Remote collaboration on audio projects is not where it should be, especially when working with video.  Asynchronous back-and-forth communication can kill creativity in the studio. Laggy, jittery feeds, over compressed streams, and unworkable delays distract users and ruin sessions. 

Tech-obsessed musician and audio engineer Ameen Abdulla learned this the hard way, working with coastal clients on important post-production projects from his Twin Cities studio. “I lost a ton of clients,” he recalls. “I worked with a company in Minneapolis that had an LA office and does production in both places. They liked working with us.

They suggested that we could take on LA shows, but do a remote scenario for post-production. Nothing worked. We tried so many things from expensive hardware boxes to existing software, but we couldn’t get around network and routing issues. Delays were just too big. Quality was too compressed.” Abdulla decided to tackle the problem, creating Soundwhale.

Soundwhale is a remote collaboration solution for audio post and music production that allows users to create content and exchange ideas. It’s meant for clients and collaborators that cannot be in the same room. Users can connect over the network and listen to the same audio, communicate, and make changes during the creative process in realtime.

 Soundwhale is geared towards all users. Users with little or no audio experience can connect with voice talent and musicians and record them directly in Soundwhale. More experienced users that want to edit, mix, or produce can connect and stream from external software like Pro Tools.

Communication occurs through audio, video, or text chat. Post-production mix reviews can occur from a distance as the client will receive a live audio mix that’s locked to picture. Any changes to the mix will happen in realtime as the client gives direction to the mix engineer.