Open Collaboration Project, or just for fun project.

[outteh]

Just to show that there are other possibilities for this project (and to have some fun) check out this video! Kept Mark's rhythm guitar and drum track in the mix. I can't take any credit for the additional rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar or piano track, they all come from the Mixcraft loop library. I took an old horn section I had done on a previous project and stuck it in various places. IT CAN BE DONE! I would love to see Mark's original tracks put to some orchestral or string arrangement, I think that would be way cool! Enjoy!

Mixcraft OFC Band

[Mark Bliss]

Oh man! did you ever smile so hard you couldn't see through the tears? LOL! Still cant hardly type. That is just awesome and way cool! Tom's my new hero!

Alrighty Tom, render and post the tracks to your drop box and hit me. I'll add them to the project file.

Holy crap, still teared up and smiling. Just cant believe how cool that was.

[TrevsAudio]

gauntlet accepted!

[Tiasdad]

Ok, I'm trying to get the hang of this DropBox malarky ..

Hopefully this has worked, let me know if not

Honky Tonk Piano in Midi Format

Edit : Link Updated

[outteh]

You really cleaned up my Honky Tonkin. Great rendition, Dropbox worked fine.

[Mark Bliss]

Good contribution Gary!

Folks, I am in the midst of reorganizing the shared Drop Box folder, so it might not work right until I am done. Hopefully tomorrow some time. I have a real mess going on trying to wrap my head around the best way to do all this. Hang in there, I'll get it.

But in the mean time, a couple of things. Tom changed the lead in on his version so there's some confusion on the tracks, they don't all work together as I had hoped they would (timing wise) so I am in the middle of fixing some of that.
In order to create the collection of compatible files I need you to record along with the originals, unchanged. If you record along with Toms; I am going to be quickly overwhelmed by the job of fixing all this.
If you want to change the tracks for your own mixes, re arrange, re-edit, anything you want and present them on Soundcloud or whatever, that's great, but in order to make it easier to have a collection of tracks for us to mess with in the end, I need to keep them all simpler to synch up. Toms have an added quarter measure or so and its jammin' my gears. (No worries Tom, you did really really good, I knew there would be a stumble or two figuring out how to best do this!)

I had it all fixed and nearly done and made a dumb mistake and have to redo some of it. Gotta get some sleep, be back on this tomorrow!

[outteh]

I kept all the orginal tracks at their appropriate starting point and made sure I used snap to measure. All my tracks should line up except for the short drum intro for a few beats on the drum track. Sorry.

[outteh]

Suggestion to make dropbox or soundcloud submittal work with minimal "fixing"

1. The orginal Mixcraft project file needs to be used (downloaded) and set to display beats (the original project is Mark's 3 track version)
2. Set snap to measure.
3. Add your midi or audio pieces where you want, always ensuring you start on a particular beat (this may leave some space in front or behind a clip but that's OK).
4. Name your project: (Your name)_BlisSounds_Version(1,2,or3, etc.)
5. If you can, upload the Mixcraft project and all the tracks to dropbox.
6. If you want to upload only an audio track or midi track to say soundcloud, name the track (Your name)_BlisSounds_Version(1,2,or3, etc., START BEAT- what beat it starts on)
7. Keep in mind if you upload a raw midi track any effects you used won't be in the track, so a second consideration is to render your midi track to WAV and upload as a WAV file.
8. Keep audio tracks to 44100, 16 bit.
9. If you use another uploaded project to create your tracks (i.e. Tom's versions) make sure your tracks that you added are tagged (Your name)_BlisSounds_Version(1,2,or3, etc.)

[Tiasdad]

I've just edited the midi file for the Honky Tonk Pianos and updated the link in previous post. When imported into the original, it should start and play in time. No effects used, just set the VSTi for both tracks to Keyboard - Piano / Honky Tonk Piano

Mark, if rendering midi to wav and uploading the whole thing every time a change or update is made, are you going to be running out of DB space? The uploading and downloading all the time is going to be a nightmare also. Just my thoughts

[outteh]

Good point Gary. I made the assumption that a track would be uploaded that replaced another track unless it was a new track. Like in your case you cleaned up your initial midi and loaded it up. This indicates get rid of the old one and use the new one. And another rule I thought about, just to make syncing easier:

If you have a track with multiple clips and a bunch of space in between clips, you could create a blank measure at the beginning of the track, the select all clips on the track and merge the clips. This would create one continuous track that could then be placed at the start of the track and be in sync. Again, just my thoughts. And yes Mark will run out of space if the collaberation gets bigger, but not everything has to stay in the dropbox location, just what's needed and new?

[Mark Bliss]

All my tracks should line up except for the short drum intro for a few beats on the drum track. Sorry.

Like I said, its not a big problem. Yet, just don't want it to get out of hand.

All good points and thoughts guys, keep em coming!

Gary, I had already trimmed your midi files so they should load right up into the original "template" and be in sync, and added them to the shared folder. You can test it if you like. That was easy!

Last night I was experimenting with Toms second project while I considered some details on how to do this, ended up with a half dozen or so folders that I suppose were named to similarly and when I finally had an idea I thought was a winner, I think I deleted or moved the wrong folder, lost track of my thoughts and plans and..... I think I was just too tired to function well. It happens.

Naming conventions hasn't been a big issue, just identify who and what as best you can and try not to duplicate names. I like the suggestion above, but simply naming and numbering might actually increase the odds of duplicates, so using your own name, and naming your own files is fine. I have to change many either way.

Yeah I will at some point run out of space. I would consider that an awesome accomplishment! That would be good news to have that much participation! I may have to expand my account in the future, we'll see. But for now I think that a full drop box would indicate its time to call the first phase of this experiment over and move to phase two. We aren't there yet though!

What do you guys think? I think what I will do for phase 2 is create a new MC project from the original template, and add everyone's tracks, probably rendered to audio. All synched up into the project as best possible. Set all the tracks but the original 3 to be muted and zip and load the project into a freshly cleaned out drop box folder........ THEN everyone that cares to can download the project, unzip it and explore/discover whats there, re-arrange, re-edit, re-mix to their hearts content and submit their results if they wish, to be shared in the users showcase thread. I think that would be fun!

And when interest in that fades, maybe we'll try a new tune.

Edit: forgot one last tip. When adding other people audio tracks to the original project, be sure beat matching is off, or as I was reminded last night, really weird unusable results will occur!

[outteh]

When you say add all the tracks, all tracks will be there (several piano tracks, guitars, audio loops, etc.)? So we pick and choose what we want, add effects, tweak, automate, bend, beat-up, and generally screw with the whole thing and render only a final mix for all to hear?

Good idea, I think Trevor and Bill have agred to participate but have not loaded tracks yet. Should we make a cut-off on this project so we can get ready for the next one?

[Tiasdad]

Oops, forgot to add that in the newer midi file, I tightened up the timing and found a section of wrong notes which have been amended

[Mark Bliss]

When you say add all the tracks, all tracks will be there (several piano tracks, guitars, audio loops, etc.)? So we pick and choose what we want, add effects, tweak, automate, bend, beat-up, and generally screw with the whole thing and render only a final mix for all to hear?

Exactly, chop it up, lengthen it, change the tempo, stutter edit it if that is what floats your boat. Re-arrange/re-mix it anyway you want will be the plan.
I kind of imagined phase one as a fun chance to mess with recording (and maybe get a couple people to quit sitting there on Facebook watching cat videos, or something) And phase two about having some fun exercising our producing and mixing chops.

Should we make a cut-off on this project so we can get ready for the next one?

There is no rush at this point, no deadline. We'll see who comes up with what for now. I would like to see it get bigger, but one concern is that the project file might become pretty large, and therefore be a difficulty for someone with a slower internet connection. Might have to break it up into multiple files for download. We'll see.

One of your previous comments got me thinking earlier, the idea of doing a future variation on the theme. Kind of what you suggested, an "add a track" thing, where each progression would be built on top the previous persons? Maybe we could give that idea a try another time.

Another idea I have been tossing around is to somehow do a "blind" production, where each person in a group produces their own version of a project, but holds back on sharing it until a specific date so that there is no influence from hearing anyone else's version. Just thinking.

in the newer midi file, I tightened up the timing and found a section of wrong notes which have been amended.

Noted and swapped. (but not yet tested.)

[Mrs. Late Bloomer]

Is this one still open for input?