Resources for Teaching Music and Audio Production Online

Short URL: https://bit.ly/audiotechonline

This doc is coordinated by Dr. Eric Honour and Dr. Jeff Kaiser of University of Central Missouri and Dr. Michael James Olson of Minnesota State University-Mankato. More coming as we get chances to update and find new things. Please note: this document has not been actively managed since 2020, but we still welcome updates and/or suggestions.

Please feel free to comment on this document to add other resources or suggestions. Feel free as well to share the link to this document with others. We are actively adding in the comments and suggestions we receive.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents        1

General Notes on Moving Things Online        2

Online Instruction        3

Online Lessons/Academic Music Classes        5

Online Rehearsals/Collaboration/Performances        6

Basic Audio Engineering/Music Tech Skills        7

DAWs and Production        8

Plugins, samplers, synths, et al        10

Notation        12

Visual Programming Environments        12

Online Textbooks, Curricula, and So On        12

Audio Hardware        13

Telematic Performance        14

Unique Interfaces, Design, et al.        15

Sound Repositories and Sample Libraries        15

General Notes on Moving Things Online

  • For those who are moving courses online in response to the COVID-19 crisis, as quickly as possible, it’s not going to be pretty or perfect, and that’s okay. Cut yourself and your students some slack, be flexible, do your best, and we’ll get through this crazy situation. :)
  • Suggestion on moving things online fast (for music production courses, but the idea is applicable in other fields): make it less about teaching any particular tool and more about a combination of teaching various techniques and allowing for creative response to challenges. E.g. “here's a video on sidechaining technique. In this, I'm using Ableton, but you can do it with any tool that has a sidechain/key input, whether that's hardware or software. By Tuesday, create some sort of audio output that makes ample use of sidechaining in at least three different ways, documenting your work via screen captures, phone videos, uploading sessions, or other means of your choice that allows me to see what you're doing.”
  • Good advice here from violist Michael Hall on dealing with unsatisfactory internet connections:
  • I’m the director of education programs and the El Sistema program for the Bandung Philharmonic in Indonesia - A city three times the size of Chicago. My teachers are increasingly struggling - dealing with a choked internet with everyone working from home and streaming. Asynchronous teaching is increasingly an approach more of us can utilize. For some it is the only choice. (Mileage may vary) Here are my suggestions to them.
  • That is difficult and frustrating for everyone. Slow internet - We can not change that.
  • But I do have some suggestions!
  • 1. Video will usually work best for you during meal times. More people eating, fewer watching/using internet.
  • 2. Keep things simple. Can you reduce information to WordDoc, or PDF to share with students?
  • 3. Can you send short recorded video for instructions? The student sends back short recorded videos? (this is asynchronous teaching and is often a good idea)
  • 4. I have sent students files or photos as captured images, then sent it to them via text service.
  • 5. Internet Connection, especially video, degrades (weakens) the longer you use it. Schedule a 5 minute break in your schedule between teaching so you can reset, or reconnect to the video service you use. This will refresh the connection - making it strong again.
  • 6. Patience. Sometimes it is all beyond our control. 😌
  • 7. Close all other windows.
  • 8. Turn off Bluetooth
  • If the internet is not fast enough to use video:
  • 1. Send files, typed lessons, or instructions through email.
  • 2. Send music listening examples and short playlists to students by use of email.
  • 3. Ask the students questions on email. Questions requiring the students’ imagination, and resulting in longer answers. Avoid questions resulting in “Yes/No.”
  • Questions starting with the following work well:
  • - Tell me about…
  • - How do you...
  • - When have you…
  • - What would happen if…
  • - Who in your life…
  • - What does this music remind you of?
  • The important thing to remember for teaching in this condition: The information is far more important than the technology or flashy application.
  • In many ways this situation is an opportunity for all teachers to become more focused on the material/information delivery.
  • For those who teach at institutions like UCM, with a significant population of students from rural areas: recognize that some of your students likely won't have broadband internet access at home: whatever solutions you put in place, try to think through ways to make them work for those students (or come up with alternative solutions).
  • Temporary solution: “Charter Offers Free Broadband to All Households With Students Amid Coronavirus Epidemic” https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/charter-free-broadband-coronavirus-students-1203533537/
  • Please note: Some of the listed solutions are temporary: corporations are offering time-limited licenses while the health crisis is happening. This is helpful, however, it might also be worthwhile to consider long(er) term cross-platform solutions.

Online Instruction

  • While everyone is rightly recommending Zoom for online teaching (and that's way, way better than Skype or FaceTime or others in my experience), it doesn't do stereo properly. So think about using asynchronous methods for listening critically, perhaps reinforced by synchronous (lower quality) interaction via Zoom.
  • Worth noting that some users have found they prefer the sound quality of FaceTime over Zoom; others have said the same about Skype vs. Zoom. My own experience has been exactly the opposite: in short, though, it’s mostly about the connection quality and input quality (mics, headphones, room acoustics, et cetera).
  • Zoom audio quality: Others report that you can improve the audio quality of Zoom by doing a few things.
  • FIrst, disable the “Automatically adjust audio volume” setting in Preferences->Audio. Just make sure you have a decent mic level after you do that.
  • THEN, click “Advance” and click, “Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound” from microphone.”
  • More details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=50NoWIiYECA
  • Just a note, with any option, best to use an audio interface, headphones, and a good mic, if available. This will help to improve everything.
  • As of version 5.2.2 (released around Sept 20, 2020), Zoom now offers high fideltiy music mode and stereo audio in the advanced audio settings. Both require that “Enable Original Sound” is activated in the meeting.
  • Don’t forget: ZOOM has Annotation and White Board features as part of the “Share Screen” options.
  • If your institution has access to Panopto, use it. It’s a wonderful tool for screen/lecture capture. If not, I personally use and love ScreenFlow. It’s not all that expensive and for me, at least, its ease of use and speed have more than made up for the expense (I also use it to create ScoreFollower-style videos of my compositions on YouTube because it’s WAY faster at that than Final Cut Pro).
  • Here’s a link to a document full of thoughts on best practices for online work/collaboration from my buddy John Chittum, who has been working telematically, exclusively, for a number of years.
  • For group work, Google Hangouts' premium video conferencing tool is free until July 1 for students and teachers. More details here.
  • Through Twitch, you can use https://www.streamersonglist.com/ to build a list of repertoire that people in the chat can request. Requires some knowledge of how to use Twitch, but is worth it if you have a large book of stuff you can play solo, and have a decent microphone setup
  • Note: still very n00b on Twitch, myself. Would love to hear from others on this platform.
  • Also, generally speaking, the gaming community is WAY out in front on networked collaboration: would like to talk with some game coders about possible ways to leverage that experience for music, both artistically and educationally
  • Notes on quickly producing an online class. Please note there are some excellent ideas in the article linked here (basically it gets better the further one reads). However, it begins with a bunch of negativity that frankly, I can’t support. Your mileage may vary.

Online Lessons/Academic Music Classes

  • There’s a good post here from Deborah Rambo Sinn on approaching online private lessons.
  • And another here from Heather Young Mandujano (note this links to a PDF download).
  • Virginia Christy Lamothe shared a folder of information on online teaching here, which also includes a lecture on good podcast resources for teaching about commercial popular music.
  • Generally speaking, you can experience markedly better sound quality on both ends by using asynchronous instead of synchronous methods. You can use these in conjunction, too. For example, send out an assignment ahead of time, have the student record themselves using the best gear available (and most smart phones make decent-not-great recorders these days), then share the file with you via Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer, whatever. You can listen to it, then set up a Zoom meeting to discuss.
  • This concept, of having the media available outside of the synchronous Zoom/Skype/whatever platform, located on both/all participants’ computers/devices is widely applicable and useful.
  • Cycling74: Are you interested in streaming your presentation to Twitch? Cycling74 posted a great tutorial using Twitch and OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) with Max, but it could be adapted to other software as well. The tutorial is here.
  • Good info here from Bradford Swanson on mobile device recording
  • Quick shout out for Auphonic as a free iOS/Android recording app. It has a couple of key features that are really valuable:
  • 1) You can set the input gain
  • 2) You can choose which microphone on your device you want to record from
  • 3) It doesn't apply any high-pass filtering the way voice memo apps often do
  • There also may be a teachable moment with phone recordings where we can consider microphone placement.
  • For multitrack recordings (a good opportunity for students to practice duets/trios/etc. with themselves or in collaboration with others), the free Spire iOS app by iZotope offers level setting, no filtering, a good metronome, and up to 8-tracks at a time.
  • Temporary Option:
    Noteflight is making their Noteflight Learn platform free through June 30, in response to the pandemic. Useful tech and lots of pre-built lesson plans and other resources online.     Click here for more information. 
  • See this video, starting at 13:05 or so to see how their activity templates work to create assignments.
  • This platform not only works for music notation (also providing MIDI-style playback), but allows teachers to make assignments, which can be easily deployed to students. Among other things, students are able to record themselves playing/singing into the score and the teacher can then access those recordings to hear how they’re doing. Immediately useful for aural training, performance coaching, and other sorts of teaching.
  • Temporary Option:
    MakeMusic is making their SmartMusic platform available for free through mid-June, which could be very helpful for private lesson instructors/students. Details here.
  • Online, rich music theory resource Music Theory for the 21st Century Classroom by Robert Hutchinson at Puget Sound
  • ScaleWheel: a good tool for envisioning different types of scales (could be one lesson, maybe: not a rich resource, but worthwhile)

Online Rehearsals/Collaboration/Performances

  • Short answer: it’s not really possible without special software and/or hardware, as all systems will exhibit lag/latency.[1] Musicians are very sensitive to that and often find latency beyond 25ms unacceptable (some need it even tighter than that). There’s a pretty good article on the topic at Sweetwater.com.
  • Longer answer: when possible, it’s best to explore music that doesn’t require tight sync (e.g. improvisations, graphic scores that are open to asynchronous performance) or making new music that plays upon the challenges.
  • Still longer, using an online DAW like BandLab or OhmStudio (see DAW section below) could allow for asynchronous rehearsal that would still be reasonably good, with each person performing their part effectively via overdubbing, and others able to listen in afterward
  • Another option: You could make the lag part of the music, if that is possible: improvisation, drones, shifting harmonies...
  • If you go all MIDI, there are some systems that get somewhat more synchronous.
  • Options to assist with synchronizing performances and minimize lag (still present) for audio and MIDI:
  • Ableton Live with Link, and other Link enabled apps. Ableton Live is a popular hybrid DAW/Live performance environment. More below.
  • Ninjam https://www.cockos.com/ninjam/
  • Ninjam also can run inside of Reaper, a popular DAW (see below).
  • https://www.jamkazam.com/ is an interesting, relatively new platform for online collaboration, but reviews are somewhat mixed. As expected, it does still suffer from latency.
  • CBDNA has been collecting ideas/statements from band directors about their plans for dealing with the current situation at this page.
  • Bandwidth is a newly created online band festival. Directors can submit video or audio of their band’s performance and receive feedback from clinicians. Three clinicians have already signed-on to do the work. Go here for the website and here for the FaceBook page.
  • Artsmesh is a promising looking app using Jackaudio/Jacktrip, FFMPEG/Syphon, OSCgroups and Gnu Social client. If you are familiar with the items on the list, this could be a good one for you. The tutorials are a bit confusing, as are a few other things about the site and app.
  • Ableton has a new page on collaboration with their product here.
  • OBS.Ninja - If users are willing to spend some time tweaking settings and using reliable wired network connections, this platform can provide remote high-bitrate HD video and high-bitrate stereo audio suitable for broadcasting performances. It is completely free and open-source, has an active sub-reddit where the developer regularly responds to questions and feature requests, and a wiki with a setup guide. Parameters are changed via URL, and limited group functions are available. Examples of OBS.Ninja in use for collaborative performances:
  • SHP of THSEUS (on After Hours 2 concert at Electroacoustic Barn Dance 2020)

Basic Audio Engineering/Music Tech Skills

DAWs and Production

  • Reaper seems to be the DAW of choice for last-minute, cross-platform options for people to be able to work at home. Still not my favorite DAW, for a number of reasons, but lots of my friends like it and swear by it (even when not forced to find last-minute options). My colleague Jeff Kaiser put together a list of reasons to go down that path, which you can find at this link. Reaper in Demo Mode iis a fully functioning DAW, available at http://reaper.fm/
  • Audiotool.com is a pretty cool, free playground for electronic music production (though decidedly aimed toward pop), allowing real-time online collaboration in a browser-based environment. https://www.audiotool.com
  • BandLab: online DAW tool, useful for some basic stem mixing/editing. https://www.bandlab.com/
  • Presonus Studio One Prime (free): DAW environment, cross-platform, good workflow for electronic production. Great built in instruments and effects, some limitations. Limited to stereo. https://shop.presonus.com/Studio-One-4-Prime
  • Pro Tools First (free). Limited (very) version of Avid’s Pro Tools. Cross-platform. Ok, but doesn’t work well on older computers. Limited to stereo, among other things. https://www.avid.com/pro-tools
  • Temporary Option:
    If you are an AVID Learning Partner (ALP) Institution, they are offering ProTools/AVID/Sibelius temporary 90-day  licenses for students taking courses. Just make sure to contact your local ALP contact for your region.
  • OhmStudio has been around for years and allows near-real-time collaboration. Not really a solution for online music performance, but could possibly be useful for rehearsals and coaching, maybe?
  • Soundation is a fully online DAW with audio and MIDI capabilities. It appears to be free for up to 10 projects. This could be a good solution for students with limited computer capabilities or avoiding the need to install new software.
  • Ocenaudio is a cross-platform, easy-to-use, fast, and functional audio editor for people who need to edit and analyze audio files without complications. It has many options for exporting audio.
  • Logic X is available from Apple included in the education bundle with Motion, Compressor, MainStage and FInal Cut for $199, a one time purchase.  More than some of the above but way cheaper in the end than a subscription service.
  • Ableton Live. While there are paid versions (Intro/Standard/Suite with educational pricing available on Standard and Suite) there is also a version that comes free with many MIDI devices: Ableton Lite. This is a great piece of software, and sometimes we find that students who own several pieces of gear have multiple licenses and can share them with other students. The free version is not available on the Ableton website, only bundled with gear.
  • Ableton also has a fully functioning ***90*** day trial
  • They have reportedly said that they will extend this trial to students for a further 30 days if the student contacts support.
  • In addition, for those students who have had trial licenses expire previous to this crisis, contacting support will allow them to re-use their licenses
  • Ardour is an open source DAW that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. On Windows and Mac the app requires a subscription or payment to be fully functional unless you compile their sourcecode yourself. You can choose to pay any amount. With the free version, Ardour periodically goes silent after 10 minutes unless you pay a fixed amount or subscription.
  • Soundtrap is pretty effective and actively used in the music education program at UCM.
  • #StayHome Elements Collection is free from STEINBERG for 60 days, includes Cubase Elements and more.
  • Many existing DAW licenses can be accessed remotely. For example, the Reason multiseat licenses can be networked by default, and Avid offers networked multiseat licenses of Pro Tools (a different SKU from the regular EDU licenses, unfortunately). In general, these are meant to be used on a local network (i.e. a computer lab), but there are 2 ways these can potentially be made available for students to use off-campus on their own computers:
  • Using a VPN - Essentially, the student logs in to the campus’ network from home to be able to access campus resources like network drives and licenses. Not all campuses will offer this option, but it may make the home setup much easier. Ask your campus IT if they have a product like this available (often something from Cisco).
  • Using port forwarding with a DDNS - Campus networks will almost certainly not support this option, but it can potentially be set up from somewhere else in a pinch. This process requires:
  • An always-on computer running the network license server and/or USB dongle. This can potentially be done using a Raspberry Pi if a Linux version of the license server is available (this works with Reason/Codemeter, but not iLok)
  • A Dynamic DNS - Free services, like Duck DNS, can be used to provide a fixed address for people that can’t set up a fixed IP address (most home services will not allow fixed IP).
  •  Port forwarding on router - Pretty much any router can be set up with port forwarding so that incoming requests are automatically forwarded to the correct destination. Most networked licensing options will tell you what port number is being used in the setup documentation. For example, Reason/Codemeter uses 22350, while Pro Tools/iLok uses 31400.

Plugins, samplers, synths, et al

  • Komplete Start
  • The free production suite with 2000+ sounds from synths, sampled instruments, essential effects, and samples.
  • Reaktor 6 Player
  • Host for all Komplete Instruments powered by Reaktor.
  • Blocks Base
  • A free modular synth setup for Reaktor 6 Player – includes a selection of essential Blocks.
  • Traktor Dj 2
  • Free DJ app for iPad and desktop, made for everybody to mix. With SoundCloud integration and powerful tools for creative DJing.
  • Kontakt 6 Player
  • An application [sample player and more) that runs all Native Instruments’ Kontakt instruments, as well as a large number of instruments from other companies
  • Mikro Prism
  • Fully-playable instrument based on the synthesizer Reaktor Prism.
  • Supercharger
  • Tube compressor emulation
  • Guitar Rig 5 Player
  • Free, expandable effects engine with one amp, 17 cabinets and 13 effects and modifiers. Super-easy to use.
  • Selection of free and paid libraries: not clearly marked until you click through.
  • Melda Plugins: free audio FX plugins, with some cool analysis tools: https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFXBundle
  • MT Power Drumkit 2 is also cross-platform, and free: https://www.powerdrumkit.com/
  • For creative work, Tom Erbe’s https://www.soundhack.com/freeware/ has some great free plugins
  • There are quite a few examples of various sorts of synths and audio doohickies floating around the web leveraging the Web Audio API (which sets up browser-based audio), especially in conjunction with Tone.js (link to Tone.js Demos here). This can be useful, since most (but not all) of these things are also workable on mobile devices. Note: only certain browsers are compliant. Chrome is the best bet. And speaking of that, the Chrome Music Lab has some nice little tools available that could be the basis of a learning experience/assignment or several.
  • Excellent spreadsheet of some EA apps here, courtesy of Adam Vidiksis.
  • Moog’s Minimoog Model D synth app is now free! The Minimoog Model D App is a mobile transmutation of the world’s first portable synthesizer, the Minimoog Model D.
  • Korg has made its Kaossilator app free on both iOS and Android until March 31.
  • Adobe is making Creative Cloud available to students for free until May 31, 2020.  FYI - your schools IT Admin must request this - students only have access after the school requests access.
  • Sonarworks is offering temporary licenses of Headphone Edition, which seeks to allow better mixing on your headphones. More information on the software here. You will need to email Uģis Kampars at ugis.kampars@sonarworks.com to get the temporary license.
  • Cherry Audio is offering a free version of their modular synthesizer environment
  • Tokyo Dawn Labs - multiple free options, but the most useful is probably the Nova Dynamic EQ since multiband compressors are not provided with all DAWs (e.g. Pro Tools First).
  • Voxengo - multiple free options, but the most useful is probably the SPAN free metering plugin since not all DAWs come with a similarly equipped and easy-to-use option.
  • Black Rooster Audio - multiple free options, the most useful is probably the Cypress TT-15 amp sim. It’s an emulation of the Orange Tiny Terror, so it isn’t the most versatile amp sim, but I found it to be the best sounding and easy-to-use free option after testing several (Eric Sheffield).
  • Valhalla DSP - Fantastic sounding plugins, they specialize in reverbs. They offer 3 free plugins that aren’t very utilitarian but can be extremely useful for sound design and electronic composition.

Notation

  • Musescore is cross-platform and free. It works great for standard notation. https://musescore.org/en
  • Flat.io: For purely online work, many of my students use https://flat.io/ as a great tool for collaboration. Again, for standard notation practices. Neither this platform or Musescore is really appropriate for complex works or works incorporating extensive graphic elements.
  • For people interested in more advanced/complex options that have a higher learning curve, but that are also free:
  • Temporary Options:
  • If you are an AVID Learning Partner Institution, they are offering ProTools/AVID/Sibelius temporary licenses for students taking courses. Just make sure to contact your local ALP contact for your region.
  • Also see the bullet about Noteflight in the Lessons/Academic Music Classes section below.
  • MakeMusic is offering Finale as an extended 60 day trial (up from 30 days) https://www.finalemusic.com/free-trial/
  • #StayHome Elements Collection is free from STEINBERG for 60 days, includes Dorico Elements and more.

https://opusmodus.com/ is a scripting language for musical events it has a great side with live coding and graphical score.  Introductory video can be found thee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwvb0w-iEaI&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3hTDGFRS_LbfbGy6PxdtML6aLzfQmvCmeOAzQwYxBo-e1Wf6VAs7yBIIE

Visual Programming Environments

  • PD (PureData) is always a good, free, open source choice. https://puredata.info/
  • Max: a favorite of mine, https://cycling74.com/ just posted the following:
    “In recognition of the needs of the many educators working remotely, Cycling ’74 will provide six-month licenses to any school that has used an institutional discount for a Max purchase or subscription. Instructors or system administrators can contact support@cycling74.com with an estimate of the number of licenses they’ll need (up to 1000) and we’ll get you going.”

Online Textbooks, Curricula, and So On

  • Basic introduction to synthesis topics and techniques via this video series at SynthBasics.
  • Nice collection of explanations for various UGEN and DSP processes by Vesa Norilo.
  • Ableton has a couple of nice primers online, which could certainly be useful in fundamentals/introductory courses.

Audio Hardware

  • Austin Mics has some free DIY materials online at this link.
  • DPA has a number of informative tutorials about various aspects of using microphones in their ‘Mic University’ section, many of which use DPA’s own microphones as examples but all of which are useful and generalizable to any microphones.

Telematic Performance

Here’s a useful document from Michael Dessen about telematic performance.

My own experience in this realm is with the UCM New Technologies Ensemble for a number of years. With that group, I explored a number of different methods for connecting laptop performers together, mostly but not entirely within the Max environment:

  1. “Traditional” connections: e.g. listen to each other and respond, just as traditional chamber/ensemble musicians would. It’s important not to forget this option!
  2. UDP networking (via udpsend/udpreceive) works reasonably well but has drawbacks (e.g. packets are not guaranteed to arrive)
  3. TCP/IP networking (via jit.net.send/receive) works quite well but also has drawbacks
  4. For both of the above, setup can be a pain, involving multiple conversations among performers about IP addresses, and so on.
  5. Node.js appears to be a significantly better solution, which has been implemented and recently updated in Max. At this year’s MOXsonic festival, Eric Sheffield, Nick Hwang, and Tony Marasco presented a talk on the topic. Their slides are here.
  6. Sync in networked performance is a challenge, especially tight sync. 
  1. From Miriam Iorwerth (thanks!): Consider using the latency creatively i.e. "the internet acoustic" - lots of opportunities for student creativity!
  2. Ethernet connections are significantly quicker than WiFi, though less convenient, and enable better sync, when that’s being accomplished via messaging.
  3. Connecting via digital audio provides sample-accurate sync as well as good throughput for audio sharing, but is also not very convenient (and daisy-chaining more than a few systems quickly gets problematic)
  4. Ableton’s Link technology works quite well with Ableton Live and some iOS/Android apps. In my experience it does not work particularly well with Max.
  5. One way to minimize issues is to use centralized vs distributed processing, where performers are controlling processes happening on a single master computer. There are obvious drawbacks to this approach, too.
  6. We had pretty good success using a message-based system developed by Andreas Wetterburg: sync stayed tight within about ±15ms (which is still not great)

Unique Interfaces, Design, et al.

Sound Repositories and Sample Libraries

The following are great sources of public domain audio recordings suitable for sampling, processing, chopping, remixing, et cetera:

  • (See also, samplers that are listed in “Plugins, samplers, synths, et al.”)
  • Freesound: A collaborative database of creative-commons licensed sound for musicians and sound lovers
  • NASA Space Sounds: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/sounds/index.html
  • Archive.org: So much great audio and video
  • Library of Congress, public domain recordings
  • Project Gutenberg
  • BBC Sound Effect Library: There are well over 16,000 sound effects. The sound effects are BBC copyrighted but available for personal, research and Educational use.
  • maps - sounds of the world A map of the world with field recordings.
  • 3D Mic Array Comparison (3D-MARCo) library: 71 tracks of concert hall recordings made simultaneously using various different 3D spaced microphone arrays as well as Eigenmike (HOA), Ambeo (FOA) and KU100 dummy head. It also includes room impulse responses captured using all of these mics for 13 source positions. A Reaper template session for easy comparison is also included. Useful for teaching microphone techniques, critical listening skills and creating virtual 3D recordings.
  • My Life in the Bush of Ghosts Multitracks - Multitrack files for two tracks, Help Me Somebody and Secret Life, from the classic David Byrne / Brian Eno collaboration. These multitracks were made available some years ago for remix purposes (I believe for an anniversary edition release of the album).
  • Nine Inch Nails Multitracks - Multitrack files for several NIN albums, which have been made available at various times under CC license over the years.
  • Telefunken Live from the Lab Sessions - 4 seasons of multirack files for live sessions produced by Telefunken using their microphones. Various ensemble sizes, instrumentation, and genres.

[1] Note: this was already an area of development pre-COVID-19 and that has intensified over the last several years. A number of platforms now provide solutions to this issue, at various price points and requiring various degrees of skill to implement. Check out JamKazam, JackTrip, or Jamulus, among others.