🔈 PROJECT00: Research 🔭 // FREE MULTITRACKS, MIXOFF's, FORUMS // Thoughts and ideas 🔈

(img from http://www.audioinnova.com)

In my last post I put out the idea of making a site or platform where people would exchange their experiences and knowledge about music production through multi-track sharing.

"Think about creating a fairly simple / user-friendly site where you can preview and download/upload a lot of multi-tracks with comments and lists of all the effects (VST) used on them to create a specific song / sound.

The idea is not only to have a database of audio multi-track's, but to have a script that can easily load the multi-tracks with effects into any DAW, and also have descriptive comments of the application of the VST's.

I know, it sounds almost utopian, but I think it could actually work."

There are a lot of aspects to think through while even sketching this project. 

First and foremost, is it possible? 

Well, I think it is! (Ha!) It's logical to for me to be able to load in any data if we're all working in a digital environment. It's just a matter of standardization. If we do that, we can easily set the guide-lines for the form of data being shared (e.g. 1. raw audio - 2. mixed stems - 3. master finals).

What's the infrastructure? What do we need?

Mostly we would need storage space, and a functional system for maintaining the standardization of file sharing. Forum-like (?) interface that would store and classify data.

For now, after talking to some of my friends, I realized that the storage space wouldn't be a problem. The general price is from 0.02$ per GB to 0.10$ per GB. That's not too bad and can be manageable with donations.

The front and back-end of the system would have to be covered by programmers. And there are a bunch of them everywhere :).

What's the model of the site / interface? Forum, open source, blockchain, etc...?

... and a bunch of other questions, that'll come while planning the project.

But one question seems to pop up as a good starting point...

How can we improve the existent projects and models? 

I made a research for similar sites, applications or forums that deal with that sort of audio stuff - multitracks, mixoff's and diverse projects / programs that offer a wide variety  of audio-related content.

FREE MULTI-TRACK DOWNLOADS

I know that there is a bunch of ways to find and download multi-tracks. You can download it from a lot of educational sites, as a part of some course, or just as a user contribution on some forum or some other discussion.

After some googling I've found a couple of excellent pages that strive towards the same goal as I am.

https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=26779

Soundonsound.com is just one of the examples of such community driven cooperation where people share their knowledge and ideas, as well as great articles followed with attachments in the form of multi-tracks, pictures and explanations.

In that post only you can find a link to a great data-base of multitracks.

http://www.cambridge-mt.com/ms-mtk.htm

Here you can find a great amount of different genre multi-tracks which you can study and remix. The engineers did a really great job of providing audio "raws" (.wav recordings without any additional processing and effects).

There are some really good Book recommendations and different Training options and Advice. Be sure to check it out.

If you browse the SOS topic you'll find more links on downloadable multi-tracks and articles...

I noticed that some people already had an idea of expanding the concept. This guy had a cool idea of a service that would help him expand his mixing portfolio by offering his mixing skills to bands online. It's really not a bad idea. 

TELEFUNKEN

https://telefunken-elektroakustik.com/live-from-the-lab-season-3#download

Telefunken is offering "a video series of live music that's recorded and filmed at TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik's facility in South Windsor, CT. Each session is tracked live exclusively with TELEFUNKEN microphones and features unique performances from a variety of local, regional, national, and international artists and ensembles.

The multitrack audio files from these sessions are available for free download via clickable links below the individual performance videos. All audio files are presented in .WAV format and were recorded at 24bit / 48KHz sample rate. They are clearly labeled in the same format with the source listed first (LEAD VOX, ACOUSTIC, PIANO), followed by the microphone used (C12, AR-51, etc) and can be downloaded and imported into your Digital Audio Workstation of choice."

This is really awesome because you can analyze their microphones in depth, and hear the unique sound.

You can just google "multi-tracks" and you can find some other really quality sites:

http://behindthespeakers.com/300-free-multitracks/

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=330371

MIXOFF'S

One other way of getting to professional multi-tracks is through "Mix-off's".

It's a form of contest where people re-mix a song by getting their stems and actually getting a prize at the end. That sort of competitive environment can be really motivating and really puts the profesional aspect of mixing in perspective.

Anyways, there are a bunch of sites for that sort of contests; just google "mixoff".

Some of the sites I found are:

http://www.cambridge-mt.com/YoungGriffoCompetition.htm ----> Again the MT-CAMBRIDGE site

https://theproaudiofiles.com/mix-off-crowd-audio/

https://www.producelikeapro.com/

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/work-in-progress-advice-requested-show-and-tell-artist-showcase-mix-offs/

GEARSLUTZ is an awesome site / forum that offers a great amount of collected knowledge. The community here is amazing. I myself haven't participated in it, but I know that every time I googled something about audio production the top results would be from someone on gearslutz. Be shure to check this out. (hehe, get it? SHURE to check this out? no takers? ... tough crowd)

img by: http://madebyabvh.tumblr.com/

http://mixoff.org/index.php

MixOff.org is also a forum that has a lot of multitracks and mixoff collaboration. Since it's a site that's called MixOff.org, it can be your number one resource for that sort of endeavors.

Other contest sites are:

https://remixcomps.com/

https://www.indabamusic.com/opportunities

https://www.puremix.net/zelab-mixing-contest.html

http://ninremixes.com/8/multitracks.php

MISCELLANEUOS SITES

WWW.MULTITRACKS.COM

https://www.multitracks.com/resources/

This is a page that could actually dominate this post. It's quite an amazing site that has a lot of applications. 

Not only do they have multitracks and "stems", but they're also in 6 different keys. But as I noticed it's a site that deals with "Master" multitracks - stems that are ready for compiling into a final song. It's just one of the limitations of a lot of multi-track sites. 

Multitracks.com has an app for iPad that plays and interacts with added tracks. It's a great free addition to users.

They also built CustomMix® that's "a web-browser based software which allows you to mix and export any track from our catalog from within in minutes - no DAW required. You can mix your own stereo accompaniment track or auto-pan the click track and guide cues left and the tracks to the right to create your customized mix for live performance. Choose from high quality M4A at 320mbps or highest quality WAV files at 44.1/16. Each CustomMix comes as a zip file which includes four separate files: 1) Click, 2) Guide, 3) Stereo Mix (with no click) 4) AutoPanned Mix with Click/Guide on the left and tracks on the right. MultiTracks Cloud customers with available storage can also process and store get CustomMix files in every available key at no additional charge."

They also have a ChartBuilder that you can use to chart your music and share with other people.

RehearsalMix is a system that allows you to share your share the multi-tracks in different keys and prepare your band for a rehearsal by listening their part elevated in the mix. Quite handy.

Anyways, this site is quite diverse and all-around. I like that, offering additional apps for free, and a functional system for almost everything that you could possibly need.

THOUGHTS (and prayers)

There are a lot of sites / applications that create a good learning environment. People always ask questions and include other other people in their projects. It's a natural thing. 

One thing that I noticed is that a lot of these places lack some sort of organizing system (standardization), and mostly lack the PROCESS explanation. 

That's the thing that I'm interested in. 

If there is an easy way to get people to explain their thoughts while mixing - or explain the decisions for their procedure - I think that would be the right way to go.

Otherwise it (almost) always happens that the topic in focus becomes somehow mystified. This way, people would have to upload at least 3 parts of their mix, and write about it.

---

One of my producer friends told me that people won't share their secrets. That this project wont work because of that.

I don't care, and I don't like to give up because my lack of belief in people's goodness.

If I get 10 people to join, we already have a small community that we can count on. It doesn't matter which mixes are good or bad, pro or amateur, somebody will get some amazing sound at some point that someone else will love. That way, everybody can learn.

What are your favorite forums and sites for audio production?

What do you think of this project?

I know this is all hazy for now. But I'll write more about this project in detail in the upcoming posts. If you have any thoughts about it, please don't hesitate to ask or give any advice / criticism or an idea.

Hopefully this was a bit informative to you, and fed your thoughts a bit :).

Thank you for reading,

Cheers! <3

--- thanks to @sndbox for making me try this and supporting ---