What We Did, and How We Did It (SoundJack Examples)

27 November 2020

By Ian Howell

Over the summer of 2020, faculty, staff, and a team of graduate students at the New England Conservatory of Music worked to prepare our classical voice (college) and jazz departments (preparatory and continuing education) to utilize SoundJack, Zoom, and LiveLab. This was necessary to transition some lessons, coaching, rehearsals, and even some performances online while preserving the real time, lagless interactions key to music education. We had to assess, supplement, and configure the individual technology solutions of all department members so that they could connect from their homes. The college additionally outfitted seventeen on-campus rooms to allow students participating in our hybrid option on campus to connect to one another and to their colleagues off campus.

What follows is a series of audio and video samples demonstrating the kinds of interactions we had this past semester. This website has several articles explaining how these setups were configured. Please start with The SoundJack Guide, and explore other specialized walkthroughs as your knowledge grows.

Video Samples

(1) SoundJack recording session between Boston and Charlottesville, VA. Kaitlin Burton and Chelsea Whitaker. Video in LiveLab.

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.

(2) A simultaneous multitrack recording of a NEC Preparatory School jazz ensemble using Loopback to route SoundJack audio into Logic Pro X. Organist and teacher David Zoffer and the three other ensemble members were distributed in their homes around the Boston Metro area. Video was recorded locally and assembled after the fact in Final Cut Pro

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.

(3) A distributed performance masterclass. The singers (Ruoxi Peng in videos 1 and 2, Yuntong Han in video 3) are on NEC’s campus and pianist (Brett Hodgden) is at home in Boston. They are connected to each other via SoundJack audio. The teacher (John Relyea) is in Rhode Island at his home. About 40 audience members watched and listened from home around the country over Zoom, and more over YouTube as it streamed live. Read about this workflow here.

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.

(4) A weekly studio class in the Howell voice studio. The singer (Lucas Coura) and Pianist (Cynthia Tseng) are connected to each other via SoundJack audio. The teacher (Ian Howell) and the rest of the studio are connected to each other over Zoom Hi Fidelity mode audio. The singer is at his home in the Boston Metro Area. The pianist is in one of NEC’s SoundJack Low Latency Rooms. The observers are distributed around the Boston Metro area, with the exception of one student in Virginia. All participants are connected over Zoom video. Read about this workflow here. Note how normal this interaction is. The pianist comes in too fast, the singers changes tempo upon entering, and the pianist immediately reacts. The singer is able to set up and execute agogic accents, which the pianist follows. This is just so… normal…

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.

(5) A voice lesson. The singer (Michaela Kelly), pianist (Cynthia Tseng), and teacher (Ian Howell) are all connected on SoundJack audio and LiveLab video. The teacher and singer are both in their homes in the Boston Metro Area. The pianist is in one of NEC’s SoundJack Low Latency Rooms. This video is a screen capture of the teacher’s computer screen. Note that LiveLab’s peer to peer video is almost in sync with SoundJack’s audio. Excuse the background sound (it was earlier in the semester and we all had fans running).

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.

Audio samples

(1) A voice lesson recorded using the built in MP3 recording feature on a Fastmusic Box (see pg 47 of The SoundJack Guide). Teacher (Ian Howell) was in his home in Winchester speaking, singing, and playing organ. Student (Lucas Coura) was singing in his home in Boston. Connected over SoundJack for audio (and LiveLab video, not shown). This is a quick and dirty way to record, equivalent to throwing your iPhone onto the piano during a lesson.

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.

(2) A simultaneous multitrack recording of an opera rehearsal recorded using Loopback to route SoundJack audio into Logic Pro X. Soprano (Su-Jin Park) is on NEC’s campus in one of our SoundJack Low Latency Rooms. Tenor (Michael Kiesling) is at his home in New Jersey. Pianist (Tim Steele) is at his home in Boston.

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.

(3) A simultaneous multitrack recording of a NEC Preparatory School jazz ensemble using Loopback to route SoundJack audio into Logic Pro X. Organist and teacher David Zoffer and the three other ensemble members were distributed in their homes around the Boston Metro area.

Timing was not adjusted in any of these samples. This is as synchronous as the performers experienced.