The studio

Your audio plugins, right on your channel

6 min read · All levels
Hardware compressors with attack / release / ratio knobs — the spirit of plugins integrated into Jamodio
The studio feel, straight into your Jamodio channel.
Jamodio differentiator

Why it's rare

Other remote rehearsal platforms are, at best, excellent at transporting your audio between musicians, but they stop there. If you want to add a reverb on your voice or an amp simulator on your guitar, you have to fire up a DAW on the side, set up complicated audio routing (Loopback, BlackHole, IAC…) and struggle to sync everything.

Jamodio integrates native audio plugins directly — AU on macOS and VST3 on Windows — into the studio mixer. You load any plugin already installed on your machine, you play, and your musicians immediately hear the processed sound. Just like in a real studio — but with your band 500 km away.

Jamodio does not ship any plugin : you bring your own collection (Logic, AmpliTube, Valhalla, Surge XT, Native Instruments…), and Jamodio handles getting them to work online with your band.

The essentials in 10 seconds
  • Load an AU (macOS) or VST3 (Windows) plugin straight on your channel in the mixer.
  • Your musicians hear the sound after processing (reverb, amp, comp…).
  • MIDI instrument plugins (piano, virtual drums…) supported via a USB MIDI keyboard or the built-in virtual keyboard.
  • The plugin runs inside the Audio Engine, on your machine. If it adds latency, your bubble says so (“Avoidable: … come from your plugin”).

3 use cases that change everything

Voice

Reverb on your singing voice

Your vocal mic plugged in as your instrument, a hall or plate reverb on it: the others hear you as if you were singing in a real room, more natural than a dry close-mic voice. Useful for backing vocalists in remote rehearsals.

Guitar

Amp simulator on your DI guitar

You plug your guitar in directly (without a physical amp) into your audio interface. Jamodio inserts a virtual amp sim: your musicians hear a Marshall, Fender, Mesa Boogie… chosen inside the plugin. Without bringing your stack.

MIDI

Virtual piano / drums via MIDI

Connect your USB MIDI keyboard (or a drum pad). Jamodio routes it to a virtual piano or sampler. You play, the sound is generated by the plugin and sent to your musicians. Ideal for the pianist without their piano on hand, or the drummer rehearsing on pads.

A light plugin adds nothing measurable.
Most plugins (reverbs, EQ, compressors, most amp sims) process the audio block within the block itself: nothing more in your bubble. Those that declare a latency of their own too large for live playing (more than 128 samples) are greyed out in the picker; those that declare a little show up in your bubble under “Avoidable”, with bypass as the remedy.

Procedure — 3 minutes to add your first plugin

1
Launch the Audio Engine
Open Jamodio and check the badge in the top right: it should display Audio Engine in green. If not, download and launch the Audio Engine (the app you install once, on an Apple Silicon Mac or Windows: without it, the studio does not open).
Audio Engine badge (green dot) at the top right of the app
2
Enter a studio
Create or join a studio. In the mixer you see your “MY SEND” channel on the left, with the usual pan, fader, mute, solo and REC.
Your MY SEND strip: instrument, “Amp sim” plugin with its bypass and remove buttons, LIVE, talkback
3
Click + FX
In the MY SEND frame, under the instrument gain, a + FX button waits on your strip; the three small controls below it (bypass, keyboard, remove) stay greyed out until a plugin is loaded. Click → a modal opens with every audio plugin installed on your machine, sorted by manufacturer. Search by name if needed.
The “+ FX” button under the instrument gain, with the three small controls still greyed out, then the LIVE button (in-app UI shown in French)
4
Pick a plugin
Plugins are grouped by publisher. The badge to the right of each plugin shows its intrinsic latency (in samples): ✓ 0 = the plugin adds no delay; an ✕ flags more than 128 samples, and the app advises against it in a session. Click the plugin → the modal closes. Your strip now shows the plugin name, with ● (bypass), the keyboard and ✕ (remove) below it, and the processed sound immediately flows to your musicians and your headphones.

At the top of the window, two buttons: Inventory (“Inventory N new plugins”) opens each plugin Jamodio has never seen once, to learn what it is and what it declares. Some ask for their licence at that point: confirm or close their window, that is normal. Scan (“Rescan all”) reopens every plugin, including those set aside because they crashed the detection: useful after an update or a repair.
The plugin name (AmpliTube 5) on the strip, with the bypass dot lit, the keyboard greyed out and the remove cross below it « Insert an effect » modal: plugins grouped by publisher, latency badge on the right
5
Tweak the plugin
Click the plugin name → a native window (macOS or Windows) opens with the plugin's real GUI (sliders, buttons, 3D amp for amp sims…). Just like in a DAW. Tweak, close the window — settings are preserved.
BFD Player plugin native window open — the plugin's real GUI
6
A/B bypass
The ● button below the name bypasses the plugin to compare processed and raw sound. Dot lit = active; bypassed, the whole rack greys out, you see it at a glance while playing.

Special case: instrument plugins via MIDI

For instrument plugins (= virtual pianos, virtual drums, synths, samplers), Jamodio automatically switches your input source to MIDI mode when you load that type of plugin. You then have two options to play:

Your strip with an instrument plugin: the INSTRUMENT block shows the MIDI source, “Grand Piano” is loaded and the keyboard button is lit (in-app UI shown in French)
As soon as an instrument plugin is loaded, your strip switches to MIDI: the INSTRUMENT block shows your keyboard (or “MIDI”), and the keyboard button, between bypass and the cross, lights up to open the virtual keyboard.
Built-in virtual MIDI keyboard, 4 octaves C2-C6
The built-in virtual keyboard — 4 octaves (C2-C6), playable with the mouse (glissando), physical keyboard, or via a USB keyboard.

macOS : any AudioUnit v2 or v3 plugin installed in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ or ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ is listed automatically.
Windows : any VST3 plugin installed in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\ or %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Common\VST3\ is listed automatically.
Proprietary plugins (AmpliTube, TONEX, Surge XT, Valhalla, Logic Pro instruments…) are recognized if installed and activated on the machine — Jamodio doesn't ship any plugin, you bring them yourself.

Supported formats

One format per system, the one your system opens natively: Audio Units on macOS, VST3 on Windows.

Known limitations

If it does not work
  • Your plugin does not appear in the list: it is not installed in the right format (AU on Mac, VST3 on Windows; no VST2 or AAX), or it crashed the scan and was set aside. In the plugins window, “Rescan all” reopens every plugin, including those set aside: licence windows may pop up, confirm them.
  • The plugin is greyed out: it declares too much latency for live playing. Look for a “low latency” or “live” setting in the plugin, or pick another one.
  • Your bubble shows “Avoidable: … come from your plugin”: the plugin adds latency it declares. Bypass (●) removes it; time to compare.
  • Sound drops out since the plugin was loaded: look at the bubble: if “Your computer is overloaded”, the plugin is too heavy for your computer. Lighten it or remove it.
  • A plugin was cut “for safety”: it produced an abnormal output; Jamodio protects your ears. Remove it, then reload it.

Still stuck? Write to support@jamodio.com with the plugin's name and version: we reply within 24 hours.

Ready to try?
Launch Jamodio, check that your Audio Engine is active, and click + FX on your channel. That's it.

Open Jamodio →
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