Back

Performing music together over an Internet connection is next to impossible if there is *any* lag at all. Typically, the lag is caused by short 10-50 millisecond delays for every router hop, at minimum one hop from you to your ISP, another from ISP to Internet Exchange Point (IXP), IXP to my ISP, and a fourth from my ISP to my computer. When you play the drum I hear your drumbeat 40-200 milliseconds after you play it. When I play a note on the piano you'll hear it 40-200 ms after I play it, or 80-400 ms after you've played your drumbeat. And our friend @StrangeAttractor will hear your drumbeat and my piano out-of-sync by 40-200 ms; if she plays her guitar synced to my piano you'll hear that 120-600 ms after you've played your drumbeat.

There was a really cool commercial by Bell some 10 years ago that showed people playing together over their Internet connection; sadly it was only movie magic and no more realistic than flying through the air with a cape.

The solution would be to have an analogue connection from end-to-end. But today, even analogue phones are connected to digital switching networks, so you can't even use ordinary landline phones and expect to get no delay. You can get "leased lines" from the phone companies that are analogue end-to-end, but leasing a tuned circuit that supports audio fidelity (ie. a 56 kHz leased line) will probably cost hundreds of dollars a month. Last time I saw an equalized analogue leased line was in 1980 when I worked at a radio station. It's possible analogue-only leased lines don't even exist any more. /cc @StrangeAttractor @LauraRitchie