THEREMIN COLLABORATION

Hi all! Just got word back from a musician I did a video collaboration with a while back. The musician is a youtuber by the handle of einAstronaut, and he does performances to mozaic projections of accompaniments which are provided by other musicians from around the web, and the world, for that matter. He uses these projections as part of his live performances as well as in his youtube videos. In the following video, I perform in the roll of accompaniment in his latest original composition, "Turn". Enjoy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPav1ifhDr4

Even though the guy's voice isn't really my cuppa, I think you did an awesome job on the collab. The theremin part added so much more to the music... Nicely done THomas!

@Amethyste: Thanks. It was a lot of fun to do that one even though I didn't have as much to do on this one as I did on the one I did for Andrew Huang's Teenage Heaven. :)

This collaboration idea looks great - Couple of questions.. Is this performance done "live" (as in, are all the collaborators playing simultaneously) or is it "multi-tracked" (as in, do you get sent a "backing" track which you play along with, while recording / videoing yourself) ?

I suppose I am wondering about the practical / technical issues as well as the issue of musician interaction - I imagine that if done "live" a lot of takes would be required before one got a presentable performance together.. But I like the idea of "live" because it could come close to playing in a band - with the possibilities for wonderful "accidents" to happen -

I would be interested to know how it works..

Real interesting - and I liked it!

Fred.

@FredM: Hi, and thanks. Glad you liked it. So, here's how this sort of collaboration works. The originating artists contacts you, and if you're of a mind to participate, you're usually sent a basic backing track that's got the rhythm line, and some of the primary eliments like lead line, some accompaniment, ect, and you'd record video and audio at your end. You'd then send in your bit to the artist, along with anyone else who's participating, and the artist then takes all the tracks and imports them (audio / video) into a video editor. After all the tracks are lined up, and edited, the artists exports and uploads the final cut.

In this production's case, the above was done, but the artist also has produced the accompaniment video which you see projecfted on a movie screen behind him, and uses that in his live performances as well. So, he's got a nice video version of what most of us would take to a gig in the form of just a recorded audio accompanimet backing track.

Pretty cool. Huh? :)

Pretty cool. Huh? :)

Yeah - good fun.

Many years ago I participated in a real-time on-line "collaboration" with about a million (egsageration ;-) others on David Bowies site - It was just a horrible (but entertaining nonetheless) mess - I actually doubt that any of it was "real".

I think real-time collaboration will be possible soon (if not already, for those with the right kit and know-how) and this will open the door to bands forming between people who have never met.

I have not played much with other musicians - and the few times have been working on original stuff and not covers.. This, to me, is where there can be real magic.. Having a piece / song in rough form (either "mine" or "theirs"), and expieriencing how the input from others can morph something quite dull into something enjoyable.

But I can see that the "multitrack" non-real-time approach could be a lot easier.

Fred.

@FredM: Yeh, there's nothing better than performing live, and interacting with real musicians. I forget the name of the site, and can't remember it to save my life, but it's designed to allow musicians to practice live from around the globe with each other. There is extra hardware and software used to make it all sync up, but it's still challenging because there's still a delay all parties have to be aware of in order to get it right. You do have to pay to use the service, but sometims that might be a professional band's only option to rehears over distance.

I found the form I just participated in to be fascinating as I had no idea how it was going to sound or look until the artist completed the work, and then it was "Ah ha!, that's how it works!" :) Kind of like when you fire a glazed pottery item. you don't know how it'll look til it's done. Eh?

UPDATE: Just remembered the site's name.

http://ejamming.com/

I have done this too, collaborating with people afar. My husband is German and while we had an ocean between us, we did extensive collabs. The internet has facilitated this new approach successfully! I recorded my vocals and uploaded them on a file sharing site, he would download them and work on the songs on his end...

It's fascinating, andquite frankly has helped us to stay connected even though we were not closeto each other. Skype has helped us tremendously. I am thankful for all of these tools!!

My theremin playing is, well, pathetic but if anyone wants electric, acoustic, or bass guitar, I'd be honored to send some your way.

It sounds like a fascinating tool for collaboration, but there wasn't much information to go on at the site.  Do you recall what the cost is after the 30 day trial?  I'm always leery of signing up for free trials in the first place, let alone given them a bunch of personal information before they'll tell me what it'll cost.  Still, I love the concept.  It's like that Budwiser commercial that's airing currently - about how all the musicians of the world are finding each other and mixing styles, collaborating, and creating new music... (and apparently drinking Bud).