Producer Tim Bran, who has been creating music remotely for many years, has devised a workflow for remote recording using a combination of software from Audiomovers, Teamviewer, Sound Radix, Zoom and Skype. It’s relatively simple, works in any DAW and well worth investigating. Over to you Tim…
Like a lot of recording studio professionals, I am quite used to the idea of staying in one place for long periods of time. I have spent most of my working life holed up in small rooms with the same bunch of people day in, day out, staring at screens and wondering when the tea will run out.
From my studio in a repurposed German communications bunker as a teenager to the Fallout Shelter at Island Records where I worked in my twenties, and the countless tour buses I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world in — give me four walls, some talented people and a good pair of speakers and I am generally very content.
When the lockdowns were announced in March, as for many of us, my work was in danger of drying up. With artists unable to travel let alone be in the same room as me, I was determined to figure out a way to keep working and making records. I have worked out a scenario that has been working for me in the past few weeks, and I wanted to share it in the hope that there might be something here that is useful for you too. I have combined a few free and cheap software packages to enable this easily.
I’ll explain how to:
Operate a DAW (eg: Logic, Protools) on an artist’s computer remotely and record vocals/instruments.
Stream the audio from that remote DAW (including the live mic) back to yourself.
Use a talkback system from your laptop directly to the artist’s headphones, that cuts when you hit play or record on the remote DAW.
Adjust the artist’s headphone mix and even turn their speakers on and off in their room to listen to tracks.
This method has been seamless for me, virtually no lag or delay and no crashes. It’s as close to being in the studio with an artist as it will get for the moment. And the only cost is for the Audiomovers plugin ($99.99 per annum). Teamviewer runs OK for about four hours on the free version, but the upgrade is cheap if using professionally. All the other plugins I’m using are free.
Here’s my Step by Step Guide to recording remotely
NB: I use Logic Pro but this will apply to any DAW. When I refer to Buss, replace with Aux Track if you are using Pro Tools.
Set Up
Head over to Audiomovers and grab ListenTo — their incredible, cheap plugin (you get a week free to start with) that enables live streaming of the output of a DAW to anyone in the world with a web browser, even on a phone.
Download Teamviewer
Download Zoom or Skype — I run these on my iPhone so I can mute all audio and still have a visual connection with the artist.
Download the Sound Radix Muteomatic plugin
Operating The Artist’s Computer Remotely
Once all the above is installed on both computers, get the Teamviewer ID and password of the remote computer. When the artist loads Teamviewer they will see this information.
On your local computer: Log in and go full screen so you can use their computer as if you are on it.
Use Wetransfer or Dropbox to send the session files to the remote computer if they aren’t on it already.
Setting Up Realtime Playback
On the remote computer: Load the DAW
Put the ListenTo plugin on a Buss (Aux Track on Pro Tools)
Open the mixer in your DAW and create a new track (Control N in Logic) in the session of the remote DAW — I use BUSS 10 — name it Stream. Set the buffer delay in the ListenTo plugin to 0.2 seconds.
Set the output of this Buss to NO OUTPUT. This is so you can have a different mix to the stereo output of the remote DAW.
If they are ‘software monitoring’ the recording microphones at the remote location, just send those to the STREAM buss as well for your monitoring.
In the scenario I have been working in, the singer is monitoring directly from the input of their interface (as the latency was was off-putting for them). So I do have software monitoring on, but I make a VOCAL RECORD channel and pull the fader down (so they don’t hear it). I then send a PRE-fader send to my STREAM Buss so I can hear the mic live. I also send every track and Reverb Buss to Buss 10 so I can monitor them all. If I want the vocal louder or any other level adjustments, I just alter the Buss sends.
When a take is recorded, drag it down to some vocal playback tracks, which go to the artist’s headphones or speakers, as well as to you, for listening back.
Log in on the ListenTo plugin on Buss 10 and name it STREAM.
Copy the link and paste it into the browser on your local computer to monitor it live.
Load some audio, press play, and you should hear it live to your browser, via ListenTo.
This works without any changes in the Chrome browser.
If you are using Safari, follow Step 13 from the Audio Movers FAQ.
Setting Up Remote TalkBack
On the remote computer:
Make a mono buss (aux in on Protools) in their DAW.
Name this TALKBACK.
Add the ListenTo RECEIVER plugin (part of the Audiomovers package) to this buss.
Add the Muteomatic plugin in the slot AFTER ListenTo.
Run a DAW ( I used Ableton LIVE) on your local computer and either use the internal mic or a microphone into an interface and put a channel into input monitoring ( again put the output to NO OUTPUT so you don’t hear it).
Instantiate the ListenTo plugin on that track and login to your account (yes they allow you to use multiple logins and multiple streams) — name the stream TALKBACK in the plugin and start transmission — copy and paste this stream URL into the LISTENER plugin on the remote computer and hit connect.
You now have live talkback to their DAW that cuts when you hit play or record! Living the dream.
After Recording
When all your recordings are done, Wetransfer (or Dropbox etc) the resulting session back to yourself from the remote computer.
Controlling Headphone Mixes (Only Applies To Certain Specific Hardware Setups)
I was also making monitoring changes to the singer’s headphone mix by using Focusrite Control software on the remote computer — this can adjust the balance between the live mic input and the DAW playback.
NB: You can only do this on certain interfaces that have software controllers e.g. Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 or Apogee Element.
Collaborative Mixing
The simplest way to use the ListenTo plugin is to mix live for someone. Just place the plugin in the last slot of the output of your DAW, log in inside the plugin, give the stream a title then copy the link and start transmission. Paste the link to your listeners and they can listen to your every move.
Get everyone on headphones and Zoom/Skype along with this, so you can talk over the track while it plays. You can even mute everyone’s mic in Zoom and they can hold down their spacebar to talk.
Finally
I hope this is all clear — if you have any questions or suggestions to improve it even further, do add them to the comments below.
I would like to thank all the collaborators and artists who have allowed me to figure this out with their help and patience, you know who you are. I really hope this helps people continue to work and collaborate in this strange time and, who knows, maybe after all this is all over too…