# Are there any standard colours for orchestral sections instruments?



## ZeroZero (Oct 30, 2016)

Firstly, thank you for all your contributions, they have really helped.
Next question 

Are there any standard colours for orchestral sections instruments - commonly used in the sequencer channels etc..


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## Lassi Tani (Oct 30, 2016)

There's no standards for that. People choose colors for channels, however they like. I always have it like this:

- Green for Woodwinds
- Blue for Strings
- Yellow/Orange for Brass
- Grey/black for Percussion
- Magenta for Extra instruments like solo instruments

Lighter color is higher instrument and darker means lower instrument.


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## tack (Oct 30, 2016)

I've never seen anything remotely resembling standardization. I personally use:


FX busses and other utility stuff: dark grey
Pianos: orange
Except prchestral piano which is in pitched percussion section

Woodwinds: blues and purples
Flutes: indigo

Reeds: slate blue

Ethnic winds: cyan

Brass: browns / yellows
Horns: dijon yellow

Other brass: peanut brown

Percussion: reds
Unpitched percussion:burgundy
Pitched percussion: wine red

Strings: greens
Ensemble strings: turquoise
Section strings: grass green
Solo strings: army green

Synth / sound design: blue

Brass is perhaps the only _obvious_ one. I've never understood the thought process behind templates that use something like blue for brass. 

I've been thinking of switching up the colors of winds and strings though. I seem to stare more at strings tracks than winds, and blue/purple is a much more pleasing color to me.


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## Soundhound (Oct 30, 2016)

Blue is calming. Stare at the ocean, you'll be taking a nap in no time.


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## InLight-Tone (Oct 30, 2016)

Strings: Violet/Purple (Esoteric spiritual)
Brass: Orange/Yellow (Well Brass colors 
Winds: Blue (Air)
Drums/Percussion: Browns/Tans (Earth)
FX tracks: Dark Grey to indicate part of the system

The rest I have are irrelevant...

I like the lighter to darker color scheme for high to low above, good one!


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## Anders Wall (Oct 30, 2016)

By no means a standard, but nevertheless a great poster


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## JPQ (Oct 30, 2016)

I use often red for strings,green for woodwinds and yellow for brass.
and in synth sounds somekind bright are cyan (synth bells etc) and pads are purple/blue.etc. no any kind idea but i prefer colours what i clearly see each other.


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## Kent (Oct 30, 2016)

I like blue for WW, greenish-blue for double reeds, greenish-yellow for horns, yellow for brass, brown for strings, red for percussion, and pink for synths. Also, I tend to code within each of those sections high-to-low light-to-dark (so, for example, trumpets are a bright gold but trombones are a brownish yellow)


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## Fab (Oct 30, 2016)

personally I struggle to keep consistent colors, as the session goes into the night I find it increasingly difficult to discern between shades of green...which messes up my whole system.


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## G.R. Baumann (Oct 30, 2016)

No, there are no standards when it comes to color coding tracks, and that's a good thing!

Ultimately, that's why The Gods gave us:

*The Template! *



See, it will always remain individual preference, on top, there are certain conditions that would be problematic with setting a standard. For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia


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## Ashermusic (Oct 31, 2016)

For me, and I have no explanation why except the obvious with a couple:

woodwinds-light blue; strings-reddish brown because they are warm; choir-pale yellow; percussion-red, because they are hot; brass-violet, because it looks good in Logic Pro X with my other choices; keyboards-darker blue; synths- Logic Pro's default green.


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## ZeroZero (Oct 31, 2016)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

I think we need one of them. For me strings are red, the lower they go the deeper red they go. Piano is definitely blue, brass is yellow and woods well they gotta be brown - like wooden sticks.


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## Rodney Money (Oct 31, 2016)

Yeah, I got a color for ya. This one seems to work well with brass:


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## ZeroZero (Oct 31, 2016)

Very Synesthetic Rodney:

this is how I think of my Hammond A100


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## tonaliszt (Oct 31, 2016)

I wonder if there is a correlation between the libraries you own and the color you give instruments. 

For example, Are owners of Sable (UI is green) more likely to give strings a green color in their template?


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Nov 1, 2016)

sekkosiki said:


> There's no standards for that. People choose colors for channels, however they like. I always have it like this:
> 
> - Green for Woodwinds
> - Blue for Strings
> ...



Looks pretty Cool. Is there any possible way that you can share that color scheme. (Export possible in Cubase?) Actually I in the process of adjusting my color palette also. Thanks.


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## Lassi Tani (Nov 1, 2016)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Looks pretty Cool. Is there any possible way that you can share that color scheme. (Export possible in Cubase?) Actually I in the process of adjusting my color palette also. Thanks.



Thanks! How can I export the color palette? Just by saving the project, and sending the project to you?


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## Gabriel Oliveira (Nov 1, 2016)

sekkosiki said:


> Just by saving the project, and sending the project to you?



Yup


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## Lassi Tani (Nov 1, 2016)

Gabriel Oliveira said:


> Yup


Thanks

@AlexanderSchiborr I've attached the cubase project file. It's a quite simple color palette. I guess you'll just need to save those colors as your defaults. I wish Steinberg would implement multiple color palettes, so that you could have different palettes for different purposes.


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## Gabriel Oliveira (Nov 1, 2016)

mine:


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## ZeroZero (Nov 2, 2016)

Gabriel Oliveira said:


> mine:


That's real nice. I shall change my color scheme.

People do you know that you can change the names of the colors - to violins, etc


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Nov 2, 2016)

sekkosiki said:


> Thanks
> 
> @AlexanderSchiborr I've attached the cubase project file. It's a quite simple color palette. I guess you'll just need to save those colors as your defaults. I wish Steinberg would implement multiple color palettes, so that you could have different palettes for different purposes.



Thank you, much appreciated.


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## Leon Willett (Nov 2, 2016)

Haha, seeing other people's colours is weird :D Brass has always felt black to me!


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## Will Blackburn (Nov 22, 2017)

WallofSound said:


> By no means a standard, but nevertheless a great poster



Very nice colour set thanks, might have to implement that into my Cubase template.


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## Puzzlefactory (Nov 22, 2017)

I reckon the only standard will be yellow for brass (for obvious reasons).


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## Jimmy Hellfire (Nov 22, 2017)

Puzzlefactory said:


> I reckon the only standard will be yellow for brass (for obvious reasons).



My brass is red, because I wouldn't be able to look at all that yellow in the project window.  Same thing with strings - some people have them brownish, but mine are green, because who wants to stare at layers upon layers of brown.


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