Online Musical Collaboration

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Doug Eisengrein

CHECK OUT YOUR VARIOUS OPTIONS FOR COLLABORATING WITH DISTANT CREATIVE TYPES

The communication that the Internet has wrought on our planet can be summed up by the famous children's song “It's a Small World After All.” Just 15 or 20 years ago, we traveled to record stores with four walls and a ceiling to purchase all of our music, and if we wanted to collaborate with musicians in other countries, it was off to the airport or train depot. Nowadays, we download our music, and to collaborate with distant musicians we only have to travel as far as our computer room.

OLD-SCHOOL STYLE

Internet-based audio collaboration is still in its infancy. Yet long before the term Web 2.0 existed, there was tried-and-true FTP. Typing “ftp://” followed by a specific address into an FTP-supported browser lets you send files to a remote server, where collaborator/clients can do the same to download them. For some, this might seem absurd to point out, yet I'm always surprised at how many veteran producers either don't know about FTP or rarely use it.

FTP via a browser is usually cumbersome; a stand-alone FTP program is a far better choice. Many good ones are free, such as FileZilla (filezilla-project.org) for Mac, Windows and Linux. If you either don't have access to a file server or don't want to coach people on FTP, then sign up with an easy-to-use, all-in-one server storage and FTP service. Box (www.box.net) is one such service, featuring everything from a free account with 1 GB of storage to enterprise-level packages. There are many others, but the beauty of these services is that you can upload your files and generate a simple Web link that others use to download, with no installs required. Then, go to work on your tracking session, zip up the entire song or project package when you are done and send it off for your collaborator/clients to grab.

KEEPING IT REAL TIME

Although we're still a long way from Web-based audio applications as comprehensive as Pro Tools, Live or Reason, there are still some very cool things out there. Why would you bother working with online software when you can just upload and download Pro Tools sessions to and from anywhere? Three reasons: compatibility, hard drive space and new collaborators. What happens if you work on a Reason session and have included that perfect patch from a ReFill that your collaborator in Brazil doesn't own? If you're working with the same online app, that problem is negated; your systems will be fully compatible. Also, with some online apps, you don't sacrifice any disk space for the software, and sometimes not even for multiple tracks of audio. Perhaps best of all, with some apps such as eJamming, you can tap into valuable resources of built-in social networks.

Let's take a look at what's out there, remembering that this is not a comprehensive list. Source Elements (www.sourceelements.com) brings us Source-Connect ($1,495) and Source-Live ($395). The first is an application designed for real-time audio connections linking two or more studios anywhere in the world, while the second is a plug-in that allows a real-time outbound broadcast of your studio. Source-Connect allows two or more studios to record over the Internet direct to each other's DAW timelines. Compressed AAC audio is used for the stream, while the proprietary Auto-Replace technology allows the uncompressed PCM audio to replace the AAC recording on the receiving end. Both technologies are Mac and Windows compatible, and are available for Pro Tools and VST; Audio Units is available for Source-Connect only.

eJamming (www.eJamming.com) serves up eJamming AUDiiO, a simple yet cool online music-collaboration platform that allows multiple musicians to plug in and play together. The interface is immediately friendly to anyone familiar with multitrack DAWs. Musicians can play either live instruments or MIDI tracks into a session in real time, and while the audio stream uses a proprietary compression/decompression algorithm, uncompressed versions of the recorded tracks can be uploaded to one-another for mixdown. Songs and sessions can be saved, and networking profiles and tools add to the allure. At the time of this writing, eJamming was in beta and free for anyone. Prime-time pricing has yet to be determined, but is rumored to be a negligable monthly fee.

Beaterator (www.beaterator.com/beaterator.html) is another freebie, but this one is a Compact Flash-based sequencer aimed squarely at the electronic crowd. Though basic, Beaterator is a great idea sketchpad that will be immediately usable by anyone familiar with Ableton Live or standard-fare MIDI sequencers. The interface is sectioned into several mini-windows: a 60-bar, 8-track loop sequencer; a 5-track loop generator; a loop bin; a virtual MIDI keyboard; and a very basic effects bus. Though it doesn't compete with hardcore professional sequencers, it is an intuitive and fun environment for laying out ideas and creating loops. It's great for beginners, and the built-in loops hail from electronic music luminaries, including Juan Atkins, King Britt and Matthew Dear.

GOING CORPORATE

These apps bring up some questions: What if the features in such online apps aren't enough? What if you are dedicated to a certain program? Or you and your collaborators don't want to give up working in a wide variety of applications? Desktop-sharing applications such as Citrix GoToMeeting (www.gotomeeting.com) are worth investigating. Don't be put off by the corporate look and feel of such Websites. GoToMeeting lets you host browser-based, scheduled or on-the-fly sessions where you present your group with a simple Web link and telephone number to call. Once everyone is logged in, you can share your desktop — either a specific program or your entire screen. You can hand over your keyboard and mouse controls, trade files, etc.; typically, text chat is built in if you don't want to use the phone. GoToMeeting is relatively pricey: $49 per month or $39 per month if you sign up for a year. But that beats the price of planes, hotels and meals on the road.

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