A shared project calendar
can generate a lot of productivity.
Staying on-task has become
a hurdle for a lot of creative
people – especially those who
haven’t worked from home in the
past. A simple calendar shared
between collaborators presents
a friendly amount of accountability
and Google Calendars
can hold a lot of information in
a very small space. Mix notes,
goals, meeting times, reminders,
links to reference material,
links to relevant documents, and
many other details can be associated
with events in your calendars’
comments and elsewhere.
Effective use of calendars can
save a lot of document hunting
and email searching, all while
keeping the time-related goal
posts of our productions frontof-mind.
There are many products out
there for streaming audio directly
from our DAWs over the internet
to clients or co-creators. Many of
these will require hard-wired internet
connections and some will
take a bit of configuring in your
local router to operate.
Source-Connect is one product
that is often relied upon by
the professionals among us. The
Audiomovers Listento plug-in
is a relatively new subscription
service that is brilliantly simple.
Basically, you put the plug-in
on a track and it will generate
a URL that you can share with
clients and collaborators. It allows
you to select the quality of
the audio stream. For example,
if your connection is great, you
can send PCM 32-bit audio over
the net, and if your connection is
less than ideal, you can dial the
audio quality down to reduce latency
and avoid the possibility of
dropouts. This kind of streaming
plug-in is perfect for getting final
approval on mixes in real-time. I
will often set up a call on my cell,
Tips for remote work…
I am currently working on a collaboration
with an artist in Zimbabwe. I think
connecting initially and really laying
out the vibe/form/energy of what you
want to create will set the intention for
how the song comes out. Like in any
relationship, clear communication is
so important.
ALYSHA BRILLA
Alysha Brilla is a Juno-nominated artist and producer
currently working on her fifth album, The Body, which
blends acoustic and electric sounds from India, East
Africa, and her home on the Grand River in Southern
Ontario. She has also been offering production workshops
that focus on home recording techniques.
www.alyshabrilla.com.
Cool remote results…
Artist/yoga teacher Desirée Dawson
and I have been remotely creating
songs for our online yoga and live
music classes. We would each start
with an idea and send it to the other,
who would take over and shape up
the song. I think if we were together,
it would of course be magic, but because
we were apart, there was a special quality to
the music. I am a big advocate of the land you live on
informing everything and since she was on the West
Coast and I was here in Southwestern Ontario, we
were each bringing the energy from the waters that
are near us, the fields we would walk in between recordings...
It can all be heard on the songs.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 51