Why is using template 'a pain' ? Tips please!

[Jules]

I have a tracking session Monday, alt rock band direct into PT via vintage / quality mic pre's ann tub compressors / Apogee AD 8000's (2).
I know the song titles in advance and was daydreaming I could make up templates this week end for them....(trouble is at home I have PT 5 and I am tracking into a system with PT 4.?.? on Monday) will that work?
Any things to watch out for re templates? I read someone bitching about using them on the DUG and it kinda stuck in my brain!

TIA

Jules

[Will Russell]

Jules-

Templates are the only way to go. Fear not! I have templates "for all occasions"

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Will Russell
Electric Wilburland Studio
http://www.wilburland.com

[Will Russell]

Jules-

Don't forget to save the templates as PT4 files!

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Will Russell
Electric Wilburland Studio
http://www.wilburland.com

[Rader Ranch]

Templates are a wonderful thing! One way to keep things very consolidated is to create only one folder for the whole project, have you template session in there, and just keep doing save as's (ass',asses?)...this way all of your audio + fade files will be in the same place. Actually, this method is fine if you back up with mezzo, but if you use retro or ? then you might not like it, as you'll be bringing back lots of unecessary audio if you just wanna recall one song. Otherwise, make sure to create seperate folders for every song before you save as..but you still only need the 1 template to start from...assuming all the songs have relatively the same setup. The only way i've ever seen templates be annoying is if they get fade heavy, 'cause then, sure, when you save as and modify then the next time you open the template it has to recreate many missing fades...but it's a small price to pay, i feel.
Templates in tv promoland (not stationary pads) with the music w/cutdowns and logo fx already in place and approx. at mix levels are the only way to go, since the effingarbagexxxxfinetvprogramming does occur every single week, week after week after week...

[TMS]

Yes, you can stash templets with no audio. I have a folder of them that I keep on one of my external drives. I also keep a copy of that folder on my internal for the times when a client brings their own drive. I just copy my templet folder on to their drive and rock on. It used to be and I think still is, necessary to use the templets that are on your external drive.They won't work from your system drive.

Cheers
Craig

[Rader Ranch]

my point with retro was concerning having all your audio files for multiple songs in one place. What if you want to restore just one song? Then you would have to have relabelled your tracks for each song after doing a save as from the template so that your audio files say 'BD Song X-01,02', BD Song Y-01,-02' as opposed to 'BD-01, BD-02,' in which case you'd have less than a clear idea which takes to bring back for that particular song. Mezzo already knows which audio goes with which session, so you wouldn't have to go in a sub menu (as in retro) just to select the proper audio for Song X to restore. But creating seperate folders for each song before the save as eliminates the problem...just different ways of organizing things.

Since unfortunately i use PT more for tv than music, i usually have audio in my templates, as things are the same week to week; which is why i don't use stationary pads and always keep my templates on a 'Template' partition of one of my PT drives.

i thought drummers were usually the ones to f-up like that?!

[This message has been edited by Rader Ranch (edited 12-17-99).]

[Jules]

All v usefull & interesting as usual...Thanks guys!
http://www.digidesign.com/ubb/images/icons/grin.gif
Jules

[Natural Sound]

If you're moving your template from one drive to another, make sure to change the disk Allocation to reflect which drive you're on. otherwise, things are going to get very confusing pretty quickly.

[Jules]

Session cancelled! Drat! Bass player is in court for credit card trouble! Nevermind!

Back to templates, great news. Now I have all the holiday period to design them!

I Didn't get the comment re backing up with retrospect....??

Surely I can stash templates with no audio?
or copy a session, wipe all the audio and save that (less memory usage.....) as a template.

Thanks guys,

Merry Template and a template new year!

[Jules]

Ahh! Now we are getting there! KEEP EM ROLLIN IN GUYS!
http://www.digidesign.com/ubb/images/icons/grin.gif
Jules

[KenSluiter]

Julian, I do similar type of work as well. What seems to work best for me, is to make a well-thought out template at the begining of each record. Doing things like setting all your groups (OH's, Bass Mic & DI...), and assigning all your I/O in advance really helps keep a session running smoothly. When I track a band in PT, I set up the I/O to run direct outputs with Input1tooutput1....to 16 because I rarely need to record more than 16 inputs. This allows me access on my analog console to every track going to PT. This way it's easier to check phase between 2 mics and make changes to the different cue mixes fast. Then when I get into O/D's, I often use our studios B room which only has 1 888/24, so I submix the drums, and other things. This makes working from song to song & room to room much more effecient. I will also set-up plug -ins that I know I'm going to use on the template. All these little things set-up in advance really add up as your session moves forward. I haven't had too much luck using 1 template from project to project(except for things like multitrack transfers.). So I usually set up a session under the project name as I'm patching the analog stuff. Once I feel like I've set-up the template well, I go into the finder and just copy the folder for as many times as there are songs to be recorded. Then I go name the folder and the session inside that folder the name of the song. I keep the template folder handy in case more songs get added to the session. Works Great! Regardless of Mezzo vs. Retrospect, I never think it is a good idea to have audiofiles from different songs residing in the same folder. I've seen people get burned by doing this. Saving session copies with different song titles all originating from the same session is a recipe for disaster.

[Rader Ranch]

Hey Ken...just curious how folks you know have been burned using templates as described, only because i've literally never been hit with a problem caused by/related to a template, no matter what the method of recording/renaming was...other than waiting for fade redraws, which on this 9500/150 @ work can be pretty annoying.

[KenSluiter]

One more than one occasion, I've seen operators use the "save copy of" function for different tunes. Then a while later they will go to compact the session not realizing that they could be deleting audiofiles they need for other songs. I know it sounds stupid, but I've seen reasonably intelligent people do this.
Also, when you record sessions across more than one drive, I think it can get messy enough archiving & restoring sessions, let alone dealing with filtering outaudiofiles you might not even need for the session at hand.

[This message has been edited by KenSluiter (edited 12-20-99).]