324 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
324 lines
15 KiB
Markdown
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Jamulus - Internet Jam Session Software
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=======================================
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<img align="left" src="src/res/homepage/mediawikisidebarlogo.png"/>
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The Jamulus software enables musicians to perform real-time jam sessions over the internet.
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There is one server running the Jamulus server software which collects the audio data from
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each Jamulus client, mixes the audio data and sends the mix back to each client.
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Jamulus is __Open Source software__ ([GPL, GNU General Public License](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html))
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and runs under __Windows__ ([ASIO](http://www.steinberg.net)),
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__MacOS__ ([Core Audio](http://developer.apple.com/technologies/mac/audio-and-video.html)) and
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__Linux__ ([Jack](http://jackaudio.org)).
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It is based on the [Qt framework](https://www.qt.io) and uses the [OPUS](http://www.opus-codec.org) audio codec.
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The source code is hosted at [Sourceforge.net](http://sourceforge.net/projects/llcon).
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Required Hardware Setup
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-----------------------
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The required minimum internet connection speed is 200 kbps for the up- and downstream.
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The ping time (i.e. round trip delay) from your computer to the server should not exceed 40 ms average.
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For the Jamulus software to run stable it is recommended to use a PC with at least 1.5 GHz CPU frequency.
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On a Windows operating system it is recommended to use a sound card with a native ASIO driver.
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This ensures to get the lowest possible latencies.
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Windows Download and Installation
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---------------------------------
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[Download](http://sourceforge.net/projects/llcon/files) a Windows installer at the
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Sourceforge.net download page
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The Jamulus software requires an ASIO sound card driver to be
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available in the system. If your sound card does not have native
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ASIO support, you can try out the following alternative:
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[ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver For WDM Audio](http://www.asio4all.com)
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The ASIO buffer size should be selected as low as possible to get
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the minimum audio latency (a good choice is 128 samples).
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Help (Software Manual)
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----------------------
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### Main Window
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#### Status LEDs
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The Delay status LED indicator shows the current audio delay status. If the light is green, the delay
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is perfect for a jam session. If the ligth is yellow, a session is still possible but it may be harder
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to play. If the light is red, the delay is too large for jamming.
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The Buffer status LED indicator shows the current audio/streaming status. If the light is green, there
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are no buffer overruns/underruns and the audio stream is not interrupted. If the light is red, the
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audio stream is interrupted caused by one of the following problems:
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- The network jitter buffer is not large enough for the current network/audio interface jitter.
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- The sound card buffer delay (buffer size) is set to a too small value.
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- The upload or download stream rate is too high for the current available internet bandwidth.
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- The CPU of the client or server is at 100%.
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#### Input level
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The input level indicators show the input level of the two stereo channels of the current selected audio input.
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Make sure not to clip the input signal to avoid distortions of the audio signal.
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#### Chat button opens the Chat dialog
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Press the Chat button to open the Chat dialog. The chat text entered in that dialog is transmitted to
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all connected clients. If a new chat message arrives and the Chat dialog is not already open, it will
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be opened automatically at all clients.
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#### My Profile button opens the Musician Profile dialog
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Press the My Profile button to open the Musician Profile dialog. In this dialog you can set your Alias/Name
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which is displayed below your fader in the server audio mixer board. If an instrument and/or country is set,
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icons for these selection will also be shown below your fader. The skill setting changes the background of
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the fader tag and the city entry shows up in the tool tip of the fader tag. This tool tip is shown in the following picture.
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#### Connect/disconnect button
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Push this button to connect a server. A dialog where you can select a server will open. If you are connected,
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pressing this button will end the session.
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The server list shows a list of available servers which are registered at the central server. Select a server
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from the list and press the connect button to connect to this server. Alternatively, double click a server from
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the list to connect to it. If a server is occupied, a list of the connected musicians is available by expanding
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the list item. Permanent servers are shown in bold font.
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Note that it may take some time to retrieve the server list from the central server. If no valid central server
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address is specified in the settings, no server list will be available.
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Alternatively, you can enter an IP address or URL of the server running the Jamulus server in the server address
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field. An optional port number can be added after the IP address or URL using a comma as a separator, e.g,
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jamulus.dyndns.org:22124. A list of the most recent used server IP addresses or URLs is available for selection.
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#### Reverberation effect
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A reverberation effect can be applied to one local mono audio channel or to both channels in stereo mode.
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The mono channel selection and the reverberation level can be modified. If, e.g., the microphone signal is fed
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into the right audio channel of the sound card and a reverberation effect shall be applied, set the channel selector
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to right and move the fader upwards until the desired reverberation level is reached.
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The reverberation effect requires significant CPU so that it should only be used on fast PCs. If the reverberation
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level fader is set to minimum (which is the default setting), the reverberation effect is switched off and does
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not cause any additional CPU usage.
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#### Local audio input fader
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With the audio fader, the relative levels of the left and right local audio channels can be changed. For a mono signal
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it acts like a panning between the two channels. If, e.g., a microphone is connected to the right input channel and
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an instrument is connected to the left input channel which is much louder than the microphone, move the audio fader
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in a direction where the label above the fader shows L -x, where x is the current attenuation indicator.
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#### Server audio mixer
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In the audio mixer frame, a fader for each connected client at the server is shown. This includes a fader for the own signal.
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With the faders, the audio level of each client can be modified individually.
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With the Mute checkbox, the current audio channel can be muted. With the Solo checkbox, the current audio channel can
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be set to solo which means that all other channels except of the current channel are muted.
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### Settings Window
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#### Sound card device
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The ASIO driver (sound card) can be selected using Jamulus under the Windows operating system. If the selected ASIO
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driver is not valid an error message is shown and the previous valid driver is selected. Under the Mac operating
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system the input and output hardware can be selected.
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#### Input/output channel mapping
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In case the selected sound card device offers more than one input or output channel, the _Input Channel Mapping
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and Ouptut Channel Mapping_ settings are visible. For each Jamulus input/output channel (left and right channel)
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a different actual sound card channel can be selected.
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#### Buffer delay
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The buffer delay setting is a fundamental setting of the Jamulus software. This setting has influence on many
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connection properties. Three buffer sizes are supported:
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- 128 samples: This is the preferred setting since it gives lowest latency but does not work with all sound cards.
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- 256 samples: This setting should work on most of the available sound cards.
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- 512 samples: This setting should only be used if only a very slow computer or a slow internet connection is available.
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Some sound card driver do not allow the buffer delay to be changed from within the Jamulus software.
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In this case the buffer delay setting is disabled. To change the actual buffer delay,
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this setting has to be changed in the sound card driver. On Windows, press the ASIO Setup button to open
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the driver settings panel.
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On Linux, use the Jack configuration tool to change the buffer size.
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The actual buffer delay has influence on the connection status, the current upload rate and the overall delay.
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The lower the buffer size, the higher the probability of red light in the status indicator (drop outs) and the
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higher the upload rate and the lower the overall delay.
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The buffer setting is therefore a trade-off between audio quality and overall delay.
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#### Jitter buffer with buffer status indicator
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The jitter buffer compensates for network and sound card timing jitters. The size of this jitter buffer has
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therefore influence on the quality of the audio stream (how many dropouts occur) and the overall delay
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(the longer the buffer, the higher the delay).
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The jitter buffer size can be manually chosen for the local client and the remote server. For the local jitter
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buffer, dropouts in the audio stream are indicated by the light on the bottom of the jitter buffer size faders.
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If the light turns to red, a buffer overrun/underrun took place and the audio stream is interrupted.
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The jitter buffer setting is therefore a trade-off between audio quality and overall delay.
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An auto setting of the jitter buffer size setting is available. If the check Auto is enabled, the jitter buffers
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of the local client and the remote server are set automatically based on measurements of the network and sound card
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timing jitter. If the Auto check is enabled, the jitter buffer size faders are disabled (they cannot be moved with the mouse).
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#### Audio channels
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Select the number of audio channels to be used. There are three modes available. The mono and stereo modes use one
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and two audio channels respectively. In the mono-in/stereo-out mode the audio signal which is sent to the server is
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mono but the return signal is stereo. This is useful for the case that the sound card puts the instrument on one
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input channel and the microphone on the other channel. In that case the two input signals can be mixed to one mono
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channel but the server mix can be heard in stereo.
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Enabling the stereo streaming mode will increase the stream data rate. Make sure that the current upload rate does
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not exceed the available bandwidth of your internet connection.
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In case of the stereo streaming mode, no audio channel selection for the reverberation effect will be available on
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the main window since the effect is applied on both channels in this case.
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#### Audio quality
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Select the desired audio quality. A low, normal or high audio quality can be selected. The higher the audio quality,
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the higher the audio stream data rate. Make sure that the current upload rate does not exceed the available bandwidth
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of your internet connection.
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#### New client level
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The new client level setting defines the fader level of a new connected client in percent. I.e. if a new client connects
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to the current server, it will get the specified initial fader level if no other fader level of a previous connection of
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that client was already stored.
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#### Fancy skin
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If enabled, a fancy skin will be applied to the main window.
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#### Central server address
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The central server address is the IP address or URL of the central server at which the server list of the connection
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dialog is managed. If the Default check box is checked, the default central server address is shown read-only.
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#### Current connection status parameter
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The ping time is the time required for the audio stream to travel from the client to the server and backwards.
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This delay is introduced by the network. This delay should be as low as 20-30 ms. If this delay is higher (e.g., 50-60 ms),
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your distance to the server is too large or your internet connection is not sufficient.
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The overall delay is calculated from the current ping time and the delay which is introduced by the current buffer settings.
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The upstream rate depends on the current audio packet size and the audio compression setting. Make sure that the upstream
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rate is not higher than the available rate (check the upstream capabilities of your internet connection by, e.g., using
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[speedtest.net](http://speedtest.net)).
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### Server
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#### Jamulus server requirements
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The minimum internet connection speed for the server is 1 Mbps for up- and downstream and a very low ping time.
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It is recommended to have at least 1.6 GHz CPU frequency and 1 GB RAM.
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The Jamulus server can be run on all supported operating systems (Windows, MacOS and Linux).
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#### Using Windows OS
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After installing Jamulus you find a link to the server in the Windows start menu (or "All apps" under Windows 8).
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When starting the server it automatically registers at the official central server. Just type in the name,
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city and country so that other users can easily identify your server.
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If you want the server to be started automatically on each Windows start, enable the corresponding check box.
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If you do not want to register your server at the official central server (so that it does not show up in the
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server list of jamulus.dyndns.org) uncheck the "Register" check box.
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#### Using a Linux shell
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If the server shall be started from within an ssh shell, there is a command line option
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`./Jamulus -s -n`
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available which starts the server without a GUI (even though the GUI is not used, QT must still be installed on the
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server to run the Jamulus server software).
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Compilation and Development
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---------------------------
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See the [Compile Instructions](INSTALL.md) file.
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Acknowledgments
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---------------
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This code contains open source code from different sources. The developer(s) want
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to thank the developer of this code for making their efforts available under open
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source:
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- Qt cross-platform application framework: http://qt-project.org
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- Opus Interactive Audio Codec: http://www.opus-codec.org
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- Audio reverberation code: by Perry R. Cook and Gary P. Scavone, 1995 - 2004
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(taken from "The Synthesis ToolKit in C++ (STK)"):
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http://ccrma.stanford.edu/software/stk
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- Some pixmaps are from the Open Clip Art Library (OCAL): http://openclipart.org
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- Audio recording for the server and SVG history graph, coded by [pljones](http://github.com/pljones): http://jamulus.drealm.info
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