dwardzala
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Color coding tracks in your DAW
Is there a standard scheme or something this is commonly used? I am liking the new color options in Sonar but I haven't been able to decide on what my standard will be.
DaveMain Studio- Core i5 @2.67GHz, 16Gb Ram, (2) 500Gb HDs, (1) 360 Gb HD MotU Ultralite AVB, Axiom 49 Midi Controller, Akai MPD18 Midi Controller Win10 x64 Home Sonar 2017.06 Platinum (and X3e, X2c, X1d) Mobile Studio - Sager NP8677 (i7-6700HQ @2.67MHz, 16G Ram, 250G SSD, 1T HD) M-Box Mini v. 2 Win 10 x64 Home Sonar 2016.10 Platinum Check out my original music: https://soundcloud.com/d-wardzala/sets/d-wardzala-original-music
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NORTH IDAHO
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/19 18:15:25
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I think the standard scheme is what you choose for yourself. If you consistently use orange say for vocals, and yellow for lead guitar and so on, it helps keep you and your tracks organized and will assist you in finding what you are looking for.
sonar 7 producer , sweetwater creation station 250, focusrite pro 40
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sharke
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/20 02:01:22
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Just pick them purely at random. It really won't matter once you're waist deep in the project. I'm working on 2 songs at the minute - in one, the synths are red. In another, the synths are green. I can quite happily switch between the two color schemes.
JamesWindows 10, Sonar SPlat (64-bit), Intel i7-4930K, 32GB RAM, RME Babyface, AKAI MPK Mini, Roland A-800 Pro, Focusrite VRM Box, Komplete 10 Ultimate, 2012 American Telecaster!
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Guitarhacker
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/20 13:34:06
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I have just left them mostly on the default colors and work with that.... but I do like the idea of color coding vocals one color and guitars another...etc.... might have to try that on the next project.
My website & music: www.herbhartley.com MC4/5/6/X1e.c, on a Custom DAW Focusrite Firewire Saffire Interface BMI/NSAI "Just as the blade chooses the warrior, so too, the song chooses the writer "
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dwardzala
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/20 17:09:04
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sharke
Just pick them purely at random. It really won't matter once you're waist deep in the project. I'm working on 2 songs at the minute - in one, the synths are red. In another, the synths are green. I can quite happily switch between the two color schemes.
That's what I have been doing, but my mild obsessive/compulsiveness is struggling with not having a standard. I guess I will just make up my own and save it as part of my template. At least the main instruments will be consistent.
DaveMain Studio- Core i5 @2.67GHz, 16Gb Ram, (2) 500Gb HDs, (1) 360 Gb HD MotU Ultralite AVB, Axiom 49 Midi Controller, Akai MPD18 Midi Controller Win10 x64 Home Sonar 2017.06 Platinum (and X3e, X2c, X1d) Mobile Studio - Sager NP8677 (i7-6700HQ @2.67MHz, 16G Ram, 250G SSD, 1T HD) M-Box Mini v. 2 Win 10 x64 Home Sonar 2016.10 Platinum Check out my original music: https://soundcloud.com/d-wardzala/sets/d-wardzala-original-music
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Jimbo21
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/21 07:52:37
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I tend to keep all my tracks e.g. drums, bass, guitars etc. in the same place and the same color so I automatically know what and where everything is. It's just easier and one less thing that I don't have to spend any time thinking about.
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The Maillard Reaction
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/21 08:07:41
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dwardzala
sharke
Just pick them purely at random. It really won't matter once you're waist deep in the project. I'm working on 2 songs at the minute - in one, the synths are red. In another, the synths are green. I can quite happily switch between the two color schemes.
That's what I have been doing, but my mild obsessive/compulsiveness is struggling with not having a standard. I guess I will just make up my own and save it as part of my template. At least the main instruments will be consistent.
I have been doing this consistently for 15+ years: Blue = Drums, Percussion Brown = Bass Yellow = Vocals Orange = Guitars, Manodo, Banjo etc. Red = Horns and Winds Purple = Piano, Keys, Synth Green = Scratch tracks and experimental stuff. If you do the exact same thing we may be able to get bapu to start calling it the Q system. :-)
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lawajava
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/21 10:35:22
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Three things of note I'm doing since Sonar X3 and the introduction of track colors, and after I experimented around different ways.
1. I'm setting my audio and instrument tracks to follow the Bus color. I'm leaving track folders and MIDI tracks as the default gray. That means less clicks overall to maintain, and where the track colors really help a lot is on the console anyway. Also, I can adjust a particular bus color if necessary and everything still stays intact.
2. I do keep a song template that I work from, so I do have a generally consistent set of colors as I move from song to song. Not the same selection as Mike McCue, but the same principle of a set of colors I like per Bus.
3. I set the Master bus to red. I like this particularly because when I insert a new track, especially a soft synth, and I insert it as one MIDI track and one instrument track, the instrument track pops out as red - which essentially alerts me to remember to set the routing to the proper bus instead of the Master bus which it routes to by default on insertion.
Two internal 2TB SSDs laptop stuffed with Larry's deals and awesome tools. Studio One is the cat's meow as a DAW now that I've migrated off of Sonar. Using BandLab Cakewalk just to grab old files when migrating songs.
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dubdisciple
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2013/12/21 12:28:36
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Interesting to see how everyone approaches this. I have not yet settled on a definitive system, but I do save colors with track templates so similar projects end up with same scheme. I tend to make my brass sections yellow. Not sure why but my drums often end up blue. I make my fx snd bus a dark grey while leaving master bus default console color. This way if I make a new track and it is routed to master, i don't need to switch colors to match bus and i know at glance wich tracks are routed to master.
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rontarrant
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2014/01/16 08:27:17
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Jimbo21
I tend to keep all my tracks e.g. drums, bass, guitars etc. in the same place and the same color so I automatically know what and where everything is. It's just easier and one less thing that I don't have to spend any time thinking about.
I'm very much the same, but perhaps more so... I put drums in a folder and color-code them. I put multed instruments in their own folder(s) and color-code. Vox, same thing. And my track order is always the same: drums, percussion (if any), bass (guitar, double, brass, etc.), rhythm & strings (the 'atmosphere' instruments), keyboards, vocals, lead instruments. As for busses, I use the darker version of the matching color code (green for drums, dark green for drum buss, etc.) I always use the same colors for the same instruments, the same types of instruments or those that serve the function in the mix (bg, color, fg). I get confused easily, otherwise.
-Ron T. ---------------------------------------------------------- MSI GE72 2QF-247US, 12 gb, Focusrite 6i6, AT-2020 ---------------------------------------------------------- Windows 10 x64, Sonar Platinum
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gswitz
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2014/01/16 08:54:19
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mike_mccue
dwardzala
sharke
Just pick them purely at random. It really won't matter once you're waist deep in the project. I'm working on 2 songs at the minute - in one, the synths are red. In another, the synths are green. I can quite happily switch between the two color schemes.
That's what I have been doing, but my mild obsessive/compulsiveness is struggling with not having a standard. I guess I will just make up my own and save it as part of my template. At least the main instruments will be consistent.
I have been doing this consistently for 15+ years:
Blue = Drums, Percussion
Brown = Bass
Yellow = Vocals
Orange = Guitars, Manodo, Banjo etc.
Red = Horns and Winds
Purple = Piano, Keys, Synth
Green = Scratch tracks and experimental stuff.
If you do the exact same thing we may be able to get bapu to start calling it the Q system.
:-)
Laughed happily. Bravo Mike.
StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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dwardzala
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2014/01/16 18:11:44
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I actually just kind of randomly picked some colors on my project template to set a standard. I don't recall exactly what went where, but now I will be consistent with myself, if not with anyone else.
DaveMain Studio- Core i5 @2.67GHz, 16Gb Ram, (2) 500Gb HDs, (1) 360 Gb HD MotU Ultralite AVB, Axiom 49 Midi Controller, Akai MPD18 Midi Controller Win10 x64 Home Sonar 2017.06 Platinum (and X3e, X2c, X1d) Mobile Studio - Sager NP8677 (i7-6700HQ @2.67MHz, 16G Ram, 250G SSD, 1T HD) M-Box Mini v. 2 Win 10 x64 Home Sonar 2016.10 Platinum Check out my original music: https://soundcloud.com/d-wardzala/sets/d-wardzala-original-music
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Jay Tee 4303
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Re: Color coding tracks in your DAW
2014/01/19 11:50:17
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The industry standard, as defined by...uhhhmm...this guy I know, way back in the mid 20th century, orders the tracks Drums, Bass, Guitar, Keyboards, Orchestral, Vocals...
The track color schema just follows the color wheel, or, more scientifically, the Electromagnetic Spectrum by Wavelength, Red to Indigo, with a side benefit that if the drummer or singer hacks The Engineer off, their colors can be..adjusted...to Infrared and Ultraviolet, respectively, rendering them invisible to the naked eye, without disrupting the overall master plan.
Of course you are free to choose any system you want, if you don't mind possible rejection due to non conformity by those who choose to Groove In Tune with The Universe Which Allowed Us to Evolve and Celebrate the Very Fact of Our Existence via The Music of Life.
Its a personal choice.
IBM PC/XT 1 MB RAM 8087 Math Co-Processor 5 Megabyte Seagate Hard Drive Twelvetone Cakewalk Version 2.0
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