Software For Digital/remote "duets"?

[David Colpitts]

Hello, all. I seek a useful app/program to allow "duets" (or more) to be created remotely with transmitted files. I am aware of huge latency questions with trying to play "live" with an on-line file, so I suspect I am looking for a way to import/download one part, and then play "live" with it, or even record a second or subsequent track and mix. I could start with just the duet, for sure, and hope it doesn't require massive disc arrays, huge programs, etc.? The finished product for now could be whatever "medium resolution" is for internet audio; maybe for small sharing and maybe just for the remote collaborators/practice.

 

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

Thanks, and regards,

 

David

[hjcjones]

Audacity is free recording software which has the capacity to record multiple tracks. You could download and import tracks and play along, or create one part yourself and then record another one. There are also other free or cheap DAWs (digital audio workstations) but Audacity is easy to use and ideal if you don't want to delve too deeply into digital recording.

 

Latency may still be a problem, depending on your hardware. An audio interface may give better results than the built-in mic input on your computer.

[David Colpitts]

Thanks, Howard. I'll check it out. After my original post, it hit me (duh!) that I could do very crude "acoustic coupling" by just opening a file on one device and recording it to another, with my additions/accompaniment. Then, the latency wouldn't matter, I think, but the "resolution" and sound quality would stink.

 

Regards,

 

David

[JimLucas]

Audacity is free recording software which has the capacity to record multiple tracks.

 

...

 

Latency may still be a problem, depending on your hardware.

 

I've tried a few times doing multi-track recording with Audacity. Latency seems to depend on which computer (which audio hardware/firmware?) I use, but it's possible to overcome by editing the tracks individually. Simply shifting one track by deleting a bit as long as the latency is pretty easy, but if your synching of the tracks isn't quite uniform, you can also remove or insert little bits as needed to realign things throughout.

 

Arbitrary speed change and pitch change independent of each other are among the other tools available. I haven't yet explored them all.