Online Bands - How?

[ODH]

I'm really interested in the dynamics / mechanics / practicalities of how the online band works.

To me, being in a band is to do with the synergies, the resonances, the whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts stuff that comes with a group of individuals sharing the same space creatively and coming up with something which they couldn't have come up with on their own, even for their own contributions.

Then once the song is a thing, how is it actually performed and recorded?  It seems to me doing this in an online environment presents management / leadership challenges as well as technical ones.  I'm dimly aware of online real-time collaboration tools which should make it easier but how well do they work?  Or maybe the whole process is completely reliant on them?

I'd like to think that GarageBand would enable shared creativity of this sort, but I'm not sure it does.

Anyway I'm rambling now.  I'd love to get an band together for the fest (I have a name and a concept for it etc.)
but I'm don't have the first clue how to go about it.

[Mach]

Hi Nick,

Are you talking about doing an online jam session via Skype or some other app with IM/video calls?
Or just collabs and ideas by sending files back & forth?

I have done the jam session thing on Skype and it depends on the streaming and if you have some sort of latency.
Me and some others did an acoustic thing and sometimes it worked well and others not so much.

I believe the best way is to have the same software (but not necessary) as the other parties involved to
send sessions back and forth to keep all the plug-ins, parameters and files in one nice little package. I did
it this way a few times with other people in the past using Adobe Audition and had a folder for the music files.
The way I usually do collabs is to send ideas via dropbox (or email and RAR the files for decompression if possible)
and share a collab folder the other end. Try to keep them as .wav files. This way you usually won't lose much clarity.

Now as far as ideas to throw out there, someone in the band has to start with a rough draft most of the time and
everyone takes it and builds from there. I have done several takes with different genre feels and instruments on one
song a friend of mine sent to me and we still haven't decided which route to take.

I've seen GarageBand on YouTube videos and it looks like a great DAW, but I'm not familiar with it's workings. Someone
here who uses it might like to chime in on their review of GB.

There is really nothing set in stone to do this, just be creative. Just my 2bits.

Mach

[Hook]

As far as The BruHooJar Band, we've done everything like a typical collaboration. I've sent the guys the skeleton of the song, chordprogression, vocals if I have them. Then they each do their thing to my track, send me thier tracks and I've mixed & mastered them.
It would be cool to jam live, perhaps we should look into that.
Do it brother!

[Oldrottenhead]

in a word "onedrive" upload your bits for others to dally with, in Jemima's kite that's what we do, tho not for a while, be great to get the buggers off there arse for this fest.

over the years of collaborating online I have found that sharing wav files this way works best. back in the day we/i would do our collabs with mp3's but then we would find strange sync issues popping up, so shifted to sharing wavs to avoid this.

a few tips,

1. everyone work from the same original wav file. to keep everyone in sync.

2. after any additions send your individual parts and an "unmastered mix", sometimes is easier to use the mix for additions and final master, but if submix is mastered can cause probs down the line.

3. when collaborating don't be afraid to be brutally honest to each other, but in private, if you think the way things are going is shit say so.

4. it's hard to be brutally honest with complete strangers, so helps if you have a relationship beforehand, albeit an online one.

5. working with others, is good for the soul, personal development, strange surprises et al.

6. i love this place.

[Redler]

1. everyone work from the same original wav file. to keep everyone in sync.


6. i love this place.

That's important. I've faced sync problems with mp3 files, it's really annoying.

[Flash Harry]

James is a lunatic.

[T.C. Elliott]

Working from the same WAV file is great. You can also use a test tone at the beginning of each track you send. So you have a beep or tone of say, one bar that everyone puts at 0:00 - Then you merely line up the tone and all parts should sync.

However, I rarely use that technique myself as most people either send me a WAV that I can then add to or I send them a WAV that they then add to. (Actually, most of my collaborations are of the take a lyric and turn it into a song variety, although there are exceptions.)

[bostjan]

I've had mostly good luck with the site splice.

I strongly recommend keeping everything at the same tempo in your recording software, and furthermore naming your files so that they include the tempo.

For example, if I record a guitar track at 140 BPM in the key of E major for a song called "White," I would name the file " White_BoZu_guitar_140BMP_E.wav " it seems long winded, but it can save a lot of hassle in case something ever becomes unclear to anyone involved in the collaboration.

Also, maybe this is obvious to everyone, but it's much easier if all of the wav files synch up at the beginning.  So, even if your part doesn't come in until 1:46, leave 1:46 of silence in there, just so there is no guesswork later on about how things line up.  If you tell the person mixing down to just start your part at 1:46, that still leaves ±1 second of uncertainty lining things up, and timing is everything, right down to the millisecond, so leaving that huge silent space at the beginning, as cumbersome as it makes the files to transfer, will save a headache at the end.

Working from the same .wav is a fine idea, but it does really limit flexibility with mixing and so forth.  I suppose you could keep each iteration of the file and keep your own separated parts individually, in case you need a remix later on.  But with how easy it is to transfer data these days, and how flexible recording software has become, I would recommend keeping .wav's isolated and just bounce everything down when a project is nearly complete.

[T.C. Elliott]

good suggestion on the naming of the files. Anything with more information is good.

What I meant by using the same WAV file is twofold. One, having the rhythm track (typically drums) as the backing that everyone uses. That way all the timing is the same as long as everyone records from 0:00

This means that if I'm adding a part to an established song I'm getting the same backing track or stem that everyone else is gettign. I'll rarely send two tracks when I'm done. Whatever part I'm adding (typically guitar or vox for me) and also a rough mix if necessary. Seldom necessary, but it's good if there are any questions with how you intended to mix them.

Edit to be clear: I always send my part as a separate file to be mixed later (unless I'm the one mixing)

[T.C. Elliott]

I'm not sure the first part of your question has been addressed so here is my take:

There is nothing like jamming in the same room with a band. You get to play off of each other. When the drummer hits that fill and you hit a cool rhythm or lick and the bassist doubles it the next time around and the vocalists starts riffing on that syncopation it's magic. And you can't really do that online... at least I've not found a way.

However, there is still a synergy that can exist with trading files. It's important to know what the expectations are going in. I almost never have any and have the general attitude of "do what you want, how you want. nothing is wrong, this is for fun."  If it's not for fun (I've I'm entering a songfight competition or something) then I let them know ahead of time what I need.

I also chat or email or post back and forth with my collaborators and band mates.  Chatting is more fun, but the options are fairly limited for random people, I think. Although I guess FB messenger etc., works really well for that, now that I think about it.  Lately I've been using a specific Slack channel that works for most of the people I work with. But you have to sign up etc.,

The one true online band I was in was really interesting. I had spent more time "chatting" with the other two members over the course of a couple of years and had several collaborations with one or the other (or both) of them before the idea of the "band" emerged. It was a natural progression and was immensely fun.  They playing off of each other still took place because we trusted each other. We could add "out there" parts and everyone just ran with it. 

They can be pretty static, too. But I find collaborations and bands almost universally fun and worth it. Even when stressful, it's fun. Just communicate before during and after and most sticky situations resolve themselves. (sticky is usually just a misunderstanding.)