I have been looking into software for jamming together online. There are of course many options but the 3 that I have investigated are Jammr.net Jamkazam and jamulus. Each is completely different and has its advantages and drawbacks. The biggest problem w/ jamming together is latency, or the time it takes for a note played on your instrument or mic to get to another player’s headphones. Processing speed and physical distance add to latency which you don’t want to be greater than 40 ms.  From what I can tell so far:

Jamulus is open source, free but requires a sound card ASIO which installation is beyond my skill set as it does interfere with the workings of the sound card in one’s computer and can be complicated. I am guessing that if one has an older computer that they don’t use and could dedicate only to jamulus it would be possible but I haven’t tried it. Also requires ethernet cable directly to router, (wi fi is slow).

Jammr.net  I don’t really understand. It doesn’t try to reduce delay so latency is not a problem making physical distance no longer an issue. As they describe it:

“You set jammr to match the chord progression and it keeps everyone in sync. You hear what others played last time around the chord progression, and they hear what you played last time. Although everyone is playing at the same time, jammr is not actually real-time. The best way to understand how jammr works is to imagine you are playing a note and I am playing a G chord. Your note will sound good over the G chord no matter whether it’s the G chord that I’m playing right now or the G chord I played last time around the chord progression. The harmony will still work and everything will sound right.” This sounds a bit awkward to me but it must work as it does get good reviews.

Jamkazam seems to be the most promising. It does everything it can to reduce latency and allows for distances of around 1000+ miles. It has an excellent instructive website. It does require a piece of equipment, an audio interface,  100 – 200$, which basically speeds up the process on your instrument’s end. Also requires an ethernet connection with your router. 

If anyone else wants to experiment with this, (longer distances possible with jammer.net) please let me know. I am willing to try any of them.

Thanks Claude N for the recommendations. The following article might also be of help.

https://www.roadiemusic.com/blog/best-online-jamming-websites/