Basic Template

In this episode Espen shares a quick little video on a very simple, but handy template.

How I set up my template

The video above is Espen’s. Here’s how I go about the same thing in my own music.

Trailer deadlines are tight, and the last thing you want is to spend your energy hunting for presets and routing channels before you’ve written a note. A template means you open a session and start composing straight away.

Mine is built around auxiliary channels in three groups. First, the effects: three reverbs (small, medium and long), two delays, two parallel compression channels (one clean, one dirty) and a few spares. Second, the instrument buses: short and long strings on separate buses, then brass, woodwinds, pianos, percussion, epic drums, guitars and bass, vocals and pads. Third, the group buses, which collect those families together: orchestra, pianos, percussion, guitars, pads and effects.

The routing runs in one direction. Instruments feed their group buses, the group buses feed a metering channel, and that goes out to the stereo out. Because the sends are already in place, any new sound you add goes straight to the right processing.

Colour coding makes a big difference too. I give each instrument family its own bold colour and make all the group buses black, so I can see at a glance where everything is when I’m mixing or bouncing.

A couple of other habits help. I add a VCA for each instrument family so I can control the overall volume without touching individual channels, and I label buses with “stem” in the name so my bounces come out properly named for publishers and editors. Using the same pre-loaded sounds every time is also a healthy limitation. It pushes you to use them in more inventive ways.

For more on templates, How to Create an Orchestral Template covers grouping articulations, instruments and sections and setting up effects buses, and Templates in Logic shows how to save, install and delete templates in Logic Pro X. My Trailer Music Course goes through building a template like this step by step.

Happy composing!Rich