Advice on tracking parameter changes

[pglewis]

Okay you experienced studio guys, help me keep from re-inventing the wheel here. As I get more involved with larger scale mixes, I'm getting lost trying to track changes from mix to mix. How anal do you guys get with your studio logs? Do you track every single volume, pan, effect, and parameter setting every time you print a mix? Do you throw caution to the wind, and rely on your ear instead of wasting paper? Somewhere in the middle? I'm even considering writing a VB program to help me track the changes, if I have a good idea of the design up front. I'm too lazy to dig up a clip-board or notebook every time I mix something. Thanks in advance.

 

[Track Rat]

I made a drawing of my mixer and where the nobs and faders are I left blank. I xeroxed a bunch of copies of it and alls I do is pencil in the settings of particular nobs on this. It works pretty good.

 

[James HE]

Thats a nice little idea Track Rat!

-jhe

 

[pglewis]

My Mackie manual came with a couple of pages for just that purpose. But these days, I pretty much use the Mackie for the preamps and routing. Things are now recorded directly to HD, and they stay on the computer. I could use "screen shots", but it's getting harder to manage. 16 tracks all with EQ plugins, at least half with compressors, usually a couple of aux busses with delay and 'verb. Hard copy would be difficult to keep track of, and I think I'd be shuffling around too much... workspace is already at a premium for me.

I'm thinking of downloading some demo software and using some of the ideas I like in something of my own. [Insert higher power of choice here] only knows when I'll be able to get around to it, though.