What is The Jam Lab?
The Jam Lab is a non-profit open source music recording project. The music begins as a live power trio who meet once a week for two hours of recording. Sometimes we might have a fourth guest musician. We have no rules or leader. Sometimes one person starts a riff or groove and the others just jump in. Sometimes we discuss the chord changes and the groove and then go for it. Either way, it is sink or swim - live and raw. All of our music is completely improvised. A few select jams have been slightly developed for live performances. Yes, we play out about 4 times a year.
The goal is not a perfect track or performance. The goal is to have fun making new spontaneous music. Sometimes good things happen and we post out takes from the longer original jam. The typical jam last 12-25 minutes! During the first 3 minutes of each jam we struggle to define the basic idea. We must listen and respond to the other musicians. The remainder of the track is our attempt to expand and experiment.
Who owns the rights to this music?
The Jam Lab agrees to permit all non-profit uses of this music. You may download and share this music. You may not use this music or add new parts to this music for any "for profit" purposes without written permission. The Jam Lab will liscense the right to use this music for select "for profit" purposes. The Jam Lab retains all commercial rights in the form of equal profit shares between the original and latent musicians.
What is a cyberjam or virtual track?
Anyone can download our music and record new parts. You can plan or improvise your new parts. You can add as many new parts as you like. Some folks add new guitar and keyboard parts. We hope you will share your contribution with us. If we like the new version, we will post it on our site.
I'm on dial up web access and your files are huge.
For the best sound quality we recommend using the wav files to record with. These can be quite large and hard to download using a moden.. If you can justify the need we are willing to mail CDRs to you. We request that you send us a sample of your work. Send us your request and we will do our best to help. Request a CDR
Why do we do this?
We love playing music. We learn new things from other musicians. Some really good players took time to teach and inspire us. We now pass the torch to others. We also hope that you might enjoy this music and that alone is worth our time.
Does it cost much to set up a recording rig?
You can buy a simple two track USB unit for your computer that includes a MIDI port and recording software for only $200! Check out the Tascam US-122 You can buy is locally or on line. Musician's Friend is a good, cheap, reliable source. Be prepared to spend some time learning the software but, the US-122 is truely plug-n-play. This is an addictive habit and you can spend a fortune on gear. You've been warned.
Who plays in The Jam Lab?
The Jam Lab was started in 1999 by Robert Buick and Kurt Angel in Orlando, FL. We began as just guitar and drums and recorded to cassette tapes. Very early on Paco joined us on bass and we began 8 track digital recording to hard disk via Cubase.
When employment took Robert to Portland he was replaced by Jerry Bundy on guitar.
When employment took Jerry elsewhere, Peter Lauda joined us on guitar, keyboards, and guitar synth. Peter continues to develop Jam Lab Live, who perform in Orlando area clubs.
In 2004 employment took Kurt to Sugar Land, TX. Scott Moritz joined us on bass. Dani Vargas briefly joined us for a few weeks on guitar. Paul Nichols soon joined as our regular weekly guitarist. Danny and Ian Varley have both played keyboards.
Cyberjams, Virtualjam, Open Source Recording, FTP Recording Artists:
Tony Marsh, Hugh Ferguson, Derryl Gabel, Todd Madson, AlienSporeBomb, Steven Robinson, and Ronald van Deurzen
What equipment is The Jam Lab using?
We use a Mackie 1604 for pre-amps and to distribute the various signal paths and headphone mixes. The guitars, bass, drums, and cymbals each have a stereo pair feeding an 8 channel STA C-Port recording and MIDI unit. The C-Port is on the ISA buss of an Athlon XP 2500+ ASUS/Nvidia PC. We use Cubase SX 2 for the mixes and effects. V-amp PROs are used for both guitar and bass. The drums are V-drums and Zildjian cymbals via Sure microphones. We also use isolation headphones with a compressor to save our hearing from any damage.