I'm back online !

Three months since my last online activity...

I apologize to all my friends and members of the Open Dub Foundation, but I had some personal issues preventing me to be active online. Lot of things happened during this times, the Versionist community has changed to a new platform (loosing some members, and for sure a part of his soul) and a new collaboration website for reggae musician is open and seems to grow fast (ReggaeDubwise.com).

Lot of mails are unread in my inbox, so it's gonna took time to answer to each people that had send me a message during this time, please let me 1 or 2 week to answer to everyones.

There is to a lot of stuff to do with the records and the Open Dub Foundation :
- Replace all bad link from the old Versionist platform
- Select tracks and publish the new ODF compilation
- Publish new ODF projects
- Publish a tutorial for the Open Dub Virtual Conference
- Organize next Open Dub Virtual Conference
- Mix new riddims and start production on the Almighty Dub Records

So I'm actually starting some of this tasks, and reconnecting with friends and the online reggae-dub community.

Thanks to all friends for them support during theses hard times !

ODVC 20080302

The last virtual conference was a total success, thanks to all who have participate, with a duration of approximately 45min the show had run without network failure, thanks to NetroMedia free broadcast service for that.

Next one is planned 6 April at 7pm (GMT) and as requested by a listener, I will try to do a little workshop after the show to explain how I use my controller and how the controller is linked to the PC software.

The conference was recorded, I just finished upload materials on youtube, enjoy:
ODVC_20080302 #01 - Endless Fighting Dub
ODVC_20080302 #02 - Tolerance Dub
ODVC_20080302 #03 - Unfreeze Dub
ODVC_20080302 #04 - Opening Connection Dub
ODVC_20080302 #05 - Drum Song Dub
ODVC_20080302 #06 - Murcianists Dub

Don't know exactly how many people was attending to the conference (cause I now use a dedicated server, not streaming to everyone directly with my PC, not enough bandwidth for that), but I estimate near 10 users based on feedback I got, don't hesitate to join us for the next one.



I'm gonna made a tutorial to explain how to stream from PC and run virtual conference, hope Don Fe will be able to do a session for the next one.

Conference managment running

I've just spend theses last days coding a whole infrastructure to let ODF members managing virtual conference online.

Registered users can now:
- Edit his availability schedule
- View others availability schedule
- Edit his streaming URL and active it when broadcasting

Anybody visiting the foundation website can now view and listen in live the active open dub virtual conference (if one running of course), join the chat room and talk with everyone else viewing/running the virtual conference.

A first public ODVC is planned this Sunday at 7pm (GMT) more info in the dedicated section:
http://open.reggae-dub.com/odvc

Next to all theses improvements, a new project was added to the foundation; 'Murcianists' is dedicated to all people that made the Murcia gathering possible, don't hesitate to download it and make your own version !

ODVC 20080131

Here is a video shot from the open dub virtual conference done yesterday, special thanks to KayaGardens (Thomas) to have made test with me.

Was able to do a session with 4 clients (has done first test with 3) at same time without so much lag, but need to do a compromise between image quality/fluidity/sound. Using broadcasting technology, number of clients limit is high.

I privileged fluidity and sound, during session I recorded a full track, here is the result, quality is exactly same as if you was watching the conference in live.

This was done as a try out to test technology for streaming, was able to use VLC but without a stream compatible with an other player than VLC, so I used the Windows Media Encoder.

Recorded at home, I haven't Internet access at studio, so the mix is done using digital stuff (MIDI interface controlling PC), doesn't sound same as mixing in studio !

Next step is to build a good infrastructure on ODF to make able anybody join the conference, and give possibility to member to start their own.

New contents for the foundation

I uploaded yesterday a new project on the Open Dub Foundation, this project is based on the 'Drum Song' riddim used to record vocal from 'The Gladiators' some time ago.
Feel free to download the project and do a remix !

I still working on the Open Dub Conference project, actually trying to write a license to avoid any issue while organizing 'real' conference, and building a whole infrastructure to easily start running virtual ones.

Hope to be able to run weekly conference soon, first with only one dubmaster (at same time) streaming his performance to other, and then perhaps start doing live collaboration.

First open dub virtual conference

What a nice preview of the Murcia gathering that doing a Jam with people that I'm going to meet !

Last week I had the honor to take part of the first ever 'Open Dub Virtual Conference', I wanted to make that from long time and Don Fe (Spain) make it real, so many thanks to him.

For me it's really a historical and technical performance, we was able to do a real 'virtual jam' and record it. Don Fe was mixing the dubwise using his digital mixing desk while streaming audio and video threw Skype to me and KayaGardens, then I used my gypsy to play in live on the dub-mix and stream the result to conference participant. Don Fe was able to hear me playing guitar while mixing dubwise, and fortunately latency wasn't too high.

You can listen to the resulting track of the recorded jam here:
Versionist All-Stars - Open Dub Virtual Conference (20080111) - Track 1

The jam was ~5 hours long and we finished it at 2am, many thanks to Irish Moss to had give us some fantastic exclusive mix.

It's a big step for the Open Dub Foundation Conference project, I hope to make available tools to let people synchronize their time of availability and then do music virtually together.

Hoping to be able to make it run using Ninjam instead of Skype.

First open dub conference

The first open dub conference 'down in reality' is planned:

Saturday 08.12.2007 / Sunday 09.12.2007 | Starting at 3pm
Gasthof Ritter, Tuebingen, GERMANY
Dub Jam Conference organized by Rick (Overdubber)

More information

Unfortunately I'm not sure to be able to go to this conference due to family issue ... but hope to resolve it before ...

It's really a nice step forward for the Open Dub Foundation, this bring it to reality and make people able to have pleasure making music together.

Finally a big up for all who made that possible and too to every one that make the reggae/dub community alive by making gathering in past and future (versionist, dubconference,...) !

Remote dub conference

Just discover this software with the help of versionist community.
NinJam

This software enable musicians to play together using Internet connection.

The problem when doing remote connection to play music is the latency, the solution proposed by ninjam is to use latency measured in measures, and that's what makes it interesting.

Hope to do jam soon !