Sevenstring forumites song collaboration?

[OmegaSlayer]

It's an idea I've had around my head for quite some times now.
After watching the latest biggest world shred collaboration episode 2k, it got around again.
Is there people here that would love to record an instrumental song together?
Not for the money, not for the show, just for the fun to do something together as loads of us know each other for more than a decade.
Also...not to downplay the skills of people in Jared Dines vid, but I think we have loads of talented people here, who would put out great licks and solos, even with more variety than sweeps and fast runs on the usual scales, because we don't have to necessarily shred everything.

What do you guys think?

 

[S4M4R1N]

If it's not just shred, then would be cool to try.

 

[STRHelvete]

Not gonna lie...that sounds like an absolute nightmare to me but I'm sure it'd be fun for some people

 

[OmegaSlayer]

If it's not just shred, then would be cool to try.

Yeah, everyone would play what he's more inclined to.
Even because in the vid I mentioned, the more interesting stuff was from the people that didn't shred at mach speed (Rabea, Ola, Jack Gardiner, Manuel Gardner Fernandez, all the acoustic players are the first that come to mind), because the fast fingers guys all sounded the same
I must say that, in some ways, it gave me a sad feeling about what's guitarism today...especially each time I heard the Whammy Pedal cringeness

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

I have no idea how it works doing a big collab but sure, I can record a riff or two 👍👍👍

 

[odibrom]

Interesting...
1-How would it work?
2-Will someone provide a backing track?
3-Would there be limited number of collaborators or is it open to whom ever wants to join in?
4-Will there be a selection?

I'm interested...

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Interesting...
1-How would it work?
2-Will someone provide a backing track?
3-Would there be limited number of collaborators or is it open to whom ever wants to join in?
4-Will there be a selection?

I'm interested...

I'm glad you're interested, you're one of the guys here that I think would provide interesting, not run of the mill content.

1 - We must find someone that has a good recording setup/good producing skills (which I don't have either, I can just record myself)
That's an important stepped or everything is f'ed! LOL

2 - Backing track, we can propose our material and vote for the riffs we like the most, I'm totally open to variety, we can have doom parts and reggae parts in the same stuff if we manage to assemble them well

3 - If we're graced with loads of collaborators, we can write more than one piece

4 - I would not go through that, it's a fun project, not a competition

OH, NO NEED TO POST VIDEOS
People might back off because they don't want to be caught on camera performing, and again, I want people having fun, not be stressed

 

[RevDrucifer]

Just be prepared to be thwarted with a ton of suggestions on how it should go. In the end, there are some people who won’t be stoked with the decisions made and sometimes you just have to ignore that stuff for the greater good. Only reason I’m saying this is I just started a weekly and bi-weekly challenge on the forum I run (link in sig) and when trying to lay out the groundwork I ran into several frustrating points because EVERYONE had their own version of how they wanted it to go down.

You’ll have it a bit easier being that it’s one song everyone is working on, but just wait until you go to pick which song it is. You’ll have to make sure everyone is using the same sample rate or whoever is mixing it could end up with some issues.

Have fun!

 

[NoodleFace]

I wouldn't mind playing a solo on it, kind of wish I submitted one to Jared Dines.. I'm the guy that will just show up and do what you tell me. With kids/work/band I don't really have time to do any of the management overhead stuff.

 

[odibrom]

@OmegaSlayer thank you for your kind words.

I also can only record myself. I've done a couple of MIDI drums about 10 years ago for 2 videos I posted on my youtube channel back then... However, since I've changed my recording setup (DAW included) and never ever got to mess with MIDI drums again, don't think I'm in a position to create anything besides guitar tracks...

Things that need to be settled first hand:
- Recording Sample rate, I suggest 48k Ohms (the @RevDrucifer friend ninja'ed me here) and exporting bit rate as well, I'd suggest 64.
- Define who will master/manage everything (@Guitarjon 😁 comes to my mind), like receiving files and compile everything into the final result, although this could be a team work.

I don't mind showing my face in a video, but if one fears it, one can always focus on the guitar performance only...? This idea would be cool to be featured uploaded to youtube/whatever other video streaming platform there is. If we're doing video, frame rate and resolution are also some definitions one should care for... full HD minimum (no interlaced) at 30 frames per second, so we won't get super huge files to manage...

... and I'm kind of in the same boat as @NoodleFace regarding my week schedules and agenda...

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

- Recording Sample rate, I suggest 48k Ohms (the @RevDrucifer friend ninja'ed me here) and exporting bit rate as well, I'd suggest 64.

😲😲😲

 

[bostjan]

I'm interested, depending on how this would work.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Just be prepared to be thwarted with a ton of suggestions on how it should go. In the end, there are some people who won’t be stoked with the decisions made and sometimes you just have to ignore that stuff for the greater good. Only reason I’m saying this is I just started a weekly and bi-weekly challenge on the forum I run (link in sig) and when trying to lay out the groundwork I ran into several frustrating points because EVERYONE had their own version of how they wanted it to go down.

You’ll have it a bit easier being that it’s one song everyone is working on, but just wait until you go to pick which song it is. You’ll have to make sure everyone is using the same sample rate or whoever is mixing it could end up with some issues.

Have fun!

Maybe I'm wrong, but after 15 years here, I think that loads of people are very chill and mature

I would really be happy to share some music time together with some people here.
Not making names to avoid putting pressure on them.

I repeat, it's for us, to do something fun, interesting and eventually different, and it's not a competition against other operations like this, even because we start as losers, if only because the others have almost 3 millions of fanboys

 

[CanserDYI]

Damn I'm no solo guy, but I'd love to be part of it. I can help with backing track/drum/bass writing!

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Yeah I don't know how you guys want to do it, I can write drums and bass too. Basically we have to agree on some technical standards if we're going to collaborate, everyone using a different DAW.

Most common project settings are probably 44.1kHz or 48kHz and 24 bit depth. It's better if we stick to one single sample rate. Bass recorded or programmed is easy to share. For drums I recommend we agree either on a same program or at least a common drum map. And yeah when you have something ready you can send it to me and I can send you back the DI tracks so the mixing person can reamp them how they like. 🤟 🤟

If we all use different DAWs and we can't share a project file it's probably important to remember bar numbers and all that to avoid misunderstandings.

 

[CanserDYI]

Why don't we all just stick to reaper as even the ones that don't use it can obtain it free, and i'm sure most of us know reaper at this point...

 

[John]

So long as time and circumstances permit, I don't mind trying to pitch in either.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

Why don't we all just stick to reaper as even the ones that don't use it can obtain it free, and i'm sure most of us know reaper at this point...

I agree about using Reaper. I'm a bit lost to how exactly since this could be a really big collab. The way I see it there's 2 ways to do this, doesn't have to be one or the other as we could use both approaches depending what each person prefers.

We can all download Reaper, and share a project but then it might be hard to keep the project files synchronized? I don't know how this would work. Maybe the whole project folder on cloud storage? And every person updates it when they're finished? But then we have to make sure every person has the latest version of the project...😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 (also removing the unused takes from the project files so that it doesn't become ultra heavy from everyone's unused takes)

The other way I think is having the mixing person has the main project, send sketch tracks to people. Then people can export the files either DI or reamped and send the exported files back to the mixing person. But then the exported audio has to be cut at the right bar and the person has to know the bar number so that the mixing person knows where to put the audio in their project.

 

[bostjan]

Yeah I don't know how you guys want to do it, I can write drums and bass too. Basically we have to agree on some technical standards if we're going to collaborate, everyone using a different DAW.

Most common project settings are probably 44.1kHz or 48kHz and 24 bit depth. It's better if we stick to one single sample rate. Bass recorded or programmed is easy to share. For drums I recommend we agree either on a same program or at least a common drum map. And yeah when you have something ready you can send it to me and I can send you back the DI tracks so the mixing person can reamp them how they like. 🤟 🤟

If we all use different DAWs and we can't share a project file it's probably important to remember bar numbers and all that to avoid misunderstandings.

I've done a few of these before. Not sure what the general protocol is expected to be, but IME:

1. Whoever programs the drums could just bounce them to a stereo track for everyone else, then just send the midi or whatever over to whoever is doing the mixing. I don't think the people playing along would need to be pickier than that. You know, since not everyone uses the same drum program or will want to.
2. Communicate the exact BPM tempo of the song, and which bar you should start playing, and how many bars you should play. If there are enough people involved, there will inevitably be one person who starts on a weird bar, but maybe whoever is mixing can come up with a creative way to incorporate that in.
3. There's no need whatsoever to coordinate which DAW or plugins everyone is using. If you want a certain plugin to be used, you can bounce a stem with it on, and then upload that stem as you want it to sound, which will preserve the tone you set up. It'll be a lot easier for whomever is mixing, though, if you leave plenty of bass, mid, and treble to EQ later.
4. Even if your part is short, your stem should start at the exact start of the song/loop and end at the exact end, so that there is no confusion later on.

Just suggestions...

Oh, and whoever is mixing - good luck, especially if this takes off.

 

[Rev2010]

Few ways to do this. Superior Drummer has several full song drum grooves that artists have put in as part of their packs/libraries. We could always just use one of those as a base or even the full drums of one of our own songs. Make a stereo output file (and personally I suggest 44k 24bit) that anyone can bring into their own DAW (I am NOT using Reaper!) and as Bostjan noted the recording of each persons part should go full length of the track, it can be clipped by whomever is assigned the final mixing and mastering. Each person interested should submit their name (I'm interested) and then names can be randomly chosen out of a hat by OmegaSlayer then also randomly assigned a part out of a hat. Those that don't make it can be part of the 2nd go if there is one or there can be 2-3 different groups so we have several different outcomes from several different groups doing the same track.

I would also like to suggest having a set topic for the song. I personally write with intention, I don't just noodle and string together cool riffs with no direction or purpose. So a topic would be great, just something general... I dunno, for suggestion sakes something like "Song is about how Covid has affected life/the world". I know that might sound stupid, just a rough example. Even though people are diverse and will write wildly different I think it would still help glue things together more than having zero idea what the song is about. Lastly, I think only one or two people should be assigned solos (volunteered of course) if there is going to be a solo section. I'm more a rhythm guy so I'd prefer to do a rhythm part.