I’m always looking for ways to speed up my workflow and make my job easier when working on music projects. Paul Cecchetti may have just the ticket for really hot rodding your workflow in Studio One. Let’s see what he puts in the fuel tank.
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Templates are a fantastic way of speeding up your workflow if you often find yourself using similar track setups regularly. They allow you to configure a session however you like, and then, in one click, recall it again and again whenever you start a new project.
As a MIDI-based composer, I find this amazingly useful for large projects: it means I can load all my favourite instruments once, set up my bussing, routing, effects and organization (a task that can take a surprising amount of time), save it as a template, and call it up whenever I go to write an orchestral piece.
In this article, I’ll take my orchestral template as an example of how to set up a template, and how to use it to save time. This is particularly relevant to MIDI guys but the same principles applies for almost any type of project.
The most basic element of a MIDI template are the instrument tracks. Load all the instruments you’re likely to need for that kind of project- This can take some time depending on the number and size of those instruments. In this case, I have 19 instances of Kontakt loaded with all the various orchestral sections.
Multi-timbral Instrument with articulations on separate channels.
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As the template will be used often, it’s worth putting some thought into how the instruments are organized- your future self will thank you. I like to have an instance of Kontakt for every orchestral instrument, with each articulation assigned to its own channel. Think about what you want to achieve with your template and consider what will make your life easier in future when you go to use it.
When you have loaded all your instruments, it’s time to think about bussing. In this case, it makes sense to use a bus track for every section of the orchestra (strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion) This will give you a lot of control during composition and mixing. Again, it’s all about making life easier for yourself in future.
Bussing each orchestral section.
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Typically, orchestral music shouldn’t require too many effects, but you may want to add some at this stage. As you get more and more used to your plugins, you’ll know what is likely to sound good. For example, I know that LA Scoring strings sounds dry for my taste, so I will typically add an effects channel for reverb, send the String Bus to it, and add EQ as an insert on one or two of the channels. Again, this depends on your taste and the plugins you’re using. Take the time to get to know your gear and experiment incessantly!
Bussing strings and winds to a reverb.
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Once the routing, bussing and effects are in place, think about track organization. My template has 34 tracks in total, which makes it fairly unwieldy. S1 provides an elegant solution for managing large songs in its folder tracks: Here I have packed a folder for each section of the orchestra, plus one extra for the symphobia library which I use a lot. So 34 tracks can suddenly become much more manageable when you can hide & show them as necessary.
One folder per orchestral section.
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mso-para-margin-left:0in;
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Taking it a step further, I recommend placing each of these folders into one master folder- this will allow you incredible flexibility in arranging your ideas and re-ordering things. It enables you to cut / move / copy from every single track at once, without having to worry about missing anything or MIDI clips falling out of sync. It’s optional but I highly recommend it for any kind of work.
One folder to rule them all.
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Next, think about track and folder colours. This visual element will help you orientate yourself within large sessions- find a colour scheme that makes sense to you. Anything that makes your work clearer is a good thing.
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Finally- save your blank song as a template.
Save As Template.”/> File > Save As Template.
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You’ll be asked to give it a name, a description and, optionally, an icon.
“Save As” Dialogue Box.
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In the lower left corner is an option that says “Replace Existing” With this, you can have your template overwrite a previous template that you created. This allows you to constantly add to and refine your template as time goes on.
Bought a new library recently? Why not update your template with it?
Pro Tools Users Blog 