Why Templates Work
I think at some point in our journey we’ve all been at the point where we had a great idea or concept, booted up our DAW and found ourselves having to add all kinds of tracks and plugins before we could even start recording that idea. In the mean time that spark can be long gone, and that’s unnecessarily frustrating. And the solution is deceptively easy: Make sure you don’t have to do that!
That sounds complicated
Well, if I’m honest: it can be incredibly complicated! But it’s all up to you. A basic template doesn’t have to be complicated and it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
A basic template for recording initial ideas can be as simple as a track with your preferred way to capture your instrument. For instance: If you’re a guitarist, like me, it might be just a recording track with an amp sim. Or maybe you want to record multiple things at the same time and you make a template with two rhythm guitar tracks, a lead guitar and a bass. Or maybe you want to preload virtual instruments such as synths or orchestra’s. Whatever you need, you can incorporate in your template!
The same goes for individual tracks
A project template is great if your workflow is more of less the same each time, but what if you work on a lot of different types of productions? Then track presets* may be the way to go.
Let’s work with an example again: You need a piano vst with some compression, a basic eq (which you can edit as needed) and a nice reverb. Without a preset you have to
- Add a new track
- Insert the piano VST
- Add a compressor
- Add an EQ
- Add a reverb
- Adjust the settings for all those elements.
That sounds like a lot of work if you know you just want that piano. So let’s do this once, save it as a track preset and just recall that preset every time you need it again!
*Track presets is the name Cubase gives to this feature, your DAW might use a different name for a similar feature.
What about a group of tracks?
That is an excellent question! And the answer to that is a track archive. Again, this is what Cubase calls it. Your DAW might be different, or maybe does not have this feature.
A track archive lets you save a group of tracks as a preset. Let’s take a string quartet as our example:
You regularly want to incorporate a string quartet in your compositions. So that means you add four tracks with two violins, a viola and a cello. And let’s not forget EQ’s, compressors, reverbs and so on. So again, let’s do this once, save it and just recall the track archive when we need it!
I think you get it now, but one more example
We talked a lot about instruments and groups of instruments. But with a little imagination we can see this can apply to all kinds of elements. So why not make a preset of your routing as well.
Want different busses for your drums, vocals, guitars, etc.? Make it a template!
Do you want to try different master bus processing? Make it a template!
Do you want a recording setup with certain in- and outputs? Make it a template!
As you can see you can make it as easy or as complicated as you need. But the benefits are basically the same: Eliminate unnecessary repetitive tasks and streamline your workflow. Make sure nothing gets in the way of your creative process!
And as always: Thank you for taking the time to read this blogpost. If you’re looking for a producer, someone to mix and/or master your music or a specific piece of advise, don’t hesitate to send me a message!
See you in the next post!
– Jochem
