How to Collaborate Remotely (Even If You’ve Never Done It Before)

Remote collaboration sounds like magic until you try it and realize the real challenge is boring: everyone needs the same roadmap, the same tempo, and a track that starts cleanly. We walk you through the exact home recording process we use to prep a remote band collab, using a fast, punk-leaning version of “Help” (in the style heard in the movie “Yesterday”) as a simple, practical example. 

We start where every successful remote recording starts: listen, confirm the key, grab a chord chart if it saves time, and lock in the BPM so the whole project stays tight. From there we build a scratch track in the DAW with a basic drum guide (EZ Drummer 3), clear section markers, and double-tracked guitars that make it easy for other players to follow the arrangement. We also show why a count-in and a consistent click track matter more than fancy tones when you’re sending files across the internet. 

Then we get into the handoff that makes drummers happy: muting the guide drums, rendering the metronome to its own audio track, and panning click to one ear and guitar to the other for an effortless tracking mix. Finally, we explain the send-and-return workflow for stems, what to expect back from bass and drums, and how to mix everything together before sending a stronger reference to the singer. If you want remote music collaboration to feel simple, repeatable, and fun, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a musician friend, and leave a review with your biggest remote-recording challenge.

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Thank you!
Steve

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Transcript

Remote Collaboration Overview

Steve 0:00

You know, if you've ever been interested in doing like a collaboration with people that don't live anywhere near you, we'll call it a remote collaboration, which uh, if you've ever seen any of my stuff, I've done quite a few of those with people all around the world. I want to show you kind of how the process would go from a very simple song. Um, I've talked to the guys that I normally play with, and we decided we were going to do a version of Help by the Beatles from the movie yesterday. It's kind of a punk version of help, and it's very straightforward. It's about two minutes long. And I thought, you know what, this might be a great example of kind of the process that I go through to get the track ready for the rest of the people that I'm gonna be playing with, because that's kind of what my job is. So, step number one is to listen to the song, kind of get an idea of how things go, figure out what the chords are, all of that kind of stuff, record what we'll call a dummy track or a raw track or a practice track or whatever you want to call it, and then send that out to everybody so they can actually record their parts. So the drummer can record his part, the bass player can record his part, vocalist, whatever this, whatever's gonna go into it. But if you've never done this before, what I would highly recommend is start with something very simple, like this song, where it doesn't require a ton of your time. When you get into things that have a lot of time changes or tempo changes, you know, time signature changes, things like that, it gets a little bit harder. But the most important thing is if you can build something to an actual click track, it makes it so much easier for everybody else that you're gonna be working with. So let me show you what happens here. So I'm gonna share my screen with you here and show you what this is. So this is uh help, okay, from the movie yesterday. So I'm just gonna play a little bit of this. I don't want it to get muted, but I want to play just a little bit of this. So basically, what happens is he walks out in front of all these people and he starts playing, and this is what we hear.

Pick A Simple Song First

Steve 2:10

And so we thought, you know, what would be fun is let's let's just do a collaboration of this. We've done some really complex stuff, let's do something really easy and fun. So we're gonna do this song. So the first thing I have to do is I have to go, okay, so how does how does this version of the song go versus maybe the original version? Well, luckily it's really the same. It's in the same key, it's in the key of A. And um, so everything's pretty straightforward. So now what I need to do is I need to figure out the tempo, and then I need to figure out the chords. So the next thing I might do, let me share my screen again, is I might go to something like Ultimate Guitar and find the chord charts. Okay, not that I can't figure it out by ear or something like that, and you certainly can do that. I'm just trying to save myself some time here. So I go there, I get the charts, and then I print the chart off, and then I make notes on it. How many times do I do whatever, that sort of thing. Because when I go to actually create the raw track, I don't have the vocals and everything. I'm just I'm singing it in my head as I go, kind of creating it, and I'm going to show you how that looks too. So I've got some cheat sheets here of the song, how the song goes. So the next thing is this figuring out the tempo of the song. Okay, so I click it out on a metronome, or you know, you might have a metronome on your phone or something like that that you use. I'm going to share my screen again here. So I've listened to the song, we decided that that's going to work. I got the chord chart. So now what I do is I pull up whatever my recording software is, my DAW or DAW, if you will. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to create a drum track based on the tempo. And then I'm going to record some raw guitar tracks for the guys to be able to follow. Okay. And then that's what my job is. And then I send it out, and then they will send me back vocals or bass or drums or whatever. And then I mix it in. And everybody's working at the same tempo. So I decided the tempo I was going to work at was going to be 225 beats per minute.

Find Chords And Set Tempo

Steve 4:15

Let me reset that there. So 225 beats per minute. Okay. Let me get my picture out of the way so you can see that. So right here, 225 beats per minute. So I set it at 225, and the first thing I did was create a uh a a drum track. Okay. So I I didn't make anything fancy. Again, this is gonna go away, it's just there to help everybody. So if you think about it, when he starts singing, when I was younger. Sorry, let me mute that. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

When I was younger, so much younger than today. Right? For it.

Steve 5:03

Help me and so I just I just create a a couple of little, you know, drum beats or drum patterns, and I'm using a program called Easy Drummer 3. Okay. I really love this. It's super easy for me to use to just make some scratch traps, scratch tracks really quick. And so that's what I did here. And then I just put in little markers that say, hey, this is the verse. Uh, you know, that's a second verse. Here's the chorus. And then there's the break. Please me know me. And then it goes back in, right? Uh, and then we get back in the verse and so on. So I just create the drum track, I put in my little markers so I know how the thing goes, and then I'm just gonna record the guitar parts to it. So again, I'm gonna skip the beginning for now and come back to that. So now I'm gonna do my guitar parts. So I record the same part twice and just pan them so it sounds kind of decent. You don't have to do that. I could have just recorded one guitar track, but I recorded it twice, so I've

Build A Quick Drum Guide

Steve 6:05

got a left channel and a right channel. Okay, so now let me turn that down just a little bit. You see? So I'm using my charts. Okay, I'm using my charts, and I'm singing the song in my head because that makes this a lot easier. This song was, it took me as long as to listen to the song to figure out how it goes because I've heard it a million times. So this is a really easy song to put together, kind of fun, a very great place for someone like you, if you've never done this before, to start. So I just record these parts.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Da da da da. Here comes the chorus. Help me again down. And I do appreciate, right?

Steve 7:11

You see? So that's it. I'm done. So I recorded it, and then I was like, you know, one of the cool parts of this song is the beginning when they say, help, I need somebody, help, but that's not in the the actual version. So I was like, okay, well, let's go back and let's create that. So the other part I want to show you is just how I always have like a lead-in count right there. So I could do a four count or an eight count, but obviously something with a lead-in click. So when the other people I'm I'm gonna be playing with that are gonna be recording, they've got they it does the sign doesn't just start, they have a to start to, right?

Record Double-Tracked Scratch Guitars

Steve 7:55

Just some sort of lead-in click track. So here it is. Here's what I came up with is this help, need somebody, help. Not just anybody, help. No, I need someone help. And then this little octave thing, I listened to a different punk version, and they had this kind of cool little octave thing. I was like, hey, that's kind of neat. So I I did something like that. Okay, and that's all it is. Now, the drummer might do some. Let me explain this to you too. So there's no bass line right now, and this it doesn't really need one at this point because I'm gonna send it to the bass player, and the bass player is gonna create a bass track anyway. And the in this particular song, I'm not so sure that the bass is is essential for the drummer to try and play along with because it's just this basher. But if it did, I would wait and get the bass line back and then you know give the bass mixed into the the drummer and that sort of thing. And that's where things get a little bit confusing is you know, if your drummer wants to play along with a bass line and your bass player wants to play along with a drum, somebody's gotta start the process and then move back and forth and you know, do multiple recordings. In this case, we we've never really had a problem for that. It's usually pretty straightforward no matter who records what part. So I'm gonna send them both this same track the bass player, the drummer, and then ultimately at the very end, once I've got all the instrumental parts, then I'll send it to the singer. Okay. So now I've got, let me go back here again. So now I've got my guitar part, I've got the drum part, I've decided

Add An Intro And Count-In

Steve 9:30

to do this intro. Help, need somebody, help.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Not just anybody, help. You know, I need someone.

Steve 9:42

So I've got the whole song, and then we've got get to the end. Okay, and I got a little fade out on my my guitars, which I'll probably wind up re-recording these guitars anyway, once I get everything back. But I've now got my scratch track all put together. So I mix this down and I send it to the bass player, maybe send it to the singer so at least the singer can kind of get a feel for how things are going. It's a very straightforward song because it stays at 225 the entire time. Um, I don't need the drums to be all fancy because the drummer's gonna re-record all this. So now what I'm going to do, I've sent this to everybody. I can set it to the drummer as well. But what the drummer would really like for me is no drums because he's gonna want to come up with, or she is gonna want to come up with whatever drum part they want to do. So, what I need to do now is I need to mute the drums and I need to create a click track for the drummer. Okay, so now what I can do is I can come down here to my metronome. This this is something I can do on um in Studio One. I'm not sure how it would work for somebody else, but um, I can go to the metronome setup and what I can do here is I can render the metronome as a track, which is really, really cool. So when I do my metronome, I don't have like I just have and I do that. It's something I learned from watching Devin Townsend uh videos on because he does a lot of different time signatures

Render A Click Track In DAW

Steve 11:20

and stuff, he doesn't set an accent, he just keeps it all straight. And it makes perfect sense to me. Now, this song it wouldn't have mattered, but some songs you don't really want that accent because it might be in 5-4 and then it's in whatever, and I just want to create this, you know, even for writing, I just want to create a click that I can follow. So I can hit render here and it says timeline start to session end or render loop range. Okay, well, I'm gonna do loop range, and now it has created a click track for me. Okay, so I'm gonna move that click track up. I've got my drums muted now, and now if you listen, not just anybody hell. So it's still got the four count at the beginning, and now it's just gonna be click all the way through the song. Okay, now I can pull that click back a little bit, not that it matters, but I'm just gonna pull it back so it's not super annoying for him. Just like that. Okay. So there's the click track. Now, what he ideally would like to have is the click track in his left ear or right ear, and then the guitar in the other ear. Okay, no problem. So I go to the click track, I'm gonna put this over here, then I go to my guitar tracks. Now, I created, remember, I created a stereo left and right guitar track because it just sounds cooler when you know the guys are trying to record. But because he only needs it on one side, I don't need both these. It's it's overkill putting both these guitars. Now, if they were doing something completely different, all that kind of stuff, that'd be great. I could I could put all that over

Pan Click Left Guitar Right

Steve 13:05

there. So I'm gonna mute the left ear, the the one that I went to the left side, because the click is on the left. So I'm gonna just have the right side now when you listen to it. See, now the the uh click is in the left ear, the guitar is in the right ear, right? Okay, and then I can take this little octave thing that I did and just pan it over. So it's just all in the right. And now I've got a specific one set up for him to work with so he can write his own drum part. Let me switch this over again. So he can create his own drum part. He's not playing along with a drum part that's already there. I've now removed that. Now he would get a copy of the one with the drums, and he would get a copy now of the one without the drums with the click on one side and the guitar on the other side, and that's what he's gonna use to actually record with. So that's the process of sending everything out. Then, which I don't have yet, because I haven't sent it to them yet. I'm just in the middle of doing this, which is why I decided to make this video. Then what's gonna happen is they're gonna send me back their tracks. The bass player is gonna send me back his track. I'm gonna add it in here. The drummer is gonna send me back his track or his multiple tracks. Maybe he says sends me back four or six or eight or ten tracks of different drums, right? He might have them all separated. That's whatever he wants to do. So he's gonna send me that back. I'm gonna mix all that in, and then I'm going to make that sound as best I can, and then I'm gonna send it over to the singer, and then the singer can do the thing with a nice final sort of mix from there.

Send Tracks Then Mix Returns

Steve 14:55

And along the way, if I decide I want to re-record these guitar tracks because I don't really like the way that the guitar tone sounded or you know, whatever, now that I've got the drums and everything, and I want to tighten things up a little bit more, I can always just re-record my guitar tracks. It's no big deal. Again, this is just a raw thing I'm sending out to everybody to get their stuff recorded and then send it back to me. Okay. Now, needless to say, when I send them the raw tracks, I want them to be as tight as as I can because they're gonna be playing along with those tracks. You know what I mean? So I don't want it to be, you know, a bad take on my end. I want to make it as good as I can. But there might be things I want to change about it when I get back. Maybe I'm gonna add a solo or whatever, you know, those kind of things. But that's the basic idea of how I do this when I create remote collaborations. So for you, again, what I would highly suggest is this is a lot of fun if you have friends out there somewhere that have the capability of recording and sending you stuff. This is the process you could use. But if you've never done it before, start easy. Don't pick a song that's just a lot of work for everybody. Pick something straightforward so you can learn the process. You can create something that you can actually put out there for people to listen to and enjoy. And then once you get that, then you can start deciding if you want to make things more complicating and, you know, for whatever reason. That's great. Now you understand the process, and you and the people that you work with have got a plan together. You've got a, you know, a roadmap of how this works.