How do collaborations work?

[Flinckie]

This is not a request thread. I've just been pondering doing one someday, but I have no idea what to expect when/if I do. Is there anything important I should know before I attempt collabing?

Also, are collaborations possible when the musicians are using different DAWs?

[Ed Viper]

Also, are collaborations possible when the musicians are using different DAWs?

I think so, it's just way easier when you're using the same DAW.

Other than that, I've only done one collaboration, which kinda fell through (my fault, really), so I don't know much else about them.

[colortwelve]

I've had more experience working with people who play real instruments and vocalists than collabs that actually hinge on using the same DAW and sharing project files. So in my experience, I just show around a WIP until someone decides to track an instrument or record some vox and send me a .wav file to mix into the track. In that case, there tends to be more communication, since collabs of this sort are less fluid and you don't want to screw someone over or waste their time by poorly communicating what it is that you actually want from them.

In terms of sharing project files, I can't really say at this point, but I assume it's more oriented towards action, since you can easily restructure a midi pattern your collaborator put into a file you sent them or tweak their sound design if you have the same synths.

[Freewave]

I will saying sharing a DAW with e same vst's really would help and more importantly using something like dropbox where you are sharing the same folder virtually (and its up to date) is an important tool. Other then that there's loads of different ways to do it. The Postal Service - Give up is one of my favorite electronic albums and that was an electronic producer and rock musician sending music sketches back and forth through the mail.

[Lavender_Harmony]

Bad collaboration:

Person 1: Hey let's collab!
Person 2: Okay.
Person 1: What should we do?
Person 2: Dunno.

Good collaboration:

Person 1: Hey I'm working on this piece. Would you like to come up with a piano part to go along with it?
Person 2: Sure, got an mp3?
Person 1 has sent Piece.mp3
Person 1: The tempo is 128
Person 2: Awesome, I'll see what I can come up with!

[bartekko]

Person 1: The tempo is 128

MARRY ME

Seriously though, this is the most helpful post about collabing ever.

[prettiestPony]

90% of the collabs that I've worked on:

Person 1: Wanna collab?
Person 2: Sure, send me the .flp/.rsn/zip/whatever.
Person 1 has sent a link to a zipped folder.
Person 2: Awesome, I'll see what I can come up with!
Person 2 has sent a link to a zipped folder.
Person 2: Alright, check that out, see what you can do with it.
Person 1: Right on!
Two months later.
Person 2: Hey, Person 1? What, uh, what happened to the project?
Person 1: Oh, well, I looked at it but didn't really add a lot yet. I've just been really busy lately, you know...

[Facade]

90% of the collabs that I've worked on:

Person 1: Wanna collab?
Person 2: Sure, send me the .flp/.rsn/zip/whatever.
Person 1 has sent a link to a zipped folder.
Person 2: Awesome, I'll see what I can come up with!
Person 2 has sent a link to a zipped folder.
Person 2: Alright, check that out, see what you can do with it.
Person 1: Right on!
Two months later.
Person 2: Hey, Person 1? What, uh, what happened to the project?
Person 1: Oh, well, I looked at it but didn't really add a lot yet. I've just been really busy lately, you know...

this happens way too much to me :/

[K3WRO]

Oh man, I'm gonna probably do a-lot of collabs during the summer XD

[Acsii]

Consulting your last point. there is a thread somewhere on here called DAW vs DAW collab it basically works like the example Lavender Harmony gave. But in this example you do 16 bars export it send it they do 16 bars wash rinse dry and repeat.
It's good to see more useful topics appearing on this forum unlike the one's a certain someone is involved with

[ph00tbag]

Probably one of the coolest (at least from my standpoint) collabs I ever did was done on a music forum where one musician posted a track with a single instrument/sound, then gave a key and tempo, then all of the participating musicians posted tracks in that key/tempo. Once that part was complete, the first musician was then challenged to create one song out of all of the components. The results were always really obscure and experimental, and generally just inaccessible, but looking back on the five tracks we made, they actually had their own quirky appeal.

While it's not really the way most collabs work, it definitely teaches one to work within deadlines, and how to accommodate many interpretations of the same idea, which are vital skills in collaboration.

[Gray Ham]

You guys put way too much thought into this. All you have to do is throw your money at someone who's better than you.

[Acsii]

You guys put way too much thought into this. All you have to do is throw your money at someone who's better than you.

Oh you

[WoodenToaster]

Collabs working on the same project file are always extremely messy, people have different ways of working with the software and any version differences or missing plugins create a lot of problems.

The smoothest collabs that I've worked on are where one person is in charge of composing the general song, chord progs and lyrics then the other produces the instrumental.

[Acsii]

The smoothest collabs that I've worked on are where one person is in charge of composing the general song, chord progs and lyrics then the other produces the instrumental.

That sounds about right