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[*]I've been looking to start using a template like I did with reason to speed up and make easier the production flow... I'm thinking 4 channels, drums, bass, lead and pad set up with compressors and eq on each bus, and 2 or 3 effects on sends, delay, reverb, and maybe distortion?
What about midi controller mappings.

What do you guys use with yours? Suggestions?

ableton i tend to just delete the patterns and the sounds and use an old song as a template?

but they all end up the same as below really:

kick, snare --> compressor send
hats, perc --> reverb send
all drums to 3rd buss (sometimes)
2-3 bass channels - with simpler's containing bass + sub samples
1 - synth channel (simpler with synth sample) duplicated over and over with new variations
1-2 pad channels (simpler with pad sample)

and i have usually two sends set up with reverbs, delays, chorus and flanger etc. and assign midi knobs to all channells so i can send bits here and there to the effects sends to see how it sounds, and do manual automation.

if that makes sense dude, it's probably a weird way to do stuff?

So you put a compressor on one of your sends? Any reason you group your percussion into 2 or 3 tracks? Do you put anything on master bus?

yes i only really compress the kick and snare together at the moment, but i change this and experiment all the time.

plus sometimes the synth channels i put a compressor on to flatten them out a little. should of mentioned that. also that third main buss that all the drums go into has compressor, i should of mentioned.

with my drums i tend to have seperate channel for each type kick, snare, hat, perc because i like to put differen fx on them. just find it easier to manage if they all have their own channel. you can do this with rack's but it's just quicker for me like this.

on the master i don't put anything unless i am exporting it for my soundcloud, i put izotope ozone just to get it loud enough to show to people.

anyway i'm still a beginner. i could send you one of my files later if ya want to look. plus i have a cool intrument rack that you might find handy. it saves me loads of time when i wanna chuck in a quick sample.

Be careful with using a template with plugins pre loaded onto them , it can lead to a lazier production. i do have a template with all the specific tracks needed named, but i always add the reverbs/compressors as i need them and for whatever i need.

Depone wrote:Be careful with using a template with plugins pre loaded onto them , it can lead to a lazier production.

Agree! And it also leads to things sound very similar. I use a template but it is just some channels with drum racks on them containing a bunch of samples, to cut down time choosing drum sounds and thats it, no effects or anything.

yes that is very true and i agree. but i find every time i use the last track as template for the new track. it evolves anyway. like i''ll change the fx chains as the track/channel needs it. and after a while it gets convoluted and i'll delete it all and start afresh.

i wasn't proposing using the same template every time you start a track.

i really wanna reformat my computer and start clean so i can set everything up in a better way, but i have so many unfinished tracks

I try just to cover the basics in my template

I have all the tracks fitted with cut offs @ 40HZ and a spectrum analyzer (normally left 'off' until I need it)

I have at least one audio track ready for any wav sample I might want to chuck in

I have a lead synth track - Omnisphere or operator normally

A bass group with the sound split in two leaving a gap between 100 & 200 HZ which I adjust to taste so I can edit out the mush. The top end track I add effects to like distortion or chorus etc

I then have a group of drum tracks normally one rack of kicks, one rack of snares and a rack of general percussion and bits and bobs - all of this group is normally run through a PSP vintage warmer set very lightly (not so much to compress just to glue shit together). Often I take the kick snare out afterwards to polish but its handy having it all on one group when you start writing a track.

I always have a sampler track too ready for whatever sample I want to mangle

I run 4 returns as standard (but swap the actual fx to suit my needs)
1 - Echo/delay for dubbing out hits
2 - general reverb
3 - Special effects (this can be more verb/filters/distortion or whatever ... and finally
4- Ive got into using corpus a lot to add body and texture to certain sounds so I might send some drum hits into it to add a metallic feel or sub boom (basically I love corpus - you can do all sorts with it)

Master always has a spectrum analyzer & sometimes a cut off @ 35HZish

Like I say I swap all these around according to the tune but it speeds up sketching an Idea massively if you have a template

I have phases with this sort of thing tho and prolly have five or six previous templates in stock ... I change em every now and then - normally when a new vst arrives I want to test out. Like the man says you dont want to ALWAYS use the same set up so switch it up every other month.

My template is basic as fuck.

4 drum racks: kick, snare, hats, percs

a Sampler (although I usually end up using two Samplers)

one instance of Crystal...usually end up layering a next synth underneath.

global groove set to 45 - obviously never usually stays there.

quantization 16T

11 locators - intro, outro, break, 2 drops...and 7 others that I place every so often. This is more just so I can map keys in order to jump around the project with ease.

and like 7 extra channels that get used for resampling as need.

I don't have plug-ins on a saved template. Rather, I have effects racks saved so if I wanna use an fx rack I've used before then I can load them. I have: Celestial, Space, and Delay racks that have various delays and reverbs and chorus, phaser and all sorts of shit. I'll just tweak the settings on the individual plug ins to switch em up....like different sync rates and feed back..low pass and hi pass....etc etc etc

and the master ends up having TLS on it.

Thx everyone, very good info to get started with mine. I often find that i spend too much time setting up gear and software that it hinders my creative flow..so this will help!