Working with a vocalist remotely?

[Eric J]

Has anyone ever worked with a vocalist remotely? We are going to attempt to do this, but we have little experience and we were wondering if anyone else has attempted it.

Here is the situation:

We have a couple of vocalists and a really nice guy who is going to record them for us. He has a lot of experience working with these girls and has been using them in his own productions. What we want to do is write a couple of tracks for these girls to sing to. We're thinking we will need to provide the music bed, lyrics and possibly sheet music or guide vocal so he can record the girls for us.

They questions we have are:

• What are some typical workflows when working in this manner? Do you provide a music bed and a guide vocal?
• Do you provide sheet music?
• What about providing a piano or other instrument to simulate the melody of the vocal, that they can follow?

We're really just looking for anyone elses experiences when working in this manner. Any advice would be appreciated.