Looking for tips to optimize my workflow

[robertkmuir]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on how to streamline my workflow in Reason. I have to juggle multiple devices and effects, which can slow down my creative process.

I was wondering if there are any tips that can help me fix this.

Thanks you,

[robussc]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on how to streamline my workflow in Reason. I have to juggle multiple devices and effects, which can slow down my creative process.

I was wondering if there are any tips that can help me fix this.

Thanks you,

My biggest upgrade in workflow was to create a template that has everything organized the way I like it, meaning:

A full collection of racks with each rack routed into a mixer subgroup (so drums, bass, pads, arps, leads, vocals each in their own racks).

In the mixer, each non-bass subgroup is EQ'd with a high pass to automatically keep them out of the way of the bass and drums.

The effects sends are properly routed to mix channels so I can easily EQ and level set the returns (and easily mess with send effect chains if I want).

And finally I have a master effect chain with just what I need for monitoring and finishing a mix (so EQ, stereo enhancer, saturation, Span and Youlean Loudnesss Meter (and now Tonal Balance control because I'm trying to get the balance right...)

In the sequencer I use blocks, so I also have some blocks preconfigured for Verse, Chorus etc.

If you create instruments in the Rack the corresponding track is created adjacent to the other tracks for that rack so that keeps things nice and tidy.

(And of course all the tracks are consistently color coded for sanity, making it very easy to switch from one project to another)..

[bitley]

Pick a song you did and liked, resave it as a template.

Now remove all sequence and audio data but keep all tracks.

You have a template and you can have it as default when you start Reason.

Instead of 400 effects use four or five, assign them to bus tracks.

Lastly don't forget that nobody actually cares how your track looks visually

[PhillipOrdonez]

I’ve written about this before, the most efficient way to organise the rack is horizontally. A column for drums, one for bass, one for instruments, one for vocals and one for effects. You expand the navigation panel on the left to the maximum so there’s room for a single rack column left, and use that to navigate the entire rack. Each tote is colour coded, like all drum tracks have a colour and all bass tracks have another colour. You use the same colours in every project that way in 5 years if you open a project you know what is what at a glance.

In the sequencer you want to keep the same order as your rack columns. In my case it’s drums at the top then bass then instruments and so on. They’re colour coded so I know what I’m doing in the sequencer as well.

That’s the biggest thing I got for you. I have a default template with each rack using an instance of a free re that is for writing notes and uses colors at the top, there’s two of those can’t remember the name, but it’s the smaller one, re mark, I think it’s cashed, and you can set colours on it as well (though unfortunately those don’t show up on the navigation panel but still, great to have the rack layout ready to rock

[GluhovProd]

Use it! I hope it helped.

[selig]

Pick a song you did and liked, resave it as a template.

Now remove all sequence and audio data but keep all tracks.

You have a template and you can have it as default when you start Reason.

Instead of 400 effects use four or five, assign them to bus tracks.

Lastly don't forget that nobody actually cares how your track looks visually

Well, I can think of ONE person that cares how my track looks, and that person is my future self. When I got more consistent and better at labeling things I found it MUCH easier to jump back into tracks more than a few weeks old. I THOUGHT I’d remember the basic stuff so never paid attention. Until I started realizing how long it was taking me to come back to a song even just a week later and instantly understand my original thought process. Lots of “wtf’ moments, similar to how I reacted when looking at someone else’s files!

So I figure out the best way to optimize my workflow was to organize my workflow (in a way that made sense to me). Probably one of the smartest things I did, among many un-smart things!

[bitley]

That's cool of course! But will our future selves always approve of the stuff we did!

[motuscott]

Yeah Templates is basically it.
Got a half dozen, everything from 8 channel drumbset stick mix and/or brush mix to Guitar Army Rawk Penis
YMMV

[pushedbutton]

I like to use blocks to draw out a structure. Intro, Verse, PreChorus Chorus, Bridge, Outro... whatever tickles your gherkin how you arrange it, but once the structure is in place it's a lot easier to decide how you're going to get from start to abandoned project that you might get around to finishing one day.
So yeah, another vote for templates basically.

[RobC]

Have a logic to everything you do, and create different project files for different tasks. And have a folder structure ready.

I had templates for the following tasks:

- Composing
- Sound Design
- Loop and slice/rex creation (collaborators/remixers told me, I had the best, most organized projects they've ever seen)
- Arrangement and mixing
- Mastering
- Post-production/mastering work (mostly preparation for publishing, file format converting, etc.)

~ Engineering Combinators / project files - for any step that needs it; but mostly sound design

It helps soooooooo much with focus, saving power, minimizing clutter, and not fussing over tiny things - while being able to go back and fix any issues.

In the rack, I usually had the rule/logic of 1. Instrument 2. Processing devices below it, in order (3. In older Reason versions, I watched to keep such groups in mind
4. Sometimes, I put the processors in reverse order below instruments, so that the "last" processor devices are closer to the instrument, thus having the knobs closer, too, as I progressed with sound design. 5. Of course, closing the finished devices, then putting them in a combinator for a clean up.)
Label everything, as if you would collaborate with someone. - While using logic works; things speed up if you don't title everything 'Document 1' and 'Device copy 1'.
You absolutely CAN have titles and labels prepared. Either in a folder structure and templates. As well as some REs that allow text. Or you can just have a note file ready and do the copy-paste thing.

Does it take a lot of time and frustration? Yes. For 1 song. Then you can reuse it, and save 100x more time and avoid headaches.

Organization is part of the profession.

[RobC]

Folder structure example:

Song Name (For example Document 1)
- Bass
~ Sound Designer
sound design project file
device patch files
exported "raw" sample files
edited "finished" sample files
# Engineering
engineering project file
engineered, exported "raw" sample files
edited "finalized" sample files
~ Loop Creator
loop creator project file
1 shot dry loop sample file
loop tail sample file
finished, seamless loop file
...
etc

Then the same for other elements. Of course, things can differ if it's a recording instead of synthesized. And you can create as many subfolders as you wish.
Hell, I even will have folders for my own effect processors and tools.

Shitloads more tasks. : ) BUT! For example with Goldwave, I can always just do batch processing. It's easy to automate it to cut a 1 shot loop at 50%, save a tail sample, as well as mix it in with the first half of the dry loop, thus save a seamless, true loop file at the same time.

It may seam scary at first, but you run through the work steps super fast.

Oh, and not to mention, absolutely everything is ready for sale. Samples, melodies, loops, patches, all of it.

[motuscott]

I have some cassette tapes labelled like, Oct 12. No year
That's how far ahead I was thinking...