HapiCmpur said:
I've been thinking about trying to do that too, SouthSIDE, but it kind of scares me. Tell me something: Do you have a written filing system of some kind to keep track of what's stored where and what it's intended for later? Or do you just pick really good names for your submix files so that the names always remind you of what each file is and what you're saving it for? Or are you one of those guys who can keep it all in his head?
Answer:
C. All of the above.
I
do have a pretty good memory, but I've found in this aspect that memory alone just won't cut it. You'd have to remember almost every edit you've made to every track, and tha'ts just beyond my capacity. Especially once I've moved on the the next song only to find I have to go back and make some change to the previous song.
I do have a system that I use in my file naming and my workflow, and I also keep a small text log that just summerizes the state of things each time I save a new version of the project. For example:
For a track file name for a song where the track is the left-side rhythm guitar that I have laid out on track 6 I might use a filename like: "artist_songname_6_rthgit_L.wav." If I hard render a seperate version of that thrack where I've split the track into stereo and soaked it in stereo reverb, that rendering might be called "songname_6_rthgit_L_2ch_verb.wav".
For the project/session files themselves I might start out with "artist_songname_base_mix" which is where I've saved the starting point for the mixing process, which is just basically all the tracks laid out and assigned in the multitrack editor with the channel strips named and color-coded as desired. No actual settings, edits, levels, etc. have actually been made yet for this saved file. This gives me a clean start that I can always fall back to if I get really mucked up or decide that I was going down a dead end road in my mix or something and I need to make sure I can "undo" all the way back to the beginning without having to re-setup the project/session all over again.
Once I have that starting canvas saved, then I immediately change the project name to "artist_songname_main_mix_A" and save it again so I'm now woring on a mix file and not the saved starting point file. I'll keep working under "main_mix" unless or until I get to a point where I want to try a couple of different directions, in which case I might keep a seperate "main_mix_B" or even a "main_mix_C" so I can explore the differen mix approaches individually and be able to go back to one or the other as needed.
If I have to bounce/submix my drum tracks, say, in mix B because my CPU is getting taxed or something, then I'll leave "mix_B" where I've left it and save the project/session version with the submix as "artist_songname_submix_B_drums", with the rendered file saved as the same filename but with a .wav extension. If I then need to go back and boost the snare as you say, I can go back to the original "mix_B", remix the submix, save the change to the submix and then return to the submixed version of the project.
When I'm ready to mixdown, I'll save the mixdown file as "atist_songname_mixdown_A.wav", with subsequent letteres reserved for any alternate mixdown versions I may want to try.
When I've finished pre-mastering the mixdown, that will wind up saved as "artist_songname_master_A" with again subsequent letters used if I have more than one trial masters.
Finally, I organize this into folders. I'll have one main folder for each client. Within those client folders is a level of folders with one folder per client project (a client project could be one song or it could be a whole CD of songs, depending on the actual physical project). Within the project folder, there is one folder per song in the project. In each song folder proper is where I put the tracking and rendered track files. The software project/session mix files and mixdown WAVs go into a "mixes" folder there and the mixdowns and masters go into a "masters" folder.
The key to keep it from not getting too out of hand is the judicious use of the creation of new versions of a mix session file. Don't create a new one very time you make one change, of course. I guess my general thinking there is if you've made a change to the mix that is otherwise "undoable", like replacing 4 drum tracks with a stereo bounce track, then you'll want to have before and after versions. The whole idea to to keep a history so you can go back if need be. The other time to save unique versions of you mix is when you get to a point in the mix process where you want to try a different mix or approach altogether, you would save that alternate mix under a different file so if that turns out to be a dead end, you can always go back to the original mix where you left off and yoyu haven't burnt your bridges behind you.
It's in the saving of those before/after and alternate mix project files where I'll often keep a text log just giving a quick description of what that version of the project mix is all about. One or two sentences of quick description usually suffices.
This all sounds like a lot, but it's really not when you get down to it, it's all just a logical heirarchy of folders and filenames that's very easy and descriptive to follow and a nice basic way to organize hundreds of WAV and project files; you're only creating new versions of your project files when you reach what would otherwise be a "point of no return" in the process so you can get back to previous versions of your mix if need be.
Hope this makes some kind of sense to you. It does to me, but then again I'm a bit goofy sometimes
G.
