When using JamKazam, it is critical that you turn off any "direct monitoring" feature that's available on your audio interface. Let's talk about what this means. Direct monitoring is a feature that takes the audio input that is coming into the audio input ports on the audio interface from an instrument or microphone and very simply takes that audio signal and bounces it straight back from the interface inputs into your headphones, without transferring it through your computer or the JamKazam app to be processed at all. So you get your own audio back into your headphones with zero latency, but using this feature will totally mess up your JamKazam sessions.
If direct monitoring is turned completely on full power, you won't hear anyone else in your session at all - because you're not getting any audio from the JamKazam app. If direct monitoring is partially enabled, you may hear others a little bit, but their volume in the session mix will be too low, and cranking their volume up in the session mix to compensate will cause other issues.
It's very important to always keep any direct monitoring feature included with your audio interface turned completely off. Different audio interfaces implement direct monitoring in different ways. We'll show a few examples below. If you own a different audio interface, you should be able to get the idea from these specific examples, and then apply it to your interface.
Behringer UMC202HD - This audio interface implements direct monitoring as a button (pictured below with arrow). If the button is pushed in, direct monitoring is enabled on the interface. So if you use this interface, be sure that this button is out, not in.
Behringer UMC204HD - This audio interface implements direct monitoring as a knob (pictured below with arrow). If the button is turned to the left (toward the "IN" label), direct monitoring is enabled (i.e. you are listening completely to your own inputs). If the button is turned to the right (toward the "PB" label for playback), direct monitoring is disabled (i.e. you are listening to audio generated by the JamKazam app running on your computer, which includes your own audio, plus the audio of other musicians in your session). So if you use this interface, be sure that you turn this button all the way to the right, as far as it will go.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo - This audio interface implements direct monitoring as a button (pictured below with arrow). If you push the button and the "Direct Monitor" text above the button lights up in green, then direct monitoring is enabled on the interface. If you push the button again, the "Direct Monitor" label's green light turns off, and direct monitoring is disabled on the interface. So if you use this interface, be sure that the green light on the Direct Monitoring text label is turned off.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 - This audio interface implements direct monitoring as a button (pictured below with arrow). If you push the button and the single circle under the "Direct Monitor" label lights up in green, then direct monitoring is enabled on the interface. If you push the button again, the double circle under the "Direct Monitor" label lights up in green, and this means that direct monitoring is enabled on the interface, but your audio interface is mixing direct monitoring with audio from the computer. To be clear, you still don't want this option. If you push the button again, both the single and double circle green lights turn off, and direct monitoring is disabled on the interface. So if you use this interface, be sure that both circle lights are turned off.
MOTU M2 - This audio interface implements direct monitoring as a button on each audio input port (pictured below with arrows). If you push either "MON" button, the MON text will light up, and then direct monitoring is enabled on that audio input port on the interface. If you push the button again, the MON light turns off, and direct monitoring is disabled on that audio input port on the interface. So if you use this interface, be sure that the MON lights on both audio input ports are turned off.
Steinberg UR22C - This audio interface implements direct monitoring as a knob (pictured below with arrow). If the button is turned to the left (toward the "INPUT" label), direct monitoring is enabled (i.e. you are listening completely to your own inputs). If the button is turned to the right (toward the "DAW" label), direct monitoring is disabled (i.e. you are listening to audio generated by the digital audio workstation - i.e. the JamKazam app running on your computer, which includes your own audio, plus the audio of other musicians in your session). So if you use this interface, be sure that you turn this button all the way to the right toward DAW, as far as it will go.
Presonus Audiobox USB 96 - This audio interface implements direct monitoring as a knob (pictured below with arrow). If the button is turned to the left (toward the "Inputs" label), direct monitoring is enabled (i.e. you are listening completely to your own inputs). If the button is turned to the right (toward the "Playback" label), direct monitoring is disabled (i.e. you are listening to audio generated by the JamKazam app running on your computer, which includes your own audio, plus the audio of other musicians in your session). So if you use this interface, be sure that you turn this button all the way to the right toward Playback, as far as it will go.
Again, if you own a different audio interface, hopefully by studying the direct monitoring feature as implemented on a handful of audio interfaces above, you can figure out how to turn off direct monitoring on your own audio interface.