How do you work with people

[EmsDeLaRoZ]

This question always bugs me, maybe because I'm not that masterful in making music but...

...how do you do to work with other people in a piece? You two conceptualize melody? One does one thing and the other one does something else? You write the song and the other one plays the song? And what if you don't live near to each other? You constantly send the music file via internet? I'm very curious since I'm considering to work with others in the future to improve my music making abilities

[AED-4]

At 1/6/24 12:17 PM, EmsDeLaRoZ wrote: This question always bugs me, maybe because I'm not that masterful in making music but...

...how do you do to work with other people in a piece? You two conceptualize melody? One does one thing and the other one does something else? You write the song and the other one plays the song? And what if you don't live near to each other? You constantly send the music file via internet? I'm very curious since I'm considering to work with others in the future to improve my music making abilities

When it comes to the technicalities yeah you send the project file if you both are using the same DAW, as that's just the most convenient solution. But if you are using different DAWs and/or you have different plugins (say the other is using Serum and Pro-Q and you don't have them), you need to export the audio stems (= mixer track outputs) for the other to be able to use them.

Managing a collab is a bit more freeform of course, but whenever I have done collabs it's been a matter of one of us starting a track, passing it to the other one, and they then expand upon the ideas already present in it, send it back and thus the process continues. I think it also helps if you agree on who's gonna be the "leader" in the collab, meaning that they have the final say on sections where you might have conflicting ideas, but who also has the responsibility of making sure the final mix sounds good etc.

Of course that's just one way to do it, there are also "versus" style collabs where you two make your own "independent" sections and collabs where one has control over some elements and the other over the rest. Honestly as long as you agree what each of you are gonna do beforehand and be respectful it's gonna be smooth sailing :)

[wobwobrob]

I've jammed in the same room as someone to develop ideas, I've sent tracks back and forth online as we add different parts, I've had very clear ideas about what I want and given the brief to skilful musicians to realise, there's loads of ways! Depends on who you're working with and what your intentions for the final product are.

[DioShiba]

Magic.

[wackymuffin]

you could start a band or something and each of you could play each instrument.

most of your ideas above are probably right 2

[Jojo]

As a wise sailor would, I do my best to work with the wind instead of against it, despite how annoying that wind can be at times.

[AnsPunktF]

On a discord Server of Musicans I saw people using Satellite VST and they said it is great. On the Website is written, that It is free and they refinance it with other plugins.

Till now I didn't used it, cause I didn't knew it, but I think I'll give it a try and I didn't saw it here, so here is the link:

https://mixedinkey.com/satellite/

[Alenicia]

With a person I have worked with for a while, she actually uses MuseScore and writes out the music traditionally because she is actually really well-versed in traditional composition and then it's either that I'm playing it or I'm "translating" it into a DAW to make it happen.

The most recent song I put up on Newgrounds was done similarly with a new partner who was very new to music composition (her first song) and I handled more of the technical stuff to put all the ideas together.

But otherwise, it really depends on the person you're with. You can split things, you can work simultaneously, or you can just bounce ideas off of each other to find your groove .. because everyone has a different way of doing things.

[slowfreq]

Music is just entertainment with theory. You work with someone by having fun with them.

How do you find someone who thinks music is fun in the same way you do? That's just socialization and you'll have the same problems with it as you will with just finding friends in general.