What's your process? Auditioning on phone

[jkoseattle]

If you're like me, your projects take a lot of iteration. Laying down a draft, listening to it a while, making changes, rinse, repeat. What I've always wanted to do efficiently is export audio for my in-progress piece, then listen to it on my phone for a day or two, then go back to the studio and make changes, export, listen on phone, etc. I know HOW to do this, but in the past what I've done is pull my exported audio into iTunes and then sync my phone and listen that way. Painintheass. 

I'm wondering what other people do? Ideally, I'd love to just export my project to an audio file, then go right to the phone and be able to listen that audio somehow. I'm sure this is something people do. What's YOUR method? If you don't find a need to do this, don't bother making up how you would do it IF you needed to. I'm interested in what people actually are doing that works for them.

[gustabo]

I put it on my Plex server and use Plexamp to listen 

[Byron Dickens]

I just drag and drop the file onto my phone. Play back. Just like any CD I ripped or album I got from Amazon.   I don't understand what the problem is.

[Lord Tim]

I use Dropbox and drag the mixes into a shared folder on my DAW and then use the Dropbox app on my phone to listen back. If you're not worried about lower bitrates and just concerned with the balance of things, you can even stream each track right from the app, but it's easy enough to save everything to the device too, to listen to the original mixes.

[John Vere]

Apple phones are a PITA as you cannot drag and drop media files, at least I never figured it out. You are forced to use iTunes.  But, as we speak I just uploaded 22 songs to Sound Click an I’m listening using my iPhone and my crappy Bluetooth headphones,  

It’s the acid test for my music. This is the way the whole world will be listening.  
You can set the songs as no download and private so no danger of that BS happening. 

There is also an free app called Sono Bus that uses your network to send from your master bus in Cakewalk to any device that has the app installed. It’s a plug in in your DAW and a app on your phone. Brilliant. But I still go through the process of uploading because otherwise you have to sit in the studio and I’d rather be out on my deck or on the nice soft couch! 
I prefer Sound Click because it’s seems the only hosting site that allows you to update the song without the usual BS of deleting etc. I must have updated a bunch of songs 4 time already. 

I listen with a pen and notebook on my lap. Back to Cakewalk, make the changes, save as mix recall, export, top and tail in Wave Lab , batch convert to MP3 inGold Wave and update the file on Sound Click. I think I’m done but one more listen. 
I was uploading as wave files but it keeps screwing up so I return to mp3 320 kbps for now. 
Once I’m happy these will be deleted and all will be posted properly on DistroKid etc. 

Edited September 3, 2023 by JohnnyV

[gustabo]

3 hours ago, Byron Dickens said:

I just drag and drop the file onto my phone. Play back. Just like any CD I ripped or album I got from Amazon.   I don't understand what the problem is.

Obviously you have an Android phone.

[Byron Dickens]

19 minutes ago, gustabo said:

Obviously you have an Android phone.

Obviously one more reason that Crapple sucks.

[jkoseattle]

Oh I was so happy to see so many responses. I do have an Apple phone and for all its shortcomings, 1) It's what the rest of the family uses, and 2) I had an Android phone and truth be told, is was too configurable, and I couldn't stop messing with it. I found I prefer the Soviet Russia that is the Apple ecosystem. I don't want to configure anything. Apple, just make it the way you think it should be and I'll do it your way. I've got other things to think about...

Anyway, I'm glad I asked because I hadn't heard of those apps and that sounds like just what I need. Thanks everybody!

[Lord Tim]

The other option is the Bandlab app. Export your project to Bandlab and it'll open up in the Bandlab app just fine. We have this Bandlab ecosystem, we might as well use it, right?

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

I don't do any exporting shenanignans as it takes too much time, I just make sure I have enough different ways of referencing at my DAW so I can adjust in real time. From my seat I can switch between several physical options:-

1.  Main Nearfields ( APS ) 

2.  Grotbox Speaker ( Avantone Mixcube - mono )

3.  Old Boombox  ( some people use old computer speakers also ) 

This makes it much easier to triangulate the mix so I know it will translate well for broadcast. There are also plugins you can get that emulate the frequency response of different playback systems such as Micchecker Pro

 I also have Slate VSX which I got so I can mix late at night without disturbing the family , this does have an iPhone emulation in the latest v4 update but to be honest I didn't find it much help. Some of the other rooms are great though , and their SUV really tells you if you got the subs right. 

The other thing that makes a lot of difference is having reference tracks, I use Metric A/B so I can compare a level matched version of my mix against commercial mixes or reference tracks sent by the publisher. 

[gustabo]

13 hours ago, Byron Dickens said:

Obviously one more reason that Crapple sucks.

Bitter much?

[Byron Dickens]

1 hour ago, gustabo said:

Bitter much?

Don't be jealous because your overpriced piece of crap pocket computer can't handle basic computer functions like dragging and dropping files over to it.

[msmcleod]

55 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

Don't be jealous because your overpriced piece of crap pocket computer can't handle basic computer functions like dragging and dropping files over to it.

Ahh.. but drag and dropping file from it works absolutely fine 😉

I only use an iPhone because years ago I used a Windows Phone - great pocket PC, but absolutely useless as a phone ( e.g. having to get the stylus out, then select "Keypad" from the start menu just to get the keypad up during a call).  A friend gave me his old iPhone 3GS which was so easy to use, I've been upgrading to the latest supported 2nd hand version since then.

Maybe I'm just old, but honestly I think people expect too much these devices... I mean, sure, I do listen to audiobooks, do my banking on it, and take pictures of things I can't read so I can zoom in to read them... but for the most part I use it as a phone!

But yeah, the whole having to use iTunes to get mp3's on to an iPhone is a bit of a PITA, but AFAIK it's the only way.

[Andres Medina]

I do use Itunes, and works just fine for me. Once you are familiar with it, it helps keep multiple files or multiple projects organized.

Import the file into Itunes in your PC, label it in a meaningful way and your are ready to go on your Iphone.