{"id":1807,"date":"2011-07-15T15:53:36","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T20:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcitement.com\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2011-07-15T15:53:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T20:53:36","slug":"create-collaborative-concerts-and-master-multi-user-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techcitement.com\/software\/create-collaborative-concerts-and-master-multi-user-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Create Collaborative Concerts And Master Multi-user Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>Many years ago, I bought my first MIDI<\/a> capable music synthesizer and realized that the MIDI standard was essentially the glue that would attach computers to musical instruments, opening up a world of new possibilities for musicians.\u00a0 Not only did it allow a computer system with a full-screen monitor, keyboard, and mouse to become the library of customized sound patches for the synthesizer, but it also became the preferred way to interact with it when you weren’t actually trying to play it.\u00a0 (Who wants to look at a small 1 or 2 line LCD screen and navigate layer after layer of menus with keypad buttons and sliders or a dial, when you can see all of it in full color on the computer screen?)\u00a0 MIDI also became the preferred way to save a musical performance for exchanging with other owners of the same (or compatible) music gear.\u00a0 A MIDI file was small enough to attach to an email or easily save on a floppy disk, enabling some of the first long-distance collaboration on music compositions at an affordable cost. With the growth of the Internet, popularity of broadband connections, and explosive growth in cheap storage space, far more is possible today.<\/p>\n One new trend involves music recording software with integrated collaboration tools.\u00a0 Popular software packages like ProTools<\/a> or CuBase<\/a> allow musicians to become their own recording engineers, but the process is centered around that one computer, to produce an end result targeted for a CD or DAT.\u00a0 Of course, that doesn’t prevent individuals from uploading individual tracks of incomplete projects to web sites designed for music collaboration.\u00a0 Digital Musician<\/a>, for example, offers such services, including a message forum and free software for members to use, for up to three musicians to collaborate in real-time on a project.\u00a0 Well-known electric guitar effects-maker, Line 6, offers their Riffworks<\/a> product, enabling guitarists to easily collaborate on musical projects and even handles the drum tracks for them.\u00a0 Currently in beta testing stages, is Ohm Studio<\/a>, a digital audio workstation for PC or Mac designed around Internet collaboration.<\/p>\n [yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t6IAhWtRsp4&feature=player_detailpage’]<\/p>\n Another interesting spin on collaborative music-making can be found at InBFlat<\/a>, where contributed music and spoken-word segments can be played simultaneously and individual volume levels adjusted, so the listener can make his\/her own music mixes from them.<\/p>\n Of course, this same technology allows advances at the other end of the process too; Internet-based concerts filled with online participants.\u00a0 One of the earliest successful experiments with this was inside the Second Life<\/a> virtual reality world.\u00a0 In Second Life, users explore a 3D universe where they can interact with each other, purchase homes or cars, teleport their avatars to exotic locations, and enjoy many forms of entertainment.\u00a0 This includes the ability to attend shows at virtual nightclubs, concert halls, and other venues (over 3,500 of them) where performers are paid in Linden dollars, the virtual currency of Second Life.\u00a0 Not only do they collect entrance fees, but fans commonly tip performers as well.\u00a0 Linden dollars can be exchanged for real U.S. currency at many web sites, with an exchange rate that varies but is typically somewhere around 265 Linden dollars to 1 U.S. dollar.\u00a0 Indie artist Craig Lyons says he typically earns between $100 \u2013 $200 per show and performs as many as three times in a day to audiences signed in from different time zones.<\/p>\n “It feels really nice to reach people who wouldn’t be able to see these shows otherwise,”\u00a0Lyons says. “Be it single parents, physically handicapped people who can’t get out of the house, or people who can’t afford a $15 cover charge and drinks at the bar.”<\/p>\n