Reviews
Aussie-made Jam
COLLABORATING MUSICALLY CAN be one of the most rewarding and creative
things you may do with your Mac — but achieving true
collaboration can
be a challenge in itself. Australian software developer
Exploding
Art has added another tool to the collaborative arsenal for Mac users.
Called Jam2Jam, it allows both solo jamming with your Mac, and
multi-person jamming via a local network or internet using a host
Mac’s
IP address. Any Mac can host the jam, with others just needing to type
in the IP address of the host to join in.
For a small package (380 kb download), Jam2Jam packs a bundle of
features. The interface is quite intuitive. The front window contains
sliders for each of the instrument tracks. with each instrument
accessible via a tab from the same window. To get started jamming, you
only need to press the play button and the default style starts playing
back. Each instrument has a range of parameters such as note length and
density At first glance the options for each instrument seem limited
but by combining the options you can create an incredible range of new
grooves. You don’t need any music theory knowledge at all to
be able to
play around, and in fact those with extensive knowledge may find this
application a little frustrating. Fun is the key, not scholarship.
The multi-person lamming via internet IP address works well, but make
sure you have your firewall either off or configured so that you can
connect to the host of the jam. Anyone connected to the jam can change
parameters, with the changes reflected almost immediately for all those
joined in on the fun. The bottom of the window contains a chat screen,
which can be crucial to avoid two people competing for the same
instrument at the same time.
There are three musical styles available now, with more promised in the
future. Even with that limitation, there is more than enough to keep
most people interested for a long time. Of course, the sound quality is
only as good as what OS X 10.2’s Core Audio can provide, but
that’s a
great start. Even if you were only to use Jam2Jam as a collaborative
scratch pad, it is a very worthwhile piece of software to own. Jam2Jam
is available for download as a free trial, and costs $US19.95 if you
choose to register (US currency being the lingua franca of e-commerce,
even for Australian developers).
Australian Macworld, Nov 2003, p.43
|