BandLab can be a remarkably useful online multitrack recording platform for remote chamber music collaboration, but has its quirks too. I made a series of BandLab video tutorials for the Worcester Chamber Music Society’s ChamberFest summer chamber music workshop; these were current as of June 2020. But my teaching needs have changed since then, mainly the need to have my Brandeis chamber music students see each other and be visible from remote locations, playing chamber music the way it ought to be done, aurally and physically communicating the pulse without a click track or metronome.
As they aren’t necessarily equipped for a low latency but Ethernet requiring solution like SoundJack, the next best solution is for them to record their individual parts independently using the ShurePlus MOTIV video app on their phones (using Shure’s easy interface with adjustable mic levels), after we map out the score to determine the sections, expression/musical character, phrasing, voicing, and recording order. They upload their videos to awesomely huge, easy to use Google Drive, I download them, create a project on DaVinci Resolve, and load them into DaVinci Resolve’s media bin, trim them on the media viewer, load them into the edit timeline, and work in an audio setup that lets you focus on getting the music to line up while bringing the video clips along for the ride (and there are plenty of tools for both audio and video like crossfades, resizing and positioning clips for the popular mosaic effect, etc.). The edit window has it’s own audio mixer, and can handle multiple tracks in the free version - I’m not sure how many maximum, but for chamber music it has plenty. Windows can be customized, and I use just two of what’s available (Edit and Deliver, the latter of which can upload a rendered video straight to YouTube and other locations). I find the layout easier to organize and navigate than Final Cut Pro.
By having students record on their own devices instead of the cloud, there’s less likelihood of digital dropouts during the recording stage, which is a problem in BandLab. The downside of this process is the lag time while students wait to view the leader of a given section to post their video so they can add their tracks next. If BandLab offered the ability to upload video tracks into the Mix Editor in the cloud, or if DR16 offered a cloud app version, some of this process could be done more quickly. For my personal audio-only editing I’m sticking with the combo of Reaper/CohlerClassical, but for video this setup works for me right now, and the best part about DaVinci Resolve: it’s free!
