Sometimes I find working on my own I can lack direction and motivation and think I would benefit having a partner to bounce idea's back and forth with.
On the other hand I think that I may end up with someone who
a) I dont get on with
b) Has completely different musical tastes to me
c) wants to go in a direction I dont
Have you had any collab's and what are your experiences? I think on the one hand it could be one of the best things for me to do to progress forwards, and on the other hand I think it may end up just being a complete waste of both of our times.
Share your thoughts...
tehlord
I've done a couple.
There are two ways of doing it, the first is to work with WAV files and swap between the two of you. The second way is to use exactly the same software and share project files.
I did a collab the latter way and it works really well. Saying that I already knew the guy and his musical tastes so we knew where we were headed.
cryophonik
I collab with a few people and I've been collaborating with one other artist (Avery Parker) in particular for years. The trick, as tehlord mentioned, is to find someone who shares your general musical tastes. The other part that can't be stressed enough is that collaborations are two-way streets involving a lot of compromise. So, if you're the type who is:
a) not easy to get on with
b) Has completely different musical tastes to the other guy
c) wants to go in a direction that your partner doesn't
(see what I did there?), then you're probably better off working alone.
MSZ
essentially i am Greg Benz looking for my Marco Di Carlo. :)
Richard Butler
I met my production partner on this very forum and it's our aniversary shortly. Mmm.
We tend to listen to one anothers idea's on soundcloud and if the other feels the creative juices beginning to flow, they typically download the track from the cloud and import into thier DAW (he's FL, I'm Cubase 5) and get some ideas overlaid. They they upload the new track to the cloud and if it sounds good to us, who ever made the additional parts, sends them over as WAVS for stitching into the originating DAW.
We actualy have quite differnet styles but we see this as a positive thing.
He's a proper dj so it's usefull getting feedback from the floor as it were.
Magnus
I've tried it a few times with the first go being successful. My partner and I released 3 or 4 tracks together. It worked well because I lived near him so we would work together in the studio. Once I moved away, we never really tried again. I tried a collab again with another guy, but despite the fact we were both using the same software, his style of working was so vastly different from mine. I would spend more time trying to figure out how and why he did certain things instead of writing music. It was frustrating because I know he knew what he was doing, and vice versa, it's just we both did things so differently. I think for me to collab with someone successfully, I have to be in the same room with them, but that's just me.
That's the only colab I've ever finished. It was actually really cool and helped me to understand why some of the best tracks ever made were done by more than one person.
MSZ
quote:
Originally posted by alanzo
Worked pretty well for me.
That's the only colab I've ever finished. It was actually really cool and helped me to understand why some of the best tracks ever made were done by more than one person.
vinyl?
MSZ
made this in 2 days with a long time acquaintance, super fast and easy because we both used Reason 4, and i didnt mind sending him my mixing techniques, custom patches. maybe if we spent like a month on it, it would probably be more memorable.
Looney4Clooney
i have done a few. It depends on my role. If i'm the boss, I am a control freak and have to walk on egg shells as I know that I can be a complete dick. When i'm not the boss, I can follow orders like a soldier. I suppose when i'm not the boss, I boss myself around like I would if I was the boss with others. So in that instance, i am only hard on myself.
I am getting better at holding back and just letting it unfold as people work better that way. But if someone starts dicking around on my dime, I have a really hard time with that.
My girlfriend sings Opera and once asked for me to coach her (coaching in the classical world is like a person that plays the rep on [piano and sort of gives feedback on the tone, phrasing ... ) Now i normally never say anything when she practices but when she asked me, I had so much to say that she cried. I wasn't mean. I was just able to pick out every single mistake and some people just can't handle that which I suppose is a lesson I learnt too.
But even with a healthy dose of xanax and a cappuccino in hand, I have a hard time with people that are not detail oriented, lazy or incompetent. I suppose it is more the attitude. If someone s something up. which i've done , by the time i'm blowing a gasket, they are in the process of fixing it. But people that just stand there ing about.
As the lacky of the production studio i work for, I usually am the guy that as to oversee recordings and since i'm young , well 30, people think that i'm chill and cool and just there to take in the vibe. I hate that .
TranceLover007
quote:
Originally posted by MSZ
made this in 2 days with a long time acquaintance, super fast and easy because we both used Reason 4, and i didnt mind sending him my mixing techniques, custom patches. maybe if we spent like a month on it, it would probably be more memorable.
Hey Mac this reminds me of "Dancing Fantasy" style, really nice and smooth, I like it.
As far as my experience with collab --> successful so far, Anakratis is very easy going and talented producer which I'm really happy to work with. You can always find some compromise/balance if you have slight different style or work flow, you just have to trust your production partner (this help if he is your son lol).
Darek
cryophonik
quote:
Originally posted by CalvP
Even if you do experience a b & c, i can assure you it won't be wasted time.
I would take that a step further and say that, if a collab doesn't experience b & c on some level, then what's the point?
