Collaborating

Welcome to Remote Collaboration!

So! You made a friend on FAWM / 50-90! Congrats! And now you want to write and record a song together! So, how do you do it?

Short answer: anyway you want to.

Longer answer: Think about what you want to do, and COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE COMMUNICATE!!!

Collaborating in the online world is about a lot more than just writing music. It's about how to facilitate creating an idea.

What is this?!?

A lot of you know Cow Exchange. He's an awesome collaborator. He's also extremely thorough.

The doc below is HIS collaboration manual. These are some of these things he considers and communicates when collaborating.

Do you need to do all of these? Good heavens, no. As he points out, these are highly idiosyncratic. What works for him may not work for you and vice versa. But I've found this to be incredibly useful as a guide to what I should be thinking about when I start up a collaboration.

What should I do with this?

Anything you want. I use it as a reference. You may want to add additional thoughts to the Wiki, or you many want to copy this down, strip out stuff you don't like, change it to stuff you do like, and use it.

Or, ignore it. You'll note, this is mostly technical. If you don't want to record, it may not be of use to you. But here's hoping it gives you some ideas.

The Good Stuff

To the Mix leader

If you're "leading" the mix, make sure that:

You tell everyone the tempo
1. Why: This will help them line the track up in their sequencer. This is essential if their takes require quantization, and you'll get a better-timed take as a result.
2. Example: "This track is at 120bpm"
3. Example 2: "This track is at 120bpm, except for the break at 1:30 [or bar X] which is 90bpm"
Your demo tracks start with an isolated click track
1. Why: This will help them line the track up in their sequencer
2. Note: By "isolated", I mean the click track shouldn't blend into the actual song. It should appear and complete before the song even begins, including any significant reverb on your click.
3. Example: a 4-beat click sound prior to the start of the song
Your demo tracks start with a sync tone
1. Note: This could go before or after the click track, but probably fits best before
2. Why: This will help your collaborators, and especially you [later] line up several tracks against one another.
3. Example: I've had good luck using Kompoz's "Classic Sync Tone", found at: http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/sync.learn.music
You provide at least 2 flavors of demo mixes
1. Why: So that collaborators can "hear through the layers" when examining and recording takes to the song
2. For example, you might provide:
3. A 'full' mix (including instruments + vocals)
4. An instrumental mix (including instruments, but no vocals)
5. Why: Some people might just use the 'full mix' and not care to line anything else up. This might be easier for them. But if they need to cut back the other vocal takes, they still have that option.
6. Or alternatively, you might provide:
  1. A vocals-only mix
  2. An instrument-only mix
  3. Why: You don't have to worry about providing 'vox-up' or 'vox-down' demo mixes. The recipient can line the two parts up and mix the levels to the extent they need.
  4. ...but this really depends on the task at hand, of course. In general it's a matter of providing a demo (so the recipient knows what we're trying to achieve), and a stripped demo that is missing the placeholder for the part the recipient will be providing (so they can do a better job of recording their part and hearing it in the atmosphere of the demo mix)
Set expectations with your collaborators [within reason]
1. Why: this will help focus what they do, and hopefully yield a result closer to your vision
2. Example: "I'm hoping you can record vocals for Verse 3 [whose lyrics are <here>], and the two choruses."
3. Example: "By the way, here are my Blanket Notes For Recordin'. Please read this and let me know if you have questions. I think it'll help us make an awesome song easier, and I'll be less likely to ask you for retakes/resubmissions :-)."
4. Example: "It's good to improvise! Feel free to record and send any improv takes you'd like, if something inspires you. I can't promise they'll make it into the song, but they really do help."
5. Example: "The bridge should feel like goofballs * 1000!"
6. Note: Of course, don't go overboard with the instructions, you controlling egomaniacal perfectionist! If you have lots of notes, they might not get read, and/or this might be more confusing/frustrating. It depends on your collaborators too, I suppose!
7. You specifically mention anything that collaborators might not guess easily, remember, or pay attention to
  1. Example: "The very last chorus is different from the others: it's a semitone higher, and we're holding the final note. Don't forget to provide a separate take for that!"
  2. Example: "We're all singing the chorus together, so please stick as close to the demo (timing and melody-wise) as you can, so we sound like a cohesive unit."
You give submissions a listen as soon as possible, and give feedback in a quick timeframe
1. Why: In case a retake is required. You'll probably get much faster turnaround if you catch problems right away.
2. Example: "I got your track, but it looks like you sent me the full mix, not just your isolated vocals. Can you please re-bounce and re-send?"
3. Example: "... , but it's missing the sync tone at the beginning ..."
4. Example: "... , but it's swimming in reverb. Can you make a dry version please?
As the mix evolves, provide new demo mixes
1. Why: Your collaborators might hear something on the new demo mix that they didn't before, and this may inspire them to submit another part(s).
2. Example: Everyone provides their verse/chorus takes. You make a rough mix of this and send that new mix out to the collaborators. A collaborator then might want to send you ANOTHER track to add harmonies to someone's verses, or to the chorus, or whatever. You could build your chorus harmonies one-collaborator-at-a-time like this, if you had the patience for it.

To the Mix collaborator(s)

Include the sync tone and/or click sequence in the files you send me!
1. "Whaa?" - Yeah, you know, those goofy sounds at the beginning of the track(s) I sent you. Make sure that when you send me your isolated take(s), that it also has this tone on it, exactly as it lined up with my original track.
2. Why: I'll use this to figure out how to line up what you send me.
3. Note: Yes, this implies that ALL the tracks you send me start at the same time: at the beginning of the song. For example, if you're "just" recording the last verse, your track will have a sync tone and/or click sequence at the beginning, followed by a lot of silence, followed by your take.
4. Note: If you want to clip off your recording early, that's OK, but the beginning needs to match. So for example, if you're "just" recording the first verse, your track will have a sync tone and/or click sequence at the beginning, followed by a little silence, followed by your take, and that's the end of your output. That's OK! No need to add more silence to the tail.
The output format matters!
1. Bitrate: 16- or 24-bit. Theoretically, the more the better, so I can play with the volume without introducing more artifacts.
2. File format: I'll take just about any format, but since you asked:
  1. Lossy (e.g. MP3, Ogg Vorbis, AC3): 160kbps-320kbps please. VBR or ABR preferred, but CBR is okay.
  2. Lossless (e.g. WAV, AIFF, FLAC): Yes, please!
    1. If you want to compress these (e.g. by putting them in a RAR or 7-Zip archive) to cut the size in half, go for it. You can download 7-Zip at http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Please send dry tracks where possible
1. Example: Your vocal track should not have any extra audio compression, reverb, echoes, EQ, pitch correction (a.k.a. AutoTune), etc. It should just be the 'raw' sound of you through your mic.
2. Example: If you recorded a direct-in guitar track (e.g. to be virtually amped), send me that take. Don't send me the virtual-amped version, except as a reference.
3. Example: Don't use spatial effects or tricks on your track (to make it sound wider than it is, for example). This can also affect the mono mix in ways I can't always clean up.
4. Why: This gives your track more flexibility when it comes to fitting your track into the mix. We might want to use a different reverb later, compress your audio, use a noise gate, etc. If you have extra effects on your track, you make my job a lot tougher.
5. Exception: "Artistic" effects (effects that give your track a special, hard-to-recreate flavor) are an exception to the rule. In this case, please send me your effected track, AND a dry track separately. This will let me see what you're doing, potentially using your effected take, OR I still have the flexibility of tweaking the dry take.
Send me individual tracks, not your "mix" of them
1. Example: If you doubled your [vocals, guitars, etc], then send me two separate files: 1 with your first take by itself, and 1 with the other take by itself.
2. Example: If you overlayed vocals for Verse 2 with the end of your Chorus take (such that two of you are singing at the same time), send those two parts to me as separate tracks. I might need to pitch-correct them, and I can't do this for overlapping takes.
Pay attention to mono vs stereo
1. Example: If you are sending me a mono track, save it to a 'mono' file if possible. (Not necessary, but ideal)
2. Example: If you are sending me a stereo track, save it to a 'stereo' file. (Don't downmix to mono!)
3. Example: If you're not sure what you're sending me, save it to a 'stereo' file. I'll figure it out.
4. Why: This saves me time/confusion when trying to build the mix, and saves disk space [for mono files]
Send as few tracks as necessary
1. Example: If you recorded a Verse 1 take, a Verse 2 take, and a Chorus take, and none of them overlap each other, send this all as 1 file instead of 3 separate files.
2. Example: If you recorded 5 chorus takes, take the time to clean them up and/or pick the best 1 or 2 and just send those. (Or alternatively, put all 5 chorus takes, well-timed, on the same file and I can overlay them)
3. Why: It's hard to navigate/mix a song that has tons of unnecessary tracks. This should save me time and reduce the number of mistakes I make (timing-wise, and attention-wise).
Pay attention to timing on your overlays
1. If you're recording something that's meant to be overlayed with something else (e.g. your vocals with another collaborator's vocals), pay special attention to your timing.
2. Example: Pay attention to the attack/start and cut-off/end of each word, to make sure your timing matches. If they say "duuuuuuuuude", don't overlay "dude" or "duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude" unless it's really meant to be the effect. Shoot for "duuuuuuuuude" plus or minus a "u".
3. Example: Pay particular attention to consonant sounds like "T", "D", "K", etc; these will be the most apparent when timing is off.
4. Why: The differences will become more apparent, and probably annoying, the more we overlay people's tracks. So each contributor needs to be diligent about their timing, such that it doesn't make the final mix sound sloppy.
5. Note: Yes, there will always be slight differences in timing. Very slight differences are fine. Artistic differences are fine. Even marginal differences can be cleaned up in editing by the mixer, but this takes extra time and might create more artifacts. If you can do it as part of your take without compromising the 'feel' of your take, please do.
If you don't want people to hear it, don't send it to me
1. Anything you send might [intentionally or accidentally] end up in the final mix.
2. Example: If you don't like a certain take, take that out before sending it to me.
If you have special concerns/instructions, make sure I'm aware of them
1. Example: If you want me to fix your pitch in a certain part, please let me know the exact part of the lyrics you want corrected. I might not notice it otherwise unless it's blatantly off.

Guidelines for pre-mastering

Here are a bunch of pre-mastering guidelines. So far I've avoided comments related to compilation-level guidelines (e.g. documenting the order of the tracks, legal rights, etc) and tried to focus on track-level guidelines for the mixing engineer to follow.

Some notes were paraphrased from:

1) The book "Mixing Audio Concepts", by Roey Izaki.
2) http://musicproducersforum.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/tips-for-the-mix-to-the-master/
3) http://stardeltamastering.com/pre-mastering-advice/
4) http://www.guitar9.com/columnist370.html
5) http://www.beatportal.com/feed/item/dont-cripple-the-mastering-engineer/
6) http://www.zonesevenrecordings.com/index2.php?page=5&nav=3

And the notes:

Clean up your tracks; make sure you're happy with the mix!
1. Example: Listen to solo'd versions of all your tracks and clean up unwanted mistakes/noise.
2. Why: It's a lot easier to do this in the mixing phase than the mastering phase.
Eliminate non-artistic effects/settings that are applied to the stereo mix
1. Why: The mastering engineer can probably do it better than you. (They have better skills, equipment and environments for this sort of thing.)
2. Why 2: As part of mastering, some of these effects will get louder, to the point where you might not want it (e.g. loud reverb).
3. Why 3: You're making the mastering engineer's job harder, and that could result in an inferior product.
4. Example: Eliminate limiting/maximizing/compression plug-ins on the master bus
5. Example: Don't dither or noise-shape!
6. Example: Don't EQ the mix on the master bus
7. Example: Review your reverbs to make sure they're not incredibly loud/noticeable.
Leave a few seconds at the beginning and end of each mix; don't fade the ends
1. Example: Don't fade the intro and outro of the song. Instead, provide the exact fade times if they are important to you, and let the mastering engineer do it.
2. Why: This gives the mastering engineer more freedom to do their own fades. And they'll probably do it better, in the context of the surrounding songs on the tracklist.
3. Why 2: This can provide an isolated noise sample for noise reduction.
Leave 3dB to 10dB of headroom; avoid clipping
1. Example: Don't normalize the track
2. Example: Watch for clipping, or going "in the red" (above -3dB)
3. Why: To avoid clipping issues at bounce-time and due to D/A conversion or EQ boosts.
4. Note: Some places say "at least 3db", others say "-3db to -6db", others say "-3db to 10db".
Use stereo interleaved WAV files
1. Why: The WAV file format enjoys good cross-platform support, and is lossless
2. Example: Don't submit your mix as an MP3 nor AIFF
3. Example: Don't submit separate mono WAV files for the Left and Right channels individually
Don't downgrade the audio quality of the mix when you bounce it
1. Example: If some/all of the takes were 24-bit depth, don't bounce to 16-bit
2. Example: If the takes' sample rate was 48khz, don't bounce to 44.1khz
3. Why: To give the mastering engineer the highest quality bounce you can, relative to the source material. This gives them more detail to play with.
4. Why 2: The mastering engineer likely has better resampling and analog <-> digital conversion tools than you do.
5. Corollary: Record at the highest bit depth possible.
Clearly label your file(s)
1. Why: To avoid accidental misplacement/confusion/frustration/wasted-time regarding your submissions.
2. Example details to include:
  1. Artist Name (e.g. "John Doe")
  2. Track Name or Identifier (e.g. "Track 5", or "Sweet Street" or whatever)
  3. Mix Flavor (e.g. Vox Up, Vox Down, Radio Edit, Kick Up, Karaoke, Instrumental, etc)
  4. Example filename: JohnDoe_Song1_VoxUpMix.wav
Consider submitting vox-up and vox-down mixes (+- 0.5 to 2db)
1. Why: "due to the potentially desirable gluing effect of the mastering process, especially for vinyl.". What?! (per http://stardeltamastering.com/pre-mastering-advice/)
If submitting via CD, take care to ensure a quality burn and delivery
1. Example: Don't skimp on the media; buy a respected brand name of disc
2. Example: Burn and submit two copies of the same disc in case one becomes damaged
3. Example: When burning, don't skip the "verify" process where the burning app verifies the data it just wrote
4. Example: Submit your song as a 'data disc', not a CDDA (CD Audio), which doesn't have nearly as good error-correction/detection.
Consider submitting a reference mastered version
1. Why: The mastering engineer can use this as a reference to understand the sound you intended, and it can help them achieve that sound.

Submitted by

Das Binky on Mon, 06/28/2010 - 11:22