In-Depth with Indaba’s Mantis DAW

Today I have a really cool guest post from Keith Mitchell, aka @FreshNerd. What I like about this is that he actually talks about the music creation process, something that I don’t spend any time looking at anymore. I still use Acid Pro and Reason when I do turn on the old studio PC. Last week or so, I mentioned the new cloud based DAW from Indaba Music and Keith jumped right in and tested it out. Below are his thoughts. If you want to write something for GYRS, shoot me an email to marketing@genyrockstars.com with some topic ideas.

It was only a matter of time before it happened. The only thing is I always thought it would come from a company like Digidesign (ProTools) or Apple (Logic). If history has taught us anything, its that the progression of an industry (or sector) isn’t lead by its current leader but by new companies willing to adapt and change. For example, Barnes & Nobles should have been Amazon.com and Blockbuster should have been Netflix.

With that being said, Greg shot over the link to Indabamusic.com which offers a fresh feature called Mantis. The reason I am excited for this is because I have recently moved to London and most of the musicians I collaborate with are in Los Angeles. Currently we use dropbox to send files back and forth which is fine but I have always longed for an online session collaboration tool that looks like the DAWs we all have grown accustomed to. Enter Mantis. Mantis is a stripped down DAW that operates online with a built in community….almost like a Flickr for music sessions per se.

Upon first glance, you will notice that Mantis looks and operates like your favorite DAW. For example, [spacebar] toggles stop/play during playback. Pan and volume knobs are easy to find and in their usual location next to the track info.

Mantis accepts several different file types including WAV, AIFF, and MP3 which are pretty much standard. If you’re working with any files other than that then you may want to rethink your workflow. Once you have uploaded your files, you can either make your session public for community members to join in and collab or keep it private and send out invites to your private session.

So lets get down to the nitty gritty which is how it works in use. Is it possible to run an online session flawlessly? Well, the answer is yes and no. Here is why I say that. As you may have guessed, internet speed/connection is crucial when it comes to Mantis. Here in London, ISP’s are far below the quality that I had in the U.S. so testing via Wi-Fi produced negative results like choppy playback and long upload time of WAV files (approx. 13 minutes per 16 bit file).

After that, I figure I would test with my laptop plugged directly into my router via RJ-45 cable which gave much better results. Playback was no longer choppy and my upload of the same WAV file went a bit quicker (approx. 8 minutes).

In my case, I work with a bass player and guitar player in L.A. so I only need to upload a two track WAV that I prepare on my pre-production setup (not my internet PC) for them to view/listen (I found working this way a lot more convenient than sending a dropbox file along with a text file of the track details).

In turn they do the same and create their guitar parts, upload the two track to the Mantis session, and we’re good to go. I can then preview all of the parts right in the online session without having to download the track, then importing it to my Mac setup, then realizing I need a change…..yada, yada, yada. In Mantis all the files are right there for me in one session in a browser window.

Mantis has its flaws and that’s to be expected since it is the first of its kind. What this shows us is the beginning of what’s about to happen in the world of recording. I would be hesitant to load up a 24 track session in this bad boy as I’d bet my left arm that playback would be brutal. But as far as doing some quick edits on a couple of tracks and sending them off for your friends (or musicians) to add some sauce, Indaba does a great job in my eyes.

Now let’s see if any of the big boys jump on the bandwagon and follow suit. The foundation has been laid.

Keith “FreshNerd” Mitchell is an independent music producer and blogger currently residing in the U.K. He still hasn’t adjusted to ‘bangers and mash’ and often refers to himself in third person. Check out FreshNerd.com and 100akres.com for more info.

P.S. Indaba Music is one of the 100 Resources For DIY Musicians that is featured in our free guide. You can download it here.

Tags: indaba music, mantic, music creation, Music Marketing