Virtual Collaboration

 

If you’ve got any sort of system you use to make multi-track recordings, where for example you record your vocal on track 1, your guitar on track 2, your rhythm on track 3, and so on, you have at your fingertips the ability to leverage talent from anywhere on the face of the planet to collaborate on your musical creations!

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You can collaborate a couple of different ways.  First, you can simply send your exported sound file (wav. Etc.) to the person with whom you’re collaborating, and have him (or her) listen to your song through headphones or earbuds while at the same time recording himself playing along with your song on whatever instrument he’s contributing to the mix.  When he’s done, he sends you that sound file back, or saves it in a shared location to which you have access, like Google Drive or Drop Box.  You then simply retrieve that file and insert it back into your mix in a new track, and presto, you’ve just added a lead guitar, a violin, keyboard—you name it, to your creation. 

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The second way, which I’m finding incredibly helpful, is by exporting each of your tracks independently (many applications call it exporting your track’s “stems”), which you then save as individual files to a shared space or send to the person whose helping you.  In this scenario, the person to whom you’re sending files can add effects, EQ individual tracks very precisely, mix & master the whole shebang, and then send you back a product that’s optimized and literally ready for air play on the radio (if you can find a station who’ll play it.)  It’s a professional touch that really makes all the difference in the world when you’re trying to get your song out there.

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The super cool part about this approach is that you can make music literally with anybody, anywhere.  So if you’ve got a friend who’s an awesome keyboard player but she moved to another state—or country, you can still make great music together!  A couple of things to keep in mind:

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1.  If you’re working with someone you don’t know that well, copyright your creation before sending it out into the webiverse.  (check out article on copyrighting under the "Articles" tab above.

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2.  If you’re exporting stems to someone to be polished up for the final mix, send them all “clean,” which is to say, without any effects applied. That will allow the person putting it all together the most flexibility to make the final product really polished. 

 

If you want to hear an example of what's possible, check out the song below.  Three guys in three different locations - never once in the same place and never left their houses, created this.  Pretty Cool!

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