Let’s Start With A Template

I’ve written about using templates once before. I explained what pops up when I start Ableton Live each day, what effects or sounds are on each track and why I chose them. Now today’s tutorial is going to be similar but over the last little while my template has changed. It has evolved and developed into a tidy little setup that is just waiting to write tunes.

Now, I consider there to be a few aims of having a template set up in your DAW:

  1. To save time by not having to set up those sounds, effects and plugins that you always draw upon;
  2. To focus your workflow on writing music; and
  3. To streamline your mixes such that each song you produce is in a similar format and structure.
    *See below.

My Template

“So what do you have in your template”, I hear you ask? Well let me take some time to show you what I have.

My base template consists of 8 tracks (Kick, Bass, Snare, Hats, Perc/FX, Synth 1, Synth 2, and Vocals) and 4 return tracks (Percussion, Synths, Reverb, Delay). I use Ableton Live but you should be able to adapt this process to any DAW.

Track 1 (Kick) - This audio track is solely for my main kick drum. On this track I’ve got a high pass filter to cut out all the muddy frequencies below around 25Hz. I’ve also got a frequency analyser to help me see what the dominant frequencies are. This will help when mixing with the bass.

Track 2 (Bass) - This midi track is for my main Bass synth; Orca, Blue, Bassline, Elek7ro etc. As with the Kick track I’ve got a high pass filter to cut out all the muddy frequencies below around 25-50Hz.

Track 3 (Snare) - As I tend write my drums first, the next track is for the Snare Drum. I’ll sometime duplicate this track if I’m layering snares/claps. There are no effects on this track and it is routed only to the Percussion return.

Track 4 (Hats) - This midi track is loaded with an Impulse to look after all of my hi-hat samples. There are no effects on this track and it is also routed only to the Percussion return.

Track 5 (Perc/FX) - This audio track is ready for chopped up percussion hits. Sometimes I’ll even duplicate this track depending on how many layers I end up working with. There are no effects on this channel and it is routed only to the Percussion return.

Track 6 (Synth 1) - This midi track is ready for my main synth line. There are no effects on this channel and it is routed only to the Synths return. Sometimes I will add delay or reverb or any other effect that I want only on this synth line.

Track 7 (Synth 2) - Same as Track 6.

Track 8 (Vocals/Samples) - This audio track is for the vocals or any melodic samples that I end up using. On this track I’ve got a high pass filter to roll-off frequencies below about 150-350Hz. This gives the kick and bass room in the mix and also removes those popping sounds that you get in some poorly recorded vocals. Send A is then set to send the track to both the Master and the Reverb return. I’ll then adjust this send to raise or lower the amount of reverb I want.

Return A (Percussion) - This is where all of my drums sounds are sent (except for the kick drum). This return has a high pass filter to roll-off frequencies below about 150-350Hz. This gives the kick and bass room in the mix. I may also apply some compression to get the percussive parts to gel nicely. Send A is then set to send the track to both the Master and the Reverb and Delay returns. I’ll then adjust this sends to raise or lower the amount of reverb/delay I want on the percussion.

Return B (Synths) - This is where all of the synth sounds are sent. This return has a high pass filter to roll-off frequencies below about 150-350Hz. I may also apply some compression to get the various synth parts to gel nicely. Send A is then set to send the track to both the Master and the Reverb and Delay returns. I’ll then adjust this sends to raise or lower the amount of reverb/delay I want on the Synths.

Return C (Reverb) - This return generally has Reverb with the light reverb similar to the Ambience Medium preset in Live.

Return D (Delay) - This return generally has a Filter Delay with the Go Mid preset. You could always use a Grain Delay or even a Ping Pong delay for something different.

To help get your head around what I have set up, I’ve thrown together a quick flowchart so you can see what’s happening. The black lines indicate constant audio paths while the grey lines are the audio sends that are adjusted to suit the song. Obviously you can send any track to the reverb or delay to spice things up.

Once you’ve gone to all the effort of setting up your template make sure you save it to a safe place to recall any time you want to start a new track. Live allows you to save your template so it opens when you open the DAW and other DAWs should have similar settings.

Your Turn

So now it’s your turn to develop your own template and feel free to apply what you’ve learnt here. Pay attention to what you consistently pull into yours sets when you start a new one. Are there some things that you always do? Why not throw them into a template to help you get writing quicker?

The Haters

Some people believe that they force you to always work in the same way thus limiting your creativity. I tend to disagree as I know from my own experience that my template has evolved with me as a producer. As I learn new techniques, experiment with live performance and write different types of tunes, I have modified my template to suit. For example, if you are always putting tom tom drums into your songs, it might be worth adding a new dedicated track to your template.

Back to the Tunes

When it really comes down to it, we are all here to write music. We learn our software; we learn our gear and the sound of our room so that we can get the sounds that we want faster and with less fuss. Setting up a template is just a step along that path. Keep at it.

Got a template up and running already? Any tips you want to share? Feel free to add your own two cents in the comments below.

*Streamlining your mixes to a familiar structure can be very useful if you are ever thinking about playing live. I’ve adapted my own live set from Tom Cosm’s live performance style where each track is broken into six tracks; kick, bass, percussions, synths, vocals and fx. So, once I’ve finished a tune, I can very quickly solo and render each of those tracks as each song uses the same template.