Earlier this summer, and in response to the increasing trend for remote working, a new company called Groovesetter launched an online service that allows for low-latency recording over long-distance networks. The company claim that their unique implementation of UDP and peer-to-peer network technologies can yield latencies as low as 1ms over LAN, and 5ms over WAN, potentially allowing for real-time jamming and monitoring of session players all over the world. What's more, all this is achievable for uncompressed PCM audio, eliminating the need for additional file-sharing solutions after the recording has finished.
...you get all the low-latency benefits of the paid versions, but are limited to two channels of streaming per user — though that may well be enough for remote musicians, and would certainly be ample for singers and VO artists.
On launch, the Groovesetter service was only available as part of a paid subscription, with pricing depending on how many channels you need (up to 64 for the $45.99/month sub), but the company have just announced a new free tier called the Basic Plan.
With the Basic Plan, you get all the low-latency benefits of the paid versions, but are limited to two channels of streaming per user — though that may well be enough for remote musicians, and would certainly be ample for singers and VO artists. And while the paid versions allow for multiple simultaneous users (again, up to 64), the Basic Plan allows for two, and so would again be suitable for employing the services of a remote player. Other than those limitations, though, the Basic Plan is much the same as the paid-for versions, and so offers compatibility with both Windows (10 and up) and OS X (High Sierra or later), as well as all the major DAWs.
All you need to do to get the Basic Plan is sign up on the Groovesetter website, and the company promise they won't ask for any payment details unless and until you opt for one of their premium services.
We'll be testing out Groovesetter's low-latency claims in an upcoming issue of Sound On Sound.
