DAW Templates Featured Image

For many of u.s., our computers are our instruments. They are our drum machines, audio recorders, and processors. Their very general-purpose nature makes them capable of roofing all that footing. It also ways that nosotros spend a lot of time configuring applications to get them into the appropriate arrangements for our needs.

Using your DAW'south template function can shorten the time you spend in setup and enable y'all to make music faster and more than efficiently. Since so many of the processes we do on our computers are repetitive, using a template can also increase the long-term quality and quantity of the output we create!

Avid Pro Tools

I tend to use Pro Tools much like a console and a recorder. Setting upwardly the mixer is pretty critical to my workflow. I lay out processing on my audio channels and create sends to a minor reverb, a long plate, and a delay to complement those tracks. A piano track and a virtual instrument rail for pads round out a setup that covers virtually 90 percent of the recordings that I create. I likewise like to have an analyzer like the Waves PAZ set up then I can see phase response as I work.

Aye, I experience the need to color-code my tracks… don't judge me.

Since I ofttimes use the same microphones on the same sources, I fifty-fifty save EQ and compression settings as a part of this setup. This consistency of arroyo actually increases the quality of my recordings because I can tweak my arroyo over fourth dimension and get it configured perfectly!

Once the session is laid out appropriately, you tin pull down the File card in Pro Tools and choose "Save as Template." If you lot name your template with a numeral at the front end, information technology will strength it to the acme of the list of existing templates.

The next fourth dimension yous launch Pro Tools, y'all will have the pick to create a new session from that template, which means all of your basic settings volition be preconfigured, and you'll exist ready to start recording. Make sure that the "Create from Template" box is checked at the top of this dialog box.

Hither's my template named "1 Starting point" at the top of the list.

Ableton Live

Because everyone I know uses Ableton Live two or three different ways, templates tin exist a huge do good to working in Live. Setting a unmarried default template is pretty simple.

Prepare up your Alive Set with all your basic settings. These may exist MIDI tracks with instruments, or they may be sound tracks with processing. A great place to offset is your last project. Below, I accept a couple of instruments ready and likewise the Soundtoys Decapitator to add some grunge to a guitar rail that is a little too clean.

Making this a part of an ongoing setup is like shooting fish in a barrel. Open your Gear up, delete the audio and MIDI tracks, and so pull down the principal menu for Live and select "Preferences." On the left side of this window, select the File/Folder tab, and at the top you will see a dialog that reads, "Save Current Set as Default." After you lot click this, any new Set up y'all create will have this configuration, including whatsoever plug-ins or instruments that you have set up, as the starting point for your new Ready.

Template settings are only mildly hidden hither in the Preferences window.

But, most of us need a couple of different templates, depending on awarding. For creating tracks, I volition frequently start with Rob Papen'south RP-Punch virtual drum plug-in and Softube's delightfully quirky Modular synth plug-in with a couple of modules. Luckily, Live gives you a path to this also.

If you have the Browser sidebar airtight, open up it by clicking on the triangle direct under the Link button in the upper left-hand corner of Live. Click on your "User Library" in the "Places" section at the bottom of the left column in this window. If the directory tree does not have it already, create a folder and name information technology "Templates" in this window by correct-clicking in the bare space below the directory.

A couple of templates to go my work started.

Whatever Sets that you store in this folder get templates, and if you double-click on one, information technology will open up a new Set with that configuration but under the default "Untitled" name so you don't accidentally save over something you lot meant to continue!

PreSonus Studio One

PreSonus's Studio One has experienced explosive growth in its 10 years of evolution. Its tight integration makes it a powerful combination with PreSonus interfaces. I notice that I tend to use complex virtual instruments such as NI'south Battery and Kontakt (included in Komplete 12) that really do good from using multiple outs so that I can process things differently with some of my favorite plug-ins. Some 8-bit goodness from the OTO Beige gives me some throwback crunch, merely I want to limit that to just the snare rail.

While it isn't difficult to fix the routing to do this, information technology is way faster to set it up once and save it every bit office of a template. Once you accept created the perfect setup, pull downwardly the "File" carte, select "Save Every bit Template," and give information technology a proper name and description that volition aid y'all call up what you prepare upward.

I use this template for multi-output routing that I only have to set upwardly once.

When you create a new vocal in Studio Ane, the templates window opens automatically, but you will need to select the "User" tab at the top to see the templates that you have created. This can set upwards your mixer and processing, simply also information technology tin brand information technology smoother to switch between multiple interfaces when you need to use different hardware.

This makes tracking so much simpler!

Paradigm Line FL Studio

Like Ableton Live, Image Line'south FL Studio is a DAW that is counterbalanced between design-based and linear modes of creation. This makes information technology even more than valuable to have the ability to offset a project with some basic routing and a layout in place that can change based on what you are working on.

Once you become a projection set up how you lot want, saving a template file is pretty simple if you know where the directory is located. Default on the Mac is in your Documents folder and inside the Epitome Line folder. Saving a project file into the Templates folder volition allow you lot to use any project yous create as the starting point for your work.

Piece of cake to observe if yous know where it is!

You can ready your newly saved template every bit your starting bespeak by going into the Preferences settings and going to the Full general tab within this window. The lower right-hand corner of this carte du jour features a drop-downwardly carte du jour that allows yous to cull whatever file in this Templates folder equally your default setup for a new session. You should note that a new Template file will not be visible until after you have saved it and restarted the plan. The arrangment that you accept created will besides be available in the "New from template" choice in the File carte du jour after you have restarted.

I don't utilise a pretty icon for my templates, but they still brand me feel ameliorate.

All of these applications give you power to spare for your production needs. The secret is finding ways to spend less time clicking a mouse to configure things so that y'all can spend more than fourth dimension being creative and making music.

Link: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/daw-templates-why-first-from-scratch-every-time/