It can take time to develop your own style and way of working in your chosen DAW. This is often referred to as your workflow. You may have different workflows depending on the type of project you are working on, but once you find a way of working that suits you, then stick to it and use your workflow for every project you take on. This is known as importing your template but don’t jump to any conclusions just yet as the term template can have different meanings.
What Is It That We Mean By A Template?
In a modern DAW, almost every feature is customisable to suit the way we like to work. But rather than go through a vast list of resets, additions, subtractions and a head-scratching level adjustments of the busses and routing, we can save all this into a template. However, Pro Tools, in particular, has two very different ways of dealing with templates and it is very important to know which one you are dealing with.
Template
When you first open the Dashboard or what we all know as the Session Dialogue, to create a new session or project you may not have noticed the ‘Create From Template’ checkbox. If you select this option, an entire range of template sessions is offered to you. Some work best with different instrumental groups or styles of music. Some are designed for post-production and some even include audio to act as a springboard for your next chart-topping creation. As expected, this is a way to create a brand new session or project. You can also create your own template session using File > Save As Template. The dialogue will prompt you what you want to call the template and when you want it to be saved and where you want it to appear in the Create From Template listings.
Import Session Data
What we believe most people mean by “Importing their template” is actually referred to as Import Session Data. Your template session then becomes a pot from which you can pick which attributes you wish to import into your current project or session. Importing Session Data from a Template session (there’s that word again) adds the selection to the current session you are working on where creating a session from a template requires there not to be a session open in the first place.
What Do You Want To Import?
Everybody, and yes we do mean everybody, has a different idea of how to work in their DAW. “What might be right for you, might not be right for some” as the theme tune to 80’s TV show Different Strokes once said.
Sylvia Massy And Mick Guzauski On Templates And Workflows
In interviews shot at the recent 2019 Studioszene show from Cologne, Germany, Mix Engineers Mick Guzauski and Sylvia Massy talk about how they have designed their mix templates to get new sessions into a format to enable them to can get to work quickly in a way that suits them.
Continuing the template and workflow theme, you can also check out 3 free video tutorials from our premium tutorial site. In these videos, mixing engineer Steve Genewick explains his approach to James when getting sessions from clients and what he does to get them into a fit state to be able to mix.
You can also check out the full interviews with Sylvia and Mick from Studioszene 2019 below where they talk about subjects such a studio construction, monitors and using food as audio cabling.
Let us know in the comments section below how simple or complex, your session templates are. Do you have different templates for different audio applications and if so, how do you use them?