Synthesist Floyd Steinberg shared this video overview of JamCorder, a new device that constantly records the MIDI output of your synthesizer, so you never lose ideas.
Steinberg describes JamCorder is a “black box” that you configure and forget about, and it will continuously listen for your playing and automatically record any improvisations or jams as you play them.
Here’s what the developer has to say about JamCorder:
“Jamcorder is a new, transformative way to record your digital piano. truly set & forget, you never need to hit record.
instead, just open the app to rewind & listen to any moment in time, ever. and we really mean ever, because jamcorder’s included 16GB sd card can store 25,000 hours of music. that’s 3 straight years of 24/7 playing – a lifetime’s worth.
jamcorder’s unique hands-off approach & ease of use makes it perfect for reviewing practice sessions, tracking how many hours you’ve practiced, and effortlessly capturing your fresh new jams. it’s the ultimate companion for every piano musician at every level.”
You can browse the recordings on JamCorder via your phone or download them via the SD card.
Pricing and Availability:
JamCorder is available now for $99 USD.
Wow, thats actually neat. Pricy though.
Hmm, independent reinvention, I guess. My own free Brainstorm program (http://www.sreal.com/~div/midi-utilities/) has done this exact task for the past 20 years.
Wow cool idea!
very kind of you, thanks a lot.
i need a computer to use it… but, i can’t use the computer to do this already?
When I die it can be used to train an AI to continue making my shitty music
Shitty music is in the but(t) of the beholder.
So you need more than one device if you have more than one keyboard, and these recordings then are not synchronized. This limits the usefulness.
It’s better to record all midi inputs at the computer which is the hub of the studio. I have half a dozen keyboards connected with my Mac mini on which MainStage with all my plugins runs. To continuously record all Midi inputs in sync and to a single file I implemented a tool called MidiSink (see https://github.com/rochus-keller/MusicTools/tree/master/MidiSink).
Here are examples of recorded pieces: http://rochus-keller.ch/?p=1317
If you put this last in your keyboard chain, it will record everything from all your MIDI devices, without needing a computer.
The specs say it records all midi messages & all 16 midi channels:
https://jamcorder.com/
MidiSink looks like a good option for people that don’t want a hardware solution.
Unfortunately this way you will get a lot of latency issues because the Midi protocol via the original current loop present on this device only supports 32kbps. So if you play chords on more than one channel you will likely start to hear single notes. This issue is not present with a computer based approach (which is also hardware, btw) with MidiSink.
Just not true what you are telling here. Did you tried the Jamcorder? I guess not. It won’t result in bad timed notes. I’ve connected the Jamcorder to my MioXL hardware midi router and having no problems getting my synths into it, simultaneously. Funnily enough the opposite, your computer based approach, can result in bad timed notes, because most MIDI interfaces, the drivers and USB are shitty. The MIDI with “just” 32kpbps means that you can theoretically fire 10.000 Note On events per second, although this often cannot be handled by the midi implementation of the single hardware devices. And the bandwidth per second isn’t the most important part though, it is how fast a _single_ event can be processed. A single Midi Note event is processed in the range of around 300 _microseconds_. Which also mitigates the serial nature of the MIDI protocol to not relevant. Sure there are shitty implementation in hardware not handling this in a good way, but this isn’ t the problem of the Jamcorder. The Jamcorder in combination with the MioXl has a very good timing also with many many notes played at once. As said, I guess you did not tried it and in a comparison it would beat you computer/software solution by measures.