Has this ever been attempted before on this board? Was it sucessful? How was it done? Most importantly, is anyone interested? I'll take zero responses as a no.

What I had in mind is somewhat ambitious. An original tune(s) contributed by a SZ member, mostly fleshed out to give us an idea of what he/she had in mind along with a stripped down version for members to add tracks to. Preference given to non-keyboard instruments (like say Boo or Mo on sax, etc.). The project song could be chosen by consensus (style or genre unimportant). For the "working" version, try to record the drums seperately for mixing purposes. .Wav would be best but I guess we could work with mp3. Could be fun.

chas

I remember doing this a few years ago.....with some SZ'ers....either one player layed down a couple of tracks ....and then email ed to someone and they would lay down a track and so on ....or one person would play a song & someone would do vocals, or add a lead or whatever....its an interesting concept that could very well deliver amazing results in the end product. Go for it!

Chas, sounds like a fun project, but understand i would have to be led by the hand like a kindergarten kid thru the process..i have never done any recording of any kind except in a pro recording studio, i have not even sequenced and have no idea what to do. But this would force me to learn, so they say that's good for forestalling Jazzheimer's! i do have a big mac desktop in miami and
a new m-audio firewire interface someone gave me 5 yrs ago, and a neumann u-67 tube mic i got in the 80's and have used for vocals in pro studios..guess it should be good for sax, too. i'll be back there Nov 1. I'm game if
you are..

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Miami Mo

Sounds good to me Chas.

Not being a good keyboard player I would like to colaborate with someone providing the backing.

To see what type of voice and music I sing please go to:- http://www.4shared.com/dir/419715/c9e66620/sharing.html

Living in hope.

Cousin Ken

Not sure how one goes about this. I'll check some of the recording boards that do this routinely and see what they suggest. In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas on any part of the process ie. free site for file transfer, format (wav, wma, mp3), song selection, etc., let's hear it.

chas

I would be interested.

Joe

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Songman55
Joe Ayala

Whenever someone hires me over the net to record something, I will usually have them send me a high bit mp3 llike 256 or 320 of the track. Then I will do my part, send them an mp3 back to them with my part mixed in. If they like it, then I will send them a wave of my part, so that they can put it back into their DAW and manipulate it.

The hardest thing I can foresee is how everyone will know what to play. I mean, will everybody work from just the original scratch track, or will one person at a time record, so that the next person who records will be able to hear what the first person did. Since it is just a "for fun" project, it probably doesn't make a lot of difference, but it would seem to me to be a bit hard to know how much or how little to play, if you don't know who and what else is going to be mixed in.

One thing is certain, there should be one person who receives all the files from all the players, who is compotent at editing and mixing, so that he can create the final project; taking out parts that turn out not to be necessary, properly EQ'ing, panning, assigning effects, etc.

And another important thing to note, do not trim your waves. Even if you only play for 30 seconds out of a 3 minute song; export a wave that is exactly as long as the original song file you received. Yes, it will take up a lot more bandwidth to upload and download, but it will be infinitely easier to re-compile so everything stays in the same place in the timecode.

Sure sounds like Rory volunteered..

Well, Fran, sure sounds like a good base to start from. I checked a few "free" file storage sites and 4Shared.com seems to be the most generous with free storage, bandwidth, etc. I don' think this is going to be the problem. I think the problem is going to be getting a concensus (especially on this board ) of what song, what genre, what style, etc., to do. For a pilot run, it might be best to just make a command decision and pick something. The resulting furor should help sort out what SHOULD have been picked.

In the meantime, I'll sign up for 4Share. I'm guessing those that want to participate would have to sign up as well (for uploading). In the meantime, keep those suggestions coming (especially for song choice - OR, submit a sketch of your original.

As I said, the parts submitted would hopefully be of an acoustic instrument that you play, but instrumental parts played on your keyboard or softsynth would be okay.

This will probably be a rocky start but if we just nurse it along, correcting mistakes and missteps as we go along, it could be a lot of fun.

Please suggest or submit (original) a song for the test run. If left to me, it will probably be too jazz oriented. I don't personally care what the genre is as I am not above putting jazz piano solo on top of a pop arrangement.

chas

For a first time starter try: why not just lay down a nice Jam progression eg: CFG etc. ....something easy a few chords....then let everyone else take a 16 bar stab at a solo lead with what ever sound they choose with their arranger......once that is completed ....then the next project can get a bit more in depth?

For those that use Skype ..you can also send any size file to all that are on the chat list..This would be a very good way to send the files..

Also for those that would like to video chat your ideas with each other..I have the GeneralArranger room open on Camfrog..the room allows 30 second video/audio in real time..or you can private video chat without the 30 second limitation..

That's probably a very good idea. However, if we pick the wrong style (genre'), we may discourage some people who would otherwise have participated. I've got a feeling that in the end, we'll probably use Fran's ideas on the file exchange thing.

I think the initial "jam" progression should be limited to bass, drums/percussion, and comping (piano/guitar). No horn stabs, strings, etc. That would come later with you would-be arrangers . More later.

chas

I've participated in a few live jam sessions with folks via SKYPE with limited success. The downside is the slight audio delay. Most satisfying is the enjoyment of having each person in the group perform a song live followed by a group discussion.

Scott

skype id: scottyee

Scott, my idea was to have more of a collaboration on a single agreed-upon piece of music, not a live jam session (although I'm open to other ideas). In my scenario, one of us would put down a minimal basic track (ie. piano, bass, and drums) and others would add an arrangement part such as strings, rhythm guitar, horns, etc. OR a instrumental solo (maybe a vocal later after we get the process down). This would all be funneled to our "engineer" who would mix the part (offline) and resubmit the song with the new part. Everyone would then be allowed to critique the added part and make suggestions for change (or possible deletion). We would continue the process until we had an arrangement + solo that we liked or until the engineer's patience wore out, whichever comes first.

Initially, I think we should follow Donny's suggestion and just put up a simple chord progression played by someone's arranger keyboard (without adornment - fills but probably no intros or endings; fade-in, fill, song, tag, fade-out, maybe). We should agree on a general style and let as many people as want contribute a base track. The participants would choose one to work on.

There won't be much room for egos, though. If three people submit string parts, we will (by consensus) pick the one most appropriate for the tune (in other words, the best one ). Depending on the patience of the engineer, we may do alternate mixes with different part selections. We'll see.

One thing I was hoping for was to get at least some non-keyboard solos from some of the fine musicians here that play other instruments, especially sax and guitar.

This is just a rough idea of how I see it but I'm completely open to suggestions.

chas