This help article is for users who are on Step 2 of the audio setup wizard and are getting stuck because their audio processing latency is too high and stuck "in the red". If you are having trouble more generally with latency too high in online sessions to play together, please refer to this help article on high session latency.
First we provide tips for Mac users. If you are on a Windows computer, please scroll down to the section with tips for Windows users.
Reducing Audio Processing Latency on a Mac Computer
If you are trying to use the built-in mic and speakers/headphone jack on your Mac for audio, you are very likely to see extremely high audio processing latency - something around 50ms - i.e. 50 milliseconds - which is 50 one-thousandths of a second. Macs used to have much lower built-in audio processing latency, but over the last few years they have become extremely slow for some reason. To be blunt, with this much latency, you will really not be able to play or sing in sync with others using JamKazam. You can try, and it will still be faster than Zoom and other conferencing applications, but it's not going to be a good experience, and we cannot in good conscience recommend it.
There is no way to make the Mac process audio faster using its built-in audio processing subsystem. So the recommendation here would be to purchase an inexpensive audio interface. This is the only way we know to bring your audio processing latency down. If you want to check out some options here, please review this help article on Mac audio interfaces, which compares price, performance, and features on some interfaces that sell for as little as $100 and offer audio processing latency from 4ms to 10ms, up to 10 times as fast as the built-in Mac audio processing.
If you are already using an audio interface but want to see if you can further reduce your audio processing latency, here are a couple of tips.
For most audio interfaces on the Mac, in step 2 of the audio setup wizard, when you are selecting and configuring your interface for use with the JamKazam application, if you change the Frame Size down to 1ms, you can shave off some latency. For example, in the screenshot below, we are setting up a Steinberg UR22c on a Mac. With the default value for Frame Size at 2.5ms, the resulting audio processing latency is 8.77ms (pictured below).
But if we change the value for Frame Size to 1ms, the resulting audio processing latency falls by 3ms to 5.77ms (pictured below). When experimenting with this setting, we advise that you play and/or sing with this value set to 1ms to make sure your audio stays clear and stable. If you hear crackling or other audio problems, you'll need to set your frame size back up higher to protect your audio quality.
Another tip is that some audio interface vendors develop and make available software drivers for their interfaces for the Mac, and when available these drivers will typically reduce latency. This is more the exception than the rule for Macs, as most interfaces don't have Mac drivers. But some like the Motu M2 or the Focusrite 2i2 do have special Mac drivers. When available, it's usually easy to find these drivers on the vendor's website, and to download and install them. In the case of the Focusrite Scarlett & Clarett USB interfaces, these drivers are a bit more hidden, but you can find a Focusrite article on them here: https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/208736249-How-can-I-improve-latency-using-my-2nd-3rd-Gen-Scarlett-Clarett-USB-interfaces-on-Mac..
Reducing Audio Processing Latency on a Windows Computer
If you are trying to use the built-in mic and speakers/headphone jack on your Windows computer for audio, you are very likely to see very high audio processing latency, and your audio is unlikely to remain stable and reliable in JamKazam sessions. Most built-in audio processors on Windows simply were not designed and built to deliver low-latency, high-quality audio in the class required by JamKazam. You can try, but it's not going to be a good experience, and we cannot in good conscience recommend it.
There is no way to make your Windows computer process audio faster and more reliably using its built-in audio processing subsystem. So the recommendation here would be to purchase an inexpensive audio interface. This is the only way we know to bring your audio processing latency down. If you want to check out some options here, please review this help article on Windows audio interfaces, which compares price, performance, and features on some interfaces that sell for as little as $100 and offer audio processing latency from 3ms to 10ms.
If you are already using an audio interface but want to see if you can further reduce your audio processing latency, here are a couple of tips.
- Please refer to our help article for instructions on how to tune the performance of your audio interface for Windows.
- You definitely need to find the ASIO driver developed by the maker of your audio interface on that vendor's website and download and install that driver.
- You will then want to click the ASIO Settings button on Step 2 of the audio setup wizard and crank down the value of the buffer size or sample size (or other latency setting) as low as it will go.
- And you may also want to set the Frame Size setting down to 1ms in the JamKazam app on Step 2 as well.
If we have a help article specifically for your audio interface, do follow those instructions. Otherwise, just follow the instructions of the general-purpose article we've written.