Skype in a Pro Recording Session

Vaughn McMillan

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This is my buddy Tim. Pretty sure I've shown a few of his other things here in the past, but for those who are not familiar with Tim, he's one of my Albuquerque homeboys who moved to LA back in the 1980 to work with Rick Springfield (among others), and has since become one of the most sought-after studio guitarists in the country. He's recorded with pretty much everyone.

In this session that he just posted today, his producer is in South Africa while Tim's at home in LA. I'm still mesmerized seeing how a bunch of simple parts are layered to create a complete tapestry of sound...

http://www.timpierceguitar.com/home/graham-ward-recording-session/

He has a lot of other similar videos on his site. Check them out if you are interested in seeing how the real pros do it. ;)
 
I've tried Skype, and local or long distance, the audio seem to drop in and out. I quit trying to use it about a month ago.

It's hit or miss. Maybe these guys have some kind of professional Skype or something???
 
I'd say the most important factor is the quality of your connection from your computer, to your router, to the internet. It all really adds up to your ISP and how you get connected, and the same for the person on the other end.

I do VOIP communication for nearly all of my work calls and I have to say I'm really amazed It works as well as it does for me, since I've got the kerflookiest connection to the internet.

The long haul connection from LA to S.A. would be the most reliable part of the picture.

So as Long as Tim and Graham have good connections, it should be good to go, with probably just a little latency.

There are a lot of variables that can affect the quality of the call though.
 
Brent's right about the connectivity/speed of connectivity. We Skype with a couple of our developers almost daily and the call quality is pretty good, but in some areas of the building where the wifi is a little weak, it gets choppy.
 
I would add to what Brent and Darren said, that you should be sure your local computer (and the one on the other end) are pretty clean.

I often run with a lot of programs active (12 at this moment, and one of them is the browser with 6 active tabs, so you might count 17). When I Skype from this computer, or try to watch a YouTube video, the results are crappy. I have a second computer that I use mainly as a server, with few active programs, and my Skype from that computer works great.

A lot of programs are imperfect in cleaning up after themselves, so if you have had a lot of varied activity, try rebooting - the ultimate cleanup tool.

When I travel, I take my primary (normally overloaded) computer (it lives in a docking station at home, with keyboard and monitor, but is a laptop on the road). In it's simple traveling form, I have no trouble with Skype voice calls from hotels (often crappy WiFi) at almost any place in the world, for a couple cents per minute to any land line or cell phone in the USA. Bottom line, if I behave nice for Skype, it works great for me.
 
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