collaborations: vf80 v. pro tools

[robjh22]

Hello! Ain't been around in a while. Some serious professional probs have been keeping me distracted. Since being here last, I got a little perspective on on line collaborations that I thought I'd share: a buddy of mine on a guitar forum suggested a collaboration. I put down one track of a lute duet on my vf80, made a cd of the file, converted the cd to mp3 on the computer, uploaded the mp3 to my website, and posted a link to the mp3 on that board.

Friend 1 says: "Thanks, I'll have my son extract your mp3 to a CD, take it to another friend's house who is in to home recording, lay down my track, get a cd of the collaboration, etc.. (mirroring my effort).

Friend 2 on the board interlopes and says: "Can I play too?"

Moi: "Sure."

THE NEXT DAY, up comes a new mp3 on the board with my part and Friend 2's part overlaid, while friend 1 is still working on extracting the first mp3. Friend 2 did it all at his computer using pro tools. I have to tell you, I like my Fostex, but I am very impressed with the ease with which friend 2 got this done without ever leaving his work station and while Friend 1 and I were busy TALKING about it. With pro tools, you apparently can just grab an mp3 right off a board, import it into the pro tools program, designate that imported file as "track1," lay down a second track, master, give it a name, and you're done. What do you think? I say all of us should become more conversant with each others' rigs so that we can actually play some music together. And then ask ourselves this: assuming no portability issues, do we really need a studio in a box? Or do we just like toys?

p.s. I know someone will say: "But mp3's are too compressed." Yes, that's true, but I would be lying to you if I did not admit the mp3 sounds pretty faithful to the original cd I made. The final result is ragged, but that's a music issue, not a tech issue.