JamKazam offers a rich set of audio recording features that you can use in JamKazam sessions, either alone or when playing with other musicians.



Making an Audio Recording


To make a recording in JamKazam, click the Record button in the session toolbar (pictured below with arrow).




You now see the recording dialog box (pictured below). 


Following are explanations of the recording options pictured above:

  • Record - To make an audio recording, leave this option set to "Audio only". To make an audio+video recording, select the "Audio and video" option. We cover how to make video recordings in a different help article dedicated to video recordings.
  • Name - Enter a short but descriptive name for your recording. You don't need to enter a date, as this will be provided automatically by the system. Your recording files will be saved into a folder on your computer with the date and time you made the recording, plus this recording name.
  • Audio Format - Select the audio file format you want your recording files saved as. You can choose from .mp3, .wav, .ogg, .flac, or .au. 
  • Audio Files - Select whether you want to record only a single file - the "Session mix only" option - or the session mix of all the musicians plus the audio stream from each individual musician - the "Session mix + individual parts (stems)" option. If you're confident you only want the session mix of everyone, this puts less load on your computer processor, as you're only processing and saving a single recording file. However, if you think you may want to grab the parts/stems of all the musicians in the session and import them into a DAW to adjust levels and make other refinements to the recording, you should select the option that also saves the individual parts/stems of all the musicians. 
  • Voice Chat - You will usually want to leave this box unchecked so that voice chat (this is used for talking during sessions with low-quality audio using chat mics as opposed to instrumental music and singing) is excluded from your recordings.
  • Video Format - You can ignore this control, as it's only applicable to video recordings. This is covered in the video recording help article. 
  • Audio Delay (ms) - You can ignore this control, as it's only applicable to video recordings. This is covered in the video recording help article.
  • Volume - If you find that the volume of the session mix is too high or too low when making recordings, you can use this slider to increase or decrease the volume of the session mix you're about to record. 



One other important thing to note before making an audio recording is that if you are the one in the session who clicks the Record button to start a recording, the session mix you record will be based on what you are hearing in your own personal mix in the session. So before making a recording, you'll want to adjust the levels of each musician in your session to get a mix that you think sounds good. If you don't know how to do this, click here to view a help article on adjusting your personal session mix. 


When you have your audio recording options set as you'd like them, and when everyone in your session is ready to go, click the Start Recording button at the bottom of the dialog box. The dialog will disappear, and you'll see that the Record button in the session toolbar has changed to a Stop Recording button (pictured below with arrow). A notification will be displayed to all other musicians in your session as well, so that they know a recording has started.



When you are ready to stop your recording, click the Stop Recording button in the session toolbar. When you click the button to stop recording, a window will immediately be displayed on your computer screen, showing a folder with all the audio files you've chosen to record listed (pictured below).



In the example above, the user David Wilson started the recording. The "Personal-Session-Mix" file is the session mix (that uses David's personal mix settings for the levels of all the musicians, as noted earlier in this help article). The "Daniel-Breed-stream" and "Martin-Murray-stream" files are the streamed audio files from the two other musicians in the session, and the "David-Wilson-ElectricGuitar-local" and "David-Wilson-Voice-local" are two audio files recorded on David's audio interface locally on his own computer while performing in the session (in this case David had two tracks set up in the session). If David wanted to tweak the recording to make it better or different than the Personal-Session-Mix, he could drop the four files (Daniel + Martin + his own two files) into a DAW and work with them there. 


One other quick note on working with your recording files. If you want to go find any or all of the recording files you've made while playing on JamKazam:

  • On a Mac, open the Finder and select your Mac hard drive. Then double click on Users, then the folder with your username, then Music, then Recordings. 
  • On Windows, go to C:\Users\User\Music\recordings.


You'll see a folder like the one below. Each folder is a recording. Each folder name starts with the date the recording was made and then the name of the recording entered by the user who started the recording. Simply double click into any folder to see the recording files, much like the screenshot above in this help article. 



Setting Your Audio Recording Preferences


When you make an audio recording using the features described above in this help article, some of your choices are automatically saved as preferences - e.g. the audio format (.wav, .mp3, etc.) and whether to record just the session mix, or the session mix plus all the individual parts (see screenshot below as a reminder). The next time you click the Record button to make a recording, your selections from last time are maintained so that you don't have to choose them again. 




In addition to implicitly capturing your recording preferences when you make a recording, you can explicitly tell the JamKazam app what your recording preferences are through an Audio Recording Settings feature. This is particular useful for controlling what the JamKazam app records on your computer when another musician in a session (i.e. not you) starts a recording. 


To access your recording settings, click the Manage menu. On a Mac, this is at the top left of your Mac screen, while on Windows it's at the top left of the JamKazam app window. When this menu opens, slick the Audio Settings menu option, and then click the Audio Recording Settings submenu option (pictured below with arrow). 






A dialog box is displayed (pictured below). 


Here you can set your preferred recording format (e.g. .wav, .mp3, etc.) and whether or not to record all parts (in addition to the session mix) when you start a recording in a session. However, you can just make these choices when you start a recording (as explained earlier in this help article), so these options aren't especially useful. 


What is useful is the ability to set/select what gets recorded by JamKazam on your computer when someone else starts a recording in a session in which you are playing (because you don't have an option to say what you want to happen in this case). By default, all three checkboxes in the "When Someone Else Starts a Recording" are unchecked unless you check them "on". This means that when someone else starts a recording in a session, your computer won't record anything. This may be what you want to happen, or you may want to change these settings for the following reasons:


  • Record Session Mix -  This is the most lightweight recording option, as your computer is just recording a single file. You may want to check this on so you get your own copy of a session recording - for example, if you don't know the person making the recording and aren't confident you can get a copy of the recording from them, or if you want a session mix recording that uses your own personal mix settings to balance the various parts. 
  • Record My Parts - Checking this option will record your own track or tracks from your audio interface. Let's say you have one track set up for your electric guitar and one for your voice. Checking this option will capture the high-quality recordings of each of your parts straight from your audio interface, whereas the person making the recording can, at best, get a single streamed audio recording of your electric guitar and voice combined. Streamed audio is degraded in quality compared to audio captured directly by your interface. Let's say you're in a band, and one of your band members wants to produce a high-quality mix of your recording in a DAW. If all the band members check "Record My Parts" on, then after a recording all the band members can share their individual high-quality tracks with the member of the band, who can then balance and mix them in the DAW. 
  • Record Others' Parts - This is probably the option you are least likely to check, as it records the audio streams of the other musicians in the session that your JamKazam app receives. If someone else in the session starts a recording, but you don't know them, and you think you may want to create your own mix of the recording in a DAW, you can check this box on so that you get other musicians' streamed recorded parts.  


Keep in mind that you won't have a chance to reset these checkbox preferences before every recording because they apply when someone else is starting a recording. So it's best to choose options you'll be most happy with as a general rule. You can check any, all, or none of these options. It's up to you. But when someone else starts a recording, you don't have anywhere else to specify what you want recorded on your computer.