# How Do You Utilize DAW Track Color Feature



## synthpunk (Jul 26, 2017)

I'm looking for ideas as a logic X user to utilize track colors and thought I would throw out the question to see what others are doing?


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## Audio Birdi (Jul 26, 2017)

Hi SynthPunk,

I've stopped using Logic but my template colour scheme still remains the same .

I've attached images to show what's been done, hope it helps!

Cheers,
Kabir


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## karelpsota (Jul 26, 2017)

After spending hours cleaning up sessions for other people, I came up with a frequency dependent color code. 

Its an analogy between* light and sound*. Infra-red corresponds to the low frequencies, so as you move to the right, the sonic range of instruments gets higher (kick-red, snare-orange, clap-yellow).

However, you also need a clear visual separation between Drum and Bass. Therefore, all the non-percussive instruments start from the opposite side of the spectrum. Sub is (ultra)violet, bass-purple, keys-blue, lead-green.

This system basically allows you to browse a mix rapidly.

Finally, black and white stand out, so I use them for the most important channels. Vocals-white, master-black.

EDIT: This is my Pop/Rock/EDM setup. I'm aware that s=


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## Quasar (Jul 26, 2017)

I just use the natural colors that the various instruments have in my brain. Strings are greenish, winds are bluish, brass is orange/yellowish, getting more silvery in the higher registers and more brownish in the lower. Atonal percussion is usually strictly grayscale, and so on...

I use bold, block red for sends/effects busses. because no musical instruments ever sound red to me, so I can tell at a glance that it's not an instrument track.


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## JPQ (Jul 26, 2017)

Mostly red for strings,orange/yellow brass,green woodwinds,cyan/turquoise for bells/celesta etc. at least often this way but how exact sound sounds it says it.


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## chillbot (Jul 26, 2017)

I use Sonar so I don't know, are your midi/audio clips the same colors as the tracks? I make every track a different color in rainbow order so I can easily see which clip is on which track. It would drive me crazy if similar instruments were similar colors as I wouldn't be able to instantly see which clip belonged to which track. Just something to consider. As Ferkel says, just one dude with one opinion.


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## wst3 (Jul 27, 2017)

I'm with Chillbot - I just color them in BBROYGBVGW order, as well as Sonar allows anyway. I match the MIDI to the Audio. Make it a little easier to find things, and a lot easier to work in the PRV.


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## tack (Jul 27, 2017)

Quasar said:


> Strings are greenish, winds are bluish, brass is orange/yellowish, getting more silvery in the higher registers and more brownish in the lower. Atonal percussion is usually strictly grayscale, and so on...
> 
> I use bold, block red for sends/effects busses. because no musical instruments ever sound red to me, so I can tell at a glance that it's not an instrument track.


Interestingly I'm almost exactly the same except the inverse for busses and percussion: for me my mix/FX busses are a dark grey and percussion is red, because I had in my mind a red snare drum. Also my flutes are a more purple-blue, while reeds are a slate blue.

Always interesting to see how relate track colors to instruments.


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## jononotbono (Jul 27, 2017)

Every single track in my template is random. It's so when I press that magical Cubase button "Show Tracks with Data" I can instantly see the different tracks. If all Strings, for example, were Red and then I pressed that button to show Strings, they would all be Red instead of having an individual colour. Also, having different colours means that whilst in the Key editor I can select a whole load of Midi Tracks and edit them in the same key editor because all parts with have their own colours. There's method to the "random" madness.


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## Quasar (Jul 27, 2017)

tack said:


> Interestingly I'm almost exactly the same except the inverse for busses and percussion: for me my mix/FX busses are a dark grey and percussion is red, because I had in my mind a red snare drum. Also my flutes are a more purple-blue, while reeds are a slate blue.
> 
> Always interesting to see how relate track colors to instruments.


It's likely a combo of synesthesia-like elements mixed with stored visual memories (as with your red snare), perhaps from early childhood. I think the way piano passages "look" to me, for instance, has a black & white keyboard layout component, but there's more to it than that. The lowest piano notes are definitely brown, and the brownish quality fades by degree until around the Ab below middle C, after which it gets more snow-like to increasingly silvery... But the colors are complex, and I wouldn't know how to paint them exactly the way I see them. Depending on the tone and mood of a piano passage, I may experience translucent green or blue streaks... It is interesting.


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## DynamicK (Jul 28, 2017)

jononotbono said:


> Every single track in my template is random. Also, having different colours means that whilst in the Key editor I can select a whole load of Midi Tracks and edit them in the same key editor because all parts with have their own colours.


I am using the same system for the same reason....have been using this method for years.


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## jononotbono (Jul 28, 2017)

DynamicK said:


> I am using the same system for the same reason....have been using this method for years.



Admittedly, I adopted this approach when I saw the HZ Masterclass and it took me all but 5 seconds to slap myself and think "Yes. That's a great idea.". So obvious when you realise why. There's so much information in that Masterclass it's just not spoonfed. Although I do have to say regarding colours, up until that point, I used to be hardcore and never used any colours haha!


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## Saxer (Jul 28, 2017)

Instrument family = one color family. Highest = brightest.


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## benatural (Jul 28, 2017)

Also, check out color theory and color wheels. They help explain how colors relate to one another. I used them when designing my touchosc template and through experimentation it helped me create a color scheme that is easy to read and draws the eye in effective ways

https://www.sessions.edu/color-calculator/


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## JohnG (Jul 28, 2017)

I do something like @KaBirdi so I can easily scan sections.

Some good ideas on this thread.


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## wst3 (Jul 29, 2017)

Saxer said:


> Instrument family = one color family. Highest = brightest.
> 
> You know, I feel pretty stupid - I need to give this a shot!


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## VinRice (Aug 3, 2017)

Saxer said:


> Instrument family = one color family. Highest = brightest.



This - plus I will make the region that is carrying the melody or the harmonic structure in a particular section bright red so that I can edit other instruments against it in piano roll


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## ptram (Aug 3, 2017)

I use earth-inspired color codes: Green as the grass for the strings, because it is there that most of the life happens. Light-blue and/or silver like the sky for the woodwinds, because they are made of air, and they seem to fly with the wind and the clouds. Brown for percussions and piano, because they are as heavy as the earth itself. Brass are orange like magma. Stringed instruments are either gold or bluemarine, because they are like jewels.

I've tried with the colors of the dominant color of each family, but I just can't identify strings with brown-reddish, or woodwinds with black. Yet, I admit finding a color that can remember the physical color of the instrument family might make their image more present.

Paolo


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## Saxer (Aug 3, 2017)

ptram said:


> Green as the grass for the strings, because it is there that most of the life happens. Light-blue and/or silver like the sky for the woodwinds, because they are made of air, and they seem to fly with the wind and the clouds. Brown for percussions and piano, because they are as heavy as the earth itself. Brass are orange like magma. Stringed instruments are either gold or bluemarine, because they are like jewels.


I feel colors totally different but it's a beautiful explanation


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