Hows it goin everyone?
I have just been talking to a friend of mine about his initial setup of his DAW before he even thinks about making a track on live.
As it turned out his setup was completely different to mine, mine is pretty basic really so out of curiosity im asking what do all you guys have set up initially, or do any of you lads have any tricks or tips you wanna share on the subject.
For me its…
Master channel- limiter, compresser,vintage warmer, spectrum analyzer
Send channel A- reverb
Send channel B- delay
Send channel C- exciter
and take it from there
[quote]bubble sweetman (07/07/2010)[hr]Hows it goin everyone?
I have just been talking to a friend of mine about his initial setup of his DAW before he even thinks about making a track on live.
As it turned out his setup was completely different to mine, mine is pretty basic really so out of curiosity im asking what do all you guys have set up initially, or do any of you lads have any tricks or tips you wanna share on the subject.
For me its…
Master channel- limiter, compresser,vintage warmer, spectrum analyzer
Send channel A- reverb
Send channel B- delay
Send channel C- exciter
and take it from there[/quote]
Pretty much the same but I have a long and short reverb and a pingpong delay
I also use other returns for mad fx aswell
i don’t have anything but keep my Master channel etc in racks, it’s a nice idea to have it all ready for cooking tho
bubble did you describe your master in reverse?
Well, for me when I start a track, I have a completely blank slate. The only thing I EVER put on the master bus is a limiter to see how it would sound when mastered. Other then that, you would be playing tricks on your ears and its bad to produce that way (right off the bat at least). I have alot of processing power on my laptop, so I rarely use my return tracks for delays and reverbs. I dunno.
I use a template… but its still a work in progress - Havent come up with the one just yet, but getting there.
I have a load of busses set up for fx / Reverb & Delay… but to be honest, I still have not settled on a stock configuration yet.
I’ve got a really short room reverb that I use to put a little on snares / hats & perc… and maybe some instruments too…
Long Reverb for Spot Fx automation stuff.
Then theres a saved track of a hi-hat that I use for sidechaining… have that hidden & ready to go. Also have a load of Midi’s on another hidden track of Guru Grooves that I’ve made, which are available to me to use when I want.
Project / Tune / Template / Workflow:
What I’m doing that is regular though is bussing all the different parts to different groups & creating automation lanes @ the top of my page… from there I can see the automation for everything all in one place pretty much. Just found a handy way in Logic to hide all the Automation while working on the Arrangement… pretty pleased with that @ the moment.
I’ll also have a Track that I like running on top of the page for checking against & maybe taking a little inspiration from the compostion of the breaks & suspense. I usually throw a few markers up for it if something is cool. Good job I had it there last night, as my snare wasnt working… so I took it from the track - which worked perfectly! 
Another thing I do when organising my Arrange is create blank channels(you can change them to No Output in Logic & they look a little different… ) and use them as a seperator between the Drums / the Bass & the Instruments etc… on the main page. It helps me to seperate things a little in this way… makes it a little clearer to see.
Final workflow-y thing… going on a tangent slightly…
I also colour the little intro regions differently to therest- ( always in Red…LOL ) before a new element is brought in fully, where maybe its being faded in or whatever.
Helps me remember & realise exactly what I’m dragging & pasting.
I do have a template for the Master Bus. 2 limiters and a compressor and a Spectrum Analyzer . for the Drum Bus usually a compressor but that depends really . all the FX that i use are made depending on the sound. so there is no a exact template for the BUS sends or individual channels .
That just reminded me…
Always have Voxengo SPAN on the Master these days… Need to add that to the template.
Gift.
Free.
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Thanks Slender 
i usually start with a blank and pick my weapons as i go, depending on my mood i may choose impulse, battery, guru or simpler for my drums. possibly anything for my bass and reverbs and/or delays will change from track to track.
i do agree with D.ramirez that when it comes to making music you should be either creative, organized or technical but never all three at the same time, one will always shut down the other but if you are like me and still learning then its best imo to do everything fresh and learn your daw and become quick and using your daw. once thats all covered and you feel ready to start releasing you can set up a template and just concentrate on being creative 