Nolan's New Collab
Wednesday, October 08 2008 @ 06:31 AM CDT

Fellow MacJammers,

I'm an old MacJammer from way back but haven't been around for while. I'm back and keen to start writing and recording again and this time I'd love to do some more collaborating.

With past collabs, I have usually had a fully written song, and often most of the recording done, before asking for collaborators.

I wanted to try something a bit different this time. I wanted to try and emulate a bit more what might happen in a band situation where I'd bring a very early song idea to the band room and everyone jams a bit until it starts to evolve.

I'm not sure if it will work, or what sort of interest I'll get, but I was thinking of doing the following.

I've started writing a song and I've only got the first verse (and even those lyrics are still in question) so this is VERY early in the writing process.

I'm thinking about posting that demo so people can have a listen before offering their services. My hope is that, by letting people record some ideas at this early stage, I can start evolving the song with the collaborators on board from the start.

I would love to have people who are interested, to download the demo, record their ideas over it, and post them here again. These recordings would need only be quick and rough but would give me an idea of what might work and what might not. It would also give me the opportunity to get feedback from other members on which direction the song should take. People could choose to download versions posted by other members and add their parts to those versions.

I'm sure similar things have been done here before.

What do you think? Could it work? Would people be willing to go to the trouble of recording their own ideas?

I guess what I'd be looking for primarily would be recordings of real instruments to add to the mix. Piano, strings, guitar, flutes, etc, etc. I'd like to get a really natural sound. Also, vocal harmonies would also be cool.

Any thoughts?

Re:Nolan's New Collab
Wednesday, October 08 2008 @ 06:57 AM CDT

This sounds like an excellent idea. I suggest you just post the track with this explanation in the song description, and see what happens. Send me a note if you do it!

Re:Nolan's New Collab
Thursday, October 09 2008 @ 04:08 AM CDT

Sure thing Nolan. Like Smokey says, just post up the idea and let it fly - I'm sure there will be plenty of contributors.

Re:Nolan's New Collab
Wednesday, October 15 2008 @ 10:29 PM CDT

Here's a link:http://www.macjams.com/song/46941

Re:Nolan's New Collab
Thursday, October 16 2008 @ 08:29 AM CDT

I posted the first song update to this collab... As Nolan suggested my input was rough... I used a cello and would need to smooth it out some to make it sound more real. The idea was to get a melody out for people to hear.

One of the cool things about this idea is that you can also go back a couple of revisions if you want to build your sound off of something that got covered by an update. The problem is going to be picking and choose those to include in the final and how to get them all together in one file.

I posted it as Nolan suggested. Here is the link to it:

http://www.macjams.com/song/46941

Re:Nolan's New Collab
Thursday, October 16 2008 @ 08:53 AM CDT

Sorry for the Em/E major mess up guys!

I'll post a fixed version later today!

Re:Nolan's New Collab
Thursday, October 16 2008 @ 03:51 PM CDT

Ok guys... uploaded Demo 1.1.3 which fixes my organ parts to use E-major.

Re:Nolan's New Collab
Thursday, October 16 2008 @ 11:41 PM CDT

Quote by: MarkHolbrook Sorry for the Em/E major mess up guys!

Totally my fault, Mark. I've had a proper listen and realised while I was playing an E major on the guitar and singing in E major, the bass plays a G note instead of an Ab. That's what's thrown you. Good pick up. Sorry about that. I've fixed it in the updated version which I shall post shortly.