Not so long ago, collaborating on an audio project meant that someone would have to travel. To collaborate on a music project, you’d either have to get together in one place to make the recording, or tapes would need to be transported between studios to lay down parts from different musicians.

It was a similar story in audio-post where ADR and voice over would generally need to be done in a central location and the talent had to travel to the studio to attend the session. It never seemed like a major problem at the time but it meant that people sometimes had no option but to travel internationally to attend sessions.

Eventually satellite connections became possible and, if you had the budget, you could rent satellite time in order to conduct remote recording, albeit with a massive amount of delay of several seconds from the audio being sent to being received. This was not too bad for voice overs but impractical for most other purposes. Also, it was cost prohibitive for smaller budget projects thanks to the exorbitant prices of satellite time.

Eventually we got ISDN, a system which used traditional telephone lines to send audio digitally at data rates of up to 128kbit/s. This was great for voice over recording and became very widespread in this field. With an ISDN line and a suitable hardware codec, you could connect remotely to any similarly equipped studio around the world. Voice over artists with a home setup could now join sessions without having to leave the house, meaning that they could get more done in a day. Lots of people worked like this and up until just a few years ago, ISDN was the main way to conduct sessions remotely.

Technology has moved on of course, Source Elements has been innovating new remote collaboration solutions since the days of ISDN when a T1 line was considered crazy fast internet access. They have through the years created a well throughout tech system for various modes of remote collaboration over the internet.  At this point you have no doubt (possibly today) heard audio that has passed through their software.  

Let’s take a look at 5 key tools from Source Elements that make remote recording possible in 2022.

Source Connect

If there’s one piece of software which is dominant for remote recording, it’s Source Connect from Source Elements. Over 50,000 studios and individuals now use it. Designed as an ISDN replacement, it comes in 3 versions; Standard, Pro and Pro X.

The standard version of Source Connect is great for voice over artists as it allows high quality audio to be sent and received at sample rates of 44.1kHz or 48kHz and bit rates of up to 192 kbps in stereo. It uses the Fraunhofer AAC-ELD codec. A great feature is Remote Transport Sync (RTS). This allows you to control and sync a remote DAW. It allows for ADR sessions to be conducted remotely, perfectly in sync.

Source Connect Pro may be a better option for studios or those requiring more features. It supports sample rates up to 192kHz and bit rates up to 384kbps in stereo. It has the full set of RTS (remote transport sync) features allowing for more flexible ADR and overdubbing workflows. 

The Pro X version is the one to go for if you need to conduct multi-channel audio recording or approval sessions. It supports 7.1 channels at up to 1344kbps.

Source-Connect saves you time, effort and headspace with Q-Replace, a feature which automates the transfer of locally stored source recordings for the purposes of seamlessly replacing the streaming audio recorded during live remote sessions with the full quality of the source recording, enabling engineers to edit right away. Rest assured that the audio in your timeline is the best quality it can be and free of dropouts that can occur over an internet transmission.

Unique to the Source-Connect ecosystem is its method of dealing with errors that will occur over an internet transmission.   Every other system that transmits high quality audio will mask the audio errors via time and frequency distortions when errors occur.  The AutoRestore and Replace feature removes the anxiety of a remote recording system getting derailed because of internet bandwidth fluctuations.  All the recordings are guaranteed to be free of dropouts.  Even if a dropout occurs in the real time stream, the Auto Restore feature automatically heals or corrects the errors in the files recorded in the DAW with the exact audio data; not some masking noise. That said the engineer does not need to wait for this healing process; they can use the recorded files right away.  Even though the healing process may only take 15 seconds; so any dropout doesn't take long to fix. Source-Connect Pro is used on both sides of the connection then the process continues where the entire recording and all edits in the DAW using those files can be automatically conformed to the fully uncompressed PCM audio captured off the converter on the talent side. Thus making it as if the talent was recorded directly into your DAW without a lossy audio codec compromising the quality.  

The process can happen at any point in the post production process if needed.  This is something ISDN could never do and that no other system makes possible without needing to collect the remotely recorded audio files before work starts.  

Source Nexus 

When conducting remote sessions, there will often be clients who needs to dial in and direct the session. Perhaps they’re at home or in the office using applications such as Zoom, Skype, Teams or FaceTime. Source Nexus allows you to route audio from such applications into and out of your DAW, giving you the ability to conference them together. This means that a session conducted over Source Connect can be directed by a client, no matter what platform they’re using, and everyone can talk to each other. It’s best to set up templates of virtual audio devices so you can access them quickly and easily for future sessions. A virtual audio device can consist of up to 64 channels.

Source Nexus appears as a plug-in within your DAW and essentially turns the insert into a patch point. Whatever is routed to the channel input is fed to the Nexus plug-in. The audio is then sent 

to the destination in the send option tab. Whatever source you have chosen in the receive tab of the plug-in is sent to the destination output of the DAW channel.

Source-RTL

Source-RTL (Remote TimeLine) is an extension to Source Connect where the remote end can have its own encrypted local video player with its timeline controlled by Source Connect Remote Transport Sync (RTS). The remote talent can frame accurately voice to picture without having to use a DAW and with minimal technical knowledge or effort. It’s password protected and simple to use. 

Source-Live Pro | Gateway

If you’ve ever tried to work remotely with a client using screen share over platforms like Skype or Teams, you’ll know that sync can be a problem and time, frequency and echo cancellation artifacts can plague the stream. Source-Live Pro solves all of these problems, broadcasting HD video and synchronous stereo audio with independent video conferencing and text chat over a dedicated secure server with passkey protection. There’s an easy to use free browser interface referred to as “The Gateway” for remote clients which has a push to talk facility to cut down extraneous audio. Clients can join with webcams and conference audio as they would with Zoom, Skype, Meet etc. meaning that they can essentially sit in on a session from anywhere with a decent internet connection and they can see what’s happening on your screen. This makes it ideal for audio post production work and also video editorial.

Source-Zip

Ever need someone to work on your DAW session but transferring all the audio is a pain?  Wouldn’t it be nice to reduce the transfer size and therefore transfer time of a large session without causing more work. Source-Zip lets you compress a very small and  lossy or slightly bigger  lossless version of a DAW session while preserving all of the metadata.  Send it to another party and have them open it faster without having to relink countless audio files.  They can then work on the DAW session as needed and even add audio to it.  Use any cloud storage service or DAW you would like. 

Pro Tools Cloud Collaboration

All of the tools mentioned so far (except Source-Zip) allow for a real time connection between studios or individuals. There are times though, when you’ll be collaborating with people in different time zones or just on a different schedule to you. In cases like this, Pro Tools Cloud Collaboration can be a good option. Cloud projects can be created and collaborators invited. When you share tracks with a collaborator, they can download those tracks into their version of the project, work on them in their own time and then click the upload button to send the audio back to you. You’re then notified that this new audio is available and can download it into the project. This can be useful if, for example, you’re working on a track and need a remote musician to add a part. They download the tracks you’ve shared with them, add their part and upload the new content to you. Likewise in post production, you might be working on the dialogue while someone else does the foley. In cases like this, the non real time nature of Pro Tools Cloud Collaboration is fine and the audio you receive is lossless.

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