Soundation's collaborative DAW is like Google Docs for music

Musicians producing music at home have a decent pick of digital audio workstations (DAW), and no doubt in recent times this software has taken on an even more important role, as millions of people are staying at home because of the coronavirus situation. Now, one platform, Soundation, has added a new feature designed to make at-home music creation even more seamless: real-time online collaboration.

Called Collab Live, the tool lets creators produce music with collaborators in real-time on the same project, wherever they are in the world. There’s no limit to the number of participants that can be involved on a single project, and you’ll be able to see co-creators’ cursors, and every action they make within the DAW. It also removes the tedious requirement of manual syncing — every single change is auto-saved and synced in real-time. It’s basically Google Docs for music.

Soundation’s online DAW is not quite as robust as other offline platforms — you can’t use plugins, for example — but there’s more than enough to be getting on with, otherwise. There’s a range of built-in instruments, and support for both MIDI and audio tracks. If you want to record a song with someone remotely, this will do the job nicely. Collab Live is available as an open beta today. A free Soundation account will give you access to one collaboration project at a time — paid tiers start at £2 (around $2.50) a month, and give you access to more functionality across the entire DAW.