Last year there were several groups around the world which tried to produce music collectively, by distributing the music parts to each singer or player, and asking them to record their own part. Then the audio for each individual part was collected via email, or perhaps a web site, and someone had the job of merging everything together.
Professional musicians possibly (but not necessarily) found this easier - but there were many problems. Getting everyone synchronised and at the same pitch was one issue, as well as the problems with the recordings. As hardly anyone expected the conditions which arose last year, most people were making recordings on laptops - using inbuilt microphones - or mobile phones - though some may have been making better recordings using good quality microphones in a good acoustic environment. Some were given guidance about click tracks, lead ins, multiple takes etc., and a few people produced guidelines to help make the recordings and the later audio assembly easier.
Some timing and pitch issues can be fixed in software such as DAWs post production.
It would be very interesting to know how these projects faired generally, and whether groups made several such projects and gained expertise. It would also be interesting to know if any groups might plan to use some of the techniques again in the future, though I expect that most will prefer to go back to face to face rehearsals and recordings.
It would also be good to know about some of the productions - how successful they were - even if this does turn out to have been a one-off experience.
Some of the results were very good - well done to those people and groups.
Professional musicians possibly (but not necessarily) found this easier - but there were many problems. Getting everyone synchronised and at the same pitch was one issue, as well as the problems with the recordings. As hardly anyone expected the conditions which arose last year, most people were making recordings on laptops - using inbuilt microphones - or mobile phones - though some may have been making better recordings using good quality microphones in a good acoustic environment. Some were given guidance about click tracks, lead ins, multiple takes etc., and a few people produced guidelines to help make the recordings and the later audio assembly easier.
Some timing and pitch issues can be fixed in software such as DAWs post production.
It would be very interesting to know how these projects faired generally, and whether groups made several such projects and gained expertise. It would also be interesting to know if any groups might plan to use some of the techniques again in the future, though I expect that most will prefer to go back to face to face rehearsals and recordings.
It would also be good to know about some of the productions - how successful they were - even if this does turn out to have been a one-off experience.
Some of the results were very good - well done to those people and groups.
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