00:00Is it really possible to practice for a gig remotely?
00:02I've got a jazz gig coming up soon and there's a list of songs to learn, but the band is
00:05kind of all over the place.
00:07I'm in downtown Toronto and so is my bassist, but our drummer lives about 20 miles away in the town
00:11of Ajax, Ontario.
00:12Now sure, they can drive into the city for rehearsals, but what if they didn't have to?
00:16That is where this box comes in.
00:18The Loot Fist Stream.
00:20This device promises that we can rehearse together remotely almost like we're in the same room.
00:24So we're gonna test this out to see if it really works for a real band practice.
00:27Can we actually rehearse without being in the same room?
00:30So here's how we set it up.
00:31The Loot Fist Stream comes with the device, power cable, an ethernet cable, and headphones.
00:37Once you connect it to power, it turns on automatically.
00:40Then I run the ethernet cable from my Loot Fist straight into the back of my router.
00:43This wired connection makes sure we get the fastest speed possible, which is important for eliminating latency.
00:48Next, I've got these headphones plugged in to monitor my sound.
00:50And next, I'm gonna set up my inputs.
00:52I'm gonna plug in my quad cortex hand modeler to handle all of my guitar sounds.
00:55And I'm gonna use this Sennheiser instrument mic just to monitor my voice.
01:05We're officially done setting up, and it is almost time for rehearsal.
01:09This is my bassist, Nabium.
01:10I've been playing shows with Nabium for a bit over a year now.
01:13He plays with a couple other bands in the Toronto area.
01:15He's a super reliable bassist.
01:16Let's check in on him now.
01:18Yo, how's it going?
01:19I'm doing this time.
01:20How are you doing?
01:21Not too bad.
01:22You ready for the session?
01:24Absolutely ready with my Loot Fist and my bass and everything else.
01:28All right.
01:29All right.
01:29Good stuff.
01:29Good stuff.
01:30Give you a call and we'll jam.
01:32It'll be good.
01:33Hopefully it works.
01:35Yeah, I hope so too, really.
01:37That'll solve a lot of problems I've been having with jamming.
01:39Yeah, yeah.
01:40Especially with Griffin being stuck in Ajax.
01:44I mean, it's a drummer, right?
01:45Drummers are never on time anyway.
01:47Yeah.
01:47And bassists.
01:49And bassists.
01:49I'm on time.
01:50I'm on time.
01:51All right.
01:51No worries.
01:52I'll see you in a bit.
01:53Next, we have our drummer Griffin.
01:54Griffin is a freelance drummer, producer, and a bit of a Toronto legend for bringing music to
01:58one of Toronto's busiest street corners.
02:01Are you ready to do some loop fishing?
02:05Does this thing actually work though?
02:07I don't know.
02:08We're going to have to see.
02:11Okay, let's try it.
02:12All right.
02:13All right.
02:13All right.
02:14We'll call in a bit.
02:15We'll call in a bit.
02:16With excitement and a bit of healthy skepticism,
02:18I jumped into the loop fish session and waited for the others to arrive.
02:22Perfect.
02:23Perfect.
02:48We'll call in a bit.
02:48We'll call in a bit.
02:49We'll call in a bit.
02:50We'll call in a bit.
02:52We'll call in a bit.
02:52We'll call in a bit.
02:55We'll call in a bit.
02:56We'll call in a bit.
02:56We'll call in a bit.
02:56We'll call in a bit.
02:56We'll call in a bit.
02:56We'll call in a bit.
02:56We'll call in a bit.
02:56We'll call in a bit.
02:57We'll call in a bit.
02:57We'll call in a bit.
02:59We'll call in a bit.
02:59We'll call in a bit.
03:00We'll call in a bit.
03:01We'll call in a bit.
04:34I think maybe, like, we'll take a quick break for solos.
04:39Navium, I think you could, it would sound good if you practiced.
04:44All right, we're all looting our fishes.
04:46We're looting our fishes in a big way.
04:49So that was a pretty interesting session.
04:50The connection did have a slight jitter here and there, mostly due to my internet being
04:54not the best.
04:55Overall, Lootfish definitely delivered on the live experience.
04:58We covered all the songs we needed to, and it felt just like a regular rehearsal.
05:01A couple days later, I had a chance to catch up with the band and get their thoughts on
05:03the rehearsal.
05:32We did the Lootfish rehearsal.
05:34I had to go on to his studio that's super far away so many times, like two hours, multiple
05:39trains, and so not having to, like, go all the way and then, you know, come all the way
05:43back, then being exhausted all day.
05:45Like, that was a real win.
05:47I'm definitely happy to not have to take the GO train again.
05:50That'd be perfect.
05:51Yeah, definitely.
05:52Here are some key details on the Lootfish.
05:54It lets up to five musicians jam in real time with others up to 500 miles away.
05:58It offers 48K audio streaming with two combination XLR quarter-inch inputs using Class A preamps.
06:03It connects directly to the router via Ethernet using fiber or cable internet, completely bypassing
06:08Wi-Fi and DAWs to achieve ultra-low latency of 30 milliseconds or less.
06:12This is what makes it feel like you're jamming in the same room.
06:14It includes features to record and download sessions and uses a browser-based interface,
06:18so there's no software installs needed.
06:20Just go to lootfish.com to log in.
06:22It was really cool to get to experience something that for the longest time was thought to be
06:25impossible.
06:26That first note and that first interaction that you have when you enter the Lootfish room,
06:30it feels very surreal because you kind of expect there to be that delay and that latency
06:34that a normal video chat would have.
06:36And when there is no delay, the music, the groove, the conversation, it flows and it feels
06:41very natural, almost like everyone's in the same room.
06:43In my opinion, nothing beats jamming with others.
06:46It's the best way to learn and it's the best way to grow as a musician.
06:49Having a tool that eliminates that distance between me and the people that I like jamming
06:53with is very valuable to me.
06:54If you want to learn more about the Lootfish stream, find the link in the description below.
06:58And let us know in the comments how you would use the ability to jam remotely and we will
07:01see you on the next Guitar World Spotlight.
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