A short manual to set up Ninjam, Ableton Live via Reaper on macOS Catalina. Just text (for now).
This manual will allow you to setup a working environment for jamming online via Ninjam, on macOS Catalina. It's based on:
- BlackHole https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole. Brilliant virtual audio driver for macOS.
- Ableton Live https://www.ableton.com/en/live/
- Reaper (with Ninjam) https://www.reaper.fm/
I'm sure similar setup can be achieved with different DAWs as well.
As a bonus, you will have a cue track setup as well that can be used as a local preview track, not sent to Ninjam.
Obviously grab it first and install it. Then we proceed with the setup:
- Go to macOS Audio MIDI Setup and create a new Aggregate Device. Name it somehow. We'll call it ADJam.
- Have BlackHole and your mac speakers selected there. So in total 16 input and 18 output channels. 17 & 18 are your speakers. Make sure they are selected as output speakers in Configure Speakers section there.
- In Preferences > Audio, select ADJam as your output device.
- Still on same screen, go to output config and make sure stereo pairs 1/2 and 3/4 are selected.
- Now in Live default view go to Master and set Master Out to 1/2 and Cue Our to 3/4.
- Click on Master Solo button and turn it into Cue button. That way tracks marked as cue will be heard only by you, not the other participants of a jam.
You can download a simple Live set from here to see the basic setup.
This is the most complicated part that will route the audio to different channels so hold on tight... You can also download a sample Reaper project to see the baseline.
- Go to Preferences > Audio > Device and select ADJam we set up earlier.
- Have 2 track in the project. One will be for sending sound to Ninjam, one for a local cue.
- In the Ninjam track:
- click on Fx button and add RealNinjam plugin. This is where you'll be connecting to ninjam sessions, adjust metronome, etc.
- click on the INFX drop-down and select Input: Stereo > BlackHole 1 / 2. This is where Input 1/2 from Live will go to!
- click on Route button and select new hardware output: Channel 17 / 18. These are the speakers we added earler!
- In the cue track:
- click on the INFX drop-down and select Input: Stereo > BlackHole 3 / 4. This is the Live cue track.
- click on Route button and select new hardware output: Channel 17 / 18. We need to hear it on speakers too.
Q: I can't see Cue / Master Out in Live.
A: Make sure you have you I/O section on. It's a small... I/O button on the right edge of the screen.
Q: Others can hear my cue tracks during jam.
A: Those tracks need to go via 3/4 cue track only. Make sure that track cue button is on and the main activator is off.
Q: I can't hear anything.
A: Well... There can be 1000 reasons why. You can should always go to see a doctor and do a hearing check. Apart from that, the setup described above will only work if you have Live and Reaper launched. Otherwise the sound will go to a black hole...
Q: I hear a lot of reverb.
A: Try muting Master Channel in Reaper, but leave track outputs intact. Just guessing...