Collaborate on a DAW Project

Collaborating with Submix Bundles

You can export a shareable bundle file of your project to share with collaborators. This bundle file contains all the files and version history belonging to your project, enabling other users to import your project into their Playback workspace and open and edit the project as if it were their own.

Exporting a Bundle

To export a shareable .submixbundle file, follow these steps:

Open the project you want to share in Playback.

Open the project settings menu by clicking on the gear icon and then click the "Export project..." button.

Click "Browse" and then choose a location to export the bundle file into.

Your project and its version history will be saved as a compressed file with the extension ".submixbundle". You can share this file with collaborators so that they can import your project into their Playback workspace, view its version history, open it in their DAW, restore previous versions, and contribute new versions.

Importing a Bundle

You can import a bundle file shared by another user to add a project and its version history to your Playback workspace. Once imported, you can open and edit the project as if it were your own.

To import a .submixbundle file, follow these steps:

Click the "Import Bundle" button at the top of the Playback homepage

Select the bundle file you want to import and the destination folder for the imported project

Click "Import"

The imported project will be added to your project list. You can open the project to view the version history, open it in your DAW, restore previous versions, and contribute new versions.

Collaborating with Dropbox

You can connect your Dropbox account to Playback to share your project and its version history with other users. When you sync a project to your Dropbox account, Playback will create a shared folder in your Dropbox account where it will store all the files and version history belonging to your project.

Login with Dropbox

First, connect your Dropbox account to Playback by following these steps:

Click the "Settings" button at the bottom left to open Playback's settings page.

Click the "Login with Dropbox" button in the Dropbox Sync section and follow the instructions to connect your Dropbox account to Playback.

Sync your project to Dropbox

Once you've connected your Dropbox account to Playback, navigate to the project you would like to sync to Dropbox and then click the "Sync" button at the top right.

Select "Dropbox" as the sync destination for your project.

Playback will create a "Submix" folder in your Dropbox containing a compressed folder of your project containing all of its files and version history. Do not modify the "Submix" folder or any of its subfolders! Doing so will corrupt the project and prevent you from being able to continue syncing to it.

Inviting Collaborators

To share a project with another user, click the Invite Collaborator icon in the project page and enter the email address of the user you want to share the project with. This email address must be the one your collaborator uses to login to Dropbox.

Your collaborator can accept the invitation by connecting their Dropbox account to Playback. Once connected, they will see an "Accept Invite" button in their Playback workspace, which they can click to add the shared project to their project list and begin collaborating with you.

Syncing Changes with Collaborators

When you create new versions of your project in Playback and click Sync, Playback will update the shared folder in your Dropbox with the latest version history. Your collaborator can then click Sync in Playback to update their project with the latest changes you've made.

Likewise, your collaborator can create new versions of the project and sync them to Dropbox, which you can then sync to update your project with their changes. This workflow enables you to work together on a project, sharing versioned progress and collaborating on it asynchronously.

Resolving Conflicts

If you and your collaborator make changes to the project independently and both attempt to sync new versions, Playback will detect the conflict and prompt you to resolve it. You can choose to overwrite the project in Dropbox with your version history or overwrite the project on your computer with your collaborator's version history.

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