Hey peeps!
This is the last post for this month about my project. I'm pretty satisfied, even tho' i realized the size of the idea
is much bigger than the original thought.
By that I mean, while analyzing the original idea (i.e. Multi-track sharing platform) I discovered a lot of limitations and a huge potential for growth.
The biggest problem - which really bugs me - is the fact that we're not able to share project information between different DAW's. I wrote a post where I researched about different Universal File Formats that could be use to transfer edit information, timestamps and FX Presets.
To be able to comprehend the problem I have to test different applications, and how do those Universal File Formats transfer between DAW's. <-- TO DO
My IT friend Kiki told me that the biggest problem is to find enough Open formats which I can then potentially analyze and make a bridge between the files - otherwise if the protocols aren't open, anything I would do would be an illegal breach into the code. And since we're living in 2018. and there's still no uniform standard to transfer project file's information i presume that the code's are protected by manufacturers.
I also researched about CreativeCommons licenses, and I really believe that I've found one of the best licenses to use on the content and the website.
And the most important thing is that I started writing the MVP - Minimum Viable Product sheet.
Currently I'm still thinking of making a simple upload platform where a universal standard would be set.
(I wrote about the potential standard that could be used - Uploading 3 phases of the song (middle of the post): RAW - MIX - MASTER - but that would produce a lot of data to be "storaged". But that's the minimum data needed for the site to have an educational path and direction.)
But I would really like to solve one of the bigger problems in digital audio production domain - transferring projects between DAW's - so maybe that would be a secondary task.
One of the questions that imposes itself on the project is - can this concept be developed and built on Steem or blockchain platform?
I would love to give the opportunity for users to monetize their work. Free content is always good, and we're used on getting and giving it out of pure altruism. But if someone is compensated for their time, everything works better.
One more thing that came to me was thinking of the NAME of the project:
If it would be built on Steem, it would be called...
(drumroll)
- SteemStems -
So you understand the conundrum why I would like it to be built on Steem.
MVP
I started the MVP with an INTRODUCTION - which is a simple explanation of basic concepts:
What are multi-tracks?
What are the phases of producing of a song?
What's the potential of working in a Digital environment? <-- TO DO
TEXT from INTRODUCTION:
Audio post production is the general term for all stages of production happening between the actual recording in a studio and the completion of a master recording. It involves sound design, sound editing, audio mixing, and the addition of effects. Every process (including tracking / recording) results in a bundle of audio files that are referred to as “multitracks” or mistakenly “stems”*.
* In audio production, a stem is a discrete or grouped collection of audio sources mixed together, usually by one person, to be dealt with downstream as one unit. A single stem may be delivered in mono, stereo, or in multiple tracks for surround sound. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_(audio) - also called “Mixdown”
To achieve the final song ready for publishing, every song has to go through multiple layers of post-production.
The process starts with recording the artists performance to audio files in a uniform file format (.wav, .flac, etc.) and a standardized sample-format and rate (e.g. 24bit / 48kHz).
Those files are placed and managed in Digital Audio Workstations called DAW’s (Pro Tools, Logic, Nuendo, Cubase, Studio One, FL Studio, Cockos Reaper, etc…) in which they’re manipulated, edited, mixed and mastered.
Editing means cutting and adjusting your audio files on your timeline (e.g. if a snare drum hit is lagging or speeding up, you can cut it and move it forward or backwards in time to align with the songs beat). Editing is usually done within a preferable DAW of choice.
Mixing is the process of sonicly shaping multiple sounds (recorded audio multi-tracks) into one stereo track. It’s usually done by volume leveling, panning, and layering the sounds evenly across the frequency spectre. It’s a highly aesthetic and creative process in which the sound manipulation is done with effects (FX - VST - in a digital domain) that tweak different aspects of the sound (e.g. dynamics [compressors], space [reverb], timbre [equalisers], etc.).
Mastering is the final process of post-production. It’s the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication or replication). The point of “mastering” is to optimise sound translation on all playback systems through usage of corrective equalization and dynamic compression (also done by VST in a digital domain.) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_mastering
What's the potential of working in a Digital environment? <-- TO DO
After that I defined the Primary Goal of the project.
PRIMARY GOAL
Providing an educational and collaboration platform for music artists, producers and audio engineers to share, preview and comment their work through sharing their audio multitracks and VST presets.
USER FLOW
My friend told me that we could divide the User Flow into two categories. Contributor's User Flow, and Everyone's (elses) User Flow. He also noted that there are always much more passive users on these kind of platforms than the contributors, so to keep that in mind.
(Steem could regulate that, if people had to upvote and comment an upload they're receiving than atleast contributors would be compensated in some way.)
USER FLOW 1 - Contributors
So, firstly, users should be able to Register with their username and password.
They should be able tu Upload their multitracks. // platform should recognize if upload is random or not standardized (different track lenght, size...)?
They should be able to Annotate their upload. Put Contributor tags for easier search, and also add a list of FX and comments of their process.
Lastly after everything is done, they should be able to Publish their upload and share it on different social platforms (Facebook, Google+, Embed?)
USER FLOW 2 - Everyone
Users should Register to be able to download content.
Users should easily Search / Explore the site in order to find the desired multi-tracks. (search by tags, genre, fx)
Users should be able to Download their desired multi-tracks.
After downloading, Users should leave a Feedback on the post. (Comments, Suggested Tags*, Rate the multitrack)
*Suggested User tags - Users can leave a tag suggestion which a Contributor has to validate in order for it to go into the User tag pool (if the tag is not validated for a longer amount of time - the tags automatically goes into the User tag pool) <-- that way Users can add an "adjective" to describe the multitracks.
---
Ok, this is the general basic architecture of the site for now. Everything else is just extra features that can revolve around the concept of knowledge exchange.
What do you think?
There is a lot of things to do like opening a central repository for the project on Github, write down an extensive software documentation and project overview, and also meet the stable Development (Continuous integration with Travis CI or similar, any web stack would work (LAMP, MEAN, MySQL, Mongo, etc.).) and Deployment requirements (VPS server with root access - SSL - free LetsEncrypt certificate with autorenew cronjob - Domain).
If anyone is interested to join the process, please feel free to contact me here or on my email: moramopstati@gmail.com
Just to keep things more-less organized, my friend wrote me a short TODO list.
TODO:
Choose domain name
Define MVP features
Draw wireframes of the UI
Create a slide deck / pitch deck for the project
Find collaborators
Buy a VPS in the cloud
So, let's say it's called SteemStems.com, that would be cool.
MVP features are currently being defined.
Draw wireframes of the UI (!!!) - this is in plan for the next weeks.
Slide deck / pitch deck for the project will be defined as soon as all the MVP features are defined.
Since the project would be open source, I hope that people would be interested in helping in developing the project and be compensated as much as possible from the @sndbox pool.
And as soon as the wireframes of the UI and MVP are defined I can buy the VPS to start deploying the project.
THE PLAN
Ok, so, I've got a goal for the next two weeks.
- Finish the MVP
- Draw the wireframes of the site - sketch a logo
- buy VPS
- Test the Universal File Formats
I think that sounds about right.
If you have any comments, criticisms, please comment or contact me on moramopstati@gmail.com.
--- thanks to @sndbox for making me try this and supporting ---