Studio recording, over the internet ...

[jpfeifer]

Hi guys,

The internet is wonderful in its ability to bring people together who are physically far apart. It also helps people of like-interests find each other, as this site is a great example of that.

One of my keyboard player friends asked me several months ago if I'd be interested in collaborating with some of his other musician friends living in Las Vegas, by collectively working on songs over the internet. I thought that it would be fun and a good experience so I agreed.

The singer (bass player), and drummer are recording basic guide tracks. These tracks are then passed to my keyboard player friend who adds keyboard tracks. Then he sends those tracks on to me where I add guitar. We're uploading our finished tracks to an FTP site where the whole mix is assembled. We're trading MP3 files to use as our own guide tracks so that it's easier to email them, and we can get a quick listen of new ideas for songs parts from each other.

This has worked out very well and I'm now doing a lot of recording with these guys. The singer is great and he writes very catchy songs. He sounds a little like Randy Newman. So far we have about 7 tunes finished and ready for mixing. They seem to be happy with my guitar tracks and it has really stretched my ability to come up with parts that fit the tunes. (making me play better than I am :-) The other players are really top-notch guys and fun to play with so it's keeping me on my toes.

Anyway, I didn't know if anyone else was involved in this kind of approach to recording so I thought that I would start this posting. As it turns out there was a recent story on NPR where they talked about this new recording trend.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9163100

There are actually companies out there who will broker session musicians for hire over the internet like this. Anyone can hire them if you're willing to pay. Their list of guys was totally shocking to me. It includes Brent Mason, Robben Ford, and lots of other guys I'd heard of. Check out the list of players on this site: http://www.sessionplayers.com/

I suppose it only makes sense. So the next time you have a song that needs some great guitar, just contact one of these companies and ask Brent Mason or Robben Ford to do some tracks for your tune and send it back to you!

-- Jim

[333maxwell]

Hi guys,

The internet is wonderful in its ability to bring people together who are physically far apart. It also helps people of like-interests find each other, as this site is a great example of that.

One of my keyboard player friends asked me several months ago if I'd be interested in collaborating with some of his other musician friends living in Las Vegas, by collectively working on songs over the internet. I thought that it would be fun and a good experience so I agreed.

The singer (bass player), and drummer are recording basic guide tracks. These tracks are then passed to my keyboard player friend who adds keyboard tracks. Then he sends those tracks on to me where I add guitar. We're uploading our finished tracks to an FTP site where the whole mix is assembled. We're trading MP3 files to use as our own guide tracks so that it's easier to email them, and we can get a quick listen of new ideas for songs parts from each other.

This has worked out very well and I'm now doing a lot of recording with these guys. The singer is great and he writes very catchy songs. He sounds a little like Randy Newman. So far we have about 7 tunes finished and ready for mixing. They seem to be happy with my guitar tracks and it has really stretched my ability to come up with parts that fit the tunes. (making me play better than I am :-) The other players are really top-notch guys and fun to play with so it's keeping me on my toes.

Anyway, I didn't know if anyone else was involved in this kind of approach to recording so I thought that I would start this posting. As it turns out there was a recent story on NPR where they talked about this new recording trend.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9163100

There are actually companies out there who will broker session musicians for hire over the internet like this. Anyone can hire them if you're willing to pay. Their list of guys was totally shocking to me. It includes Brent Mason, Robben Ford, and lots of other guys I'd heard of. Check out the list of players on this site: http://www.sessionplayers.com/

I suppose it only makes sense. So the next time you have a song that needs some great guitar, just contact one of these companies and ask Brent Mason or Robben Ford to do some tracks for your tune and send it back to you!

-- Jim

In the old days, we had to ground mail wide tape reels back and forth..

Not a new concept, working 'apart'.. but the delivery system suer is a lot quicker! *G*

______________________________

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=676362

[jpfeifer]

Yeah, it's not necessarily a new thing to have separate people adding tracks to a song in different locations. That was possible even in the old days of analog tape. But I think that two main technologies have opened up this concept to a much wider group of people: 1) the availability of affordable digital recording software for home computers 2) the internet.

It's just becoming much easier to do this and less expensive than it used to be, and the quality of home recording technology has reached the point where this is a viable option for making recordings these days. The only downside to recording like this is that you miss the feel of having a whole band in one room together recording in real time. For certian kinds of songs it's really hard to record without having everyone together. For our project we've actually rented out a studio to do a few of the songs where we need to be together. But for the rest of the tunes only the bass player (singer) and drummer are recording together with all the rest of us adding our tracks later top of this separately.

-- Jim