, compression, phase cancellation etc.

1) I logged in through my iMac via ethernet, iPad over internal wireless and iPhone over cellular. No two had the same connection speed with the iMac showing the least amount of latency and the iPhone showing the most. As I demonstrated something with my hand, it moved on the screen later. I'm used to TV where latency is unnoticeable. It was weird.

2) Audio acts just like a cell phone. The person speaking or playing has a hard time hearing the other since the input will lower the output. If the audio is too soft, a gate will silence the mic. If the speakers are on, you'll get anything from mild to severe phase cancellation and comb filtering—headphones can alleviate that, however.

Perfect for a one on one where the teacher and student talk and take turns demonstrating. and the basic features of the apps are free.

After the expected disaster of trying to play music together, it was great to hang out and talk with others whom I don't live with. Really, that was a pleasure.

[stubbsonic]

So far, I've had a better experience with music lessons on Skype (I've done them off & on for years). Facetime isn't as nice, and Zoom can be the same or much worse.

Zoom can work, but you have to go into audio settings and disable the noise suppression stuff. It is trying to allow you to have a meeting, and it favors speaking voices over tones. In some versions of their app, you can configure the audio enough to make it workable.

The issue I've had with Zoom is that some people on windows machines don't seem to have access to the same audio settings I can see on my MBP.

[rickorick]

Thanks for everything. What I would like to know is how do I use my own mic instead of the computers
and can I hook up 2 cameras and how do I switch, 1 for my face and 1 for the keyboard and what is a
good camera, I have the mics and a MOTU 896 mk3. I looked at some GoPro's on BandH's web site
but it seem most of the $100 models were sold out. Does Skype allow the cameras to be switched
or is that something else, and I'm guessing the 896 would be seen by Skype as well

[mikehalloran]

Rehearsed my church choir this evening over Zoom. After the hilarious disasters of tiring to jam with my bands, I came into this with low expectations.

I told the singers to mute their mics so they could only hear the audio from our piano and watch my hand for beats and cues. My wife is the accompanist so she and I were in the same room—the sync wasn’t perfect between audio and video but it wasn’t bad either.

It went much better than I expected. Even though I couldn’t hear the singers, I pretty much knew the trouble spots in the five pieces we worked in an hour and a half. They all felt good afterwards and I thought that we got some real work done. They all want to do it again — fine by me.

Next week, I will enable record on one of the songs and send the gallery view to the singers along with the piano. I’ll ask them to sing along and send the audio back to me. I’ll assemble it best I can and we’ll have something for Easter service. At least, that’s the plan.

I plan to try something similar with my band at the other church where I work but may stick to audio only like I did last week.

[stubbsonic]

I'm in a group that is trying to hold rehearsals via zoom. They were talking about tech solutions to rehearse together, but I warned them that it wasn't really a thing. We do various combinations of listening to one person with everyone else muted and playing along. That works ok, but even then some connection problems cause lags and surges in tempo (not user error).

We've been exploring the idea of having a shared multi-track recording so that it is like "music-minus-one" where you mute your part on the multi-track and play along with what's left, and perhaps we do it all together during our zoom session and "pretend" it was a rehearsal, when it was really just shared/simultaneous individual practice.

For the multi-track recording, people could be involved in that by adding their tracks. We're still considering the options for cross-platform (or platform-neutral) collaborative multi-track software.

Bandlab is cloud-based, but I got a pretty bad first impression. Couldn't run it on my machine/browser. Another person was reporting unworkable latency when recording to the click.

I was thinking possibly Audacity or Ardour could work, but neither of them have a mobile version. MultiTrackStudio is Mac/Win/iOS and pretty full featured and might work. Any others?