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Remote songwriting collaboration... Is Zoom good enough?


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Hi guys,

 

Given the current situation many of us find ourselves in, I am looking for a recommendation as to the best cross platform app that would allow audio/video conferencing (just one on one) for songwriting collaboration.

 

This is not 2 DAWs running in synchronized sessions, but rather just a simple way to collaborate with an audio interface, microphone, and headphones at each location (in this case, one PC and on Mac) for a close to real time experience.

 

Along the lines of "hey what do you think of this?" I (Mac) play and/or sing, the other person (PC) can hear it with good quality while seeing me as well, and then respond, "cool, but how about this?" and they play and/or sing something back through a keyboard that has built in speakers, so on the PC end it's just a mic, headphones (through a USB audio interface) and the built in camera. On the Mac end, similar capabilities, but that's where the DAW resides and where the production will be worked on.

 

The goal for the person on the PC end is to approximate the experience of sitting in the room with me at his portable keyboard and play, sing, and talk through ideas as we have in person over the past couple years.

 

Would Zoom be high quality enough to accomplish this, or is there something else that is better and simpler?

 

Thanks is advance for your great feedback.

 

Cheers, B.

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Zoom should work.

I'm looking at OBS, installed it but have gone no further. It is free too.

 

Once you have some ideas, both of you can do some sketch recordings and exchange .mp3 files via email and then discuss via conferencing.

Google Contacts works OK but the sound isn't great. Still, it might be good enough for the inspiration stages.

 

For larger files, I've had great luck with the free version of WeTransfer. I like it better than Dropbox or Google Drive although those both work as well.

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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I haven't tried it for music, but I hear that these are good tips.

 

[video:youtube]

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Zoom is great, but for smaller groups, I would also recommend looking into Google Hangouts.

 

Zoom really is optimized for larger groups, with chat boards, a Q&A system, moderator privileges for screensharing, speaker focus, gallery view of multiple participants, and so on. It's fabulous for webinars, meetups, and larger discussions; this is what the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meet uses for its weekly Wednesday night clinics, for example.

 

(The Meet is a great resource, btw: check out the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meet website for more details. Everyone is welcome, and our events draw visitors from around the world.)

 

Google Hangouts is a lot more no-frills, but the frills you lose are largely unimportant for one-on-one audio chat.

 

OBS is complete overkill for something like this; it's designed for video streaming, multiple cameras, etc., and on some platforms it can be an utter bitch to get working reliably from session to session.

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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OBS is complete overkill for something like this; it's designed for video streaming, multiple cameras, etc., and on some platforms it can be an utter bitch to get working reliably from session to session.

 

Ahh, good to know before I go deeper.

I've resigned myself to doing solo live streaming for now and eventually the band may get into multi-tracking but 75% of us need to get up to speed with the basics of modern home studio goof off stuffs. :- D

So that might never happen.

 

You've saved me a deep dive for nada, Dr Mike, appreciated!

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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OBS is complete overkill for something like this; it's designed for video streaming, multiple cameras, etc., and on some platforms it can be an utter bitch to get working reliably from session to session.

 

Ahh, good to know before I go deeper.

I've resigned myself to doing solo live streaming for now and eventually the band may get into multi-tracking but 75% of us need to get up to speed with the basics of modern home studio goof off stuffs. :- D

So that might never happen.

 

You've saved me a deep dive for nada, Dr Mike, appreciated!

It's what I'm here for, my dude. :) OK, back to Hydrasynth and a bit of lunch....

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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Zoom is great, but for smaller groups, I would also recommend looking into Google Hangouts.

 

Zoom really is optimized for larger groups, with chat boards, a Q&A system, moderator privileges for screensharing, speaker focus, gallery view of multiple participants, and so on. It's fabulous for webinars, meetups, and larger discussions; this is what the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meet uses for its weekly Wednesday night clinics, for example.

 

Google Hangouts is a lot more no-frills, but the frills you lose are largely unimportant for one-on-one audio chat.

 

Thanks Mike, but is the Google Hangouts audio/video quality and latency as good, better, or worse than Zoom?

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  • 3 weeks later...

You might want to look into JamKazam. My band is looking into trying it to be able to continue practicing with everybody staying home. We're waiting on some hardware to arrive (even SW has their delays on things that are not in stock - waiting on suppliers and such). I'll let you know how this platform works for our intended purpose once we're able to try it.

 

I also took the plunge and picked up Steinberg VST Connect Pro so I can try recording other artists remotely. Waiting to upgrade my MacBook from High Sierra to Mojave before I can try that scenario. I really like the looks of the demos I've seen of this. I'm running Cubase Pro 10.5 and my collaborating guitar player/friend is going to be running running Cubase Elements on his end (once it arrives). I'll let you know how this experiment turns out as well.

 

Hell I may never have to leave the house EVER again. lol

Hardware:
Yamaha
: MODX7 | Korg: Kronos 88, Wavestate | ASM: Hydrasynth Deluxe | Roland: Jupiter-Xm, Cloud Pro, TD-9K V-Drums | Alesis: StrikePad Pro|
Behringer: Crave, Poly D, XR-18, RX1602 | CPS: SpaceStation SSv2 | 
Controllers: ROLI RISE 49 | Arturia KeyLab Essentials 88, KeyLab 61, MiniLab | M-Audio KeyStation 88 & 49 | Akai EWI USB |
Novation LaunchPad Mini, |
Guitars & Such: Line 6 Variax, Helix LT, POD X3 Live, Martin Acoustic, DG Strat Copy, LP Sunburst Copy, Natural Tele Copy|
Squier Precision 5-String Bass | Mandolin | Banjo | Ukulele

Software:
Recording
: MacBook Pro | Mac Mini | Logic Pro X | Mainstage | Cubase Pro 12 | Ableton Live 11 | Monitors: M-Audio BX8 | Presonus Eris 3.5BT Monitors | Slate Digital VSX Headphones & ML-1 Mic | Behringer XR-18 & RX1602 Mixers | Beyerdynamics DT-770 & DT-240
Arturia: V-Collection 9 | Native Instruments: Komplete 1 Standard | Spectrasonics: Omnisphere 2, Keyscape, Trilian | Korg: Legacy Collection 4 | Roland: Cloud Pro | GForce: Most all of their plugins | u-he: Diva, Hive 2, Repro, Zebra Legacy | AAS: Most of their VSTs |
IK Multimedia: SampleTank 4 Max, Sonik Synth, MODO Drums & Bass | Cherry Audio: Most of their VSTs |

 

 

 

 

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You might want to look into JamKazam.
My experience with JamKazam was that I we successfully were able to play with one other musician (we didn't try any more than that, since a lot of our other folks don't/didn't have an interface or good internet setup). The way it compensates for latency and connectivity issues, while not perfect, is more organic than Zoom and its ilk, which will drop audio and change the speed of playback to keep you close to real-time. That's fine for a conversation but death for music, as you've learned.

 

I've heard one or two people say they're able to make JamKazam work with small groups, which is encouraging. My experience was that it's not a substitute for being in the same room, but it would be great for writing sessions or working out arrangement details, or even just something that approximates playing together, rather than defeats playing together.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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Zoom is great, but for smaller groups, I would also recommend looking into Google Hangouts.

 

Zoom really is optimized for larger groups, with chat boards, a Q&A system, moderator privileges for screensharing, speaker focus, gallery view of multiple participants, and so on. It's fabulous for webinars, meetups, and larger discussions; this is what the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meet uses for its weekly Wednesday night clinics, for example.

 

Google Hangouts is a lot more no-frills, but the frills you lose are largely unimportant for one-on-one audio chat.

 

Thanks Mike, but is the Google Hangouts audio/video quality and latency as good, better, or worse than Zoom?

I honestly don't know. I would assume they're probably in the same ballpark. Neither will be great for anything in real time, but as discussed above, that's not an issue.

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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I have started using NINJAM again and am enjoying it. I have to post in the appropriate thread about it...

Dr. Mike Metlay (PhD in nuclear physics, golly gosh) :D

Musician, Author, Editor, Educator, Impresario, Online Radio Guy, Cut-Rate Polymath, and Kindly Pedant

Editor-in-Chief, Bjooks ~ Author of SYNTH GEMS 1

 

clicky!:  more about me ~ my radio station (and my fam) ~ my local tribe ~ my day job ~ my bookmy music

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