Welcome to the video. Let's talk a bit about project templates. I am so excited to share this specific installment with you. I do a lot of consultation work. And time and time again, I see composers and artists starting off their sessions with a blank slate. In other words, when they begin a new project, they always start from square one.
This may not sound like a big deal to you. But when you compose hundreds of songs a year, you start to see a few correlations and themes. The first is that more often than not, the modern day producer usually makes the same decisions over and over again, within any given session. If you were to count the number of decisions you make in a session, it would be in the thousands if not 10s of thousands. Of course this is a generality, but there is a lot of truth to it. For example, the likelihood of you using an EQ or a compressor on a track is pretty high.
You may not always use them. But what I am proposing is that we set up your session in such a way so as to eliminate as many decisions as possible, so we can get to the heart of the matter, which is being creative. Here are some things that you should set up for a project template, screen sets, plugins, default chains, sends effects, automation quick access, key commands, default mastering chains, I am going to help you set up your screen sets. This is especially good if you need more screen space but don't have multiple monitors. I'm also going to help you decide what plugins and effects are best to use for your template. To add to this, I also want to configure automation quick access.
So you can quickly adjust Automation parameters on the fly. Lastly, you will be defining a default mastering chain so you can pump out tracks quickly and take the guesswork out of the quote unquote mythical art of mastering. I do want to point out one more thing, you can create project templates to serve you in one of two ways. The first way is that it works as a default. The idea here is that most of the guesswork has already been done so you can just get in and right. The second way is project specific.
If you are working on a certain show or brief and the deadlines are pressing, then it is absolutely necessary that you adopt this. When creating project specific templates, I urge you to take a few hours to get the right source material and samples. That way you can work freely and with no worries. In closing, be sure to update your templates as you add stuff and refine them over time. Best to always back them up using an external hard drive. You can find your project templates and users, music, audio music apps, project templates.
I like to tag mine, just so I remember where it is. Thank you for watching.