6 Cool Services That Make Online Audio Production Collaboration Easy
Collaboration is an essential component in modern day audio production. Collaboration gives our work constructive feedback, fresh ideas, solutions and perspective that altogether help us to produce better-sounding work compared to what we could achieve by ourselves.
Audio production collaboration is everywhere. It's never been so easy to co-write a song with someone on the other side of the world or to hire session musicians to record instruments in a mix.
In this article, we share some great products and services that make online audio production collaboration easy and productive.
Pro Tools Cloud Collaboration
Avid introduced Cloud Collaboration in Pro Tool 12.5. It provides Pro Tools users with the ability to share projects (or part of projects) with other Pro Tools users around the world without having to leave the Pro Tools application. It's a very elegant system that integrates well between Pro Tools systems (12.5 and above).
Pro Tools Cloud Collaboration does away with the old-fashioned audio production collaboration workflow that involved exporting stems out of Pro Tools followed by sharing audio files on third-party cloud services for collaborators to receive. Watch our Pro Tools Cloud Collaboration Tested video above to see how quick and easy it is to collaborate Pro Tools projects with other Pro Tools users.
Audiomovers LISTENTO
LISTENTO enables users to stream low latency audio from DAWs to web browsers via plug-in. Let's say you have a client who is unable to come to your studio to listen to and approve a final mix... you can use LISTENTO to stream the mix directly from your DAW master track through to your client's computer web browser. LISTENTO hasn't got any built-in messenger or chat facilities so you will need to use a third party app such as Skype open in order to communicate with your client.
Transmission formats include:
PCM 16Bit
PCM 32Bit
AAC 128Kb
AAC 192Kb,
AAC 256Kb (MacOS only)
AAC 320Kb (MacOS only)
What's cool is that LISTENTO is a free plug-in but in order to use it, you will need to subscribe to one of Audiomovers subscription tiers in order to transmit audio from your DAW. Luckily, the cost of Audiomovers subscriptions are very affordable:
Weekly: $3.99
Monthly: $9.99
Yearly: $99.99
Your client doesn't need to sign up or pay for an Audiomovers account or subscription in order to receive the live stream. All you need to do is forward your client a link, similar to what you would share if you were forwarding a Google Doc download link. Audiomovers offer a one-week free trial.
Source Elements Source-Connect
In this video, Mike Thornton linked up with Source Element's Rebekah Wilson to discuss and demonstrate how Source Connect can lock two Pro Tools systems together over the internet to within 1/4 of a frame.
What Is Source-Connect?
Source-Connect is the industry-standard ISDN replacement with a deep feature-set for remote audio recording and monitoring, enabling you to undertake overdub, voice-over and ADR recording, anywhere in the world, over a standard internet connection, integrated into your professional DAW.
Source-Connect runs as a Standalone application, without needing complicated DAW setups, while still allowing you to work directly in the DAW of your choice and take advantage of the full feature-set of Source-Connect Standard and Pro. It has built-in support for Pro Tools and is also compatible with DAWs that exclusively run VST plug-ins, including Nuendo, Cubase, Fairlight, Pyramix, and many others
In this video, Robert Marshall from Source Elements demonstrates overdubbing vocals on the Song: "History Repeats Itself" by The Nothing Company, from the AES conference floor in Los Angeles, with the vocalist in Chicago.
Source-Connect Feature Summary And Pricing
Features in Source-Connect Standard
AAC-ELD v2 mono and stereo, from 24kbps to 192kbps crystal-clear audio.
Communicate via text messaging for sending take information or troubleshooting.
All your Contacts online: connect without having to know IP addresses or phone numbers.
Remote Transport Sync overdub and ADR sync mode, for picture-lock with remote talent.
Remote Transport Sync mix/review mode: lock with local talent or audio.
Price for perpetual license $650
Price for subscription $35 per month
Features in Source-Connect Pro
All the features in Source-Connect Standard
AAC-ELD codec settings up to 192kbps mono and 364kbps stereo.
Fully private VPN support for complete control over your connection
Never lose a take again with Restore and Replace: perfect recordings every time with the Q manager.
Price for perpetual license $1495
Price for 7-day rental $250
Features in Source-Connect Pro X
All the features in Source-Connect Pro
3, 4, 5, 6 and Surround 5.1 and 7.1 channel support for Surround monitoring, multi-mic and more.
Price for perpetual license $2490
Price for 7-day rental $495
The Audio Hunt
The Audio Hunt is an online collaboration platform that has hundreds of studio owners who make their gear available for producers and mixers to run their tracks and/or mixes through. Anolog studio gear has always had, and will always have its place in audio production... this is what The Audio Hunt celebrates through its enthusiastic user base.
Say you want to run your mix through a real Shadow Hill Mastering Compressor, easy:
Create an account
Find the hardware you want to use
Open up a dialogue between yourself and the vendor
Book the job (current price to run a mix through a Shadow Hill Mastering Compressor is $25)
Wait for the service to be completed, download files
Watch our Real World Test of The Audio Hunt to see how to set yourself up as a service on the Audio Hunt and to see how to book a job.
LANDR Collaboration
The online A.I mastering site LANDR recently announced a small update that includes a simple online music collaboration feature. LANDR users can now share tracks within the LANDR website with other LANDR users, great if you are in/or working with a band and need to get feedback from the other members in the band quickly.
Fiverr
Fiverr is an online marketplace that delivers a huge range of digital services with costs for services starting at $5.
Users that require a digital service, such as graphic design, search for a "seller", book what Fiverr call a "gig" and within a reasonable amount of time, receive their digital goods... it's a really simple and affordable system.
Myself and many of my clients have used Fiverr to find session musicians. I've worked on a handful of songs that featured mainly session musicians found on Fiverr. It's not all plain sailing though, be aware that are a handful of session musician "sellers" on Fiverr who's abilities are somewhat questionable, so make sure you listen to plenty of the seller's previous work.
When you do find session musicians who can reliably provide you with great work then put their gig in your favourites lists as this makes for quick and easy future music collaborations. One of my regular clients has ten or so session musicians in his Fiverr Favorites that he books regularly. His productions sound amazing because he spent the time finding these sellers and also time building strong working relationships with them.
Are there any other online music collaboration services that we've missed? Let us know in the comments below...