Track Template tips and tricks needed

[jkoseattle]

I think I need to be using Track Templates for my project, and I'd like to hereby solicit tips and tricks that may make my life easier, as the stakes are high and I've never used them before.

I have a 12-movement piece in which each movement is a separate CW project with mostly the same set of midi instruments. Each movement features (solos) different instruments, however. I mixed each movement separately as I would finish it. Now I have to put it all together and make each movement sound the same as all the others. Shoulda been thinking about this long ago, I know. But here I am now, so there we have it. 

I don't know how I should proceed here. Should I save each track as a track template in each movement, and then try to reconcile them somehow? That sounds like a grueling month of work. Maybe I should export audio for each movement in separate wavs for each track, and plug those into some sort of master project? That sounds more doable, but am I going to tear my hair out trying to work with a 35-minute CW project consisting of 50 audio tracks? And if I do that, what do I retain in my exported tracks, and what should I take out and re-insert in the master for all tracks? O woe, o woe... Shall I ne'er be free of this torment? 

[Helios.G]

I can't help you with your specific project, but I'll give you this.  Think about your most common workflows, whatever that may be, and set up a template with the tools and tracks you know you'll need.  I personally have a few templates ready to go at all times for my projects.  I have a folder, with several sub-folders split into 5.  

1. pre-production

2. production

3. vox

4. mix

5. master

Each one of those has the exact tools and layout for the specific task at hand.  In pre-production I have basic keys, drums and chord instruments set up, and this is where I write song lyrics and figure out structure, before I commit to any specific sounds.  In production, I go about choosing sounds and fleshing out the direction of the arrangement sonically.  Vox I lay down tracks for vocals, etc you get the point.   

If you have projects that went well for you flow wise, I'd start there, and just delete all audio and leave behind the project setup and call it what you want.  

[A Tolerable Quietude]

Are you trying to get all 12 project files into the same project file now, so you can mix them as a single piece? 

If so, I think your best bet would be to make a copy of the first movement project file and rename it to something like "full piece".  Then, with that one still open, open each of the subsequent movement projects and copy-and-paste the midi for the *shared* instruments into the new project.  (You can have multiple projects open at once, and switch between them using the "Window" menu item along the top menu bar).  I'd put in markers for each of the movements so you don't get lost.

For the solo instruments that are unique to specific movements, you should make a track template of that instrument in the movement project, then "insert track from template" in the big project.  Next you'll need to copy the midi from the original movement project to the right place in the new one (midi clips aren't saved with track templates). 

It would probably be a good idea to select all the clips in each track you're copying over and bounce them to a single midi clip, then drag the start and end of each to the full length of the movement, so you're not trying to find the exact place the midi clips should go in each movement.

This sounds a bit tedious, but I'm not aware of a faster way to do what you're asking. 

[jkoseattle]

@A Tolerable Quietude Thanks! So if I do it that way, aren't I asking for trouble having such a long single Cakewalk project? I've had projects maybe 10 minutes long and CW gets almost too sluggish to be able to work with. This piece is over 30. So what's the reality with that?

Yesterday I had the idea of exporting everything as audio clips and making a big project of the whole piece that is only audio, and then listening carefully through everything to only find areas that sound obviously different and doing what I need to for those, but leaving the rest as-is. 

Can Cakewalk handle a 30+ minute project if it's only audio better than it can with all Midi tracks? Or was my prior sluggishness about something else besides the length of the piece?

[John Vere]

I have done a lot of live multi track projects that were 45 minutes long. I use a 2008 Sony laptop with 4 GB of RAM. It is not sluggish other than the drawing of the waveforms. 
 

There’s a few tools that you can use. 

Mix Recall

Project Templates 

Track templates 

Workspaces 

VST presets

Each is worth reading the documentation and learning and understanding completely how they can speed up your workflow. 
There are tutorials about them as well. 

My tip on using track templates is first building a Project template that has all your settings like what record mode and pro channel modules on the master. Add the busses that you normally use as well. This becomes the secret to success. 
Save that as you main template. 
Now open it and create your track templates making sure all routing to Busses and effect sends are correct. Then name and save 

What I found is if I save a track template in a random song they can add extra busses and even a second master buss if it was spelled Master instead of master. 
So as long as you start out with a common project template the track templates are brilliant. 
Take note that all my Cakewalk templates were crashing Sonar. No big deal I’m just waiting until I buy it and I’ll make new ones from scratch. It doesn’t take long in my world but yours is a lot more complicated. 

Edited June 27 by John Vere

[msmcleod]

Exporting each project as a stereo file and then creating a master project from them would be my preferred method - that's assuming that you've finished editing the project.

The alternative is to combine all of the projects into one, and although you can use track templates for this, this is only really to get around issues with inter-project copying/pasting.

The basic premise is:

1. For each project, select all then save as a track template - in other words, each track template will contain ALL of the tracks of each project.  So you end up a single track template for each project.
2. Ensure "Allow Only One Open Project at a Time" is unchecked within Preferences->File->Advanced.
3. Create your new project
4. Set the now time to 1:01:000
5. Insert track template 1 at the bottom your new project
6. Open project 1, then use Window->Tile in Columns to put your new project and project 1 side by side.
7. Select all in Project 1, then Copy Special, making sure everything is checked
8. In your new project, ensure the top track of the template is the active track
9. Paste Special
10. Close Project 1, and delete any tracks you don't need
11. Within your new project, set the now time to the end of the project (where the next part will be pasted)
12.  Go back to step 5 and repeat for each project

The downside of doing this is that with all of the extra tracks, you're potentially putting a huge extra load on your CPU.

You can however get the best of both worlds by bouncing each part to an audio track, then archiving the original tracks - that way all you're doing is playing a single audio track for each part.  If you need to edit, delete the bounced audio clip, unarchive, do your edits, then re-bounce.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

23 hours ago, jkoseattle said:

@A Tolerable Quietude Thanks! So if I do it that way, aren't I asking for trouble having such a long single Cakewalk project? I've had projects maybe 10 minutes long and CW gets almost too sluggish to be able to work with. This piece is over 30. So what's the reality with that?

Yesterday I had the idea of exporting everything as audio clips and making a big project of the whole piece that is only audio, and then listening carefully through everything to only find areas that sound obviously different and doing what I need to for those, but leaving the rest as-is. 

Can Cakewalk handle a 30+ minute project if it's only audio better than it can with all Midi tracks? Or was my prior sluggishness about something else besides the length of the piece?

My current double album project runs to about 140 minutes.

It's mostly audio with  a small amount of midi.

[jkoseattle]

@msmcleod Thanks for all the detail. I followed along perfectly. After listening to everything I've got so far, I'm thinking the differences between projects are subtle enough that I can proceed assuming all the parts match and then just go in and fix where that obviously isn't the case.

I'm thinking I might do something like your best of both worlds scenario.. Here's my plan:

1. In Project 1, export using Tracks or Track Through Entire Mix as my Source Category. 

2. Import these tracks into a new master project 

3. Repeat this step for all projects, appending the audio clips to the appropriate existing tracks. So for example, there will be a Bassoon track containing the clips from each movement. The whole project will then be 35 minutes and exclusively audio.  

4. Right off the bat I'll be able to see visually clips that are different levels across movements, and that's where I can begin to investigate, re-mix, ignore, etc.

Yeah?

[msmcleod]

8 hours ago, jkoseattle said:

@msmcleod Thanks for all the detail. I followed along perfectly. After listening to everything I've got so far, I'm thinking the differences between projects are subtle enough that I can proceed assuming all the parts match and then just go in and fix where that obviously isn't the case.

I'm thinking I might do something like your best of both worlds scenario.. Here's my plan:

1. In Project 1, export using Tracks or Track Through Entire Mix as my Source Category. 

2. Import these tracks into a new master project 

3. Repeat this step for all projects, appending the audio clips to the appropriate existing tracks. So for example, there will be a Bassoon track containing the clips from each movement. The whole project will then be 35 minutes and exclusively audio.  

4. Right off the bat I'll be able to see visually clips that are different levels across movements, and that's where I can begin to investigate, re-mix, ignore, etc.

Yeah?

sounds like a plan