How do you lay out your channels?

BroKen_H

BroKen_H

Re-member
A little grim-esque, I'm afraid, but I'd like to get some opinions.
I've always grouped the vocals far left, drums far right, and instruments between. If I have the room to leave one or two channels blank between, it really helps me. I find it much easier to work with mixdown if everything is in these groups.
Other opines? Other thoughts? Chaos theory?
 
I've always done things in terms of drums first, then bass, on the left side and then anything goes from there, I like to have kick on track 1, snare track 2, toms, overheads and other mics, then bass guitar. The main reason is that I started out on analog desks and still find it useful to put the same order for all my mixes making them consistent and easier to find my way around. I've tried other orders and it just didn't work for me
 
BroKen_H said:
A little grim-esque, I'm afraid, but I'd like to get some opinions.
Click to expand...

Man....now everyone is doing it! :D


Drums--bass--rhythm instruments--piano/organ--leads--vocals--accent stuff.

Been doing it like this for years. It's how things end up on my real console, and I just keep it the same when I'm working in the DAW. It's also the general order how I record tracks, and the order how I will edit/comp them in the DAW. When I'm just lookinbg at the tracks in the DAW vertically, the drum tracks start at the top.

I think it evolved from the fact that when I sit in front of the console, the leads/vocals end up in front of me, and they are the things I may most likely want to adjust the faders on the most during mixdowns. The other things off the to the sides are fairly set, so I'm not having to ride the faders during mixdowns.
Some of it also was just about having some kind of organized setup that I wouldn't need to think about from session to session....so that ^^^^ is what it ended up being.
 
I follow this layout pretty much out of habit. Over time it's just the way the things get recorded, generally left to right.
 

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A lot of times I go back and re-record the synth parts as real instruments, but usually write with the synth so I can LEARN the part first...so I always label whatever is synth, and what is not just says what it is (except for the drums, cause I don't got them here, they're at the church and I don't got room to record them and I only have four mics even if I got em here, ramble, ramble, excuse, excuse...)
 
I did a lot of live work, so the kick should always be on channel 1. If I was setting it up on an actual physical board, it would be much the same as most - drums, bass, guitars/instruments, vox, effects. Unfortunately, though, I've got no discipline ITB, and things end up randomly all over the place. They start out in the order I record them in, and during edit or mix they get moved to wherever makes most sense at any given time. Like, if I want to zoom in on the drums and vocals at the same time, it's just easiest to drag them next to each other. By the time I'm done there's random shit everywhere!
 
Well, it made sense at the time... I guess if I was actually doing other folks with like a tracking session and then an editing session and then the mix, I'd probably work a bit differently. Most of the time though, the mix really comes together throughout the process, and with automation and whatnot there isn't ever really a point where I'm "sitting in front of the board" just mixing. I keep telling myself I'm going to start using the NanoKontrol for more realtime mixing, and that would probably force me into better habits. Haven't gotten there yet...
 
I'm not dissing your system. I think it's marvelous! At my age, you need all the help you can get, so I've got to be really organized. :D
 
It might be different if I recorded other people or was trying to create a cohesive album or something, but just recording myself one song at a time, one track at a time, I don't really need to have a set way of doing anything. I actually kind of try to not do things the same way each time out to keep it interesting and fun for me, and that includes track/channel naming & grouping.

They all just wind up in whatever order I record them in, which can vary quite a lot. My little Roland machine only has 24 tracks, so I'm never overwhelmed with really big projects. If I'm really into it and working fast, I often don't even name the tracks and just leave them as the default, "track1, track2", etc. It's not too hard to remember 24 things if it you're constantly immersed in it.
 
Here is my setup, I like an organized mix window and Bus Sends for more control.

Drums:
Kick-Snare Top-Snare Bottom-Hats-Toms (Starting with Rack Tom)-OvH L&R

Bass

Guitars (Visually Left to Right Helps me)

Any Synth or added sounds

Vocals last:

Here's a picture of a project I just started of how I bus the tracks too for added control

Screen Shot Home Rec.png

Hope this give you ideas too!

I like some of the other ideas as well.
 
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