Remotely adding tracks to an existing session via a reference track.

So, your pal wants you to put a "ripping solo" on her song. You live in Bali and use Reaper, and she lives in Ghent and uses Protools...
How the hell are we going to do that? Im using Reaper and protools as reference points here, but the concept is the same in almost all DAW's (recording software)
If you only need to add one MONO track to the tune, heres one way to do it

1. Import file(s) to Protools line up @ 0:00

A. Have your pal make a reference track... A stereo mixdown of the song, starting @ 0:00 on the timeline in Protools complete with stick clicks and whatever else you will need to play along. The idea is that when she gets your recorded track back, she can import it into Protools and simply slide it to 0:00 on the time line, and everything will be in sync.

B. So, get the reference file... Usually a stereo mix of the song, and import it to a track in Pro Tools

C. Import it to a track in Protools

Heres what the PT manual has to say about importing media using the "import audio" command.

Or, you may be able to simply drag and drop the file into ProTools

D. Alignment: When you get the file into your session, drag it all the way to the left hand side of the edit window (the one that shows all of the waveforms and tracks in your session) so that the very beginning of the imported wav file lines up with "0:00" on the timeline (the "ruler" thing at the top of the edit window). It may not be displaying minutes and seconds... maybe just bars and beats... You can change that if you want, but all that is important is that the imported wav is all the way to the left hand side of the window. Make sure that this waveform never moves after you start recording to it, it is the timing reference for eveything!!!

Ultimately, you will have something that looks like this: (this is reaper, but PT will look similar)

2. Record your new stuff

onto the track you made...When you are done, you will likely have many small recorded waveforms on the track from doing punch ins... like this:

3. Export a bounce or mixdown from Pro tools

24bit / 44.100 Stereo file (not dual mono)

A. Pan the "Stereo Mix" track (the reference track that you played to) ALL THE WAY to the LEFT
B. Pan the track that you recorded ALL THE WAY to the RIGHT, and make sure that the level is "good"... up there, but not in the red. (it is better to err on the side of "too low" than too high.)

This is what we get: A stereo file with your tracks and the reference tracks seperate, but in perfect sync with each other.

4. Now... Send it to me!!

Then we import and align this with the rest of the tracks in the "Master session"

Questions? jakerock (at) gmail dott comm

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