I used to hang out on the r/noisecomps subreddit, and one person there organized these “Simultaneous Aural Detriments”.
Basically we all submitted a 15-minute long track that had only 12 minutes of sound in it. The organizer then layered them all together exactly as he received them, only changing things to mix them a bit.
Really interesting (to me 
) to hear layers with internal logic and how they end up interacting…even though on one level I know it’s completely not intentional.
Great! I’m keen and can provide bass guitar or drums.
Can’t organise anything until next month though.
Still think we need some more volunteers…
That’s a wild idea. I remember there was a Junto that did something a little similar, where everyone had different sections of a longer mix. In that case I remember listening to my part with a couple of other participants and it was such an unlikely collection of sounds.
Using unintentional composition approaches has been rewarding for me. The results can be very rich when layering up material.
Yeah and a foundation in the form of a track to respond to, that I think would need to be kept secret.
This is starting to look like a secret sounds society!
oh? I’m not quite following the need for a seed track. Maybe you can explain?
I imagined we’d just agree on a time and key signature and a number of bars for the first section. Folks would pick their instrumentation, and then we’re off!
Yeah, that’d work.
The seed track could be the foundation for a scaffold approach but I think keeping the direction open would be a richer result.
So directions would be length and key and time signature/bars?
And we’d want a designated mixer for the section. That person will take folks’ stems, mix them, append them to the song, post the now-longer song. Then we do it all over again, and repeat until we feel the song is done. Then we start a new song and repeat until the album is done. Then we start a new album and repeat until the heat death of the universe…
Looks good.
One structure I’ve enjoyed was the 64-bar Challenge, which developed on the Ninja Tune Forum about a decade ago.
They gave a BPM and participants had 64 bars plus two bars either side for mixing. Often these would be a beatless intro, then a break for the outro.
I like the idea of layering results though, as this would get a richer result.
Not sure if it needs an agreed key or if a skilled mixer could bring different keys together?
Well, that calls for an “it depends” answer. Some styles are more tolerant of harmonic non-conformity than others. No amount of skill is going to turn a bunch of hip-hop samples into a symphonic movement. So perhaps some stylistic direction is also necessary (and might substitute for a key signature).
Maybe not a symphonic movement but putting those two together and opening an otherwise unlikely collaboration could be interesting, no?
For sure, if that’s the goal. So the idea is that folks would talk about all this in context of a track and then do what the group decides for that track.
Let’s find at least two more people who want to try it and then give it a go?
It could go so many ways!
Would participants collaborate on one track? That could decided by the level of interest, I guess.
I like the idea that people would work within a set number of bars and tempo, with the understanding that their track would overlap (wholly or partially) with another.
When submitting their track they might give an outline of key and/or chords, if relevant.
The mixer(s) would arrange the results. They wouldn’t edit tracks, aside from approximating levels and possibly fading in or out or using simple effects within the two bars either side of the 64-bar track.
Im sorry to revive this old thread but i wanted to share a duo collab project i had in 2005. The thing about this project is that it was made by two people in different countries (USA and Chile), by sharing FL Studio (or maybe fruity loops at that time?) sessions via MSN Messenger.
For me it was a huge learning process, both in music and in friendship. It was this random dude that i met via Soulseek by searching for Korg Electribe tracks and became instant friends. Every time i received one of his sessions i was like “wow, how he thought or acommplished this sound”? Its a rare feeling nowadays, for me at least, to get involved and reach out to a random person in the world.
Most of the songs are amateur in terms of everything but still, its the best thing i have ever made and i feel it deserves a place somewhere out there:
Again, im sorry for bumping an old thread
Look up “Unpublic” on Bandcamp… the 2 latest releases came together with Discord, very interesting. Actually, all their releases are great.
If stuff happening over Discord is interesting, I’ve been using Slack workspaces for two collaborations for a couple of years. I don’t find that part at all interesting, but I do find it useful. I’d recommend it if you’re working on something remotely over an extended period of time.
how would collaborating on Discord work? screen sharing and streaming audio?
If I understand correct… 1 host opens up a server and send a link, to all the people who join the session. I assume, everybody tests the loudness of their instruments… so, the host can see if all sounds are equally loud. And than everybody can play/improvise and the host records the session.
At least, that’s how I think it works. I believe @jasonw22 does something similar from time to time.
I talk about NINJAM in
and there are other methods described in
Not real time but I’ve recently started using Splice to collaborate on Ableton projects. So far I’m pretty impressed by it, although there are a few frustrating aspects, which happily aren’t buzz kills…