Online Collaboration

Perdicament

Perdicament

New member
I am trying to set up an online collaboration for some songs. My question is: Does it matter if the parties involved are using different equiptment and software to record their tracks???
I was told that there will be problems with sync'ing everything up. I didn't think this would be an issue as long as whatever people use to record with is then exported into a .wav file..I then could import into Cubase the tracks.
For example: say we start off with a drum & bass tracks...then one person d/l those tracks and adds their contribution..they then in return send me the wav file of their music and I import it. and so on....with about 5-6 different people... is there any problems I should know about beforehand... BTW, I'm sure that the other people will be using different programs to record with, it won't all be done on cubase... but as long as I have their .wav file I was thinking there shouldn't be a problem...am I wrong?
 
No, you are not wrong. The CAN be problems lining things up, but the trick is to use a couple bars of click on the front of each .wav that can be used to line tracks up should it become a problem.

Personally, I never have issues with it.

a site I hang at that we do this alot is... www.artistcollaboration.com

cheers,
C
 
Ok, cool, I didn't think there should be a problem, but I've never done this before, so after his post I thought there might be unforseen problems that I was not aware of. Here is his post that made me wonder:

"Unless you use the same software, the timing will shift significantly... most audio recording cards run off their own internal clocks and they aren't all the same. Using the same software will make up for the clock inaccuarcies and maintain the time base from one computer to the next."

That is a direct quote. Does it make any sence? Because I'm not sure how he came up with that statement..
 
There may be some truth to that quote but I wouldn't say it's carved in stone, unless you are trying to share a particular project file as a whole. Each different program uses different project files. However many programs support OMF and Broadcast wave. There may be instances where certain programs don't do a very good job of detecting and offsetting of recording latency. In that case, using the same program as everyone else may help.
The main thing with collaborating, is to supply the tracks in a mixed-down form. That way the starting points of each .wav file will be the same regardless of where the actual audio starts within the duration of the song.
And, yes, adding a few bars of a click track to the beginning will help in the event that recording latency causes any sync issues. Not to mention giving an audible cue.
Along with artistcollaboration.com you can check out The Recording Project. There is a collaborations section in the discussion forum.
 
Thanks for the help...that is what I thought..but since I never did this before I found myself second guessing myself. Much appreciated! :)
 
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