Over the last few months, I’ve been using SonoBus to do some real-time synthesizer jam sessions across the network with multiple Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meet members.
To do this, we are using SonoBus, which is an “application for streaming high-quality, low-latency peer-to-peer audio between devices over the internet or a local network.” It is open-source, free, and works on multiple platforms such as Mac, Windows, GNU / LINUX, iOS (where it integrates write into AUM), and Android.
It works quite well for synth jams where one player is focused on the rhythmic elements, and others are focused on melodic elements, and it’s just quite amazing to be able to do this with synth friends in other locations. It’s also quite straightforward compared to some commercial products.
In this blog post, I’ll share some information on how to get started with SonoBus.
My Introduction to SonoBus
Last may, I hosted the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meet Drone Day 2024 Live Stream Concert representing Boulder (you can see it in replay here) which featured music and videos from 14 members.
At this event, some members of the Moray Firth Synthesizer Club (MFSC) from the remote Highlands of Scotland joined the live chat. We followed up with each other and ended up hitting it off right away. Multiple Zooms and a few online jams later, we hosted a joint event Transatlantic Electronic Music Concert from Scotland to US in August
They started their synth club during the pandemic, and they are also mainly geographically separated, so they spent a lot of time working out ways to do online synthesizer jams for their open mic format.
A few years back, I had attempted to use solutions that would allow multiple musicians to play over the network, but I mainly found them to be too complicated or too expensive.
MFSC turned me and some other members of the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meet on to SonoBus, and we’ve been using it for multiplayer jams since.
A big thanks to Mark D., Marrten D. and the crew over at MFSC for all the info on getting started, and Langdon C. and Michael O. from RMSM for spending multiple Saturdays doing test jam sessions.
Sonobus Product Info
Features
I’ve copied and curated a list of features from their website into one list.
SonoBus is an easy to use application for streaming high-quality, low-latency peer-to-peer audio between devices over the internet or a local network.
- Free: Open Source (you can make a donation at their website, link at bottom of post)
- High Quality Network Audio Streaming
- Multi-User: Connects multiple users together to send and receive audio among all in a group
- Multi-Platform
- Latency & Quality:
- Fine-grained control over latency, quality and overall mix.
- Audio quality can be instantly adjusted from full uncompressed PCM (16, 24, or 32 bit) or with various compressed bitrates (16-256 kbps per channel) using the low-latency Opus codec.
- Does not use any echo cancellation, or automatic noise reduction in order to maintain the highest audio quality.
- FX: Includes optional input compression, noise gate, and EQ effects, along with a master reverb.
- Settings & Statistics: All settings are dynamic, network statistics are clearly visible.
- Ease of Use: Easy to setup and use, yet still provides all the details that audio nerds want to see.
- Peer-to-Peer with Connection Server with Optional Password: All audio is sent directly between users peer-to-peer, the connection server is only used so that the users in a group can find each other. SonoBus does NOT currently use any encryption for the data communication, so while it is very unlikely that it will be intercepted, please keep that in mind.
- Mixer & Session Recording: Easily record the audio from everyone, as well as playback any audio content to the whole group. This incudes the master out from the session and /or audio from individual players.
💡You don’t have to use multiple instances of SonoBus btw. You can instead use the internal mixer to set incoming, monitoring and outgoing levels. Of course, you can use multiple instances if you want to set up a complex mix or monitoring scenario.
Suppported Platforms
When to Use Zoom vs Sonobus
Zoom Use Cases
Zoom has continued to improve the use of the platform for music, and in some cases, Original Sound for Musicians options.
I find Zoom with the above settings is simpler and good enough for:
- For two or more people creating drone or sound collages
- When one person is focusing on rhythmic elements and the others are playing melodic or sound elements over the top
SonoBus Use Cases
SonoBus is well suited for the when you want to:
- Conduct audio sessions without video
- Do sessions with more complex rhythmic elements
- See statistics and have more control over what is happening under the hood
- You want to record the session or player streams within the session
- Combine the audio of many online players into one session so you can
- Mix
- Create monitor mixes
- Record
Blended Use Case
You can also use them together in situations where some players on Zoom are using SonoBus for an ensemble performance, but the audience is on Zoom.
In this case, one person in the SonoBus session acts as an endpoint and will broadcast the master output of the SonoBus session to Zoom using Original Sound for Musicians.
Getting Started
The following notes are intended to help you “wrap your head” around how all this works to give you the lay of the land. You’ll still want to read the User Guide, Best Practices, and Tips on SonoBus.net, but the info below will help jump-start you and will help offer context to the documentation so it make more sense.
1. Find a Collaborator(s) with a Solid Internet Connection
Convince a synth friend or two to give SonoBus a try. Being wired is preferred to reduce jitter, but I’ve found fast WiFi does work.
SonoBus is intended for people who already have a group that wants to exchange real-time audio through the Internet. Unlike other solutions, SonoBus is not attempting to build a client list for paid concerts or service subscriptions and does not provide any public list of users where strangers can look to ‘connect’. *
So far, I’ve done all my sessions from Boulder with a collaborator in Sound Denver, and one in Atlanta, Georgia. For ambient music with one person doing rhythmic elements, my perception was we were all playing in time. SonoBus’s User Guide offers some thoughts on latency…
A bit of Physics (Why can’t I jam with my friend in Sydney)
Although our technologies can do some amazing things, it is important to accept some physical limits. Even if all the Internet equipment your audio passes through were capable of operating with no processing time, the speed of light, (186,282 miles per second) means a sound played in San Diego, CA would travel to Sydney, Australia, a trip of 7500 miles, in 0.040 seconds (40 ms). For comparison, consider an in person session, where the same sound travels at 1100 feet per second (the speed of sound in air). That 40 ms delay would be the equivalent of playing with someone sitting 44 feet away! – just barely tolerable!
But the multiple bits of Internet equipment between you and your friends don’t operate without delay, and so the practical limit is likely closer to 500 miles.
Also, there are limitations due to each users device processing and networking speed, as well as your Internet connection hardware and Internet service bandwidth. Don’t expect to be able to add an unlimited number of participants – with today’s (2020) technologies, the practical limit is perhaps a dozen participants. A 25 member choir is unlikely to succeed. *
2. Have Each Player Install the Plugin:
Download SonoBus:
Have each member download visit SonoBus.net to download for their platform of choice. You can all be on different platforms.
Install SonoBus Plugin on Your Host(s)
Have everyone Install the Plugins into the host of their choice.
3. Configure the Plugin in Your Host
I use Ableton and iPad with AUM so I”ll offer some screenshots on this. Note that the interface of SonoBus looks the same on all platforms.
Ableton
Insert the plugin into an audio track.
iOs
In AUM I tend to use a Mix Bus to route audio to a master channel for master FX. I install Sonobus at the end of this chain. You could use it as in Insert Effect as well.
4. Connect
Connect to a Unique Group Name
One person has to first create a unique Group Name.
Simply choose a unique group name (with optional password), and instantly connect multiple people together to make music, remote sessions, podcasts, etc. Easily record the audio from everyone, as well as playback any audio content to the whole group.
Share your Group Name and password if you set one with your other collaborators. Have them connect. Tell everyone to set a recognizable name for “Your Displayed Name”.
At this point, you’ll see sessions start to appear and you should start hearing audio from all the players.
🔥 Pro tip: Next time anyone connects, they will see a list of “RECENTS” on the right-hand side of the interface so they can jump right back into a session via a Group Name.
5. Set Levels, Play, Record, Repeat
Use the internal INPUT MIXER to set levels. Play on. Don’t forget you can record the session.
Tips to Reduce Latency, Jitter, and Dropouts + Improve Quality
Use a Wired Connections
For best results, and to achieve the lowest latencies, connect your computer with wired ethernet to your router. Although it will work with WiFi, the added network jitter and packet loss will require you to use a bigger jitter buffer to maintain a quality audio signal, which results in higher latencies.
Switch TO “Manual Jitter Buffer” and Experiment with “DEFAULT Send Quality”
Click the gear top-left.
The Jitter Buffer is set to “Auto” by default. To improve jitter and dropouts, try setting it to Manual and then experiment with the settings. Mark D. from MFSC suggested 250 ms as a starting point.
You can also change Default Send Quality to improve quality.
Read The User Guide, Spread the Word, Donate to SonoBus
As you can see from the screenshots, there’s a whole lot more to SonoBus than what is covered in this article. I hope this step-by-step walkthrough helps you get started and saves you time.
To dig even deeper, read the official Users Guide at https://sonobus.net/sonobus_userguide.html.
For me, SonoBus has been transformative and has allowed me to do some collaborations that wouldn’t be possible without hopping on an airplane.
I hope you find it as useful and find lots of people to do sessions with.
Spread the word. The more people that are SonoBus savvy, the more collaborators there will be.
Lastly, please consider supporting this Open Source project by using the Donate button at the bottom of https://sonobus.net.
Cheers and happy collaborating,
Mark Mosher
MarkMosherMusic.com / ModulateThis.com
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