FarPlay discovery mission.
-
Greetings:
What I’ve found so far: I can make a recording of my voice through my Samson mic which I plug into my computer’s USB port. I gather you recommend plugging a headphone mic into the computer’s 3.5mm jack to reduce the latency so that I may share my session with another musician. Is that correct?
What’s the minimum setup for the guest musician? I was thinking an ethernet connection along with a headphone mic pluggable into the 3.5mm jack of their computer. Is that correct? Do they need a FarPlay subscription as well?
I have an electronic keyboard. What would it take to use its 3/4 inch output jacks to interface with my computer? An audio interface? If so, how would that audio interface connect to the computer? Via USB connection? I’m thinking that would increase the latency as well, right? Via thunderbolt connection?
Finally, do most FarPlay users use the ambient sound to play together as if they were in the same room? Or do they mess with the audio interfaces trying to cut out the ambient noise.
Thanks.
Philip Morrison
-
Dear Philip,
Thank you for your questions.
It’s fine to use your Samson USB mic — no need to switch to the mic on a wired headset. We point Mac users to the wired Apple EarPods with integrated mic because this is an easy way to use a wired external mic, which avoids 30 ms of extra latency that comes with the mic built into Macs from 2016 and later. But, using your Samson USB mic also counts as using a wired external mic and so is fine 👍.
Yes, the minimum set up for guest musicians is Ethernet, wired headset with mic, and laptop or desktop computer (we support Mac, Windows, and Linux). To share these requirements with guests, simply customize this template message, which includes shopping links.
Note: When using Windows PCs, the built-in audio jack and most USB mics have substantially more latency than on Macs or Linux PCs. If a Windows user with the minimum set up finds they want to reduce latency further, they should switch to an audio interface with manufacturer-supplied ASIO drivers (examples: iRig Stream Mic USB or Focusrite Scarlett Solo) and follow the steps in the version of our QuickStart guide customized for Windows PCs with external audio interfaces.
Guests don’t need a subscription; they can join your sessions while using FarPlay in Free mode (compare free mode and subscriptions here).
Like you suggest, connect your electronic keyboard’s outputs to an audio interface (example: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2) and connect the audio interface to your computer. USB is great — using a USB audio interface typically gives lower latency than using the 3.5-mm audio jack on a computer (especially on Windows PCs — see above).
Most of the friends I play and sing with reject ambient sound using directional mics (rather than audio-interface settings). I do the same on my end when I play and sing. It’s like making music from neighboring booths in a studio. Some people use omnidirectional mics or sing far enough from directional mics so that their mics pick up their room reverb — typically classical singers (room reverb is an important part of the classical singing sound).
Thank you,
David Liao
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.