Once an order has been established that works for your workflow, I’d recommend sticking with it. Having a formulated layout of how tracks are displayed is so helpful, I would go so far as to say it’s calming and makes for lightening fast navigation of a session.įor arguments sake and starting on the left of screen we’d typically start with drums and as we move to the right we’d have bass, then as we scroll further along we get to other elements such as guitars, piano/keys, percussion and vocals. Even in this relatively simple example, things can start to get hairy when trying to keep on top these different elements in a session window. In a typical band recording or mix session we’d expect to see an assortment of audio tracks usually consisting of drums, bass, guitars, piano/keys, percussion and vocals. One of the easiest ways to keep a session in order is by establishing a consistent session layout, clear track labelling and for those who enjoy a little extra pizazz, colour coding. Read all the latest features, columns and more here.

Keeping your session clean and tidy will help you mix faster but also your collaborators as it enables them to see exactly what’s going on within your session.Grouping tracks along with using auxiliary and VCAs can help you affect multiple tracks at once while maintaining control over their individual settings.Clear track labelling, colour coding and ordering is essential to being able to quickly navigate and make changes to your mix.I’m going to focusing on the tools available in the latest version of AVID Pro Tools, but the principles are the same and can be implemented in what’s available in other DAWs.

Thankfully, there’s a few simple things we can do to quickly tidy up our sessions to maximise efficiency and increase workflow. With all of this in mind, it’s easy for our brain to end up like a bowl of spaghetti all tangled up in routing and endless mouse scrolling. Recording and mix sessions in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) can be daunting, with so many audio tracks, MIDI tracks, auxiliary tracks, sub groups, and the list goes on. Words by Andy Lloyd-Russell How to work smarter not harder within your DAW.

Tracks daw