How to Collaborate Making Beats

One of the most important things in music is the collaboration between people. We all know that two heads are better than one and in music composition this is most often the case. Throughout history composers have worked together to develop ideas that would not have been thought of had they composed by themselves. In 2010 this is no different. Today’s technology has made this process easier than ever. The internet has made it incredibly easy to share ideas via mp3 and even upload entire sessions. .Wav files that take up to 10gb of space. Export out your session track by track and then boom. Somebody else can load it up into his or her DAW. They can instantly load up everything that you were working on and have unlimited control over the sounds. The only problem is that it is not quite as "instant" as you would like. I can’t even begin to explain the agonizing details of exporting a session track by track so that somebody else has the .wav files of every sound. The process can take hours and you have to be around it at all times. For whatever reason the Export All Tracks option never exports correctly. Specifically it tends to bypass the sends and routing that you have so your sounds don’t sound like you intended them to. Enough complaining. What is the solution?

Use the same software. Programs such as Logic will allow you to save your "session" as a bundle. In doing this you are saving everything within itself. Your drums will be there, VST’s (assuming your collaborator has the same VST’s) will be there, and of course all your audio will be there as well. This in turn will save you hours upon hours of your valuable time. I am currently exported out a track by hand as I write this and I cannot explain in words my frustrations with the tediousness of this project. I frequently work with a fellow producer and he uses Logic. I use Cubase. Because he uses Logic and I just purchased a MacBook laptop I am going to switch to using Logic. The time I save by not having to export out every single sound will greatly outweigh the time that it will take me to learn how to use a new DAW.

Now this isn’t the easy fix that I make it out to be. Making sure you have the same VST’s is crucial to the process. If you don’t when you try to load the same sound that your collaborator was using you won’t get anything. All you have to do is make sure you have the same sounds.

I haven’t yet had the opportunity to try this out and see if everything really runs as smoothly as it should. As anybody who has ever composed music rap instrumentals electronically knows, it never does. I am currently anticipating the purchase of a new audio interface, allowing me to start using my Macbook and make rap beats in Logic. I will let you know if it really works like it should.