# Questions about collaborations



## Hasen6 (Dec 20, 2018)

I noticed there are quite a lot of composers who like to do collaborations with other composers to write a piece and even those who are partners that always write music as a team. I have to admit that I don't quite know how this process would work - I mean who does what? All I can equate it to is cooking a meal with someone which for me has always been cooking two separate dishes where the only connection is they are eaten at the same time, so that doesn't help me much in understanding music collaborations.

For those who have done it before or do it regularly, hopefully they can explain the process a bit. Is it separated up like for example one writes the intro and the other the main part? Can it really be done if the two are not in the same room...and if you're not in the same room can it be done by email contact/online chat alone or do you really need to open up webcam and go through everything and listen to what's going on etc?

Basically I'm interested to hear the processes for this.  Something I always thought I'd be unable to do but thinking about it in more detail I found I'm not sure how it really even works.


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## JohnG (Dec 20, 2018)

I've done it a bit. Usually one of us takes a shot at a piece first and then the other either just makes suggestions or you trade audio tracks.

Some guys will have a synth / sound design specialist create custom beds of sound for a project, so again it's audio.

At least one of the A-list guys has three (more?) identical rigs so he can rough things out and get someone on his team to take over / improve / edit when the picture changes.


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## Michel Simons (Dec 20, 2018)

I have been collaborating with a friend of mine since 2013. It basically comes down to someone coming up with an unfinished idea which then goes back and forth a couple of times where one adds to the tune inspired by what the other one has done before. I have always added my contributions on my own, because that's the only way I can work. Having someone looking over my shoulder waiting for me to add something is not going to work, because I am way too slow for that and, to be honest, it would get on my nerves. He in turn has added his contributions both on his own and with me being present pushing buttons to start the recording, frowning on his contributions and basically making stupid jokes. He has moved to Munich earlier this year so now he too has to work on his own.

It's not necessarily so that one writes one section and the other one another section, although that might happen. Most of the time it's a question of adding layers to an existing song structure.

The number of times a song goes back and forth and the contributions we both make might change between songs, but overall it's a 50/50 collaboration.


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## Hasen6 (Dec 20, 2018)

I guess it must be difficult to get it at 50/50. I think it must range from 55/45 to 65/35, there's just no way it could be really 50/50 but if neither is fussed about that it wouldn't be a problem. It's interesting to hear the processes, it seems not everyone partnership works in the same way either.



michelsimons said:


> He has moved to Munich earlier this year so now he too has to work on his own.



So your partnership cannot continue online? I thought many collaborations are done that way though.


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## Michel Simons (Dec 20, 2018)

Hasen6 said:


> I guess it must be difficult to get it at 50/50. I think it must range from 55/45 to 65/35, there's just no way it could be really 50/50 but if neither is fussed about that it wouldn't be a problem. It's interesting to hear the processes, it seems not everyone partnership works in the same way either.
> 
> So your partnership cannot continue online? I thought many collaborations are done that way though.



The 50/50 thing is more of an average. It ranges from songs that are basically created by one of us (although I personally want to limit those to the bare minimum, because why bother collaborating) to songs where there is an equal input by both. But most of the songs or song parts are more his or mine. And sometimes one of us starts a song, but the other party makes the most contributions.

Sorry for being unclear about his move to Munich. We definitely have the intention to continue online. For me personally there is not much of a change in the way I work. For him it might be a bit different, since in the past me coming over to his place meant that he felt he couldn't be a complete slacker if he didn't feel like working on music. At the moment his work situation and power issues with his setup is preventing him from really starting work on our fourth album.

If you can find the right person to collaborate with then I can really recommend it. We have a completely different approach to making music, but somehow it just works. Maybe even because of our different approaches. We almost never have discussions about the music itself. And considering the amount of nonsense and laughs we had when we got together at his place to write and record, it's a small miracle that we managed to get something released.


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## Hasen6 (Dec 21, 2018)

Sounds interesting and must be a lot of fun. I guess you have to decide in advance what the music will be used for before you start writing it?


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## Michel Simons (Dec 22, 2018)

Hasen6 said:


> Sounds interesting and must be a lot of fun. I guess you have to decide in advance what the music will be used for before you start writing it?



We just write for our own little project, so anything goes. At a later stage we can decide which songs make a decent album.


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