JamSpace: Designing A Collaborative Networked Music Space for Novices

An interactive music environment to support real-time jamming by novices and amateur musicians over a network is described. JamSpace takes advantage of the low latency and connectivity of a local area network (LAN) to allow real-time rhythmic collaboration from isolated locations. Several demonstrated needs that motivate the design are discussed in detail. These include technologicallymediated ways of restoring casual social interactions to the domain of music creation and the preservation of anonymity and privacy for amateur musicians in a group setting. JamSpace’s design addresses these needs with a novel hardware and software interface incorporating listening, private rehearsal, mixing, looping tracks and real-time jamming. User-configurable levels of interactivity are analyzed in terms of social spaces.