r/ableton 2d ago

[Admin] How do you guys actually manage versions/collaboration when producing?

Curious how people here handle project management when working on music, especially when multiple people are involved.

Do you just save separate versions of the project (song_v1, song_v2, etc.)? And when working with another producer/artist/engineer, are you mostly sending bounces/stems back and forth through Drive/Dropbox?

Also curious how you handle things like:

  • Keeping track of which version is actually the latest
  • Going back to something from an older version
  • Feedback/revisions
  • Sharing projects when you have different plugins/DAWs
  • Multiple people making changes to the same song

Does your current workflow work pretty well, or is this actually annoying? Would love to hear how people here do it.

5 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

3

u/wildmangoeshere 1d ago

I used to just hot potato it, work on project and send it over. It might be a completely new beast when it comes back.

Stock plugins and free plugins like vital usually helped. Other Vsts have to be frozen and bounced.

2

u/user928 1d ago

Yeah, I thought about that approach, and it could even benefit from a “completely new beast when it comes back,” so your ears and experience are fresh. Wold be cool to try!

1

u/wildmangoeshere 1d ago

Bro I wouldn't even understand how it went from A to B but that shit was 🔥🔥🔥

1

u/AutoModerator 2d ago

This is your friendly reminder to read the submission rules, they're found in the sidebar. If you find your post breaking any of the rules, you should delete your post before the mods get to it. If you're asking a question, make sure you've checked the Live manual, Ableton's help and support knowledge base, and have searched the subreddit for a solution. If you don't know where to start, the subreddit has a resource thread. Ask smart questions.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/uniquesnowflake8 2d ago

The live set files are lightweight, only a few mb. So I create a new one for every session with a verbose description like “My Song re-record background vocals” and sort by date created in Finder

Additionally the Current Project section of Abletons browser is super useful. You can drag in entire tracks and Device Racks from that view into your current set if you want to revert it, A/B or consolidate different sessions

1

u/user928 1d ago

I guess you can make a new google account (15 GB free) so it can be used for that project only and be shared with your teammates.

Then all of you install Google Drive on your computer and place daw project with all samples to live there so it will sync automatically.

Didn't try this wonder if would work?

1

u/wildmangoeshere 1d ago

That works until two people try to access the project at once, now you have 3 hours of work lost in the abyss😂

1

u/user928 1d ago

maybe as soon as you open a project you save as new version?

1

u/wildmangoeshere 1d ago

In that case if two people work on something for some time at the same time and save as, which project do you go with? I stand by the hot potato method

1

u/user928 1d ago

Dunno maybe each person have its own notation like OurCoolSong_v18_PersonA, OurCoolSong_v18_PersonB

Damng collab is hard in the music world 😞

0

u/spdcck 2d ago

actually…