As an IT guy, I don't get why the industry is enamored with "cloud
computing" right now. for me, I don't see this application as
particularly useful, considering the kind of power audio editing
usually requires.
I'm not so interested in cloud computing myself. I just put the pointer
out on Harp-l in case someone wanted to give it a try.
I do some remote recording, but the more traditional kind, where someone
sends me a track and I develop a harmonica part, record it and send it back
with a two-pop on the front for synching. I'll bet there are a bunch of
harp-lers doing that.
Unfortnately, none of the guys I grew up playing with live in the same city
as the others anymore. We have talked about collaborating on a project
from time to time, so I might give this a try. I'm concerned with latency
issues, but if they are overwhelmingly apparent, it'll be obvious pretty
quickly and it won't be worth doing. And the latencies I'm worried about
are ones of synching one track to one or more than already exist. I have
to doubt that actual live multitracking between cities in different time
zones will really have a pleasant synch, though if I ever try this service,
I'm sure we'll give simultaneous recording a try. Laws of physics apply,
but can be minimized.
In the end, we've reached a stage where the obvious objections to an
interesting idea on the web are not instantly valid. Anything's worth trying.
As for storing files on the web, not my cup of tea either, but web-based
apps are heavily trending toward local storage and cloud backup. Better,
with HTML5, saving and using a web app locally will generally be a snap.
So for me it comes down to whether I want to add some harp to a track a
friend is working on in Seattle or Albuquerque WHILE the friend is playing,
too. If a client wanted me to use this service I'd give it a try. Heck,
my wife is a voiceover producer and she's been doing remote recording with
an ISDN line (remember those?) for more than 20 years, and that seems to
work just fine, though the recording app is in the studio and not in the cloud.