Question Things to Know Before Collaborating?

[Scarlet Illusion]

After having to cancel a recent collaboration I was going to do, I realized that I'm not entirely sure what's important to know when collaborating with someone else. So what are things that should be worked out prior to collaborating with someone?

In my case, I'm interested in collaborating with other producers and currently I'm interested in doing a collab on a cover, so what are some important things to know and work out before collaborating?

In say, a duet cover, should each person mix the vocals separately, or should one person handle the mixing? What's the best way to handle this?

 

[uncreepy]

I've only done translation collabs and one group song collab (I messed up my half on it and I will mention it later).

• Be warned that "life happens". If you think you'll get something done in a week, it'll probably take two (maybe even three). It could happen to you or your collab partner.
• Make sure you work out details like who's going to upload it and how you want to be credited.
• Make sure you know what site to keep in contact through and establish that you are going to update each other every couple days.
• Be honest about life problems delaying stuff or if you are having problems with your half of the collab because of inexperience so you can get help or more time.
• Sometimes your partner won't like what you made and will want changes.
• Sometimes collabs fall through. It just happens.

For my story, I inconvenienced @GreenFantasy64 by messing up my part of a chorus. I was supposed to render Len, but I didn't want him to sound annoying, so I lowered his voice down randomly in pitch until it sounded good to me (at the time I didn't know music theory and thought that it would be fine and not ruin everything lol). She later told me that he sounded strange for some reason in the mix and I had to admit to trying to be sneaky and making his voice lower like I preferred (instead of accessing my brain and using GEN or something). So I had to re-render it at the correct pitch. It wasted time for both of us, but it's really funny remembering it for me.

 

[Scarlet Illusion]

• Be warned that "life happens". If you think you'll get something done in a week, it'll probably take two (maybe even three). It could happen to you or your collab partner.
• Make sure you work out details like who's going to upload it and how you want to be credited.
• Make sure you know what site to keep in contact through and establish that you are going to update each other every couple days.
• Be honest about life problems delaying stuff or if you are having problems with your half of the collab because of inexperience so you can get help or more time.
• Sometimes your partner won't like what you made and will want changes.
• Sometimes collabs fall through. It just happens.

Thank you for sharing this, Uncreepy! I feel better prepared already!

 

[Scarlet Illusion]

Alright, I've got another question about asking someone to collaborate. If they prefer to be contacted via Twitter (for example) is it better to dm them or mention them in a post? I personally don't feel super comfortable dming people, but I also don't want to embarrass someone by putting them in a position where it may be awkward to say "no".

 

[___]

I think dm-ing them would be better, if you put it in the public it might be little awkward as you said.

 

[uncreepy]

Some people have their DMs blocked to non-friends on Twitter, so you might have to at least @ them asking if you can PM them. For collabs, DMing is convenient because you can look back at the collab messages/files later for reference. ^^

 

[GreenFantasy64]

Sometimes your partner won't like what you made and will want changes.

Oh, yes this can happen as it always does to me. .E.L always has something that he wants me to change (in art or in our Collab songs), but in the end it's good that he wanted the changes because it comes out better.

For my story, I inconvenienced @GreenFantasy64 by messing up my part of a chorus. I was supposed to render Len, but I didn't want him to sound annoying, so I lowered his voice down randomly in pitch until it sounded good to me (at the time I didn't know music theory and thought that it would be fine and not ruin everything lol). She later told me that he sounded strange for some reason in the mix and I had to admit to trying to be sneaky and making his voice lower like I preferred (instead of accessing my brain and using GEN or something). So I had to re-render it at the correct pitch. It wasted time for both of us, but it's really funny remembering it for me.

uncreepy trying to be sneaky.
Man, I should finish that cover, but I just need Miku since I own Arsloid now. I keep holding off of asking someone with Miku from the Collab Thread, oops, for 84 years

 

[caustic]

• For one, you'll need to be sure to set a lot of "ground rules". Especially to make sure no one goes off to do their own thing that can get in the way of the team.
• You'll want to designate yourself or a trusted person and leader that gets final say on everything, but be careful not to be domineering.
• Set responsibilities strictly, I've seen collabs have issues with rogue users going and doing other people's work and/or complain that they don't like the way someone else has done something and redo it themselves (often worse imo) and not finish their own task. This annoys many and can slow a collab to a crawl or outright make it fall apart.
  • You may need to kick this person if they do it too often or for too long, since that means they probably won't stop.
• Don't be afraid to reassign people as needed. Be sure they share/swap work so nothing has to be restarted.
• Kick people and replace them as needed. There is no need to be too nice if they are creating issues.
• Don't make your team too big if you don't need it. Especially if a lot of tasks have to wait behind others of a long time. That way you know that the new members are fresh and ready to give it there best!
• Make sure you know they can actually do the task! You wouldn't believe how many people join collabs only to have no idea what they're doing!
• Choose a single place to discuss things. I suggest Discord or Skype chat groups to make it easier to contact people. Groups aren't absolutely needed and you always work with someone directly if they prefer. It may even work out better if your group is very inefficient or noisy!
  • DMs are always better, sometimes you need to ask publicly to gain contact.
• Use a tracking app! For example, my.dynamivox.com is my site for vocalsynth users and lets you create a board under "deck". That way you can organize users, leave comments, set preferred due dates, etc. There are many other sites that let you do this too. DO NOT organize with messages! It gets super messy very quickly and gets confusing fast. Always use a clear tool/service. Spreadsheets are also not very convenient since people often accidentally alter them or misread them. You can also use the website's "task" tool if you want to share a list, set priority, due date, and completion %. It's up to preference.
• Don't rush but make sure people know they need to finish by a certain date or rough time so they don't get lazy.
• Always discuss their previous commitments to decide a schedule and how much you can give them without overfilling their plate. Making someone too busy means they won't get anything done and stress them.
• Ask for changes as needed. They might fight back about it but this goes along with the 1st point about you setting rules.
• Sometimes things don't go as planned! Don't panic, after all you're probably just collab-ing for fun and not profit!
• Ask for help from an experienced collaborator and maybe even ask the to join your team as an (assistant) organizer! It can really help you get everything together and may even teach you how to do so on your own in the future.

I'll probably edit and add to this if I think of anything else.

 

[Scarlet Illusion]

I just want to add that it may be useful to make sure you have similar tastes in music before collaborating on a cover song, LOL. I recently asked a producer if they'd be interested in collaborating with me and we spent maybe a whole hour trying to figure out trying to figure out what song to do!

Some other things (specific to covers, but you might be able to apply it to other situations):

• Since they may be busy, know that they may want a UST (or whatever is applicable) for whatever song you're working on. (Basically don't be like me and be unable to UST. That can really limit your song choices.)
• Be clear what you want them to do (I should have stated who I wanted them to tune in my initial message to the producer)
• If you're doing a video, you'll want to work out earlier in the conversation who's uploading it.
• Have an idea of the questions you may need to ask so you can avoid last-minute and random questions (you don't wanna be like me a get disorganized, lol)
• Have backup songs in mind in case they can't do/don't want to do the song you chose

(Oh, and also try not to freak out because you're collabing with a producer you like, LOL.)

 

[Scarlet Illusion]

Eyyy, so I’m replying to this thread to ask for more advice.

I haven’t heard back about the collab I was working on for a while. (They were a bit busy when I first reached out to them so they estimated they’d start on the UST around end of May. Then they teased it at some point in June.)

We’ve talked since we agreed about the collab (we share a Discord server so we run into each other fairly often and we work together on the same mod team in their server) so it’s not like they “left me on read” or something like that.

I want to know what the best sort of thing to say when reach out to them again would be, especially if they’re may be a bit busy. Just in need of a tactful way to check in.

 

[mobius017]

I don't think it has to be overly complicated. Just ask them something like, "Hey, I know you're busy, but I just wanted to check in about our collaboration. No rush or anything, but as soon as you give me the UST, I can get started on rendering/etc., so I was just wondering how things were going." It doesn't sound like there's a hard deadline for everything being finished, but if you guys have an ultimate deadline/milestones to consider, you could mention that your inquiry comes in consideration of those, too.

 

[Scarlet Illusion]

That’s a great idea! Thanks, Mobius!

 

[uncreepy]

I agree with what mobius said. Just say you know they're busy, but you're kind of excited and curious to find out how things are going.

That being said, even if something appears to be relatively far along, it is possible a collab will fall through due to various life reasons. (Personally, I've had several translation commissions fall through, like they paid, I gave them the lyrics and filled-in VSQX and all they needed to do was tune it, and it never got tuned... Gyahhh, sometimes life is like that, I guess.)