Collaborations

I was curious how many of you guys have ever been involved with collaborations and how did they go. What was the process you adopted? What was the most amount of people involved? What sort of snags did you come across on the way? Etc..

souvlakia

a friend and i started this project back in 2002 before i did my own thing. the name is basically slowdive influenced (that's my friend's favorite band). we basically didn't work out because of power struggles. we came up with like 30 tracks but i didn't like some, he didn't like the others, and the ones we did like we released a zip file for them... he basically took the tracks that he liked and released as himself. i took others... and there are a handful that will never see the light of day.

aaasymm

now this project, we would still be turning out tunes if i were to stay in cali. the name is a combination of both our names (AAart + ASYMMetrical head) because we couldn't think of nothing else, but mainly because my friend thought it was easy for people to make the connection that aaasymm is us. we milked out 6 tracks that are released on metropublik.com and we had about 3 more tracks that were never finished because i moved. he kept 2 of them and i kept one. we got along better because this time i didn't act controling and we had similiar interests.

both projects were just 2 people!

I've done collaborative paintings, but truth be told I'd hate to work with me. I need the collaboration to work to my vision and ideas.

But in terms of musical collabs I have fun, me and a bud plug our drum machines and synths together and have a top time and drink our asses off. Last time I mc'd, piss drunk, doing doing my best Prince imitation on the mic singing " freak Out! " and" freaky!" over and over for a few hours, while he messed with beats.

all of mine have failed

I find it very difficult to collaborate musically with anyone.

My collab with we kill soapscum involved making sample packs for him and making a track out of the sample pack that he sent me.

  mrx said:

My collab with we kill soapscum involved making sample packs for him and making a track out of the sample pack that he sent me.

and some love...

I've just started a collaboration - it's going pretty well. We're planning to do a live PA type thing with an early '90s ambient/electronic music type sound. We're using a bunch of old synths and drum machines. Our process is to bring up the drums on the TR-707 and create layers of synths and sound effects from there, bring them in and out. We track and record the parts and I arrange them later on my laptop.

The guy I'm working with is into some stuff I'm not familiar with, and I'm into stuff he doesn't know. But we're both really into synths and old techno, so that intersection of tastes is what we're focusing on. It's kind of miraculous considering I live in the middle of nowhere to meet some one who can say "Yeah, we should do something that sounds like the first B12 album."

In the past I was in bands and hated it. Too many people involved, lots of practicing and crap, drama, bad taste in music. No one ever wanted to spend the money to get stuff done (recording, gear etc.). Doing an electronic setup leaves some independence for each of us to come up with our own stuff and then sync up our music rigs and add to each others work. We're both pretty much self contained, so the collaboration is pretty easy. I think this is why there are so many duos in electronic music.

I remixed a friend's Books-ish cut up album inna gloppy analogue ambient style. Came out great!

I been trying to do more myself after making music for years and never doing any.

I found I work best with another musician who is more melodically oriented as I am more technically oriented.

I worked on a hip hop song in January which was a breeze mostly, but most of the time was spent waiting for the MC to write lyrics and record them (which was next to hell).

Finally I’m trying to work on a project with a female vocalist who wrote some lyrics that don’t rhyme and expects me to write her music to it and tell her how to sing it, which is impossible.

I've tried collaborating with a few people. Never worked out though... I'm too much of a prick with what I want.

  scones to die for said:

"Yeah, we should do something that sounds like the first B12 album."

If you do something that sounds like the first B12 album make sure to send me a copy.

  Fred McGriff said:

all of mine have failed

i liked all the beak & od++ stuff that i heard

Anyone remember the gigantic collaboration thread from like 3 WATMM crashes ago? Epic fail.

I've done lots of collabs. HAving a good hardware box like an electribe or mpc can make the experience amazing.

If you are gonna do one on one computer music collabs with someone else i can speak from experience when i say you both need computers or else it will just be a tough work environment. Sync em up and agree person one does this part of drums and bass line person 2 does melody, arps, chording etc. Just an example. Can help iron things out instead of you both making a drum pattern at the same time and arguing for an hour about which one will be in the song.

or maybe you should collab with someone you work well with, and have naturally similar tastes/ideas

yes that too.

Which actually makes me think and I should say make sure you are wiling to compromise and work well with others as well. I'm sure there are lots of people that could function with just one computer and i've manged when i've had to but i get so anxious watching someone programming away and have to constantly be doing something so i don't go crazy (sometimes impatient). I guess my reasoning for 2 computers is a limitation of myself sometimes, but i can get by without. BUt when i've done it i've made some amazing music. Everyone can have their difficulties and tedious behaviors, but i've never had a problem getting things done even when working with some of the most obnoxious rappers i've ever met.

I also find that just sitting in a relaxed atmosphere either before you start work or while taking a break or both and just talking about music, bands you like, dislike, popular, underground, classical, whatever. Talking about music and also listening to music. Take some cds with you and say hey check out this track by so and so and maybe they'll want to play something too. I've found that really helps get the creative juices going.

I play guitar and when i'm stuck in a one computer collab thats not in my control i just fiddle around on the guitar the whole time and a lot of the time (this is the case with the main person i work with all the time at his studio) by the time hes done doing some mixing/programming/editing i say "hey check out this riff". And Maybe we'll record the guitar, or he'll say thats cool maybe play it a little different or we'll just turn it into a synth line etc.

Also sampling can be fun too. Take a break and sample yourselves hitting things, shaking bottles with things in them, dragging chains, plucking, spitting, making noises, and maybe incorporate one of them into the song and that can add a "fun" aspect to your song.Even if you chop it all up or layer effects on it when you listen to it years later or whenever you can say "hey remeber that kazoo sample we made".

oh... i forgot... there was this one guy who was a friend of a cousin who wanted to collaborate with me. at the time i was gigging a lot in L.A. (2004/2005), and i totally didn't trust this guy... he struck me as the type who would take all the credit and he was very competative. around that time, i bought a midi controller and he was bragging about getting a bigger one. he was a very exhausting person. i called off the project after about a week when he suggested on the name "asymmetrical heads"... i got pretty pissed off about that! the guy had a lot of emotional baggage as well and he was dating my sister. strangely, my sister broke up with him on the same day i called off the project... a few weeks later, my cousin calls me and tells me that the dude was in the hospital after a suicide attempt. he's fine now... pretty talented fellow he is. but he wanted all this for the wrong reasons, and he was willing to step all over me to get it!

  Brandi_B said:

I've done lots of collabs. HAving a good hardware box like an electribe or mpc can make the experience amazing.

 

If you are gonna do one on one computer music collabs with someone else i can speak from experience when i say you both need computers or else it will just be a tough work environment. Sync em up and agree person one does this part of drums and bass line person 2 does melody, arps, chording etc. Just an example. Can help iron things out instead of you both making a drum pattern at the same time and arguing for an hour about which one will be in the song.

i frequently work with a friend on one computer

i think the real key is a lot of communication as to where you see the track going in the beginning

most of the time one of us will work while the other plays video games/reads etc... so when ideas pop in you can jump on and get a rough sketch in

from there it's just tag-team like "hey you wanna come write a melody for this part?" or "fuck up these drums for the next 8 bars I'm gonna go make a sandwich"

oh yeah here: QUITTER

myself and ben sandoval

we've hit snags and what not but we've kept going...kept playing and have found a happy home on daly-city records (e.p. out later this year)

besides being in various guitar based bands, i've also collaborated with a few electronic artists - i did a couple of tracks with od, released an ep with john (rockenjohnny on That Other Site™) from gate (perth's version of autechre), and also played a couple of pc based gigs with a bandmate who composes under the name lipid/biqil.

currently though i'm involved in a few projects, including a completely live electronic glitch band using a couple of 80s drum machines, some cheap behringer effects (most prominently the digital delay) and maybe a synth. very limiting, but really inspiring.

working on a record with my roomate. its working better than the 4+ collabs ive done previously...we have different backgrounds, but they're parallel in very important ways. the most important thing is to be similar in terms of personality, not musicality.

we both do everthing, drums & melody. one of us starts with a drum or melody idea, and hands it over. so far the process is

he creates a FL Studio patch

i tweak, import into cubase, tweak again, track out, hand back

he drops audio into Pro Tools and adds more, mixes

final mix outta protools

living together also helps. note the success of Matmos.

I've done lots of stuff, mostly non-electronic.

been in many bands so yes probably

but as to this shit i do now - sometimes i'd like to other times i wouldn't

Just resurrecting this thread from the dead!

I've been discussing a collaboration with a like-minded music-making soul for some time now. Our hearts are in the right place, but we've had a stumbling block of perhaps expecting instant results. Added to this, he's not so keen on working on elements separately (we are both in different cities), and would rather get together to jam stuff out in the same room. He is certainly more proficient with instruments (guitar, piano) than myself, but I make up for that with the more technical knowledge (using and getting gear talking to eachother, DAWs etc). We're not even sure what kind of music we want to make, but that's part of the fun I guess...

that's sweet. I've tried for years to get something going with people, but it always hits some kind of thing like that at some point. Do it. You'll figure out what kind of music to make later on.