CRATEThe Manifest
Notes on lossless audio, the cost of data, and getting sessions across the connection you actually have.
Founder/
Why I Built Crate
I have spent twenty years mixing records for a living, and the hardest part of the job was never the mixing. It was getting the session across the connection I actually had. So I built the tool I wanted.
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Crate/
Built for the Internet the Internet Forgot
Two kinds of people kept hitting the same wall. One pays too much for data. One is stuck on a connection that will not hold. I built Crate for both.
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Lossless Audio/
Compression Wasn't the Problem. Audio Was.
Zip has been around for thirty years and barely dents a session folder. The problem was never compression. It was that nothing was built for how we actually make music.
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Lossless Audio/
Size Matters, So I Make Yours Smaller
A 68 gigabyte session becomes 18 gigabytes. Every file bit for bit verified. Not just smaller, exactly the same. Here is why that one number changes the job.
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Remote Collaboration/
The Nomadic Audio Engineer
Big sessions, bad Wi-Fi, deadlines that will not wait. When you mix on the move, sending the work is often the hardest part of the job.
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Data Costs/
The True Cost of Data
For billions of people, getting online is still shaped by price, devices, coverage, and where they live. The bill is only part of it.
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Data Costs/
When Data Costs Too Much, Music Moves Too Slowly
For a lot of us, the hardest part of finishing a session is not the mix. It is the upload. Here is why, with the numbers, and what I built to help.
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ZIP/
ZIP vs RAR vs Crate for Audio: What I Use When a Session Actually Matters
ZIP sees files. Crate sees sessions. I compare ZIP, RAR, and Crate honestly for sending audio, and explain why a purpose built tool wins when the handoff actually matters.
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Data Costs/
The True Cost of Sending Large Audio Sessions Isn't Just Time
Sending a large session costs more than time. It costs missed deadlines, extra data, lower margins, and unequal access to work. Here is the real bill, and why I built Crate to lower it.
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Pro Tools/
How I Send a Pro Tools Session to a Mixing Engineer Without Missing Files or Wasting Space
Send me the session is one of the most dangerous simple sentences in audio. Here is my exact ten step workflow for sending a Pro Tools session to a mixing engineer, clean, consolidated, compacted, and verified.
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