This topic could easily go under Beginners Q’s because I am a noob and I don’t use much of a template to start my tracks with. But I’m wondering what kind of templates everybody else uses?
I just tend to have my tracks labled: Drum 1, 2, & 3, pad, bass, synth, and sample. I just send everything to the master and I could probably stand to throw a hp filter, gainer, and compressor on each track. I could, or should be sending my drums as a group to a single track.
I’m wondering how other people use their sends. What are your standard per track devices? How do you treat your drums? What devices should I be using on a regular basis?
I’d say… Worry less about templates. Enjoy the evolution of your music. The more freely you let things flow, the more secrets they will reveal to you. Have an appetite for new ideas. And just fyi… the last thing you need is hp, compressor, and extra gain on every track.
I don’t tend to use templates. It’s the whole starting from scratch thing which usually allows me to be more creative since I’m approaching things differently every time. I have a friend who has a very specific template he follows every time he starts a new song and they all sound very samey, just different sounds… so that definitely shyed me away from using templates.
Agree with Syflom. Just make a simple template with a drum group, disabled filters and maybe EQs on tracks where you know you use them a lot, name a few tracks to Bass, Kick, snare etc. Pre-Do the stuff you always do no matter what.
Yep, and I like a clean template too, just some grouping, naming… sometimes a track ends up having 3 kickdrum tracks and 3 snaredrum tracks so I group them but, nothing for a template file. I do have a lot of toolchains that I can double click and load. like XY pad => bandpass filter, that kind of stuff.
I think my Template is 12 Tracks and 4 Sends, rather than default of 8 and 1. Plus a HPF, LPF and EQ10 all set to Init and turned off to start on each track. No track naming or Groups set up initially.
My song template has basic drum tracks (bd, snare, hh, toms, cymbals), bass and couple of synth sounds as instruments. But nothing really composed. Just VST:s preloaded so I can start up quickly if I get a good song idea.
I’ve been testing also patterns from Addictive Drums, but I think I prefer placing every note individually when working with a new song.
I don’t use templates but i think i should because i tend to do things quite similar ways. As mentioned before, i suggest add hp-filters to ALL channels. Just filtering out all low-frequencies that you can’t hear in every track makes big difference to overall mix. Even hihats and other sounds that doesn’t feel like they have bass.
