Choirless, a User's Review

Being someone that records both sound and video for my music, it can be quite daunting at times to record multiple tracks. Syncing both multiple sound tracks and multiple video tracks is enough to make me, NickelNDime, start having anxiety attacks! That's not to mention how much space projects will take up on your own system. For example, the project I did with Catera took up 300 gigs on my local solid state hard drive. After mixing each track, saving them, and putting them in another program, copy after copy is made. Is that a lot? Well, if I were to do four projects the same size, that would be over a terabyte of information. I don't want to age myself, but I can remember my father blowing his top if I installed too many games on our family's 8mb hard drive. Yeah, you're probably thinking, Wow NickelNdime is talking about how old he is. This guy really knows what readers want to read about.

What can I say, I've got my finger on the pulse of what is cool. I try not to brag about it.

*Everyone's natural response when I finish being humble about myself.

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Doing audio and video with multiple people or instruments can get extremely overwhelming, especially if you don't have a lot of time to spend when you just want to lay down a song. If only there was an easier way to record a song with multiple tracks...

Don't fret! There's software that is in development called “Choirless” by this guy, and it could be revolutionary in terms of recording multiple live takes and putting them all together.

Here's the login screen. This is where you would login and what have you...

What's the Big Deal?

What makes Choirless so great and have such potential is its ability to make what can be a complex task, and simplify it. Every aspect of recording multi audio and video music tracks and then putting them together is streamlined. Once you create an account, you are taken to your Dashboard.

This is my Dashboard. Your Dashboard will look different because you're not me.

From there you can create or manage a choir that your working on. Think of choirs as separate projects that you can invite anyone to. You could be managing a choir with three people that's a bluegrass trio, while simultaneously mange an A cappella choir with thirty singers.

Here are some examples:

This has gotta good groove...

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=408374029603308664

This is 308 bagpipers... bagpiping?

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=380330200824546869

Here's me taking a crack at some flatpickin'

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=407104650962011396

There are so many possibilities with this software! Not only as a way to throw down some music but this could also be used as a great teaching/learning tool for musicians. Someone learning an instrument could, for example, record a rhythm track, then go back and try to record the lead on top of it. That's just one idea I had off the top of my head, you don't have to thank me. Choirless, I'm just doing ya a solid.

Fist bump Matt!

Only Choirless members enrolled in the Premium membership are eligible for the super rings. How premium you ask? Well, let's just say I'm the only one that has a special ring, and Choirless never gave it to me...

So...

...pretty premium.

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What could be Improved?

When I asked Matt if I could write an article on this software, he said, “Be as honest as you want.” which I respect. While I see the promise in this project there are some items that could be improved upon.

Syncing Issues

The first track a user records becomes the lead track. All other tracks sync up to that track. I noticed when I played back the tracks I record they were not in time or sync. I messaged Matt and demanded that he fix it immediately. He knows how much weight I pull...

“It would be a shame if I were to give your software a negative review. You do realize that I have 250 combined followers from all my social media?” -NickelNDime, having to flex his muscles.

All joking aside, Matt synced up the two tracks. As much as I appreciate the first rate customer service, this could be problematic as the user base grows. It would be really great if the software got the tracks close, and then the conductor could adjust the tracks manually.

Mixing and Audio

As of right now, there's not an option to modify the audio in any way. I've never met a musician who didn't want to play around with the recording in some way. Basic options such as volume, EQ, and some simple effects are almost a must in recording software.

On a side note, Choirless kept using my camera microphone instead of my condenser microphone. I had to disable all other microphones for Choirless to use the condenser microphone. In fairness, that could be user error... I consume a ton of edibles.

Video Quality and Options

I noticed the video quality on my video was a little pixelated. I don't know if that has to do with uploading the video, streaming it, or whatever. It would also be nice to be able to adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation.

There should be a default button to create a track with NickelNDime

I can't believe there isn't already a function for this...

Bringing it all back home.

If I recall correctly, Matt submitted this for IBM's Call for Code Grant and came in 2nd place! That's a pretty impressive accomplishment considering they received 6,500 submissions from 28 different countries. Well done, Matt! Hopefully he submits this project for GftW if/when they do another round. Until then, it will be Matt and two of his co-workers working on this project in their spare time.

If you're a musician or are learning how to play, record, or do any multi-tracking, I strongly recommend trying out this software. This software will work for just about anyone, from a beginning novice trying to record two basic tracks, all the way to recording the entire Soweto Gospel Choir, who is trying out the software as we speak!

Be sure to check it out!

NickelNDime out!