Remote Mixing Collaboration

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gavintheaudioengineer
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Remote Mixing Collaboration

Post by gavintheaudioengineer » Thu Aug 16, 2012 3:08 am

Hi all,

Working on a mix project for a guy that lives quite a distance from me.

Basically I'm looking into a way that I can feed a live audio stream to him from the mix bus as I'm working on it. I'll be running a Skype linkup from a laptop so that we can chat, but I wanted to ensure the audio he was being fed was of a better quality than that on Skype.

Using Pro Tools 9 on a PC based system. Both music system and laptop have net access.

Has anyone done this before? Did it work? Are there some simple and free solutions I should be looking at?
"When you can't find the solution, you can always admire the problem."

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Aug 16, 2012 6:12 am

Hi,

I am not a fan of live streaming a critical mix for critique. Too many things can go wrong during the streaming process.

I enjoy SoundCloud, as it has a "private" option.
Or also you can use DropBox.

There is much o be said about allowing some TIME for the client to listen to a mix several times before commenting. Distance between a listening experience and a correction can be a good thing. Many superfluous decisions cn e voided this way, like political mixing, mixing by committee, biased decisions, etc.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Aug 16, 2012 11:47 am

Agreed. I do a lot of this kind of work and haven't found any better solution than sending mixes via drop box. I ask the client to live with it for a few days and then give me a list of changes they'd like. Sometimes this goes back and forth a few times but it's never been a problem.

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vxboogie
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Post by vxboogie » Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:50 pm

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:I do a lot of this kind of work and haven't found any better solution than sending mixes via drop box.
+1 for Dropbox. I do the same. I also use it to share tracks with friends on various projects, but wouldn't even try to do a live stream.
Mark - Listen, turn knob, repeat as necessary...

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Post by lunatic » Mon Aug 20, 2012 7:58 am

When we do remote mixing, we stream the mix to the artist via Source-Live with a MacBook Pro. I tell them that the stream is for them to simply be able to listen in and enjoy the process but it isn't really for commentary during the mix because, and I warn them about this, there will be times where I am experimenting with some of the mix elements and those experiments may not "stick." I do tell them that if they hear me taking the mix in a direction they absolutely do not want me to go to phone me up and tell me. That hasn't happened... yet :-)

Source-Live has been great for remote recalls too. We schedule a time for recalls and then have a Skype session on the laptop but also still stream the mix to them via Source-Live. I mute my Skype feed (so they aren't hearing two mix feeds) and then let the mix play through. Then, they make comments and I make those changes right then and there. We listen one more time. They give the thumbs up and then I print that mix and recall the next.

We did this with a band out of South Korea called The Primary. Tony Boyd, a member of this board, is in that band. Great guys. Fun project.

So, I know I gave you a Mac solution but perhaps it'll lead you in a direction on the PC where you might be able to accomplish the same thing.
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Post by TapeOpLarry » Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:25 am

yousendit.com and emails, texts and phone calls. A recent job involved a lot of phone calls. That worked great. I'd prefer not to have someone over my shoulder (unless the are really present) as some times it'd be pretty confusing as I take breaks and set up the next mix so I can come back with fresh ears to the current one, plus little breaks and shit could look like longer breaks if you were watching on video! It's nice to have the freedom to try stuff in mixes and sort things out without someone calling up and going, "WTF?" even in person I ask for a little space and time to sort things out. "Go get lunch."
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Post by lunatic » Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:53 am

Well said, Larry. Lord... I would never have someone watch me mix a song via video. That would be crazy. Like y'all, I too prefer to mix alone. Source-Live allows them to listen in, though, and so far everyone has loved that and it hasn't caused us any hassle... yet :)
Brad Smalling
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