Software for sharing files/tracks and creating songs??? Help please.

[sevdog]

So, I have to be just not looking in the right place. What is a good (SIMPLE!) software program that won't break the bank to do the following?

1) Record a track to a click
2) Send it to my guitar player via email or posting to Dropbox or something
3) He opens his software, opens the file and adds his own track.
4) Sends it back to me and so on.

Garageband is not the answer. I have an ipad and he has a Mac, apparently ipads can't work on Mac-created garageband files...I also have a PC.

 

[silky smoove]

Use your PC and literally any cross platform DAW to record and then export WAV files to transfer via Dropbox.

 

[davelowell2]

I do this with a guy in a different city. We used to use Audacity but now use Reaper. +1 to what silky smoove said.

 

[butter_fingers]

Check out nTracks. It's pretty cheap, and fairly basic, will even recoed through the PC's mic (no interface or microphone required), unlimited tracks, mastering capability, click track/metronome.
A bandmate just sent me a drum track I did in his studio using a different DAW, just opened it up in nTracks, and it appeared as its own track.
No latency, so playback overdubbing works great.

You can try it for free here:
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Think the full version was $50-60.

 

[sevdog]

Cool, thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out.

 

[40YearOldBassVirgin]

Audacity is free for recording and for collaborating you can be a supporting member at WikiLoops to access private sessions for pretty cheap iirc.

 

[rufus.K]

Reaper

 

[sevdog]

Looks like I'm going to use garageband afterall. I'm going to get a VM to run Osx on my PC and that will allow me to run the full version of Garageband.

Also, looks like we're going to collectively take some courses to learn to proficiently use Ableton. Anybody have experience with that one?

 

[BlushResponse]

A friend of mine makes a pretty good living putting out instructional video's and "How-To's" for Ableton. To me, that speaks volumes on how 'easy" it is to use.

 

[sevdog]

Ha, yeah. We're going to be taking some courses on Ableton, but free ones for now.


And I got garageband going on my PC using VirtualBox so that's the "easy" one for the immediate stuff until we get up to speed on Ableton.

 

[BlushResponse]

My band has been using Reason, but I don't feel like spending $300+ for a license so I don't have to share my drummer's copy. I'm probably moving over to Reaper.

 

[rufus.K]

Reaper baby, reaper.

 

[Optofonik]

Don't most DAWs have this option? If it's not a specific option then just make sure your files are broadcast WAV files. They'll line up to the same spot in any editor.

 

[Ulf_Hansson]

Looks like I'm going to use garageband afterall. I'm going to get a VM to run Osx on my PC and that will allow me to run the full version of Garageband.

Can't really do that, can you? The other way around is OK (booting Windows on a Mac), but you cannot (legally) run OSX on a PC box. Go for Reaper instead, as several others have proposed. Or use Traction, my favourite, which is also cheap and cross-platform.

 

[whatizitman]

Looks like I'm going to use garageband afterall. I'm going to get a VM to run Osx on my PC and that will allow me to run the full version of Garageband.

Also, looks like we're going to collectively take some courses to learn to proficiently use Ableton. Anybody have experience with that one?

Sounds like a lot of work just to share files. I echo others - there are easier DAWs to use than Ableton. Reaper has made my life much easier.

And if you are on PC, avoid trying to mess with mac. If someone in your group must use mac, you can share your files over dropbox, but you may have to convert the files to open them in your DAW. Stay with WAV to avoid this, which means no garageband.

 

[rufus.K]

Im not a fan of OS proprietary software in general, like garageband and logic. PC users cant collaborate. Non conducive to working via the net that way.