Remote Recording - Any Experience?

[christian_99]

Anyone have any experience with remote recording other musicians for your tracks? Would love to hear about it.

 

[Papanate]

Anyone have any experience with remote recording other musicians for your tracks? Would love to hear about it.

Yeah - what do you want to know? I've had complicated Trucks - to a simple Computer Setup - depends on what results you are looking for.

 

[grimtraveller]

Anyone have any experience with remote recording other musicians for your tracks? Would love to hear about it.

I've recorded people on vocals, piano, electric piano, drums, clarinet, recorder and flute and I've recorded trains, birds, planes, people in all manner of places {restaurants, shops, on the bus etc}, fights, arguments, teachers, cows, sheep, dogs, flies, helicopters, kids, rain, traffic, the sea etc. I've done so using a Fostex X-15, a Tascam 488 and a Zoom H1. I was recording a friend of mine doing some vocals for me just 2 days ago, in her shed in her garden on my Akai DPS 12i.
Personally, I prefer not to go remote but needs must.

 

[TalismanRich]

I've done remote recordings, but used all in one units, starting with an AW16G Yamaha, and now I use a Zoom R-24. No need for USB cables and interfaces and computers. No latency issues. The Zoom is roughly the same size as my laptop. A cheap aluminum Harbor freight case of microphones, a little bag of mic cables and headphones, and another Harbor Freight case for the Zoom. The mic stands are the most awkward part of the whole setup.

 

[Deleted member 196982]

Anyone have any experience with remote recording other musicians for your tracks? Would love to hear about it.

Do you mean where you would go and set up and record, or where the other musicians would do their own thing and "phone it in," so to speak? I've done both. The former works better than the latter for many reasons.

 

[christian_99]

Do you mean where you would go and set up and record, or where the other musicians would do their own thing and "phone it in," so to speak? I've done both. The former works better than the latter for many reasons.

Yeah, I'm focusing more on the latter. Where you hire a musician away from your studio to record remotely, and you "phone it in".

 

[spantini]

I've hired an online musician for a guitar track. He supplied wet and dry tracks and I blended them into my mix. I sent him a rough mix of an unfinished song explaining the section he was to fill (e.g., 1:59 - 3:07). He'd send me his takes, I would make suggestions, he'd send a revised take, and so on until I was satisfied. I think we did that one in three takes. I paid him his fee and he released his takes for me to download.

 

[TalismanRich]

Obviously I misunderstood what you were asking. My bad....

 

[Deleted member 196982]

Yeah, I'm focusing more on the latter. Where you hire a musician away from your studio to record remotely, and you "phone it in".

So, I've only done that during the period of lockdown. I was mainly doing "mobile" recording before that, and it was something for me to do with time and give some other folks who were going crazy something to do. Only one person had done anything like that before, and and maybe a couple others had done some studio work, so at least had a clue what I was asking for.

It depends a lot on the level of experience your "audience" has with recording themselves and what kind of equipment they have, their recording space (i.e., for vocal or acoustic instruments), and how well you can communicate what you need, and then their ability to actually do that. If they're pros that do it all the time, it should be pretty straightforward, though you have to be absolutely clear on the deliverable(s) you expect, format and how to send them (Dropbox, et al.) in any case. If they don't understand what you are saying, and not everyone will come out and say that right away, it can get tedious. I had some folks will deliver a file/stem that has been processed to satisfy themselves, regardless that they'd told to just deliver something completely dry. And some folks may just have a pretty bad space or equipment for recording. Big mixes can cover up a lot, but small projects leave everything out in the open.

You might start with something like just a duo to get your workflow beta-tested and smoothed out.

I always start with a decent but simple backing track with a long enough count-in for them to work with. Get at least a couple takes if you can and plan to do some comping if you're not paying them by the minute.

 

[christian_99]

So, I've only done that during the period of lockdown. I was mainly doing "mobile" recording before that, and it was something for me to do with time and give some other folks who were going crazy something to do. Only one person had done anything like that before, and and maybe a couple others had done some studio work, so at least had a clue what I was asking for.

It depends a lot on the level of experience your "audience" has with recording themselves and what kind of equipment they have, their recording space (i.e., for vocal or acoustic instruments), and how well you can communicate what you need, and then their ability to actually do that. If they're pros that do it all the time, it should be pretty straightforward, though you have to be absolutely clear on the deliverable(s) you expect, format and how to send them (Dropbox, et al.) in any case. If they don't understand what you are saying, and not everyone will come out and say that right away, it can get tedious. I had some folks will deliver a file/stem that has been processed to satisfy themselves, regardless that they'd told to just deliver something completely dry. And some folks may just have a pretty bad space or equipment for recording. Big mixes can cover up a lot, but small projects leave everything out in the open.

You might start with something like just a duo to get your workflow beta-tested and smoothed out.

I always start with a decent but simple backing track with a long enough count-in for them to work with. Get at least a couple takes if you can and plan to do some comping if you're not paying them by the minute.

Great to hear all of this man, appreciate it!