# How many templates do you have and how much are you using them?



## Mason (Oct 6, 2018)

I know many of you might not use templates at all but for those who do I’m curious if you have many smaller ones for specific styles or if you have just one big one.


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## ghandizilla (Oct 8, 2018)

Three big ones : a complete orchestral with mutes, sordinos, auxiliary winds and brass, an intermediate one without mutes and sordinos but with auxiliary instruments, and a "core" one. Add to that seven track templates : chamber, chamber advanced, quartet, choir, sound design, jazz, evo. How I work : I start from one of the main templates, depending on the needs of the orchestra and the main timbers I want to reach. Then, if needed, I add on the fly the needed track templates. If there is no matching track templates, I create individual tracks and pre-mix them, which is a longer process. In every case, I always customize timbers by layering and match-EQing, so each project has its own "tone".

Creating all those templates took about 30 hours. I calculated it spares me 3 to 5 hours per cue, so I had compensated for this time investment in only 8 tracks.

Why several templates and not only one? Because I want to be able to start from different timbers, and not customize endlessly the _same _core sounds. So I'd definitely recommend to start with several templates, not one, but not overdo it, keep calculating how long it will take to compensate the time investment, just to be aware if it's worth it.

Doing multiple templates and customizing timbers after loading them is a way to avoid the "I-know-composers-who-just-load-their-template-as-if-it-would-fulfill-all-their-sonic-needs", as stated at the beginning of this dense interview :


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## wst3 (Oct 14, 2018)

I probably have a couple hundred<G>, in varying states of completeness. They are, for the most part, a combination of Cakewalk Sonar Track Templates (which are brilliant) and VEPro instances, some of which use track templates, some of which are associated with project templates. Neither workflow has proven to be ideal for me unfortunately, so at the moment I am not using a template per se, but rather just a bunch of VEPro instances and connecting the tracks.

Right now I am working with Studio One and Digital Performer, trying to find a better way to work, so I am once again exploring the idea of a template or two.

Oddly, what I really want is a single template that includes everything I might want in terms of standard instruments and articulations, with room to add the less common stuff easily. Tall order. I have a second machine which will become a VEPro slave (and a third machine which is a GS slave, but it doesn't get a lot of use.)

The goal, for me, is to be able to simply arm a track and play in a violin or a flute or a horn ensemble or whatever. I feel that I have pretty much all those bases covered in terms of libraries, in fact recently I've made the plunge into ensemble style libraries and that is what is driving the experiment.

One thing I have done, which has been a big help, is load up the processors and effects that I use most often into aux sends and busses. This is a huge time saver. If only the instruments were as straight forward.

To answer the second part of the question, at the moment I am not using a template for projects, it is simply a project in itself to find a way to make them work for me.


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## jononotbono (Oct 14, 2018)

Ive got a 4k+ Track Cubase and VEPro Template and add to it all the time. Everything is disabled until I want to use it and navigation is easy using a Touchscreen with named buttons to go to specific VIs etc.

I’ll enable everything when I have enough server PC slaves (money permitting) to do so.


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## Divico (Oct 14, 2018)

still_lives said:


> For the composition process, I think track templates are the way to go, for my workflow anyway.
> 
> It took hours to set up, and I'm still fine-tuning the implementation, but I have a system of toolbars set up in Reaper where I can click a button to drop in an instrument, a whole section, an ensemble, or whatever else into the project, with Reaticulate already set up for each track (articulation mapping). For instance, if I want a string section, I just click that button, and a string section appears in my project, all routed and ready to start writing.
> 
> ...


Arent you annoyed by the loading times everytime you fire up a new section ?


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## JohnG (Oct 14, 2018)

One that I use for everything, though every time I'm on a new project I customise it a bit for that.


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## Mason (Oct 14, 2018)

ghandizilla said:


> Three big ones : a complete orchestral with mutes, sordinos, auxiliary winds and brass, an intermediate one without mutes and sordinos but with auxiliary instruments, and a "core" one. Add to that seven track templates : chamber, chamber advanced, quartet, choir, sound design, jazz, evo. How I work : I start from one of the main templates, depending on the needs of the orchestra and the main timbers I want to reach. Then, if needed, I add on the fly the needed track templates. If there is no matching track templates, I create individual tracks and pre-mix them, which is a longer process. In every case, I always customize timbers by layering and match-EQing, so each project has its own "tone".
> 
> Creating all those templates took about 30 hours. I calculated it spares me 3 to 5 hours per cue, so I had compensated for this time investment in only 8 tracks.
> 
> ...



My approach is similar to yours. I've got a full symphonic orchestra template with all the articulations, one quick template for big and epic music, one for piano + strings, one for ethnic/medieval and one for neoclassical. So they are kind of both genre based and instrumentation based.


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## Divico (Oct 15, 2018)

still_lives said:


> With Kontakt's background loading (all libraries batch resaved on SSD, preload buffer set to 6kb for everything), it's not too bad. It's not nearly as annoying as waiting for an entire orchestra to load into memory just because I want to noodle on a clarinet patch. Sometimes two or three minutes of waiting can ruin that stroke of inspiration. I'd rather just click the "Clarinets" button, wait like 5 seconds, and start playing. I'm running a low-spec system compared to a lot of the people here, so having a large template just doesn't jive with the restrictions I have.
> 
> So I guess it's not about avoiding loading times altogether, but more about getting to decide when they happen by breaking them up into smaller chunks. I don't write traditional orchestral music, so just because I want two clarinets doesn't mean I also want the rest of the woodwinds, etc. It's nice to be like "Hmm, I want Tundra strings for this part," then just click on my Tundra Strings button and in just a few brief seconds, I'm writing.
> 
> ...


Im quite similar. I hate waiting for my whole template and dont like it to much. Maybe I should give it a go. You use toolbar buttons for track templates ? Im on Reaper aswell


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## Akarin (Oct 15, 2018)

I only have one composition template. About 3.5k tracks in Cubase, most of them disabled and some tracks coming in from VEPro. Everything is routed, panned, and already has a low cut EQ on them. Each time I get a new library, I create Expression Maps for all of its patches and then add them all to my template (one version using Expression Maps, one version with individual patches). 

Then, I have a few different mixing templates such as "Trailer", "Classic Orchestra", "Hybrid Epic", and so on.


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## Gerbil (Oct 15, 2018)

Divico said:


> Im quite similar. I hate waiting for my whole template and dont like it to much. Maybe I should give it a go. You use toolbar buttons for track templates ? Im on Reaper aswell



I have a shortcut to Reaper's template folder on my desktop and just highlight and drag in the libraries/instruments I'm going to use. Only takes a few seconds. But it's all disabled and unloaded. These days it's not an issue because everything loads in the blink of an eye. If there's any hint of an overload then one hit batch freeze solves the problem.


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## Guy Rowland (Oct 15, 2018)

I'm definitely moving closer to still_lives approach. I realised that for my work, only a tiny fraction of what I do requires a full orchestra, and it seemed a sledgehammer to crack a nut to load 40gb each time. My solution is to use a modular template.

I have a core template of fx, groups, a couple of synth and beat plugins and some disabled tracks for some more commonly used VIs. (Too many disabled tracks in Cubase is a very bad idea in my experience - the .cpr file size becomes massive, and with autosaves and many project versions it all gets unwieldy). Then I have 5 or 6 variations with various setups - chamber orch, symphony orch, big band, lite etc, plus the full thing, so I can start in the right ballpark. I can add at will using Track Archives.

That all sounds great, and it nearly is. The problem is Cubase bugs in multichannel disabled tracks and Track Archives, and at the moment Track Presets don't remember routings etc. So I've parked further development until Cubase 10 comes out, since I'm hearing a lot of rumours that things might well improve on this front, and indeed someone from Steinberg themselves said that they think they've fixed the bugs for the next release. Here's hoping.

In the meantime, I'm getting by pretty well with one of my slimmer templates that tend to load in 30-45s or so.


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## robgb (Oct 15, 2018)

I use track templates rather than project templates. I have dozens of track templates. That way I can make a project template on the fly, adding only what I specifically need for that project, with everything already balanced (including fx) and ready to go. The only thing I have to do manually are the sends.


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## InLight-Tone (Oct 15, 2018)

I used to have the 1500+ track mostly Kontakt + some staple VI's like Zebra all disabled template in Cubase and it worked really well. Hit a keystroke and the track loads pre-routed to groups, expression map or drum map loaded, FX sends pre-populated and away you go. Load times were no problem, save times around 2 seconds to an M2 drive.

THEN, I sold Cubase in a fit of insanity and a grass is greener delusion.

Now on Studio One and the big disabled template thing simply doesn't work. Past 100+ tracks Studio One's save times creep past 10+ seconds and up, intolerable. So I've since gone to a modular template of sorts.

It consists of a main shell template with groups, color coded, 8 FX sends populated with FX and disabled, and everything hidden so I see a blank project.

I have since gone and made presets for all of my main Kontakt patches, both multi-articulations, and single articulations. I organize them into main folders like: Strings/Brass/Winds/Voice etc.
then
Strings/String Ensembles/String Sections/Solo Strings with subfolders according to company Spitfire/Orchestral Tools etc. then further into Multi Articulations/Single Articulations/Time Machine.

In Studio One it's a simple drag and drop from the browser and getting to all these presets. I don't make presets for more obscure material but have all of that organized in Kontakt Quickload.

I find it really fast getting to anything this way and it's all in my face like a kitchen sink template. As I compose, I unhide the groups I'm using like Strings and drag the tracks I'm using into the group folder where they get color coded and routed.

I too am waiting to see what comes of Cubase 10 to see if I want back in or perhaps stay in Studio One for its advantages, maybe both!


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## Geoff Grace (Oct 15, 2018)

My projects are different enough from one another that I create a new start template for each project and then use it repeatedly for each piece. I believe in creating a sonic palette that's tailored to the project at hand.

I don't always create a template completely from scratch, though. I often cherry pick tracks from older start templates to help begin a new one.

Best,

Geoff


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## Jeremy Spencer (Oct 17, 2018)

Geoff Grace said:


> My projects are different enough from one another that I create a new start template for each project and then use it repeatedly for each piece. I believe in creating a sonic palette that's tailored to the project at hand.
> 
> I don't always create a template completely from scratch, though. I often cherry pick tracks from older start templates to help begin a new one.
> 
> ...



Actually, this is how I work now. And being picky, I rarely need to fire up the slave anymore.


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## T-Funk (Oct 17, 2018)

I have several variations of a songwriting template and a film score template. The two template types are all structured the same, but with slight instrument and effect modifications.


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