I know there is a lot of clever people in this forum and I´m sure some of you can give me and my collab friend some advice.

I´m making some music with a friend in another country. We are on different DAWs and the music is all programmed. We set up Skype connected to our DAW thru a virtual audio cable and it is working pretty good. However, Skype is limited to 44 kHz it seems and we have some problems with higher rates.

Also, maybe you have better ideas on how to collaborate over internet? Do you know some great tools for working with higher resolution audio?

The freeware Voicemeeter is quite good and Skype seems to be what is causing most problems. File sharing thru a synced cloud folder is also good.

Any tips and tricks for better workflow and improved quality is appreciated.
Thanks.

 

Is there a particular reason you want more than 44khz?

 

Try Source-Connect. Source-Connect Now is in Beta and FREE
The audio engine allows for 192kHz but the codec will down-sample to 44-48kHz.
It uses the Google Chrome browser as it's platform hence the codec limitations.
It's capable of Mono, Dual Mono and Stereo audio streams.
*I believe the paid version offers remote transport syncing.

Features:
Integration with Pro Tools HD/Native
SOURCE-NEXUS BASIC FOR $125 - perfect for Source-Connect Now
With the Source-Nexus AAX plug-in, record directly to your timeline without requiring additional hardware or cables.

Opus codec
Choose your preferred quality, up to 512kbps stereo.

ISDN-like workflow
Low-latency bi-directional audio.

Easy recording
No other programs required for recording full quality, uncompressed WAV files.

For music and voice
Send high-quality mono, dual mono or stereo.
Mono: Voiceover, radio, podcasts, interviews and more
Dual mono: Two discrete microphones or timecode
Stereo: High-quality music monitoring and review

Easy-to-make Connections
Self-configuring, easy-to-make connections
No port-forwarding required, works on most networks automatically.

Chat and real-time status updates
Chat with your guests and monitor network status.

EXTRA: Talkback mode
No more feedback when not wearing headphones.

EXTRA: Network status
Monitor your Internet bandwidth while connected, with real-time graphs.

BETA: Conference up to 10 connections
Only limited by your bandwidth.
Defaults to 5 connections: ask if you need more

Requirements:
Strong internet connection
Broadband internet or an excellent 4G mobile signal if tethering.
Check your speed here: we recommend 1MB up and down at least

Mac OSX (10.9 or higher), Windows 7 or higher, Linux or ChromeOS
Compatible with any system except iOS that supports Chrome Browser version 48 or higher.

Audio device
A stereo or multi-mono CoreAudio, ASIO or Linux audio device, 44.1 or 48khz sample-rate support.

Chrome Browser version 48 or higher. WHY CHROME?
All Chrome Browsers with Automatic Updates enabled are compatible, except on iOS.

 

is the sample-rate really the issue? I would imagine hat Skype compresses it to a easy stream-able format
44.1 should not be a limit at all since a lot of music produced at that sample rate

 

From what I know, skype uses a codec called SILK
SILK is an audio compression with sampling frequency of 8, 12, 16 or 24 kHz and a bit rate from 6 to 40 kbit/s.
I’m afraid there is no way to send and receive hi quality audio signal with Skype

info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SILK

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 8, 2017

Thanks Pinkman, I will def have a look at that.

I use 48 kHz in my DAW because less is not good enough imo. 24/48 is ok.
So working in 48 then to 44 thru Skype messes up the audio pitch, even when going back to 48 in the other end.
Not sure why it is so...

Critical listening in Skype is not easy.

 

Have you tried setting the sampling rate to 48/24 in your windows audio playback properties dialog for your device? This usually works for me to stop the changing of sample rates when I click in and out of my DAW to listen to other stuff when Im working.