Online Collaboration

[rentadrummer]

A friend of mine told me about an interview he heard yesterday on NPR, featuring a musician and his use of online collaboration. I listened to an archive of the interview, and since I've been doing online collaborations for almost 6 years, there wasn't anything new that I didn't already know about the process. On the other hand, he mentioned several interesting web sites, which are also referenced on the web page that links to the interview. I'd never heard of sessionplayers.com, or esession.com, and was very surprised to see some of the players who are listed.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=9163100

[monkey man]

Ha! I'm amazed.

I heard the NPR segment on our ABC Newsradio's overnight crossing a couple of nights ago.
I remember thinking it'd be cool for our Unicorn buddies to hear this.
Glad I heard the radio feature, as I've a very s-l-o-w connection.

Funny thing too, is that I'd just agreed that night to play bass on a U.S. Unicorn's project, my first online collaboration.
Actually, it's strictly session playing, as the piece isn't mine.
Collaboration sounds generous.

Thank you for bringing this inspiring piece to da 'Nation, rentadrummer!
As you said, it's nothing new really, but somehow comforting and motivating.

[Timeline]

That was a great bit of information Ron. It makes sense that's where it's going. You really don't need much of a connection though because the heavy lifting is done at the musicians end and mailed to you.

All you need to do is have the ability to listen via MP3 and speak over the phone or vice versa.

The phone patch audio connection is even better IMHO for productions reference and if you can open a live chat line that can be displayed on a large monitor while the player is doing the overdub, you can direct him and stop playback when you need to and give feedback on the direction by typing.

A musician would need to have large computer monitors, an engineer doing track playback and recording in his studio and a streaming connection with video like the porno sites do it.

It can be done well.

Thanks for the link..

Cheers,
gary

[zarmattathustra]

there was a pretty good article in, I think it was last months electronic musician monthly on this very same subject.

I must look into these things more deeply.. I was thinking about trying to start a podcast where all the music would be created via online collaboration.. or something like that.

[philbrown]

I just can't believe the names on those sites!
The ones I would want are probably the $1000/song guys but still... I love the idea that (given enough $) mere mortals can hire these stellar players. These are interesting times.