Basically, the title. After years of inactivty, I’ll be taking music (cello) lessons again, with my teacher of yesteryear, from whom I’ve moved half a country away.

She has suggested Zoom but is open to alternatives. I don’t particularly like Zoom, plus I have a feeling better quality can be had through a custom solution - but I’m at a bit of a loss as to what exactly would be a good fit for this project.

Maybe Jitsi? Does someone here have experience with it and could tell me if it’s possible to set something like a “target” audio quality?

For hardware, I basically have two options. Both are already in use, for different things, and have sufficient processing capabilities - albeit no GPU:

  • host everything at home. Plus: lowest possible latency from me to the server. Not sure how much that is worth though.
  • root server in the Hetzner cloud: much faster network speed. Again though, not sure how beneficial that is, the ultimate bottleneck will always be my upload speed (40Mbit)

OK, I realize that this post is a but of a random assortment of thoughts. I’d be really happy about suggestions and / or hearing about other’s experiences with similar use-cases!

  • atzanteol@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    You’ll be hard pressed to match Zoom. Audio and video quality are very good. There’s even a mode for musicians, so it won’t try to filter the instrument out as ‘noise’.

  • DetachablePianist@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I run real-time full band rehearsals with jamulus.io for low latency audio, plus any video tool of your choice (with the audio muted). we use muted Jitsi Meet for the video feed, but it really doesn’t matter. it’s all about the Jamulus audio

  • afk_strats@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I’m not sure if this solves your problem, but it’s an opportunity to plug Jamulus . It’s FOSS, and one of the best solutions if your target is uncompromising sound quality/latency. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do video. I’ve jammed with a band on it and was very successful. Vide was on a phone or separate machine. When we performed, video was mixed by another user using OBS, and streamed on Zoom

  • Earth Walker@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Nextcloud may be a bit overkill for your use case, but it does have a very good video chat function. It’s also pretty easy to deploy as a snap package or with the AIO docker image. A downside is that the other person has to have an account on your instance and log into it to join a call. However this is not necessarily difficult to arrange.

    • smiletolerantly@awful.systemsOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, I think it’s overkill, plus needing an account will likely lead to issues (login difficulties, forgotten password,…) compared to “just click this link”. But thanks for the recommendation anyways, I did not know NC comes with video chat!

  • tofubl@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    Tangent, unsolicited:

    Music lessons over video call, that has to be a real pain. I can’t find it now, but there’s an Adam Neely video where he talks about why online recording sessions can’t work, as transmission latency works against the immediacy needed to play music together. He said it better than I can.

    Except if your idea is to play in turns, but then capturing the thing you want to show… Can’t you find another teacher closer to you?

  • eksb@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I tried Jitsi, but was unable to match Zoom’s audio quality.

    The difference between Jitsi and Zoom was noticeable, but less important than the difference between the mic built in to the webcam and good mics. I use an SM58 for voice and an SM137 pointed at the cello just below the bridge, through a UMC204HD.

    • smiletolerantly@awful.systemsOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Oh wow, someone with the exact same usecase!! :D

      Thank you for the hardware recommendations. Tbh that is not something I have put any thought into yet.

      Can I ask you, is the UMC204HD necessary only because you have to mics, or would you recommend something like it regardless?

      I have been thinking of just using a pair of headphones with built-in mic for talking/hearing my teacher, but yeah, it seems like at least something additional for the cello would be beneficial. Do you have any experiences with pick-up mics for the cello? I saw that there are some comparatively well-priced options around

      • eksb@programming.devEnglish
        0·
        1 year ago

        You could use multiple USB microphones and do the mixing in software. I prefer using an audio interface (e.g. UMC204HD) because it is simpler to set up and adjust levels, and because it lets you use any widely available microphone, or plug in an instrument (e.g.: electric guitar, electric piano). You can plug your headphones into the audio interface and adjust the relative level of your own sound and what is coming from the computer (e.g.: your teacher). sweetwater.com has the UMC204HD and the UMC404HD on sale right now.

        I do not have any experience with pick-up mics.

  • Matt The Horwood@lemmy.horwood.cloudEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    I have run Jitsi at work and found it a pain to keep up to date, but your milage may vary.

    I have used most video chat things over the last 4 years, the easiest to get into is GoogleMeet. Google also has been the most reliable, I have a GoogleMeet running all day when at home.