Empaθi collaboration

* Invitation to Possible Collaborator(s) *

Here at Empaθi, music creation is often painfully slow, due to other commitments. For this reason, I would like to invite a collaborator (or two) to increase pace and diversification. Other mutual benefits of course include: the excitement of meeting fresh ideas from outside our usual frame; alleviating pressure by sharing difficult decisions and fussy details; experimenting with new parameters and skills; positive reinforcement and friendly competition to achieve outcomes greater than the individual talents.

Online collaboration – problems & solutions

If you have searched online before, you may have noticed (like me) that most websites hosting some kind of collaboration, or posting “pieces” for development, are less than inspiring. Complex interfaces, enforced personal networking structures, closed working methods, and musical material resembling orphaned riffs, aimless jamming, or safe-simplistic components within predictable-bland song structures. It often seems like tentative musical ideas are dumped in the hope someone else can miraculously transform them into Music. Cynicism aside, there are clearly still many problems in the relatively young field of online collaboration systems, and yet despite this, most people can see enormous potential.

What is really needed is a clear understanding of creative processes, and a shared vision of what is to be acheived. There should be flexibility, transparency, and the opportunity for responsible human interaction (where the product will be the proud offspring of people actually desiring a good result). But rather than trying to address problems with existing collaboration systems, I am more interested in specific solutions, with very defined (agreed upon) parameters, to establish a highly focused and enjoyable creative experience for all participants.

Creating music with or alongside Empathi

You will have heard some of my tracks on SoundCloud or bandcamp and gotten an impression of at least one aspect of my music. My approach is quite non-linear and often takes advantage of accidents and randomness. Sometimes I use musical theory or examples from other composers to help solve problems. Contrary to popular conceptions, I believe many aspects of music can be entrusted to carefully-designed algorithms, whose outcomes are then tweaked by a musical human ear. Almost always, there is iteration and constant refinement. But in the end, and whatever method is followed, the ear is arbiter, and musicality is tenaciously pursued.

With collaboration, I would not expect or even desire a similar approach for all. There is the opportunity for rich inventiveness as different sensibilities and preferences become mixed. Most important, in my opinion, is that each participant has absolute faith in the often-inscrutable path each step in the production process is following, rather than the who and the how. At some stage, in each of the many specific places of interest, there is a satisfaction that the proper musicality is reached.

What Empaθi is lacking is time. And some fresh feedback. My situation requires maximum productivity with the minimum investment of time at the workstation. Of course ideas are constantly flowing. But if one could jot something down this evening, and find a small but interesting development of it the next morning, things could really take off; or making a quick, inspired addition to the other’s incomplete idea would be likewise satisfying (see Strategies below). If you think a part-time, piece-wise and constantly evolving system of making music is appealing, read on.

My part of the equation

Composition is my focus, I have basic skills with many instruments, but cannot sing. In addition to prog-rock I have interest in European art music (admiring Dufay, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Bartok, Stravinsky), art music of India and Indonesia, folk music (global), avant garde and some jazz. While I enjoy listening to some musical virtuosi, I don’t usually consider individual performances and “solos” to be fully musical. I am also interested in, but have little experience in composing, electronic dance music and hip-hop. I have written much poetry, several libretti (opera lyrics) and plays, but not being a singer I am shy of song-writing. My compositions include use of computer programming, sampling and sound synthesis; Cubase and SuperCollider are recent tools. And while I currently produce quaint 4 minute instrumental pieces with tight arrangements, I am still interested in exploring symphonic or less structured compositions, and especially music with sung lyrics, perhaps even opera. I do not like overly simplistic, repetitive or common (pop) music, except in rare cases.

Your part

Similar or complementary skills and interests would be ideal, I suppose. But if you have read this far, you are probably right for the part – please contact me. You’ll need the usual levels of patience and diplomacy, some skill at communicating ideas in writing, and have more or less (greater than zero) musical talent. You’ll also have an understanding of how it’s always about the Music.

Strategies

Strategies are just simple, loosely structured algorithms that can help create efficient and well-understood workflow. I’ve had a few ideas about this. For me, the best strategies should reduce the amount of decision-making, remove egoic (personal-power-politic-primadonna) influences, increase turnover, and encourage new ways of musical problem-solving. I believe that in some cases – when the stars are properly aligned – a complete piece might take a mere few days. Here are some strategic possibilities:

1 Static Delegation

Tasks are delegated at the start, and they can be as trivial/small or as broad as desired. Then each person is responsible for all final decisions involving said task.

2 Round-Robin

Tasks are divided up, but on each iteration or step in the production, final responsibility for said task shifts to the next person.

3 Semi-Blind

Ideas are sketched out, tasks are loosely divided, then each party works on their own interpretation for a given length of time, or number of steps. Then all material is presented and decisions made on what should be used, and how. This cycle can be repeated.

About communication & the final mixes

I think the most important key to any collaboration (apart from Attitude) is good communication. I envision that not only MIDI/audio tracks are exchanged, but also written descriptions or specifications of musical sequences and structures are given, either to order something from scratch or to modify an existing part. The clearer and more persuasive the spec, the more likely the other party is to accommodate and properly forge the new idea. And general feedback is always useful.

To save on bandwidth, it may be preferable to restrict initial contributions to MIDI (then using appoximate VST instruments) or to low-fi audio (giving at least a good impression). This is because I envision that idea-exchange may be best via email. Then both text and musical raw material appear in the same place, and there is a simple, clear “paper trail” of developments. Every now and then, at a given time, each person’s working copy can be uploaded to a cloud storage system, so that synchronisation can be done. (Any differences might reflect different understandings of the specs, and in any case one version might be more interesting than the other.) At this point we can be sure that our bar numbers match, at least.

As the production approaches a mutually acceptable final form, better quality audio can be laid down, and problems with EQ and dynamics can be examined. Although I am not skilled at mastering I do understand most of the issues, but additional ears can obviously help in getting a decent production result.

Lastly, each participant should have adequate legal rights to the material. To be honest, I haven’t thought this through fully, but I trust most people are interested in fairness. Bandcamp seems like a good venue for potential income. But let’s create a breakthrough piece first :)

Attitude

It is important we remain somewhat detached from our own contributions, and always view the totality. We should not be upset if our ideas are rejected or cannibalized; politeness and tolerance should be the overriding attitudes. Our original presumptions about the result may (and probably should) be broken as we seek the actual outcome. After all, this is an experiment, and a tool to stimulate creativity, not a stage to bathe in imaginary spotlights (well not yet anyway). And pursuant to this, we may step very lightly and quickly through the many elements of music available to us as modern/global composers. If the next iteration does not improve something, drop it and fling something else into the mix. This can be fun. Let’s try it.

Simon,Claude,Evan,Dean,Martin,Fleur,Cecil,Brent