The Digital Songwriter: Better Music Through Computer Collaboration
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Other Ways To Send Large Files

Many people ask me, "Why can't I just email my audio files?" The problem is that most email services only support attachments up to five or ten MB in size. Since audio recorded at 44.1kHz, 24-bit resolution consumes 7.5MB a minute (and that's just for a mono file), a typical vocal file for a four-minute song would weigh in at 30MB. A file recorded at 96kHz would be more than double that size.

What about sending MP3 files instead? Most audio apps do allow you to import MP3s, but I would rather wait an extra ten minutes and have the full-resolution, uncompressed files to work with.

One easy way to send larger files is with upload services such as YouSendIt and DropLoad (both free). You simply enter the recipient's email address in a web form, click the Browse button to upload the file (YouSendIt supports files up to 1GB), and click Send. Your collaborator will receive an email with a download link, and the file will be deleted from the server a week later.

But what if you want a place to share files with your co-writer and you want access to these files 24/7? You can always set up your own FTP server, but that can be quite complicated. Apple has a cool feature called iDisk (part of .Mac) that puts a virtual hard drive on your desktop. It enables you to drag and drop files to a public folder that anyone can access anytime. There are also similar services like Xdrive, FilesAnywhere, and GlobalDrive that also allow you to create virtual hard drives online. These services increase in cost depending on how many gigabytes of storage you require.

Digital Co-Writing in Action

Here is a before-and-after example of a collaborative recording—a simple techno-pop song called "Say a Prayer." The demo is all MIDI tracks. My co-writer Oliver Adolph and I performed all the parts in Apple's Logic Pro, communicating via iChat because I'm in Austin, Texas, and he's in Hamburg, Germany. I wrote the first verse and chorus and then sent that to Olly over iChat. He then created the arrangement and added more programmed percussion parts and synths. He sent that back to me and I edited the vocals.

Next, I imported the files into Pro Tools and mixed them down into stem files (see sidebar). I put the stem files on my server, where they were downloaded by guitarist Trey Gunn. Trey then added bass and guitar parts in his studio in Portland, Oregon. I also sent files to Peter Gabriel's Real World Studio in England, where Richard Evans added more electric guitars. Pat Mastelotto played the drums at his studio here in Austin, Texas. I sat with all the tracks for a few days and edited the parts together. Kevin Killen, the Grammy-winning engineer (and my eSession business partner), did the final mix.

The Most Important Thing

Of course, the most important thing to know is how to write songs. And that's truly the most difficult part. Learning a chat application takes a few moments; learning music software and a new approach to songwriting may take a few months; but learning to write great songs usually takes years.

I've been writing songs for over 30 years now, always with room to improve. But if I hadn't taken the leap into writing and recording music on computers, I might still be recording cassette tapes in my bathroom and making my friends and family cringe. Technology has truly changed my life, my career, and my music for the better. Push yourself to move into digital songwriting; it will be well worth the small effort you'll make at the beginning.

The Four Rules for Modern Co-Writing

The ideal approach for co-writing is for both writers to have the exact same audio software and plugins. Sharing work back and forth is a breeze if you have that luxury. But what if you have different setups?

Here are four rules that will help you work with anyone, regardless of software, hardware, or computer platform.

Rule #1: Use a Click Track

Always record to a specific tempo with either a drum loop or a click track. The more you practice recording to a fixed tempo, the better your songs will become. A solid tempo is the foundation on which a song is built in modern recording. It allows you to copy and paste sections within your arrangements and gives anyone the ability to navigate and edit your song seamlessly. They simply import your audio files into whatever software they are using and set the correct tempo.

Rule #2: Consolidate or Bounce

Consolidating is the practice of taking an edited track, such as a vocal that has been punched into, and making it one cohesive audio file from beginning to end. This file is what you send to your co-writers. They will then simply import it into their software application and set the correct tempo.

Rule #3: Learn to Work in Stems

You can simply send your collaborators a stereo mix of a song in progress, but that doesn't give them much to work with. What if they want to mute the vocal, bass, or guitar parts or solo the drums? If your sessions are small with relatively few audio tracks, then simply consolidate each track and send each track separately. But a session with seven tracks of vocals, five tracks of guitar, and eight tracks of drums would take a long time to upload to someone. Usually your co-writer doesn't need each individual vocal or drum track, so the best thing you can do is get into the habit of mixing similar parts into what's called stems.

Stems (also called submixes) are used a lot in the professional music world. A stem mix is a stereo mix of a specific instrument category such as vocals, drums, or guitars. So instead of sending your co-writer eight tracks of guitars or vocals, you mix the tracks down into a stereo stem with all of the effects rendered (meaning plugin compatibility is not an issue, either). Stems give your collaborators control over the mix while not overwhelming them with gigabytes of files and dozens of tracks.

Rule #4: Name Your Files!

Name your files. Name your files. Name your files. I repeat this over and over. So many people get lazy and start recording a vocal without naming it. If you don't name your tracks, most audio apps will simply name them generically. Then at the end of a three-hour session, you'll be left with a hard drive full of file names like Audio 1, Audio 2, etc., and if you need to send a file to someone, you won't know a vocal file from a guitar file or anything else you've recorded. So name your tracks before you record and make sure your audio files are named correctly. If you're going to work with other people, be organized.

Gina Fant-Saez is the CEO of eSession.com, the owner of Blue World Music, and the author of Pro Tools for Musicians & Songwriters (Peachpit, 2006).

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