Help on organizing projects in Tracktion

[oxbee]

Hi,

I think this topic is always going round...

Here are my difficulties:
- No naming scheme so it's a huge mess... It there something that can be applied? Is there templates out there that can be shared?
- Each new idea = 1 new project, which means I can have tons of projects and associated folders/files on my harddrive
- Coming from Tracktion 1, I still fear the "missing items" in the project so I always end up with constant export of the edit (is it something that makes sense with T5 ? is it safe to think that all items will be properly imported in the project as long as I do "make copy" ?)

Could you kindly tell how your projects are organized, how you make it simpler ?

[whyterabbyt]

Here are my difficulties:
- No naming scheme so it's a huge mess... It there something that can be applied? Is there templates out there that can be shared?
- Each new idea = 1 new project, which means I can have tons of projects and associated folders/files on my harddrive
- Coming from Tracktion 1, I still fear the "missing items" in the project so I always end up with constant export of the edit (is it something that makes sense with T5 ? is it safe to think that all items will be properly imported in the project as long as I do "make copy" ?)

Could you kindly tell how your projects are organized, how you make it simpler ?

I think I must be missing something here. Naming scheme for what? If you need a regimented naming scheme for something (tracks? projects? clips? ), why dont you have one of your own that you stick to? What sort of template do you mean? Prenamed tracks 'drum1', 'drum2', 'drum3' or somesuch?

Im not also not sure what a 'better' alternative to one project folder per project would be? Surely that's also a facet of how you organise yourself. Why not just have an 'ideas' main folder with all your 'ideas' projects in it, and a 'work' folder with stuff you take further. subdivide those folders as wanted (by genre? by date? by bpm?) to suit your own preferences.

[jabe]

If it's too messy, you could have year and month folders for your projects. Or album folders. That'd keep the number of folders down a bit.

[theoldguy]

Hi Oxbee

Don't know if this will help but although my projects are simple it sounds like yours could be too.

First I name the project. If there are variations of the song within that project I save it with "Save Edit As" and give it a different name after muting or deleting any tracks I don't need.

To consolidate my ideas I have an IDEAS Project and within that IDEAS Project I save each idea with "save as" and save a bunch of ideas under that IDEAS Project. Whenever you "Save Edit As" you are changing the name to identify your new idea and saving the new idea without changing the previous idea file. You can completely delete the old tracks or leave the individual tracks labeled with the same name (Drums Keyboard etc.) before you "Save edit As"

When you've done this you a have new edit that is grouped under the IDEAS Project and you can change the chord structure to suit the new idea, add a new tempo, rhythm and so on.

When you're finished working on that new idea you "save edit" (you've already named the idea) or "Save edit As" and give it a new name that describes the idea better after you have developed it awhile. The previous idea remains unchanged and the new idea becomes an "Edit" grouped under the IDEAS Project with a name that helps you find it when you want to work on it again.

When the IDEAS Project gets cumbersome I start a new project and name it IDEAS 2 or whatever and group another bunch of ideas under that project. I hope that helps you with one aspect of organizing within Traction.

Also you can "roll your own" templates in Tracktion. My only template is a generic template called TEMP 1 with 8 blank tracks named BASS, LEAD, SNARE, B DRUM, OH DRUM, VOC 1, VOC2, VOC3. It helps me quickly set up and record band practice for the 3-piece band I work in. Before we start I save TEMP 1 "as" the date and BP (for band practice) eg: 15 01 02 BP. Then I start recording and just let it run until we are finished, usually 45 - 60 minutes. If any song is worth saving we can pull an individual song out of that 45 minute clip and add rhythm guitar, more vocals or whatever we want to it.

Your needs will be different but once again, you can roll your own templates - as many as you need. Good Luck to you Oxbee.

Regards

theoldguy

[oxbee]

Thank you very much for this detailed explanation theoldguy

I'm really after this kind of return on experience. Probably it's up to each one to have his own method or organization. I feel being organized (especially after +10 years with Tracktion and many many "projects/edits") but the way of using projects in Tracktion has always been something quite not natural to me. I don't know why.
To me, one song = one project. The problem is that sometimes the song is changing so much edit after edit that it could be a totally new project. So I'm ending up with a project containing too many edits and I need to export the last edit to a new project to get something clean...

Therefore it creates extra folders on the harddrive and I must say it's sometimes hard to keep track of everything...

[rockstar_not]

So I basically jumped from T3 to T6, though I had upgraded to 4 when it was released, I never stopped using T3.
I've saved an edit as a template where I have some sends and returns setup by default. How do I start a new edit from that template, or can I only start a new project from the edit as a template?

[aMUSEd]

What would be good would be to be able to create a new project from the file menu. Sometimes I'm working on a track and it takes me in a new direction and I would like to make it into a new project rather than part of an existing one but it doesn't seem possible to do that.

[frankvg]

I would like to make it into a new project rather than part of an existing one.

Workaround is to create an archive of that edit and import it into a newly created project.

[aMUSEd]

That's a bit of a roundabout method though, and tbh it seems rather daft to have to archive an edit just to be able to import it into a new project, why not just make it possible to copy, or even just drag an edit into a project? Or even better there should be an option in the save as menu to save an edit to a new project. At the moment I end up with dozens of edits within the same project, many going off in radically different directions to the original project's intent. It's very messy.

[frankvg]

Well, it's a workaround since "you should be able to" definitely doesn't work. Good FR though.

[Kang]

So I basically jumped from T3 to T6, though I had upgraded to 4 when it was released, I never stopped using T3.
I've saved an edit as a template where I have some sends and returns setup by default. How do I start a new edit from that template, or can I only start a new project from the edit as a template?

I don't think you can start an edit from a template. I have that on my feature request list, just haven't actually posted it because my workaround is just fine.

What I do is just save the template idea as an actual edit named 'template', then I drag and drop the wav files and save as, under the song name. Usually I'll mix a song for a bit, then I will the delete all the clips and automation from the mixed edit and save as 'template' again. Then when I load new songs into the template the mix is half way there.

[theoldguy]

What about the new feature in T 5 and 6 that lets you drag files from one LOADED project to another. You don't necessarily need to create one on the spot. Just create a blank project ahead of time (name it "BLANK") and open it along with the song/project you are working on. In T5 and 6 you can have several projects loaded at the same time and move tracks among them at will.

When you feel the need, just drag/copy from the one you are working on to the blank one and when you are done you can save it and rename it as a new project or a version of the original or whatever you need it for. Then you have your blank project to use over again and your new idea saved separately. I have done this and it seems like what oxbee is trying to accomplish.

Regards,

theoldguy