Preparing your materials ahead of a session

Learn everything about what to provide for your Musiversal sessions.

• Learn about what can be achieved in Musiversal sessions here.
• Find specific material guidelines per musician in this article. 

Know your music

In order for our specialists to help you achieve your artistic vision, you should know a few things about your music before every session takes place:

• Know the correct BPM, form and key of your song/ piece.
• Record a backing track in the correct BPM, form and key. It's preferable to have vocals and instruments in separate backing tracks.
• We suggest recordings take place in the following order (each track and project can have their own, depending on different factors):

1. 1. 1. Rhythm section (drums, beats and bass)
      2. Harmonic instruments (guitars, keys, accordion)
      3. Melodic instruments (trumpet, saxophones, violin, cello, etc)
      4. Vocals (lead and backing)

Prepare your music

1. Written material 

• For improvisation → Chords chart (see model here).
  
• To replicate a specific melody → Sheet music/ score (see model here).
  Learn how to transcribe from MIDI to Score in this article.
• To do both of the above → Lead Sheet (see model here).
  

You can get a Chords Chart created for you with our Pre-Production service, which is included in the Unlimited subscription. Learn all about Pre-Production here.

To get a more specific Score or Lead Sheet created, you'll need our transcription service which is currently an add-on to the subscription. Learn more here.

2. Audio material 

• Provide WAV or AIFF files. DAW files aren't accepted. 
• All files must be of the same duration, sample rate and bit depth.
• Upload no more than 3 stems of your previously recorded material, making sure that they are in the correct BPM and form. E.g.: Vocals only; Harmony only; Percussion only.
• Upload backing tracks without the element you're going to record with a given musician. E.g.: backing track without the bass line, to record with bassist.
• All files, backing track and score/ parts should start at the 1st beat of bar 0, leaving one empty bar before the beginning of any music.
• Ensure that the click track will match the desired BPM.
• Click or midi tempo map if there are multiple tempi.
• If you have a MIDI arrangement, be sure to send it in .mid format as well as its extracted audio (in WAV or AIFF).
• Ensure each bar in the written material matches each bar in the audio files.
  
• Find out more about what materials to provide for Mixing sessions here. 

3. Vocal sessions 

• Singers' vocal range: 
  
                - Clare Dove: Chest/ Belt: F3 - G5 / Head: Up to C6
                - Lynsey Tibbs: D3 - D6
                - Marta Garrett: Chest: E3 - B4 / Head: C5 - A5
                - Dorothy Takev: D3 - F5
                - Ben Botfield: B2 - C5
  Sessions may be declined if the material isn't fit to the singer's vocal range. 
• Provide a WAV track for the singer to learn the melody. This can be your scratch vocals or an audio mock-up made with a virtual instrument.
• Lyric sheet, if your song has words in it.
• Optionally, provide sheet music.
• Our singers will not create a melody for your lyrics, or lyrics for your melody, or provide translation services for your lyrics. 
  
  

Last but not least...

If your song or piece is not typical in style, has complicated tempo/meter changes, has a lot of detailed or intricate written parts and/or is longer than 5 minutes in duration, we’d ask you to understand that you’ll most likely not be able to achieve your goals.

Be kind and understanding towards our musicians. In spite of being world-class artists and advisors, they’re also human beings just like us: they need time to prepare and understand your music properly and, because of their level of excellence and perfectionism, they’ll not be satisfied with trying to work with you unless they feel prepared. This is their art and their craft, to which they have dedicated thousands of hours of their lives, and they don’t want to put out anything less than something that is a true expression of their mastery. So just remember that they’re not robots and certainly not miracle workers. But if you put in the time to provide them with the materials they need, they’ll provide you with some of the best artistic outcomes and ideas you’ve ever heard. Symbiosis at its best. Or, as someone once said: “If you take care of the music, the music will take care of you”.

We hope you enjoy and get a lot of value from your Musiversal sessions 🧡🎵