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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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Hi all
I have a nephew on the west coast & though he is but a ferry ride from P G Music he uses Garage Band. It came with the computer & I think it's Apple which may be also a problem as mine is PC. We wish to create a CD for the family. He will sing & play guitar. His brother & I here in Ontario, using Real Band will be bass & steel with Real Drums keeping the beat. The plan is to send him our tracks, bass, steel & drums as an e-mail attachment then he record his vocal & guitar tracks. He will then return it to me so I can mix & burn it. Is this possible? Two different programs, two different computers.
I await your replies, positive I hope.....Hank
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If you can send him wav or aiff files, those can be imported into garageband. I think MP3 files are converted to aiff files for import. I think you only export from GB as aiff, but iTunes can then convert as needed.
When you send the files back and forth, just make sure you have some kind of "click count-off" at the beginning of every track so you can line them up. Some of these tracks might have a count off, a minute of silence, then some music, and so on.
Kevin
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Journeyman
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Hi Kevin
If I correctly understand your reply, each track would have to be sent as separate wave or MP3 files so they can be ballanced later?
Thanks Hank
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Different andio programs have their own format for project files but thay all can handle wav files but the problem with email is the file size. This is where us old fogies who are not internet geeks have to learn from the kids. You don't simply send these files to someone over the internet by pushing a button. An uncompressed wave file of just one 4 minute guitar track can be 30mb, much too large for an email attachment. What I use is FLAC a lossless compression utility, it will shrink that size file down to maybe 30% which is still too big for an email attachment then the other party uses FLAC to uncompress it and it's the exact same wav file with no artifacts. You have to do this for each track so if it's only a trio band not too bad but if it 15 tracks, that can get combersome but you can still do it. Just Google FLAC.
Once you've shrunk the individual tracks, the best way is to use any one of many different websites that can forward several of these files at once like yousendit, M/S Skydrive and others. I think I used Skydrive the last time, it's a service where you can park a certain number of files up to a max limit on that site and the other party can log in and download them. You have to sign up and register with these but they're free. I haven't done an online collabaration for over a year and things change fast in cyberspace so there's probably some new sites out there I don't know about.
Lastly yes, put a countin at the very beginning of the song on each track even if a track doesn't start until the second verse. Putting a countin at the beginning makes it a no brainer for the other party to import them and have them all line up.
Almost forgot, don't have each track be too hot like -1 or or -2db. A bunch of individual tracks that hot won't mix together without some severe limiting. Leave them fairly low like -3 or -4 so when the other party combines them they'll mix. That way you're giving him some headroom to work. Otherwise he has to do a gain change on all or most of them in order to mix them properly. A lot of audio programs have default settings that can automatically normalize those tracks and that could be good enough but someone who knows what they're doing won't want that, they want to handle it manually.
Bob
Last edited by jazzmammal; 12/01/11 01:28 PM.
Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Quote:
If I correctly understand your reply, each track would have to be sent as separate wave or MP3 files so they can be balanced later?
OK, maybe not your stuff. The best thing to do is to record you whole song and then export it (with the count-in click). Convert it to a single mp3 and email it to your nephew. He should be able to figure out how to import that into garageband. You really don't need to send him wav files, since he just needs your "stuff" to do his "stuff" (ha, ha). He can then send you higher quality files back via yousendit (or others as Bob mentioned above).
Now if you don't have the audiophile edition of BIAB, then maybe he can just individually send you a 256kbs MP3 file for each of his tracks (with the click included). That way you can use email. It all depends on the quality that you want. If you have the normal BIAB version with *.wma files, then the 256 kbs MP3's should be just fine.
Make sense?
Kevin
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Wow! Thanks for the the responses. It will take me several readings of your replies to comprehend all this info. I have regular BIAB 2011 & RB. Will be updating in Dec. Thank you all. Life is never simple is it?
Is the countin mentioned the one BIAB starts with or do you somehow add one?....Hank
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Listen turnip, it's in Opts Prefs Metronome.
The gnome (the one from metro) can make a visible or click count in, it can use your soundcard. Even if you have all realtracks it suffices to add the standard dxi synth so that you hear the drumsticks.
If you can't figure something out, try sending a pm to our pal Ian Fraser from Otter-wa, he's a regular user I think. If he's not regular there is stuff for that at Shoppers. Good luck.
There is a learning curve. The speed on the curve is not published and some fall off by going too fast.
BTW, could you tell Steve-O for me that I paid for the N.A.G. and my taxes paid for the paintings, so why the heck to I have to pay to get in? Yow.
John Conley
Musica est vita
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Hank, Use your RB real drum count in. Simple. Do your tracks in RB. Export as stereo wav. Open that wav in Audacity and make an mp3. Send mp3 via email. He opens mp3 on a track in GB to use as his guide track. He will copy and paste the drum count in from that on each track he records and sends back to you. His tracks can be a single mono or stereo exported wav depending on what he recorded. I use transferbigfiles.com - it's easy and free. You will then import each of his track wavs into RB and line them up with your original tracks using the count in. Very good advice on watching the levels. Have fun. 
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Thanks again all I have it now(I think) & John in London, Turnip you say. I get your pun but!!, that particular veg is spelled rutabaga where as I'm rutabago. Totally not the same! I'm a cross between a Winabago & a rutabaga. Your suggestion of contactig Ian Fraser is a good idea. We have e-mail chatted a couple of times. Thaks all..Hank
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These other suggestions are also good. What I try to do is do my stuff in as "pro" a way as possible but lots of folks don't need that and that could be you too. Even the the best high bit rate mp3's are still destructively compressed. Whatever program you're using in this case RB and Garageband has to take an mp3 and uncompress it and converts it to it's own format. Since mp3's are destructively compressed having a program convert one back to wave does not take it back to your original quality only a program like FLAC and one or two others can do that. That alone causes losses in the sound quality then when your done working with it you have to save it again in another format. Each of those steps costs you sound quality. You can listen to one mp3 and it sounds good just for casual listening but put it on a good pair of studio monitors or headphones and you can hear it but again you may not care. The problem with using mp3's for a multitrack mix is the noise is additive. The slight noise in one track may not be too bad but when you mix 4, 6 or 10 of them together the result can be pretty bad. That's why you want to work with original quality wav's and that's what you get using FLAC.
The other thing is who's doing the final mix you or your nephew? If it's you then sure, don't bother sending him individual tracks, just one rough stereo mix and that can be an mp3. That's fine for him to hear what you did and add whatever he wants to it on separate tracks. Then he is the one who needs to use FLAC so you can open up the wavs and mix it with your other tracks. If he's doing the final mix then it's the other way, you need to send him the FLAC individual tracks assuming you want a good clean pro level mix.
The bottom line is are you the type who reads the audio specs on the computer, the soundcard, your mics, your monitors and try to get the best sound possible? If so then working with mp3's throws all that out the window because of the compression.
Bob
Last edited by jazzmammal; 12/03/11 09:37 AM.
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Thanks Bob
I am not big on audio specs but appreciate your interest...Hank
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