You don’t have to be a techie or an über geek to volunteer and help out backstage at our weekly event. Training is provided where necessary but you can start immediately for many roles. As long as you have a Jamulus setup, you can help out!

How do I volunteer?

Contact someone in the admin team: Simon Tomlinson, Sam Tomlinson, Astrid Mert, Laura Mardones, Simon “Houbsta” White, Jono. Catch them on Facebook, or drop a line to worldjamming ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com (it’s probably better to use Facebook).

A typical show is run by a team of 13 people and represents 26 hours work, not including preparation beforehand.

Technical Roles for the show & time commitment

• Soundcheck Technician (quick to learn) : 1 hour pre-show x 5 people
  Help people check their levels & Zoom video
• Sound Engineer : 1½ hours pre-show and 2½ hours for the show
  Mixes the sound during the show and sets up soundcheck rooms
• Broadcast Engineer : 1½ hours pre-show and 2½ hours for the show
  Does vision mixing (scene transitions) and sets up host cameras using OBS

Non Technical Roles for the show & time commitment

• Director : 1 hour pre-show and 2½ hours for the show
  All aspects of show timing, last minute changes, and running order during show
• Host : 1½ hours pre-show and 2½ hours for the show
  Presents the show
• Studio Manager : ½ hour pre-show and 2½ hours for the show
  Keeps backstage ticking over, briefs musicians about to go on, lastminute checks
• Assistant Studio Manager : ½ hour pre-show and 2½ hours for the show
  Gathers musicians from Waiting Rooms, finds absent people – a “runner” in backstage

Roles outside of Show hours

• Producer (weekly but pre-show) : 2 hours during the week, approximately
  Sets the running order, posts stuff to Facebook, sets up the streaming events
• Art : any ideas welcome. Especially if you can also execute them.
• Video Editor : intro, outro videos, montages for kids band videos, etc.
• PR & Marketing : anything that can give us visibility anywhere

How do I learn about the roles?

Once you volunteer, you will be invited to our Discord server. There you will discover channels which are available to discuss all the technical and logistical aspects of creating a show.

After you say hello in Discord, then we will activate the “admin” section of the WorldJam website. This contains the rota – so that you can put your name down for roles – and a Wiki with a good description of what is involved in each of the roles.

The volunteer community will be glad to help you onboard in all of the roles. Training sessions are organised from time to time for the more complex roles. Many can be learned by shadowing someone doing that role at a show. You will join and watch everything they do and hear them doing the roles in the different backstage Jamulus servers.

All roles can be handed over to a shadow as part of the learning process. This also means if you want to do a role but really cannot commit all the time, you may still be able to help and do part of a show to allow someone else a break during the show too.

Hope to see you there!

Are you one of those awesome people who has seen the World Night Jam and thought: “Hey, I wanna do that!”

Well, here’s how:

1. Install Jamulus and learn how to connect to public servers and central servers.
2. Register an account on worldjam.vip and set up your Instrument profile
   
3. To nominate a song: Go to “Events & Songs”, click “Add song” (detailed instructions coming soon).
   
4. To participate in a song as a performer, click on the button “Me” in the Assign column for the song you want. In the “Assign Song” page, click the “Assign me” button for the part you want to take. The buttons displayed depend on how you have set up your Instrument profile and how the song owner has set up the song.
   
5. To arrange a rehearsal: Click the envelope button in the Msg column and send a message to all the people assigned to the song. A red dot means there are unread messages.
   

We also recommend that you join the FB group “Jamulus WorldJam”. In the group you can drum up interest for songs you’ve nominated, and chat with other performers regarding songs in the comments for other song posts. Oftentimes, rehearsals for songs are coordinated via FB Messenger.

Once you are ready to perform on a World Jam event, follow these instructions on how to actually perform on a World Jam Night.

So you want to Jam online with all the cool kids? Here is some information about whether you have the right gear and how to go about it.

Right Gear?

PC/LaptopAt the minimum you need a laptop or PC (either Windows 10, MacBook/iMac or Linux). MicrophoneThe laptop needs must have an onboard microphone or a socket on the side/back to plug an external microphone in. Normally this will be a mini-jack (sometimes called a 3.5mm jack). It looks like the hole you might have on your phone (not iphone) to plug headphones in. HeadphonesWe advise everyone to use headphones, if you don’t echo will be on your feed into jamulus and can cause feedback which can be excrutiating for everyone else who is on the room and is on headphones. The better quality they are the better they are for you to hear everyone and some of the low bass frequencies of the bass guitars.Additional GearWe advise everyone to have an audio interface. This is a seperate box that you can plug microphones in and this box connects to your PC usually via USB. There are some pretty good cheap ones that you can order on amazon that have one socket and do a great job. There are some pretty expensive ones too and they normally have more than one socket so you can plug a microphone, a keyboard and a couple of guitars in at the same time. This one is good choice for a simple and cheap interface: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Behringer-U-PHORIA-UM2-Computer-Interface/dp/B00EK1OTZCIf you have a good dynamic or condensor microphone to plug into your audio interface this will make your voice or whatever you are recording withit sound much better.

Other Questions

How do I plug my external mic into my laptop which has a tiny mini jack? Most good microphones have a type of connector called XLR. It looks like this. It has 3 pins and typically they come with a microphone lead that has 3 holes in it, like the one below.

Unfortunately the end of this microphone lead will not plug directly into your laptop. You will need an adapter, like this:

You can buy this on amazon for very little: https://www.amazon.co.uk/kenable-3-5mm-Laptop-Female-Speaker/dp/B003OSYYOS. Note if you have an audio interface you won’t need an adapter.

Software

You obviously need Jamulus. You can download the latest version of jamulus here:Jamulus for WindowsJamulus for MacJamulus for LinuxDownload the version for your type of PC/Laptop and run the install (or unzip it). This will install jamulus onto your computer and you can run it by finding the shortcut it installed and launching it.

Driver?

In order for Jamulus to obtain information from your soundcard, you will need either an audio interface (as mentioned above) which will already have installed the right drive when you plug it in. If you intend to use your laptop’s mic or plug into the mic port, you will need to install a driver if you are on Windows. This driver can be found here: http://www.asio4all.org/downloads_11/ASIO4ALL_2_14_English.exeAgain, download this software and run it.

Starting and Setting Up Jamulus

When you first launch Jamulus, it will look like this:

Click the ‘Settings’ button first of all. This will launch a window like the following:

The first thing you need to do is configure your soundcard. Now, depending on whether you have installed the Asio4All driver above or are using an audio interface you may have something already listed in the top ‘Device’ box. If this is blank, this means you don’t have any valid devices and you will need to install something. (ideally Asio4All at the minimum). Select the right device and choose the correct input and output mappings. This basically tells jamulus where to find audio (input: mic/instrument) and where to send the sound so it can be heard (output).You shouldn’t need to change anything else on this dialog, I usually leave Jitter Buffer on auto and if you have the option to change the Buffer Delay, try on the lowest setting first (5.33ms) if this starts to crack up your audio you may need to move it to 10.67 or 21.33. Essentially the higher the number the more delay you will hear from when you play something to when you hear it in your speakers/headphones. Usually we like a short delay to play along to!

Connect to a room

Hit the ‘Connect’ button and this will show you a list of servers/rooms you can connect to, the ones at the top of the list are the lowest ping time, which means the shortest delay you will experience. As I said above, the shorter the delay, the better. When you double click a room or highlight a room and click the ‘connect’ button, you will see the name of the room in the white rectangle and will see a mixer fader, mute and solo button for each person that is in the room. You can use these faders to adjust how much of that person you can hear of them. If you don’t want to hear them at all just press the ‘Mute’ button on them. If you want to just hear yourself and maybe one other person, press the ‘solo’ button on yourself and that other person, then noone else will disturb you, but everyone else will still hear you even if you can’t hear them!

That’s it! You’re ready to go, just make sure you have headphones on and you have turned your speakers off!!!

Every week, we host a WorldJam night which allows performers a chance to participate in a live online jam with others from across the world which is streamed live to over 2000 people (currently and counting) plus more when it is shared on people’s Facebook pages. We run this night in a set of private servers so as not to be interrupted during performances by people joining rooms with feedback loops, echo and buzzing noises. We also host a Zoom video for performers to connect to as this gives our viewers on Facebook live, YouTube and Twitch something interesting to watch.

Jamulus Settings

NOTE: You must be using the latest version of Jamulus to participate in the WorldJam and to follow these instructions. Download and install from https://jamulus.io/

1. Open Jamulus
2. Click the ‘Settings’ button
3. On the settings dialog box under the ‘Misc’ section, type the following into the ‘Central Server Address’ text box: worldjam.vip
4. Close down the settings dialog box
5. Now click the ‘Connect’ button and from the dropdown at the type labelled ‘list’ change it to ‘Custom’ and you will be presented with a number of rooms. Double click a room to connect to it.

Soundcheck & Check-in

Before performing the first thing you will do is a soundcheck. From 3.30pm UK time* you can go straight to the soundcheck room you have been allocated when the WorldJam song list was published, as found on the soundcheck page (make sure you’re looking at the correct setlist when you visit that page). Priority is given to newcomers in the first half hour.

Soundcheck will go through your settings, test your levels, and check your Zoom setup (see below). Soundcheck takes a few minutes at most – it’s just a chance to make sure everyone’s signal is coming through clearly and at a good enough level, and that they have a good setup. It can also be a moment to iron out small technical issues.

NEW (from 20th March 2021): a checkin function has been added. On the soundcheck page there will be an orange button for checkin. Once you have finalised your soundcheck, visit the page and click this button so that your IP address can be logged to enable you access to the performance studios. From 3.00pm UK time* (2 hours before the show) on show days you will not be able to see some rooms (Backstage, Studio London, Waiting Rooms 1 & 2…) if you have not checked in. Once you check in, the rooms will appear within a minute.

IF YOU ARE LOST then go back to a soundcheck room to get help checking in.

After soundcheck the best room to join is the Waiting Rm1 or Waiting Rm2 (Europe) or Waiting Rm3 (USA) where most people congregate. You will be called from there by the backstage crew, so be there and pay attention to announcements from 15-20 minutes before your song is due.

Zoom

To connect to Zoom you can use your laptop / PC or your smartphone. We find that doing it from a mobile device gives a better picture for you and leaves your computer free to process Jamulus audio.

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 861 0067 0333
Passcode: 138837

When you connect do NOT enable audio or video. You will never use audio, and video you can switch on as needed. You can test this during soundcheck (and also verify your camera angle) as you will need this skill when called by the hosts. Don’t forget to switch your video off in Zoom when you have finished soundcheck.

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Event Coordination

Coordination for Jam Nights will be held in the backstage rooms: Waiting Room 1, 2 and 3 and Backstage. So please do not hang out in Backstage as the Stage Manager and Deputy Stage Manager need to keep this room clear for oncoming acts. You may wait in the Waiting Rm1 (where there is a bit of chatter – Europe) and Waiting Rm2 (quiet listening – Europe) or Waiting Rm3 (USA) where you can hear the performances taking place in the live studio.

PLEASE DO NOT JOIN ANY LIVE STUDIOS until you are asked to by the Stage Manager as this could disrupt the performances. You will be called 5 minutes before you performance time into the Backstage room where the Stage Manager will prepare you for your act, double check things like jitter on your line and give you a countdown before you join the studio. Once in the studio remain silent until the host talks to you, at this point you may switch on your Zoom camera. Once your performance is complete turn off your Zoom camera and leave the studio on your Jamulus and go back to the Waiting Room.

Audio Quality

1. Please ensure you have really good audio quality or as high as you can make it with the limits of your computer and hardware.
2. Ensure you are using headphones not speakers
3. Ensure you have selected mono if you only have one input. Only choose the stereo option if you are feeding your audio from an external mix which is a stereo feed. If you have a mic plugged into input 1 and a guitar in into 2, don’t use the stereo option as this will hard pan your voice far left and guitar hard right which won’t sound particularly great on the final audio.
4. Recommended settings are Buffer Delay 5.33ms (128), Audio Quality Normal or High, Audio Channels Mono in / Stereo Out or Stereo (see point 3), New Client Level 65. Leave Jitter Buffer on Auto and then when stabilised uncheck it, then raise Local and Server by one or two notches. Do not enable Small Network Buffers, they only work for small numbers of people jamming.

The most important instruction is…

HAVE FUN!

• *UK Time is officially “Europe/London” timezone or GMT in winter and BST in summer.