18. Playing together

Joining a session

Joining puts the host’s song on your screen, live: you see their edits as they make them, they see yours, and play starts for everyone at once. Joining is free on every edition, and the song you join is the host’s, not one of yours.

Joining a session

Available on every platform.

Joining with a code

The code is on the host’s screen, six letters and digits shown as ABC-DEF.

While Stab looks for the session, it says so; Cancel in that small window stops looking. It looks on your Wi-Fi first, then through Stab’s relay, so a code works from anywhere. Once the song has come, it opens in a window of its own, named “Session ABC-DEF”.

If it can’t join, it says why: “No session with that code.”, “This session is full.”, or the code didn’t match or the session has ended.

Joining with a link or a QR code

A join link looks like https://stab.audio/j/ABC-DEF, and the host’s QR code is that link. On an iPhone or iPad with Stab installed, it opens in the app and joins. Anywhere else, it opens Stab in the browser on its Join a Session page, with the code filled in: add your name and choose Join.

Joining on the same Wi-Fi

In the session

The song is the host’s. You edit it as you would your own, within what the host lets you change (Roles and copies), and your edits never count toward the three free songs. The session chip in the title bar says Live, with each person’s face in their colour; the Session pane behind it lists them. If the host has you follow along without editing, the Session pane gives your role as Can View.If the host has you follow along without editing, an eye says so and the panel reads “Following along”.

An edit the host refuses (another person changed the same thing first, or your role doesn’t allow it) is taken back, and a line over the song says why for a few seconds, such as “Your edit didn’t go through: The host hasn’t let you change these notes.”

When the connection drops

If the connection is lost, Stab reconnects by itself: the line over the song reads Reconnecting…, and your edits wait until you’re back. When you’re back, the song comes again from the host. An edit you made while you were away that couldn’t be kept is lost, and Stab says how many: “An edit made while you were away wasn’t kept.”

When the session is over (the host stopped hosting, or it couldn’t be reached again), Stab says so over the song, with Rejoin to try again and Close.

Leaving

Choose Leave at the foot of the Session paneLeave the Session from the Together menu from the Session menu. The song was the host’s, so it closes here: nothing is kept, unless the host let guests keep a copy and you chose Keep a Copy first. The panel says which: “The song is the host’s: it closes here when you leave.” See Roles and copies.

Checking the connection

Check the Connection… is for a song shared through Stab Cloud while its members edit it live: it shows each person’s six digits, to compare with what each of their screens shows. See Shared songs.