Join a session
Enter the room, check your camera and microphone on the setup screen, choose Music mode and Headphones, and join.
When you can get in
The room opens 30 minutes before the session starts.
Web browser
You can click Enter earlier. The setup screen then says Room opens in…, but you can already test your camera and microphone.
Mac or Windows app
Enter stays greyed out until the room opens.
iPad or iPhone app
If you tap Enter earlier, you'll see Room not available yet and when it opens. You can't test your camera and microphone until then.
Join
Web browser
- On Piano Gather, find your session and click Enter. You need to have RSVP'd, or be the host.
- If your browser asks to use your camera and microphone, click Allow.
- The setup screen, Ready to join?, opens. Check the things below, then click Join (or press Enter).
Mac or Windows app
- Find your session and click Enter. You need to have RSVP'd, or be the host.
- On a Mac, the first time, macOS asks whether Piano Gather may use the camera and microphone. Click OK. (Windows doesn't ask; access is set in Windows Settings.)
- The setup screen, Ready to join?, opens. Check the things below, then click Join.
iPad or iPhone app
- Tap your session, then Enter. You need to have RSVP'd, or be the host.
- The first time, tap Allow camera & mic, then Allow on each of the iPad's questions.
- The setup screen, Ready to join?, opens. Check the things below, then tap Join.
Nobody can see or hear you until you join. If the camera or microphone doesn't work, see Camera or microphone not working.
The setup screen
Web browser
- Camera: you see your own picture. Pick a different camera from the Camera list if you have more than one. Hide joins with your camera off.
- Microphone: pick yours from the Microphone list, then say something or play a note. The meter should move and say Your mic is working. If it says the sound is clipping, move the microphone further from the piano.
- Hear yourself records four seconds and plays them back, so you hear exactly what the room will hear.
- Test speaker plays a chime. If you don't hear it, check your computer's volume and output device.
Mac or Windows app
- Camera: pick your camera from the list. Hide joins with your camera off. Mirror flips your own view (only for you). Teachers with extra cameras (a switcher, a keyboard or document camera) also pick a Second camera and Third camera here; everyone else leaves these on None.
- Microphone: pick yours from the list, then say something or play a note. The meter should move and say Your mic is working. If it says the sound is clipping, turn your microphone's input gain down.
- Hear yourself records ten seconds and plays them back, so you hear exactly what the room will hear.
- Test speaker plays a chime.
- Plugged something in? Click Rescan devices. A camera plugged in after Piano Gather opened needs Restart Piano Gather.
iPad or iPhone app
- Camera: choose Front or Back. Hide joins with your camera off.
- Microphone: say something or play a note. The meter should move and say Your mic is working. The app uses the iPad's own microphone, or your headset if one is plugged in.
- Hear yourself records about ten seconds and plays them back, so you hear exactly what the room will hear.
- Test speaker plays a chime.
- Audio output: Speaker or Earpiece. Headphones, if connected, take over automatically.
Music mode: leave this on if you'll be playing. Your sound is sent as it is, so the piano isn't filtered out. Turn it off for a session that's mostly talking: background noise is then filtered out.
Headphones: turn this on only if you're wearing headphones. It switches off echo cancellation, which sounds better through headphones but echoes badly through speakers. See Echo or feedback.
Both are remembered for next time, except in the iPad/iPhone app, where Headphones starts off every time.
Will I be muted?
You join muted in most sessions, so nobody hears you until you unmute. The setup screen tells you which way you'll join. You join unmuted:
- if you're the host,
- in a piano lesson,
- in a social Camp Gather.
You can tap the mute button on the setup screen to change it before you join.
Waiting for the host
If you're early, you may be on your own for a while. Stay put; the host appears when they arrive.
Leaving
Click or tap Leave. You can go back in any time before the session ends by choosing Enter again, which takes you through the setup screen again. In the Mac and Windows app you can also leave with Session → Leave Session (⌘W on a Mac, Ctrl+W on Windows).