My frustration with large production templates is simple. I love designing them. I love adding tracks, setting up the midi, routing the audio, and selecting the track stave for scoring and recording in Logic X. I love doing all that, but I rarely use the template when completed. I’ve tried time and time again to keep a file of templates around for quick, easy use, but I fail to use them. So am I saying production templates are wrong? No, I’d say most people producing music today use templates, and I do as well.
I said I had an issue with large production templates. For example, using a sizeable orchestral template to write a string quartet, the template is way too large for the project and gets in the way. I imagine most people don’t feel like that.
I like working in minimal templates, I love key switches, and my ideal template looks incredibly close to the score I’ll produce. So I work by album. If I have five instruments, I have five tracks. I find things most comfortable that way.
Since I have a theme for each album I create, I have a template for each piece recorded on the same album. It’s a strange way to work, but my method works well for me. I put the album template in a file, and duplicate that template by the number of pieces I want on the album, then start composing and recording.
