Fig. 1
Using templates when recording makes a big difference in streamlining your workflow, and will leave you more time to get creative.
Hello and welcome to another Dojo! This time I’d like to focus on the benefits of using templates in your recording and mixing process. I’ll also show you some ways in which you can increase your productivity by using customized templates for your particular workflow regardless of what DAW(s) you use. Whether you’re recording a live band or a solo artist, you can create templates that include the necessary tracks, processing, and routing setups to meet your unique requirements. Tighten up, the Dojo is now open.
Over the last 30 years, digital audio workstations (DAWs) have revolutionized the way music is produced and recorded, making it easier to create high-quality recordings from the comfort of your own home. With so many options now available, it can be challenging to streamline the recording process and maintain consistency across multiple sessions. This is where templates—pre-configured session setups that can be customized and reused to simplify the recording process—come in.
The main point here is to create a template that works for you. I have found that the more specialized the template, the less flexible it becomes for use in other scenarios. For example, a 48-channel mixing template with specific plugins, buses, and other routing assignments won’t be a first choice when recording a power trio. I think the important thing is to recognize the type(s) of work you do and make different levels of templates accordingly. By creating various kinds of templates that include all the necessary tracks, plugins, and settings, you can ensure that each recording or mix session starts with a consistent foundation, allowing you to focus on the creative process rather than technical setup.
“By sharing templates, you can ensure that everyone is working with the same setup and settings, making it easier to collaborate and share ideas.”
Saving Time
Creating a new tracking session in your DAW from scratch can be a time-consuming process, especially if you’re working with a large number of tracks or complex routing setups. Using templates allows you to quickly set up your session and get to work, without having to waste time configuring settings or searching for the right plugins. I find this particularly useful when starting a new project that involves recording multiple songs with the same artist or band.
Typically, I create the session’s tracks and buses, assign, route, and organize my signal flow, in-the-box or outboard (Fig. 1), and get sound levels from each musician by making adjustments at the mic first, then add EQ and compression as needed. Once all that is done, I save the session as a “tracking template” with the artist/band name and date. When we’re ready to move on to the next song, I pull up the “tracking template” and save it as a “new session”! Now I have the same organization of track count, routing, etc., and I am able to repeat the process for each song moving forward.
Mixing It Up
The same logic applies when moving to the mixing stage. I’ll create a new template focused on advanced signal routing and incorporate things like console and tape emulation (if it wasn’t tracked through a console), side-chain options, routing folders, and instrument groups specific to that project. I found that using one-size-fits-all, highly specialized mixing templates end up being overbuilt and I waste time parsing out only what is necessary, as well as making sure that it is not draining my RAM and CPU resources.
Collaboration
Using templates can also be beneficial when collaborating with other musicians or engineers. By sharing templates, you can ensure that everyone is working with the same setup and settings, making it easier to share ideas and tracks. This can be especially important when working remotely, as it can help ensure that everyone is on the same page, even if they are not in the same physical location.
Creating templates can also help future-proof your recording process, ensuring that your recordings remain consistent and of high quality as your needs change over time. By creating templates that can be easily updated or modified, you can adapt to new recording technologies or workflows without having to start from scratch. This can help you stay ahead of the curve and ensure that your recordings are always of the highest quality.
Finally, you can create templates that use console emulation on every channel, aux, and mix bus. There’s Universal Audio’s LUNA API Vision Console Emulation Bundle ($559 street), Neve and API summing plugins ($149 street) and many other possibilities from Waves NLS, and Slate Digital’s Virtual Console Collection ($149).
Regardless of the DAW you use, taking the time to create some different types of templates will save you time and help keep you and everyone involved in the creative state of mind. Until next time, keep creating! Namaste.
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Digital control meets excellent Brit-favored analog drive and distortion tones in a smart and easy-to-master solution.
Tons of flexibility and switchability that’s easy to put to practical use. Many great overdrive sounds spanning a wide range of gain.
Takes a little work up front to get your head around the concept.
$349
RJM Music Technology Full English Overdrive
rjmmusic.com
Programmability and preset storage aren’t generally concerns for the average overdrive user. But if expansive digital control for true analog drive pedals becomes commonplace, it will be because pedals like the Full English Programmable Overdrive from RJM Music Technology make it fun and musically satisfying.
Following on from the Overture, which combined classic overdrive types and original RJM circuits, the Full English is dedicated to serving up as many British-flavored overdrive flavors as you would find on its famously over-the-top namesake breakfast dish. (Which drive is the black pudding, we have yet to decide.) The pedal’s digital capabilities make navigation easy, facilitate MIDI implementation, and enable user editing of presets via Mac/PC/iOS software. But the overdrives and signal chain are fully analog, and it sounds great as a result.
Brit Box Abounding
Any one of the six core overdrive circuits can be the foundation for a preset. From mellowest to heaviest (more or less), they include push, blues, royal, imperial, shred, and stack. Each can be adjusted WYSIWYG-style with the gain, tone, volume, bass, mid and treble knobs (the latter three are configured as post-gain EQ). They can then be saved—overdrive mode, knob settings and all—to one of eight preset slots by a long-press of the same button that cycles through the six voices. The right footswitch is a standard on/off while the left selects from four active presets. But stomping both footswitches together toggles between red and green preset banks, enabling access to the full eight. All told, it’s easy, straightforward stuff.
Even when the pedal is bypassed, the active preset is indicated by the slot and mode lights, so you don’t lose track of what lies in wait when you switch on. Doing so illuminates a red LED above the on/off footswitch, indicating an active preset. Twist a knob, though, and that on/off LED turns green, indicating you’re in a live state for that control function, or any others you manipulate. The pedal also includes a USB-C port for connecting to your computer, where it will appear in any MIDI-enabled app.
Royal Flush
I taste-tested the Full English with a Telecaster and an ES-335 through Vox and Fender tweed-style amps. No matter the combination, the RJM’s core sounds were robust and wide-ranging, with all the dizzying performance versatility the feature set implies. Players are likely to find something to love in all six modes, although for pure aural appeal, I was most drawn to the medium-drive ODs—royal and imperial. Each was rich, thick, and lusciously saturated, plus easy to shape and re-voice to right where I wanted with a twist of the very capable EQ.
Stack and shred were fun for really slamming the amps, though, and well-suited to heavy rock leads and classic metal, respectively. Though the six modes span a pretty huge range of gain, I can see plenty of players getting good use out of all six modes and moving between radically different sounds from song to song—or within one, for that matter. Even using eight variations of one or two favorite core voices offers a ton of variety for rhythm, crunchy chords, lead, and solo-boost settings. And other than the time invested in the initial user-reconfiguration, it’s easy to use in practical, real-world performance situations.
The Verdict
RJM Music Technology has done a fantastic job of taking analog overdrive into the programmable realm here. The number of really great sounds is enough to impress. But it’s the preset options, MIDI control, and the ease with which you can put them to work that take the Full English over the top—both in terms of pure usefulness and appeal to old-school players that, to date, found anything more than a 3-knob overdrive too complex.
Check out Warm Audio’s Pedal76 and WA-C1 with PG contributor Tom Butwin! See how these pedals can shape your sound and bring versatility to your rig.
Songs of a Lost World
The Cure return after 16 years with Songs of a Lost World, out November 1. Listen to "Alone" now.
Songs from the record were previewed during The Cure's 90-date, 33-country Shows Of A Lost World tour, for more than 1.3 million people to overwhelming fan and critical acclaim.
"Alone," the first song released from the album, opened every show on the tour and is available to stream now. The band will reveal the rest of the tracklisting for the record over the coming weeks at http://www.songsofalost.world/ and on their social channels.
Speaking about "Alone," the opening track on Songs Of A Lost World , Robert Smith says, "It's the track that unlocked the record; as soon as we had that piece of music recorded I knew it was the opening song, and I felt the whole album come into focus. I had been struggling to find the right opening line for the right opening song for a while, working with the simple idea of ‘being alone’, always in the back of my mind this nagging feeling that I already knew what the opening line should be… as soon as we finished recording I remembered the poem ‘Dregs' by the English poet Ernest Dowson… and that was the moment when I knew the song - and the album - were real."
Initially formed in 1978, The Cure has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, headlined the Glastonbury festival four times and been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. They are considered to be one of the most influential bands to ever come out of the UK.
Songs Of A Lost World will be released as a 1LP, a Miles Showell Abbey Road half-speed master 2LP, marble-coloured 1LP, double Cassette, CD, a deluxe CD package with a Blu-ray featuring an instrumental version of the record and a Dolby Atmos mix of the album, and digital formats.
Shred-meister and Eric Johnson expert Andy Wood joins us to talk about EJ’s best tracks, albums, and more. Whether you’re a fellow expert or don’t know where to start, Andy’s got you covered, from studio albums to live tracks. Come with questions, leave with homework!
