Writing songs ... Various stages of completion, etc.

[michael11]

What about this fella?

Played live,often seven days a week,sometimes 2/3 times a day.

Produced a body of work of quality and quantity of epic proportions.

Two wives. (Not simultaneously) !

19 Children.

Dave Kershaw

Two MIL's

Nice Michael....very "to the point" of you

Thanks Steve!!

I am waiting for my old buddy Dave to come back with an appropriate insult or two.

Michael.

[2lane]

What about this fella?

Played live,often seven days a week,sometimes 2/3 times a day.

Produced a body of work of quality and quantity of epic proportions.

Two wives. (Not simultaneously) !

19 Children.

Dave Kershaw

Two MIL's

Nice Michael....very "to the point" of you

Thanks Steve!!

I am waiting for my old buddy Dave to come back with an appropriate insult or two.

Michael.

Give him a bit Michael, it takes some time to bury a body...especially one he
always claims is SO big

[Russell Landwehr]

Next stalemate I'm going to spend a day making Different Template Versions
Now that I see the repeating patterns of Compression/Reverb/Groupings in Cubase
I know if I dedicate a day to making 6 or so different templates
I'll speed up this whole mixing process!

Russell, How many templates have you created for workflow?
Or anyone for that matter???

That's a great idea, Cass, to make some templates on a stale day.
I just (VERY) recently started making and saving templates. It seems my work-flow doesn't always follow the same path. So having templates seems like it could limit me. I did, however, create an EDM template that has nearly all my drum/percussion/fx available quickly, and all appropriate synths loaded and ready to go. It makes it a lot quicker to find just the right sounds quickly.
I use Ableton Live. I do have what are called Effects Racks where I've saved some of my often used fx chains.

Andy, what a brilliant idea on mp3-ing a mix of the abandoned songs. I find that searching through my projects and loading them individually to remind myself is a bit tedious and time consuming.

Russell

[andygabrys]

Next stalemate I'm going to spend a day making Different Template Versions
Now that I see the repeating patterns of Compression/Reverb/Groupings in Cubase
I know if I dedicate a day to making 6 or so different templates
I'll speed up this whole mixing process!

Russell, How many templates have you created for workflow?
Or anyone for that matter???

That's a great idea, Cass, to make some templates on a stale day.
I just (VERY) recently started making and saving templates. It seems my work-flow doesn't always follow the same path. So having templates seems like it could limit me. I did, however, create an EDM template that has nearly all my drum/percussion/fx available quickly, and all appropriate synths loaded and ready to go. It makes it a lot quicker to find just the right sounds quickly.
I use Ableton Live. I do have what are called Effects Racks where I've saved some of my often used fx chains.

Andy, what a brilliant idea on mp3-ing a mix of the abandoned songs. I find that searching through my projects and loading them individually to remind myself is a bit tedious and time consuming.

Russell

yep. that extra minute helps Russell.

Here's something concerning templates you might want to examine:

too many different templates might not be efficient. Depending on how your DAW works, one template might be too clumsy (although like I say Logic is fine with mine).

Another option is having a monster template, or several sets of templates, or even completed projects that you import tracks from to supplement what you have in front of you.

I'll give you an example that works in both Pro Tools and in Logic. each has the ability to import tracks from other projects.

You can import empty tracks named appropriately. or with Midi / audio on them. with the same plugins (both mix and VI) that were on the original. And with the same input / output assignments. same automation if you want. They are both pretty flexible.

So something I have had setup for several years in my logic template is a set of reverbs and delays. A short, medium, and long reverb. Then tempo synced delays (1/4 note, 1/8 note, 1/16 note). A short slap delay (like 125 ms or something). A set of stereo ping pong delays (1/8 notes, 1/16 notes).

It might seem that you are tying your hands by not going custom "from scratch" every time, or that your mixes will sound the same. Don't think so. Its application is always different.

I also have some things set up in my logic template all the time. a "dummy" bus that I sent kick drum to. And that I sidechain bass compressors to. Don't do it every mix, but I save a minute every time I need to use that cause its already there.

Something else I always use - a set of sub master tracks. stereo drums and percussion. stereo bass. stereo acoustic guitars. stereo electric guitars. stereo keys. stereo orchestra. stereo fx. stereo lead vocals. stereo background vocals.

why? if I start my mix too hot, and write a lot of automation - and its slightly peaking over 0.0, I can pull down the sub master faders 1.0 db each and can regain some headroom and keep the actual mix the same. If i want to try out a low frequency cut on all the guitars, I can add an eq to each of the guitar submasters, and pull down some 300hz instead of adding an eq to each guitar track.

If I ever bother to buy an analog summing rig, I can also just take the outputs of these submasters and output to the 16 mono channels that are in most rigs (i would likely change a couple of the routings so kick and snare had their own mono channels, but anyways.......)

If you can find either a template that has this stuff in it, or existing projects you can import tracks from, you can significantly speed up your workflow. making and naming tracks, and color coding them is total busywork.

[cassmcentee]

Andy, you know how to do it man!
The recent push for myself to setup templates is coming from making stems for the collabs with Dan Luedke
I wasn't really using group tracks and saw that I was mixing down a bunch of empty tracks wasting time and space
Your kick/sidechan buss/group is one that I was thinking of as well!
The other idea is that I use a couple of the drumsets from EZdrums
I would like to have templates for each kit already sending to the respective channels and groups
Takes a bit of time right now and I seem to be doing almost the same setups for each tune now...
IE... loading the kit, pointing each mic to it's own track, compression, group
Feel like I am just repeating the steps and they take valuable time.
Same thing with the midi VST Halion
Learning....

[LittleRedChurch]

Two things-

First, Brandenburg concerto, best music ever written.
Second, thoroughly uncharacteristic of me in all aspects of life, I actually doggedly start and finish ONE song at a time. I don't get sidetracked though I'm the definition of attention disorder. Instead, I have to force myself away. If I had no distractions, (child, wife, job) I could probably sit at my work station till I passed out. Sometimes mental disorders come in handy!!


Great post
LRC

[HectorRContreras]

Thank you dear Graham,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK6-x9sdEYo&feature=kp

W O A H !!!!

[michael11]

Two things-

First, Brandenburg concerto, best music ever written.
Second, thoroughly uncharacteristic of me in all aspects of life, I actually doggedly start and finish ONE song at a time. I don't get sidetracked though I'm the definition of attention disorder. Instead, I have to force myself away. If I had no distractions, (child, wife, job) I could probably sit at my work station till I passed out. Sometimes mental disorders come in handy!!


Great post
LRC

Love it!!!

Especially the Brandenberg bit!!!

Michael

[Russell Landwehr]

Wow, Andy. Awesome pointers on Templates.

Thanks!

[LittleRedChurch]

Catherine!!

I used to listen to that when I ran the sea wall here in Vancouver! Having his genius pumping through my body!! Ahhhh... That was living!! Thanks so much!!!


LRC