Transcripts
1. Step 1 - Planning the Template: Hey, friends and music makers Mike here and in the following Siris of videos, you will learn as I explain and show the complete process off how I build a master D A w template one template to rule them all. This'll will become my actual new master template in logic pro X but almost every concept, method and technique you will learn with work in any D w whether you use a bottom que base reason studio one or anything else. If you go through these videos one by one and pay attention to really learn the tricks and concepts are use, you will be able to create your very own master template in your DW. Now well, it's begin or heart. First, let me explain what a D W template is and while you use it, a D W template is used to save you time when composing and producing music. Basically, you set everything up in a master project, which you will use as your template that you start up every time you are going to create new music. This way, you can go straight into creative mode and start making music instead of having to Lord every instrument and effect name and structure all channels, route audio signals. And so personally, I mainly focused on the cinematic music, so my master template will be pretty big with group channels for strings, breast woodwinds and so on. Many people use different templates for different songs and styles of music. But what I intend to do here is to create one template to rule them all the one template and set it up so that I can compose and produce any style of music using these master DW template. Now how to begin. The first thing I did, which I strongly recommend you to do as well, is to sketch out your template on paper first. It will save you lots of time and headaches compared to just diving in and start setting up things randomly as you go. I actually sat down with a note pad and wrote my overall sketch for my entire master template project. How I want to structure all instrument types into channel groups, how I want to order them internally to keep the same overview for the entire project, deciding on a naming and coloring theme for all tracks and so on Now let me share my personal list for all the things I want to include in my master D aaw template These all the things I actually wrote in my note pad app. One channel groups I will create name and route all channel groups to accommodate every instrument and sound I will ever use in a project to individual instruments. I will add all the basic instruments in each group and route them to the respective channel . Group three. Naming and coloring. I will create my own personal naming and coloring system and apply it to every single track in the project. Four Track Aikens in Logic and many other D. W's. You can help in getting a better overview by using track icons, so I will set up those as well. Five send effects and in certificates have also set up all send effects on channel buses like reverb and delays, as well as in certificates on the group channels. Six. Special production techniques. Most important for me personally, is implementing side Shane compression into these template. You might be surprised to hear that I actually use icing compression in every style of music. I compose and produce even cinematic music because you don't have to use much to make a huge difference in clarity and separation in your mix and seven look up composing method. I have developed my own style of composing and producing music, which I call the emcee method or moke up composing method. Basically, it is similar to a graphic artist that starts with a rough pencil sketch to get the general idea down first before adding all the color and flair to produce his final painting. And you will get to see my secret tracks in these M. C N folder or group track. Great. So now I have a list off all things. I want to include an implement in my master template. I like to start all big projects with a good plan, and now it's your turn to take action. Do a brainstorming session where you end up with a complete plan off your master D. J W template on paper or a note app, if you prefer get started. Right now, my name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video
2. Step 2 - Instrument Groups: very friends and music makers. Mike here and in this video, I'm going to show you and explain the process off setting up instrument groups in my epic d w master template, I make in logic pro X. All right, So when choosing how to group all instruments in these master template, I want to make sure I cover everything possible. The goal is that any instrument I add to a new track can be categorized into one of these groups. I have a personal approach to instrument grouping that I call posts standing for purpose of sound. What is the post concept? Well, the common way of grouping instruments is based on the instrument type. For example, one group for a while, guitarists another one for all vocals and so on, meaning your group on the type. My own post concept is based on what the purpose off the instrument or Saudis in the particular production. For example, I have one channel group I always use, which I call Dr. And in this group, I add all tracks that have the main purpose off driving the track, not including dramas and percussion, though, since I will have a separate group. For that, the drive group in my template will have tracks like seemed patterns, Austin or the string patterns or pigeonholes and basically, anything that adds a Powell's and drive to the track. Then I have another channel group, which I call Kump, where I heard all comping tricks like rhythm guitar, com, piano, etcetera. All right, so now it's your turn. Think about how you want to structure your tracks in your master D. Aaw template. Do you prefer the classic method of grouping facts according to their instrument type? Or do you like my post concept, where you group instruments according to their purpose in the production? I personally use a mix of both these methods, and before you start adding the instrument groups into your template, I recommend that you do some brainstorming. The important thing is that the group in your use makes sense for your personal of work, for the way you think that where you work on the way you feel most comfortable with. Now let me add one shadow group at the time into my master template here, and I will explain what kind of instruments will go into each group as I go alone And don't worry about the ordering off the groups inside your template. You can always move them around off the worst group One ambience. In these group, I will have sounds that have the purpose of adding ambiance and atmosphere to the track, like soundscapes, drones and sound effects. Group two drums. Here I will add all drum kits, both acoustic drum kits as well as Elektronik. I will also have the logic Pro X Drummer track, which is great for getting quick beat going in the background and can also help you get new ideas. Group three Percussion. These group will have all percussion instruments like a full range of orchestral percussion , some ethnic percussion as well as special percussive hits and effects Group four base. These is where I will add all based instruments like electric acoustic and synth basis, as well as Deep Low and synth pets. Group five Drive. The Drive group will host all tracks that air to the pals and drive to the production like Austin auto strings, sink sequences and rhythmic patterns and arpeggios. Group six Comp. The Comp Group is for come piano rhythm guitars and other comping style Instruments Group seven motif. This is a group most people would probably call lead like, for example, lead vocals. But I have always loved the term motif, which basically means main theme, the leading sounds that will guide the listener and be in focus in the track. The motif will be played by other instruments in other instrument groups as well. But I have found that having a dedicated group for this increases the focus and clarity off the single most important element in most music. Group eight piano. Since I Love the Piano, I want to have many different piano plug ins voted in my master template. This way, I will be able to quickly test out different plug ins and presets to find the right sound character for the specific track. That's why I will have a dedicated piano group, Group Nine Strings. In this group, I will add the four port string section, plus an extra port for a second violin section, which is common in orchestras. I will also add all stink the pads in these group. Since the sound character is very similar to strings Group 10 breasts, I will have a group for all breast instruments. And, like the string Rupe, I will add all synth sounds with a brassy character Here is well, like synth stabs. For example, Group 11 wins. I will have this group mainly for all wind instruments in the orchestra, but also includes, since with a Flutie kind of sound, as well as some ethnic Wind Instruments Group 12 vocals. Since I mainly focus on cinematic and orchestral based music, I will mainly have choir tracks lorded in this group to start with. But I will also add an audio track for vocal recording in here Group 13 since I will have a dedicated synth group. But to be honest, most of the sounds I adhere will probably end up being dragged into volume of the other channel groups according to the post concept I like to use, but it's great to have many synth plug ins and presets lorded so I can start the creative part as quickly as possible. Group 14 Acoustic. Finally, I will have this group for acoustic instruments and sounds and much like the same group. Many of these individual tracks in this group would probably be moved to another Channel group during the composing and production process of a new track. All right, so those are all my channel groups that I will have in my Tampa to start out with. And even though this is cool, the Master D W template I will, of course, make changes. Do it along the way and adjust it for specific tracks. But that's not the point. The key benefit you want out of setting up in master template in your lead of you is to save your time by minimizing the time it takes from starting up your D W on your computer until you can start composing a new track. Now it's your turn to take action. Start adding your instrument groups into your new master DW template. My name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video.
3. Step 3 - Send Effects: the friends and music makers Mike here. And in this video, I'm going to explain and show the process of setting up send effects in your mass through d aaw template. Let's begin. All right, so, off course, the first thing to do is to decide what send effects you want to include in your master template. For me personally, I will only add reverb is to this end effect bus channels specifically these or descend effects. I would add one ambience reverb, which will be a really short reverb to add some depth without too much room sounding it, I often use it to round off a sound with to studio reverb. I will use a room reverb with the sound of a professional recording studio three plate reverb, especially great for vocals and even drums, sometimes adding depth without too much of that smeary sound you get from ordinary large river verbs. Four hall reverb, the sound of a warm orchestral hole, which I will use a lot since I love cinematic music and five grand reverb. I simply call it that because it is so big, grand and lush that it sounds almost divine. Basically, it will be a huge hole River present here. So first you need to set up the sand effect bust channels. It may be different in various DPW's, but the principle is the same when you're starting from scratch. Simply go to a track in your mixer of your project and click on the send effects bus on that track. Here you can see all channel groups I already created for the instruments. Since I might add more instruments, channel groups, I will use a higher number for my center fix. I think I will go to bus 33 to be safe. As soon as you select it, you will see a new Orcs track be created in the mixer. This is the track where you will add your send effects too. You can see here that the input to this extract is own Bus 33. And if you check here on the track again, you can see that this send now goes to bust 33. However, be 33 is kind of a lame name and doesn't tell what the particular send effect us. And I want to have my master template very organized, clear and structure. So I'm going to change this name here to represent what sand effect I'm going to use on this bus in most DPW's. This might even be automatic by simply changing the track name for the send effect. But in logic, as far as I know, you need to go here into options. Then I labels and scroll down to the bus number, Then click Yusor and write a descriptive name. Here. I'm going to write ambience reverb because that is what the send effect will be. Andi, you should also write a shorter version of the name over here, which will be seen in the mixer here. I'm going to name it M in capital letters. And now if I go back to the mixer, I can see the name is no longer be 33 for they send bus, but and which I will recognize as the Ambience River. My general tip for naming in your DW temperate is to try to come up with short names when you can, because it will be much easier for your eyes when you start getting into super big projects with lots of tracks. All right now let's at the wrist of the scientific passes, a studio reverb on Bus 34. Hey plate reverb on Bus 35 a whole reverb on Bus 36 and finally, a grand reverb on Bus 37. And then I will do the Iot. Naming of those buses are your label's going down to the correct bus channels, choosing user writing the description as well as the short name over here and do this for all the scientific buses like that? Finally, you, of course, need to add the individual send effect begins on each send bus, So I'm going to add an insert effect on each center bus here, then choose a river plug in I want to use. And for my master template, I want to use stock plug ins as much as I can, because then I can easily change them for any specific project I work on. Finally, finally priests it that matches this style you want for each send bus. So for my ambience reverb, I have chosen a preset called zero point all three thicken vocals, which is a really small room based reverb. The next one is called 0.9 seconds Blue Room, and it's my studio reverb. The next one is called 1.3 s soft plate, which is my plate reverb on. By the way, the numbers are describing the decay or length off the reverb tail, and that's the most important factor off all reverb. So think about that as well. The 4th 1 is my whole reverb, which is a 3.3 2nd warm vocal hole. And finally, for my huge and lust reverb I called grand. I've gone for a 10.6 2nd Precinct called Long Dream. But remember that these are just starting points to have a good foundation to create new tracks in your master d aaw template without spending time setting all this up for every new production you start and that's it. Now I have set up and routed all send effects in my master Zw template, named them properly and loaded up the plug ins and presets. So now it's your turn. Choose what send effects you want to use in your messed of temperate and set it all up in an organized instruction fashion like ideas did. My name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video
4. Step 4 - Instruments: Hey, friends and music makers Mike here and in this video I'm going to show you l explain the process off instrumentation in your d w master template, which basically means adding all instruments in your group folders. Let's do it. I'm going to start by giving you a quick guide on instrumentation that will not only help you get a full range of instruments in your template, but also improve your mixing workflow. Imagine the full register you have available for making music from the deepest SabeS frequencies up to the very highest frequencies working here. Now you and I are not the first to consider this. In fact, the range of instruments in the orchestra have been chosen to get a balance for the instrumentation over the full frequency spectrum they supplies to all sections of the orchestra. Think about it. There is a reason why the string section is divided into four parts double basis. Chelios, violas and violence is also used for choirs. It is called S a T B and is short for the four vocal registers soprano all toe T, nor and base. In fact, you will find that basically all sections within music can be divided into full registers of instrumentation, even though they might not be a strictly divided like a string section or vocal choir. But take a look at the instruments you find in a orchestral breast section, woodwind section and even the percussion to make it easier. I call these four registers base low mids high mids on Tribble. This helps to categorize instruments, but it is also the main four frequency bands in mixing ik Ewing etcetera. That's why the full port register is extremely good to learn and use as a guide. So how does this apply to your master D. Aaw template? My advice is to have the four Port Register as a guide when you start adding instruments in a long channel groups, because this will make every section or group in your template, able to fill up the entire spectrum of sound from the low base to the high treble. And this will make it so much easier to compose music with a full and professional sound. With that kind of complete sound you're mixing, job will be much easier. Another tip I have for you it's used to four port register for structuring your individual tracks in each group, starting from the lowest register at the top of the group and going up in register for all tracks going downwards in the track structure. For example, For a string section group, you start with the double bass track than the CHEL owes than Viola's. And finally, the violence. Having these similar structure for all instrument groups in your master template will make it much easier to compose, as well as get a good overview of the balance in the mix. You will easily see if you have too much going on in the low mates, for example, or perhaps too little in the trouble. I find this technique very practical and, to make it even more clear, a use coolers as a way to separate each register off the four port range. I have already added old fax into my master template, and to make it more clear for you how to apply this concept or four part registers, I will show you a couple of my instrument groups and explain my creative decisions for the individual tracks I have added in them. All right, let me show you my percussion group here because this will make it clear how I add instruments to cover all four registers based low mids, high mids and highs going from the lowest sound at the top in the group, which in this case is called sub hits. Because here I will add samples off low impacts and sub base. It's then it continues with the bass drums, timpani and Tyco's, which are in the low to low mids registers, then going up in register to the toms and snares. And then finally, the sticks, shakers and symbols will fill up the high mids and highs and let me also show you my strings group because it is slightly different. I have an entire string section here, starting with the base and going upwards in Register to the violence section. But I have these two tracks at the top, and I used is in some groups where I want to add an insomnia or food complete range for a sound. So in this case, is it's a synth pad that takes four registers as well as the strings in samba patch that's also four registers, So I have structured it so that the full insolvable Patrick are at the top in each group and then starting with the lowest register and going upwards on. This is the same for all my channel groups. Amazing. These master template is going strong. I hope you are following every concept I teach here and that you're building your very own Lester template in your DW as we go along. No, it's time for you to take action again. Add all instruments to your master template and make sure to consider the four port registers. When you feel up your products with tracks, you should make sure to find a way to organize and structure old fax inside your groups in a way that suits your personal work. Phil Getting all tracks added into your master template might take a while, but think about all the time you will save when you can start using these D aaw template for every new track of start. My name is Mike and I'll see you in the next video
5. Step 5 - Organise your Tracks: In this video, you will learn how to optimize your track structure in your master template to get a great overview and clearer layout, which will increase your production workflow. Let's begin first, I want to talk about track. Naming my tip for you is to come up with some sort off theme you choose for naming your tracks. It should be clear and make sense to you, but most importantly, it should be consistent. Let me explain practically what guidelines are used personally so that you can get some inspiration for your own track. Naming guideline one. I named my Group Folder fax in capital letters. This will clearly separate my groups from the individual tracks both in the sequencer as well as the mixer to I try to use short names and even abbreviations when possible, because I want to be able to see the track names in the mixer where you have limited space for the names on every channel. So, for example, electric detour becomes E. L guitar. I used the same abbreviation for electric and electronic, consistently like on E l Piano and E. L drums. You could go even further with abbreviations like shorting inning, for example, guitar into GT or, if you want to. Three. I prefer to always have the name off the instrument type and purpose included in the name, for example, synth pulse or piano. ORP. My view on track naming is that every track should be as clear and descriptive as possible , but still short enough to be fully seen in all parts of your D aaw project. Next, let's talk about track ordering well. This is, of course, also dependent on your personal style of producing music and the workflow and structure you prefer. But let me share the way I like to order my tracks first, I order the group folders. In a way I like to compose and produce music, starting with ambience, drums, percussion as the core, then continuing from there, adding groups for different instrument types as well as my own method. I call purpose off sound, which takes into account what the instruments will be used for in the full production. Now for the individual instruments, I have a special way of ordering my tracks, which goes hand in hand with my way of composing music as well as mixing music. It is based on the classic four poor division off harmonies or instrumentation like in a string section, you have four instrument types that each have their old range double basis for the lowest notes than chill owes full of by violas and violins for the highest range. So I used this principle for ordering my tracks inside my folders, going from the lowest register at the top to the highest register at the bottom of the group. This method of ordering your tracks will make it very easy to see if you have too much or too little going on in any specific instrument group. Next up is track coolers and track icons for the track coolers. I have tried several methods myself. The most important thing is that you're consistent within each project in your DW. So, for example, you might want to use a different color for every single instrument group, like strings, having one color breasts, another color and so on. You can also use colors to separate different registers, like I just did with the track ordering and then for the track icons, which many DPW's have. There are several ways you can use them. Perhaps you want to use them for getting a better overview of your instrument groups. Or you might even want to Adeniken to every individual track to represent the instrument type. The key point I want you to take away from this lecture is that a good structure and organized project will speed up both your composing and production workflow. So now it's time for you to take action. Start by planning out a system for how you will structure your drw master template, using your own way of naming, ordering colors and track icons. You were probably update your system along the way, but the point is having a good system that makes sense for your way of composing and producing music. My name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video.
6. Step 6 - Sound Design Folder: in this video, I will show you how I use a special folder for sound design in my master DW template to speed up my composing process. Let's begin. There is no way of getting away from the fact that we have so many tools, plug ins and software instruments to choose from. But it's so easy to get stuck for a long time, simply experimenting with various sounds and not getting anywhere with our track. Well, I have tried to solve this by adding a sound design folder in my master template, where I add one track for each type of sound effect I want to create. This makes me able to focus on the types of sounds I want to add to my track and hopefully not get drawn into the endless precent browsing and sample hunting. We all seem to find ourselves due to orphan. Check these out. Here is my sound design folder, and I have added plug ins and instruments specialized for different Selves. Let's go through the ones I've added, and I will explain their purpose. One hits and impacts. This category is for designing all kinds of one short sounds from massive impacts to fully sounds like door slams, etcetera to tension and transitions. Here I will design sounds that has the purpose of adding tension, most common in transitions between sections. For example, risers reverses, bushes and downers. Three tonal soundscapes. These are atmospheric sounds that are playable, meaning they have pitch like a drone kind of sound. Four. And Ian's Here I will design sounds that adds ambience and atmosphere but has no distinct tonality, meaning I don't need to think about which note I play. It's just an ambient background noise. Five. Rhythm. This will be for designing rhythmic pulses to drive the track. These works, especially great for, underscores all for kick starting your imagination and creativity when you start a new project and now it's your turn. Create a sound design father in your master DW template. Not only will it be good for your composing and production speed, but it will also make you more aware off sound design and force you to learn more about the different kinds of sounds and sound effect you can use in your music. And a final positive side effect is that you will find out that creating and designing your own sounds feels more fulfilling when you add the final audio file into your production. Good luck and have fun with sound design. My name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video.
7. Step 7 - MCM Folder: friends and music makers. Mike here. And in this video, I'm going to show you my top secret for composing music Lightning Fast, which is my N. C. M folder, based on my own developed concept, which I call the mook up composing method. So my M C method or look up composing method is based on the same principle. Like a graphic artist who is about to create a beautiful painting, he or she will start a rough sketch to get the general idea down first. This will help the artist to actually complete the painting much foster, because the outline and core off the artwork will be much easier to do. As a simple sketch. These sketch will then be gradually transformed into a finished painting. Now, as a music composer, you should think about the moke up composing method as your pencil sketch off the music you're going to create. So what tracks can you include in your MZM folder to make up your sketch with Well, to begin with, you should think about the three main elements of music, rhythm, harmony and melody. So one way would be to add those three elements as individual tracks in your MZM folder, for example, rhythm could be a drum kit. The Harmony track could be strings playing. The chord progression and the middle of the track could be a piano, for example. Like different graphic artists use different ways to create the rough sketch. There are different ways for you as a composer to implement the mock up composing method. I'm going to show you the tracks I have in my M. C M folder and explain each one. But please know that I don't use every single one for all my productions. But I do go to have them loaded in my template because this is my master D W template off roll. All right, so here is my M C M folder. Now let's check out what facts I have included. Number one is the idea struck. This is where I do do my musical ideas, so to speak. These track is about having fun and let your ideas flow freely. I usually just load up a piano on this track and play with a completely open mind. Then, if I stumble upon anything cool, I record that idea to one of my other EMC tracks to the hum track. This is an audio track, which I used to hum in my ideas as they appear in my mind like the fun trick. You can go really crazy here. And the best part is that you don't have to have skills playing the Midi keyboard to come up with lots of cool ideas really fast using the home track. Three. The room to track here I add the harmonic root note off the chord progression. Basically a sustained bass note without any rhythm added to it. It only changes when a new court comes. Four. The cords track. This is where I add the court progression off the music composition, including all chord inversions. Five. The theme track. Well, this is basically the lead melody of the track. It can also be your hooks, main reefs or low teeth, if you will. Six. The drive track here is where I add the cool rhythm off the music composition. It can be either percussion on Austin or to string pattern, or perhaps a synth pals that drives the track with a specific rhythm. And seven The Master MZM track. My biggest secret off them old for my composing workflow. What is it? Well, it's a mix off all the recorded performances off the other MZM tracks. In this single media track, I recorded the chord progression, the main theme, the base and sometimes even the drive. The purpose of this track is to be my complete musical sketch. If you play this tracking solo, you should get a sense off the entire music composition and be able to imagine the full track in your mind. All right now, I have explained and even shown you probably my biggest secret for composing music. Lightning fast. It is my moke up composing method, using a dedicated M. C M folder at the top off my D W project. So now it's your turn to take action. Set up your own MZM folder in your master template. Call it something else if you want to, and shoes, which tracks you want to include to sketch your music with. But make sure to implement the main purpose of this method, and you will see how much it can improve your speed off composing and producing music. My name is Mike, and I'll see you in the next video
8. Step 8 - Finalize your Master Template: in this video, I'm going to add the final touches to my master DW template. Let's finish this all right, so you can always set up on add special production techniques into your master template. One such technique I am going to implement is Side Shane Compression. The most common way to use side chain compression is to duck the base from the low percussion, specifically the kick drum versus the baseline for most music. But since I make mainly cinematic music, it can be any low percussion or big impact sound that I want to bring out in the mix. Implementing sites and compression is different, depending on which D, w and compressor plug in you use. And this is not a tutorial on setting up, citing compression. In fact, I have a whole other cores on site and compression specifically, but I will mention how I routed personally in my master template. First, I add a compressor plugging with side chain capability to the based group track. Then, as the input signal on this compressor, I choose the percussion group track. Then I adjust the settings on the compressor so that it Onley listens to the low frequencies off the percussion group. You can, of course, choose to add citing compression on more tracks than just the base if you want to. Aside from sage and compression, I also want to add a simple mastering chain at the main stereo out. I do this because I want to be able to master my tracks in the same project as I compose, produce and makes them. You can either use a mastering suite plug in that has everything you need to master your music. Or you can make your own chain off individual plug ins to create your own mastering set up at the moment. This is how my chain looks like. Well, a compressor for light, balancing off the dynamics in the mix. How much depends on the style Off the track I produce to a new e que. To shape the overall sound off the track. Three stereo imager to open up the high end of the frequency spectrum by widening the stereo field and control the lowered by pushing towards the centre four limiter to boost the overall level of the track by a couple of decibels. How much depends on the style music on how much. I want to retain the natural transients in the sounds and five level meter. Finally, I have a meeting plug in to analyze the average loudness level in the standard loves Mita Ring system. Now it's your turn. What special production techniques will you add to your master template? I really recommend you to set upsizing compression as a start, but you can also add other insert effects on some of your group channels and perhaps sit up peril compression on your drums and percussion groups, or whatever you feel like. Then finalize your template by adding your own mustering chain or in mastering suite bunion on the Master Stereo Output channel. And that's it. Now you have a complete master D W template, which you can use to make amazing music lightning fast. This means you won't need to waste your time for every single project to add sit up route and implement everything again because the foundation is already there in your template. Good luck and have fun using your very own master template in your dear W to compose and produce music with my name is like and I'll see you in the next video