Online Collaboration

[HeadCrusher]

Hey guys,

first-time poster here, hello everyone.
Hope that's the correct sub-forum...

I'm thinking about pulling of a project involving a lot of people from all around the world. Maybe an EP or even a whole album. I was thinking to involve other musicians, engineers and producers all through the web.

Now I've done quite a few online collaborations in the past but only with people I already knew. It's been a couple of years though and right now I'm just trying to find out what the current way to do something like that is.

How do you guys handle online collaborations these days? How do you find like-minded musicians, producers etc.? Do you do it just through the forum(s) or some other way?

Any input is much appreciated, thanks guys.

 

[mjbphotos]

The same problems happen online as in-person: finding others who have the same musical vision and commitment.

 

[PTravel]

I collaborate with a writing partner, but I'm exclusively responsible for music (we do lyrics together). We worked together long before there was an internet, so I can't help much when it comes to finding collaborators. As for methodology, we use plain 'ole Skype. Because of the inherent latency of the internet, real-time collaboration with live music is impossible and there is no way around that that I'm aware. I send her mp3s of the music, either via email or Google Docs. We physically write on Google Docs, which lets us each edit the same document in real time. Occasionally, I'll use the file exchange capability of Skype to send mp3s or PDFs of scores from Finale. For recording (only rough demos for ourselves) I've given her a decent mike and stand and an audio interface. She's Mac and I'm PC, but I set her up with a simple DAW (I don't recall which at the moment -- maybe Reaper) and Finale Notepad so she can see scores with lyrics. It's not the best working methodology, but we can get the job done this way. We both find that the ability to see each other via Skype is a surprisingly important factor in our collaboration.

 

[HeadCrusher]

I guess I'm looking for some place/site/forum/whatever where everybody interested in online collaborations meets w/o having to go through countless forums and other sites...

I don't suppose some place like that exists?

I did stuff via email, dropbox etc. in the past but it's really a pita and it takes a lot of time to get to know forums and the people that frequent it...