How to Put Together an rtjam-unit

Follow this guide to build your own jam unit and start playing music together in real-time.

TL;DR

If you already have a pi or another debian based linux system, you can do your own install from the directions here

List of Ingredients

  • Raspberry Pi 4. 2Gb RAM, 4Gb Flash  Offical Rasberry Pi Website
  • Raspberry Pi Case  (this one works well)
  • USB C power supply for the Pi Example
  • USB audio device (must have at least 2 channels)
    • Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Sweetwater Link
    • PreSonus Studio 24c
    • PreSonus USB96
    • MOTU M2
    • M-Audio M-Track Duo
    • etc
  • Ethernet Cable
  • Open ethernet port on your router
  • Microphone
  • Software complete image for the raspberry pi or you can build software from github

Hardware Installation

Use the arrows to navigate through the hardware setup steps

The Raspberry Pi (with case)

You can see the USB and Ethernet ports on the right side. Power is provided via a USB-C connector at the left end of the left side.

Software Installation

You will need to get the software onto the micro SD card for your Raspberry Pi. Here are the directions for getting the software and burning it onto your micro SD card.

You will need a micro SD card slot on your computer and some software that allows you to burn images onto the card.

  • Download the image from Software Image and save it on your computer in a place you can find later.
  • If you don't have a good imager, the Raspberry Pi Imager runs on all platforms and is super easy to use.
  • After you have burned the image to the SD card, put the card into the raspberry pi. Note: The download image is shrunk to just the size of the data. Your SD card is undoubtedly bigger than that. After you boot the Pi with the SD card, it will resize that image to the full size of the SD card you have. This causes an extra reboot after the resize. This only happens on the first boot with the SD card.

Use the arrows to navigate through the software installation steps

Raspberry Pi Imager

This is the initial screen when you launch the imager.