Helpful tips for internet collaborating! by Bob, 10/17/09 00:42:41

Internet collaborating can be an enjoyable way to create diverse music. The process can either be a simple one, or a cause of major headaches. It all depends on how you go about planning, preparing and sending session files.

Here are a few tips to help ensure your experience is a successful one.


1. Preparing files.

If you are looking for a vocal part in a song, for instance, you wouldn't need to send all of the track sessions to the vocalist. They would simply need a sub-mix of the song. The sub-mix can even be in .mp3 format to decrease the file size, and speed this step up exponentially. As long as you send the complete session mix. Don't cut or slice anything from the beginning of the sub-mix. Even if there is a 10 second pause before the first note. This will help with importing the file you receive from your fellow collaborator.

Instruct your fellow collaborator to save their track in a non-compressed file form. Do not use .mp3 formats for this step. They are a compressed audio format, and cause quality loss. A .wav file (PCM .wav) is considered the industry standard for non-compressed audio files. Every DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) is compatible with .wav files, so this should not pose any problems. Make sure no editing is done to the track. The same rule applies here as in the case with your initial sub-mix. Once again, this will ensure that everything lines up after importing the track(s).

2. Sending files.

There are a number of file-sharing website these days. Most will offer a free membership, but will limit the size of files that may be transferred. FTP sites are another option, but can be complicated to access without proper training. Wav-Etrain.com offers free membership with 500 megabytes of storage, and the ability to transfer files as big as 100 megabytes. If you don't already have a membership with Wav-Etrain.com, I suggest you create one, as the rest of this section deals with transferring files via Wav-Etrain.com

After creating your account, log in and click the 'control panel' link in the main page side menu. This will take you to your artist control panel. On the left, you will see a list of links available. Click the 'create song' link. You will then be brought to a new page with options to name the song, find the song on your computer, and an option to upload an image for the song(optional). You will also have the option to set the availability of the song. Either 'stream only', 'download only', or both 'stream and download'. You will want to ensure that all .wav files are set to 'download only' (.Wav files are uncompressed, therefore they are extremely large files. When streaming files, you are listening to them in real-time - the larger the file, the more chances for errors in streaming).

Immediately after uploading the track file, it will be available for download. Be sure to delete all .wav files from Wav-Etrain.com when the collaboration is complete.

3. Importing track files.

If you followed the first two tips, this should be an easy step. Simply load the session file in your DAW, and find your import (or insert track) tool. If you remembered to send unedited files, everything should line up perfectly. If not, then you will have to manually align the tracks.

Good luck and happy collaborating!

And remember, you can always host your collaborations on Wav-Etrain.com for free as well!