Hello everybody,
it's me again asking questions about* (probably basic) *ways of collaborative music making on audiotool for my ongoing research (which thanks to the really helpful and supportive community goes on really well - thanks a lot for that!).
It seems to me that people have lots of different meanings for "collaborating on audiotool", some follow a more narrow definition, some tend to have a broader definition - I'm just trying to map all the different meanings, approaches and practices for getting a better understanding.
1. What does "collaborating on audiotool" mean to you and what specific practices does it include?
2. Which goals do you pursue by collaborating on audiotool and what makes audiotool specific for this?
Looking forward to the discussion!
Comments (7)
See, there's this nice feature on audiotool that lets you invite other people to work on your tracks with you, and(1) to me, collaboration on audiotool is pretty much just that; inviting others to work on a track with you. (2) Collaboration is good for many things, like if you aren't that good at writing melodies, perhaps you can invite your friend who is. It is also a helpful learning tool, for if someone else is does something in a collab that you didn't know about, now you know how to do it.
Tbh collaborating on audiotool is like working with your friends on a group project, it's pretty cool and you can learn some new stuff. I try to learn new techniques in collabs that I can use for my own tracks.
Thanks a lot for your reply! That definition of collaboration would - if I understand correctly - be entailed to working inside the app. What about all the other interaction on audiotool, like giving feedback which might lead to improvement through changes, discussing about techniques in the production board for example which could also be understood as some sort of collaboration as people are working together towards a shared goal with individual capabilities (I don't say it is the same though! I'm trying to carve out the differences). How would that differ from collaboration in the specific sense you were referring to?
Just like below, this would be a definition of collaboration with special regard to making music in the app. You could also learn new techniques in the board that you could use. How would that differ from collaboration as you define it here?
As other people have already answered, collaborating in audiotool means to work with somebody on a track within the app studio. That said, i think there are other feature that contribute to make this website a collaborative platform, such as feedback through comments, or even the sample system which allows users to upload their own ( https://www.audiotool.com/user/atrc/ is a good example of this). All this features contribute to the collaborative nature of AT, but i don't think people refer to that when talking about 'collabs'.
For me, collaborating is an amazing way to create music that could not exist otherwise. It creates this magical moments (thanks to the live collab. feature offered by AT) when suddenly two complete strangers, in two different cornesr of the world, come together and connect in a very special way while making music. It is extremly fun to bounce on each others ideas, and getting together to places and ideas that would have remain unexplored otherwise.
I also think is a great tool for learning, since a) you get to learn techniques from people more skilled than you and b) you get to see how other users that may be around your same level of skill approach certain aspects of music production in a different way than you do.
english is not my first language, so sorry for any mistakes! hope this helps you with your project, would it be possible to give it a read onces is finnished? :)
Well, I guess it’s not just that. I personally find enjoyment through combining styles of music together, therefore it’s fun when you collab because you can combine the things you know into something new and exciting.
Thanks a lot for your detailed response!
Do you usually do live collabs or also over a longer time frame?
It will still take some time until my research is finished as it is a huge project and time is limited and the phd thesis will probably be written in german, but I hope to publish some articles in english along the way aswell and I will definitively let everybody know via the board or something but nothing in sight yet.