Long Distance Collaboration

M

machinetodd

New member
I am about to begin a collaboration on a project with a friend on the other side of the country. We both use Cubase as our DAWs(he has AI5, I have Studio4).

Other than doing audio mixdowns of each track, then emailing and lining up the track at 0.0.0. is there a better way to do this.

I looked on line for a collaboration website of sorts, but didnt really find what I was looking for, I know some of you work like this and I am looking for advice on the best way to bang this out.

Ultimately I am the "master" studio, all mixing will be done on my DAW once all tracks are recorded.

Thanks!
 
Personally, I prefer to use uncompressed audio, which makes emailing individual tracks sort of cumbersome...and depending on your email provider...impossible. It's just a difficult thing to email 8 drum tracks at 55MB each. At least it was a couple of years ago when I still cared about collabs.

But I know there are lots of file sharing services out there...like "you send it." I'm a fan of using an actual server and ftp that all parties can get access to.

Also...don't necessarily trust the 0.0.000 line-up thing. ESPECIALLY if one of you is converting files to mp3's before emailing them. Many converters add a little bit of time onto the beginning of a file when it's converted.

Other than that...what you're talking about is how I've always done it.
 
All files are actually going to be Wavs. There are also several sites that will email files up to 2 gb in size for free.

I am fully aware at what a pain in the ass it is, especially, like you said 8 individual drum tracks at 55-100mb each.

Thats why Im looking for advice
 
I've done exactly this with people literally hundreds of times. I've never had an issue with tracks lining up and starting at 0:00:00. It's really just a matter of finding the easiest way to e-mail or share the files. Even with different DAWs (I use REAPER) it's not a problem.

I'm lucky enough to have my own website. So, all I have to do once I record a track is put it up on my website and have the other person go download it.
 
It would be best if you both had the same program. Then you could just send the whole project folder back n forth.
 
I've done this a brazillion times and counting... I'm with Rami as I have my own site and set up an FTP account for folks to send/receive...

Since you're going to be doing the mixing, it's really not necessary for you to be sending waves to your partner... All that is needed is a quality mp3 as a scratch of your stuff for them to follow and record to...

Lining up at 0:00:00 is pretty constant since you'll not be leaving the digital realm, but I always make sure to add 4 to 8 audio counts/clicks/plucks at the beginning to help folks line things up visually as well...

Good luck! :)
 
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