Managing JackTrip Bridges

NOTE: THIS PAGE IS OUTDATED. THE JACKTRIP BRIDGE DEVICE HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED AND REPLACED BY THE DESKTOP APP, WHICH DOES NOT REQUIRE ANY SPECIAL HARDWARE. PLEASE USE THAT INSTEAD.

Connecting a JackTrip Bridge

The Audio Devices page will list all Virtual Studio devices (using Raspberry Pi hardware with our disk image) that are registered to your account. When not connected to an audio server, these will have a blue icon and most fields will be disabled.

1-deviceCards

You can use the search input box to filter the list by name.

The green "Register a New Device" button can be used to register a new device. For this to work correctly, you need to ensure that only the new device is plugged in and available on your network. After you have completed registration of a device, you can plug all of them back in.

To connect a device, use the "Select a Server" drop-down to choose a Running audio server, and then click on the "green "CONNECT" button.

Once your device connects to the server, the icon color will change to be green, yellow or red. The color indicates the quality of your Internet connection, including the path from your device to the audio server. The device continuously sends ICMP ping messages to the server in order to measure various statistics, which are displayed below the device settings. These are updated every 5 seconds and include:

Packet loss (if greater than zero, the device will be red)
Range of round-trip latency
Average round-trip latency
Standard deviation round-trip latency (jitter)

In general, the higher these statistics become, the more your device color will transition towards red, and the more difficult it will be for your to perform music with others who are connected to the server.

If the statistics show 100% packet loss, it is often caused by the ICMP ping traffic being blocked by your router. Please see Troubleshooting Firewall Ports.

Use the red "DISCONNECT FROM SERVER" to disconnect your device whenever you are finished. We also recommend that you disconnect your microphone or unplug your device when not in use, to be extra certain that no audio is being transmitted.

Audio Device Settings

Note that different types of supported sound cards offer different settings, so not all settings may be available for your device.

3-deviceStats

Input Volume

Drag the slider to the right to raise your input (microphone) volume, or left to lower it. Some microphones require high input volume levels to work properly. Click the speaker icon left of the slider to mute your device. (Sliding the level to 0 does not mute, only lowers the volume to be REALLY QUIET)

This slider will control the global input volume level of all connected devices.

Output Volume

Drag the slider to the right to raise your output (headphone) volume, or left to lower it. Every headphone requires different levels of output volume to drive them properly. Click the speaker icon left of the slider to mute your device. (Sliding the level to 0 does not mute, only lowers the volume to be REALLY QUIET)

This slider will control the global output volume level of all connected devices.

Monitor Volume

Drag the slider to the right to increase the volume that you hear yourself, or left to lower it.

USB Audio Toggle (Only applies to Analog Bridge)

This toggle will enable/disable the USB ports on the ANALOG bridge.

Quality

Note: this setting requires firmware version 2020102003 or later.

This setting enables you to maximize quality of audio that you hear and send to others, within the unique constraints of your Internet connection.

If you are connected to a "JackTrip" server, this will be fixed to the sample rate value configured for the server.

If you are connected to a "Jamulus" server, you will have two options:

Low Quality (300 Kbps, Lossy)
Medium Quality (500 Kbps, Lossy)

Please note: "Low Quality" and "Medium Quality" can cause musicians who are using balanced audio cables to be inaudible. See this article for more information.

The bandwidth rates (300 and 500 Kbps) are the minimum speed requirements -- both upload and download -- for your Internet connection.

If you are connecting to a "JackTrip+Jamulus" server, you will have an additional option for lossless JackTrip audio quality, for the sample rate value configured on the server.

Buffer Size

This setting controls the number of audio samples grouped into frames for each period of time. Smaller values can result in lower latency, but can place higher demands on your Internet connection. Select the lowest value that enables you to hear clear audio without experiencing static or other audio issues.