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Songwriting without meeting up (aka online)


xgsjx
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My band only get to jam about 1-2 times every month, mainly due to us all working different shifts.

This got me thinking, what about doing the songwriting at home & collaborating online in our own time.

Not having done this before, I'm not quite sure the best way to go about this.
I have Logic Pro X, but not sure what the rest of the band use, but I'm sure they could download Reaper or something similar.

What's the best way to transfer files? WAVs could be quite big for email & I've not much dropbox room left. What other online options for file sharing are there?

I'm hoping this thread can not only help me, but be a good place for people to share ideas & new methods as they come out.

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Very easy to do! Some quick tips:

1) Everyone can contribute to the process, but you ideally want one person bringing it all together and controlling the 'master copy' of the mix. Otherwise it's easy to lose track of where the song is up to. Too many cooks, etc.

2) It's nice if you're all using the same software, but not essential. The advantage of using the same 'ware is that you can share project files with FX settings intact and fully 'tweakable'. But I've never found the need to do this myself... it's generally much simpler to share WAV files but keep everything as dry as possible, within reason - so that any post-production FX can be added the person nominated to be in charge of the overall mix. This of course doesn't preclude - eg. a guitar from recording something through their favourite valve amp fully cranked. What you want to avoid is that same guitarist then adding, say, reverb as an after effect and supplying the WAV with the reverb applied.

3) SoundCloud is useful because it allows everyone in the band to comment on specific parts of the track. For file sharing I personally use WeTransfer.com

PS: if this thread takes off I'm stealing it and moving it to the Recording forum :)

Edited by Skol303
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[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1501754568' post='3347098']
PS: if this thread takes off I'm stealing it and moving it to the Recording forum :)
[/quote]

Cheers Paul.

I was originally going to post it in the recording forum, but then I thought more people might see it here.
Do feel free to move it if you like.

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Apart from Skol's suggestions, Cubase/Nuendo users have a great option. Steinberg 'VST Pro', it's perfect for this. (no good for the OP and Logic, I know - But maybe useful for other Cubase users).
I have been using this for a while with a guy in LA and it works great (although I am mostly using it for Midi).

https://www.steinberg.net/en/products/vst/vst_connect/vst_connect_pro.html

There is also 'VST Transit' in Cubase for collaborating.
http://youtu.be/9cBZTx76px0?t=1m35s

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I tended to do the bulk of the writing and pretty much just sat in front of a PC plugging away on DAW software, then I'd circulate. All good.

The main issues (aside from not even bothering to listen to what I'd done) is/was discipline, laziness and ignorance on the part of band-members when they tried to collaborate. Corrupted session files, not knowing how to use the DAW software, recirculated files that were all mixed with all vocal or all guitar, or even better, overdubs that weren't even in time because of latency issues. I've just started a new project where we're going to try and send sessions around, but part of me is dreading that unless the guy I'm working with knows what he's doing, I might be doing more firefighting than writing.

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I did something similar a few years back with a guitarist/singer friend of mine. It was easy with just the 2 of us. We just emailed mp3 files of each other's dry tracks back and forth. Converted to WAV and dragged into reaper. It was just a writing effort, not a finished product so quality wasn't the primary concern really...

Edited by Bigwan
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Good point being made about the other members being the main obstacle.
At present, the idea is to have somewhere we can write the songs & then bring them to rehearsal to play.
That's not to say as things progress, this could be a good way of doing demos.

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I do this all the time with the singer in my current project. I record a bass riff or riffs (sometimes the entire song structure on bass only), send it to him via Dropbox and, if we both agree there's something workable then I start to build on it with ezdrummer and various VSTi plugins. Once the song is more or less complete we then get together to dissect it and improve on it. As for lyrics, sometimes I will have something in mind and sometimes he will. He does shift work and we both have family commitments so this is currently our best option. Various versions will be sent via Dropbox and, at the final stage, we move into the live room and jam it out making tweaks and changes on the fly.

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[quote name='rubis' timestamp='1502227065' post='3350157']
Would this be of help
[url="https://www.kompoz.com/music/"]https://www.kompoz.com/music/[/url]
[/quote]

I'll have a closer look at that. It looks a bit like Blend.io which I'm already using for remixing people's songs.
I think I might have answered my own question. Blend used to use Dropbox for sharing files, but now has it's own upload space.

What about online DAWs, such as Ohm Studio? I'm the only one with a DAW just now.
The drummer used to have Cubase, but when he changed PCs, he couldn't find the discs (he is gonna see if he can download it & if there's a way to retrieve his license).
The guitarist & singer don't have DAWs & have never had one. I was thinking Reaper & giving them both a run through on how to use it.

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