If you haven't yet read our general help article on the gear you need to play and/or sing on JamKazam, we recommend you read that article now and then come back to this one.
If you play a piano (not an electronic keyboard, but an acoustic piano) or an acoustic drum kit (not an electronic drum kit), these are both acoustic instruments, but the setup for these instruments is a bit different, so if you play one of these two instruments, please refer to our specialized help articles for acoustic pianos and acoustic drum kits.
If you play an acoustic instrument like an acoustic guitar, violin, viola, cello, trumpet, trombone, sax, flute, clarinet, and so on, then you're in the right place for a little deeper dive into the audio gear you need and how to set it up.
Simple Setup
For most acoustic instruments and musicians, the simple setup in the diagram below will work well for playing on JamKazam.
In this configuration, you need an audio interface for your Mac or Windows computer, a microphone, a microphone stand, an XLR cable, and a pair of headphones.
Connect the microphone using the XLR cable to one of the audio input ports on your audio interface. Mount the microphone on the mic stand so that it's held in place. And then connect your headphones into the headphone port on the audio interface. That's about it.
You'll want to position the microphone on the stand so that the part of your instrument that produces sound is placed within a couple feet of mic, and so that the mic is pointed directly at your instrument, as many microphones are highly directional and will ignore sounds outside the direct aim of the mic.
Alternative Setup
For most acoustic instruments and musicians, the simple setup in the diagram above will work well for playing on JamKazam.
However, if you want to sing in sessions while also playing your instrument, or if your instrumental mic is placed in a spot where it's inconvenient to also use the mic (when not playing) to talk with other musicians in your sessions, you may find it worth the investment to purchase a second mic/stand/cable to use for your voice (pictured in diagram below). In this case, you simply connect the second mic to the second audio input port on your audio interface, and position on mic in the best spot for your instrument and the other mic up by your mouth. Again, this is very optional, and just an optimization you can make if you find it useful and worth the additional investment in gear.
For Multi-Instrumentalists
For musicians who play lots of different instruments, if you prefer not to have to constantly be plugging and unplugging different instruments and resetting your audio input level as you swap from one instrument to another, we recommend that you read our help article for multi-instrumentalists. This help article provides configuration advice just for you.