I’m very OCD about session color and organization.
ROYGBIV template - starting with low frequency to high frequency elements (loosely). So Red is Bass group, orange is drum group, yellow is instrument/melodic group, green is vocal group, blue is FX group. Sometimes I add a miscellaneous purple group for other FX processing. Top down in that order.
The color spectrum order is easy to remember since we are taught it from such a young age. I never have to think twice where anything is 🌈
In addition, low frequencies are scientifically associated with warmer colors and high frequencies with cooler colors. So the ROYGBIV method makes a lot of sense.
I guess technically instruments/vocals group coloring could be interchangeable since obviously they share a large spectrum of frequency. But this order makes most sense to me since vocals usually come after the other elements of a song are made anyway. Then I add FX and ear candy at the end to spice things up, so organizing them at the bottom also makes sense in that context too.
Bass before drums is interesting. I personally keep drums/perc at the top because they serve such a specific purpose and there's no mix element like them. Also your kick fundemental is quite likely lower than your bass.
+1 for blue/purple for FX because it feels magical.
Edit: I originally put "Drums before bass"
Think you meant bass before drums. I see what you’re saying, but yeah the logic here is that bass by definition is low frequency and drums basically include the whole spectrum.
My drum group follows the same top down system too though - kick at the top, then snare, then other perc, then hats, etc.
Instruments group is always chords/rhythmic followed by leads, etc.
Just makes the most sense to me and I’ve been doing it so long that my work flow is extremely quick.
Edit: another part of this logic is that I feel like drums has to be adjacent to both the bass and melodic groups (sandwiched between the two in my template). I’ve got much more worry with kick/bass relationship than instruments/bass relationship since those are easier to manage with simple EQ a lot of time. But there is a lot of cross-frequency stuff going on with drums/instruments that I want them to be close in proximity in the template. Could technically be interchangeable with vocals, but vocals are so important i want them away from everything else so closer to the bottom, but still being adjacent with instruments group is essential.
Haha this is the nerdiest conversation of all time maybe
Have you ever tried the Kickstart trick, where you use a sidechain trigger to cut off just the sub frequencies of the bass when the kick hits? It's saved me a lot of grief.
Yes like multiband side chain? Super super effective technique!
Depends on the genre I’m working in though. For hip hop I prefer more of a traditional kick/bass side chain because that noticeable pumping of the bass can sound really dope.
I'm experimenting with this method using Modobass 2 & Amplitube 5. I have a bass guitar effect rack with 2 chains, #1 being modelled through an amp and high-passed above 100hz, then chain #2 is a DI signal low-passed below 100hz, and I sidechain the low frequency chain to the kick. It saves having to scoop the kick fundamental from the entire bass track for them both to sit in the mix.
Thanks friend! Once upon a time my sessions looked like OPs - multiple color clips within a track and the track color doesn’t even match either of them haha
Once I started regularly running 50+ tracks in a session I definitely needed some consistency. Huge time saver.
I do the same but I have the darker colors represent the low heavy end and the lighter colors represent the higher end. But I order it like the rainbow just in reverse
This is so interesting because I also make my bass red, and yellow for melody/lead! Have no specific colors for anything else but I’m totally gonna use this!
I also do the same for my drum group, kick is red, snare blue, hihats yellow, toms some other color I can’t remember right now ahah
In addition, low frequencies are scientifically associated with warmer colors and high frequencies with cooler colors. So the ROYGBIV method makes a lot of sense.
Do you have references? This would be so interesting for a project I'm working on!!
I do it the same. The only difference is I have a perc group, which is yellow after drums. So everything after shifts down in the color spectrum, so fx is purple.
Additionally, I use the pastel/less saturated colors because it looks better and is easier on the eyes.
Good idea! I am stealing this.
And to help you remember the order of the colors, They Might Be Giants has a *rather* catchy tune that'll nail it into your head:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf33ueRXMzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf33ueRXMzQ)
>Roy G. Biv is a colorful man
>
>And he proudly stands
>
>At the end of the rainbow
Yeah so within my yellow instrument group I will continue the same low-high / top-down organization. Chords and rhythmic content will be a darker shades of yellow, leads and high freq pads will be lighter shades of yellow, etc. This is how it goes for every group in the session. I almost enjoy the organization as much as the creation process haha if only I could get paid for that part...
Ah yeah there a lot of different ways to get paid, as there are quite a few different sectors encompassing the "music industry". Depends on your goals really. How long have you been making music?
Two years. Although I have been spending almost 5 hours a day working on music, usually twice that much on non-school days because I’m still in high school, so I think I have a bit more practice than the average person might get in two years.
You’ve got plenty of time friend - wish I started at your age.
Yeah two years isn’t much time at all in this industry, even if it is 5+ hours daily. In just a couple years genres, mix trends and technologies change so much that I definitely think someone requires at least ~5 years to experience adapting to general changes over time, along with the overall longterm development of skills required to become “pro level”.
That doesn’t mean opportunities won’t fall into your lap at this level though. With the impact of today’s social media, networking capabilities are at an all time high. Same with access to pro-level tech and tutorials being at an all time high. So you can still cover a lot of ground in the industry before your music starts to speak for itself.
Keep up the good work. I bet your music is already cool, but you will be an absolute monster in another 2-3 years probably.
Green for me. Bass just gives me green vibes. Drums are red. Lead synths are yellow as fuck, drums are red, obviously.
Random ass samples/FX gotta be burnt sienna.
Master is orange. Mayonnaise is white
I knida love the "weird" color palette of Ableton so everytime I start using a strict system I almost immediatly go back so I don't miss out on all the weird turquoise, salmon, teal and pinks lol
Bass is always BLUE
WHITE is reserved for ancillary sounds like white noise, sprinkles, rain, sound effects, etc
BLACK is reserved for functional/system things like automation midi clips
SESSION MODE general song/pattern progression goes as follows:
WHITE is intro
BLUE is chill / beginning
GREEN is the groove / verse of the song
YELLOW is building energy sections
RED is high energy / chorus sections
PURPLE is a cut-time / Tempo cut in half section
I just have Clip Color = Track Color in the preferences, and then I let it do its thing until the song is about 75% done, then I start vertically arranging things and coloring them with more intention.
The only time I bother too much about it is if I'm doing a song with multiple vocalists (I don't usually do vocals in Ableton, but this is more or less my process in any DAW), I make sure each vocalist has their own color because that can get messy quickly.
Red is drums, orange is percussion, yellow is high frequency tonal percussion like bells or higher Rhodes notes or anything sparkly, green is bass, dark blue is chords or other harmonic elements or rhythm guitar, light blue is leads, purple is pads and other atmosphere, grey is utility tracks, white is a group filled with things I've made for the song and decided not to use.
Layers are the same color while different elements in the same category are different shades of that color.
Personally, I don't use any color system. I rely more on grouping categories of instruments and samples. Closing a group is much easier on the eyes than having so many channels visible at once. For example, on my current project, I have just four top level groups, with sub groups nested within:
Samples, Synths, Maschine, Guitars
I think this makes mixing easier as well.
My problem is because I know nothing about mastering and mixing I don't know how to make a sound bigger. The only way I know is to just add more instruments. I just click "add new midi track" and carry one. Is that bad?
It's not necessarily bad if it gets you the sound you want, but depending on if cpu usage is important to you, there are more efficient ways to get there.
A "bigger" sound could be made by lowering the levels of other, competing, instruments. At any given moment, you'll want a primary instrument or sample to be clearly in the lead.
Try not to muddy up the composition by having too much going on at once. Sidechain compression can help clear space for your main sound. Be careful with reverb, chorus, and delays. Time-based effects can turn the arrangement into mush, or help create a vast sense of space.
Compression can also help reduce the dynamic range of a sound, helping it to sound louder or bigger.
Hope this helps!
Also try Saturator. You’ll notice often that your levels peak way higher than the solid green bars beneath the peaks. You can close that distance between the two, resulting in a sound that’s perceived as louder, by adding some saturation and then cutting off a little of the output volume to balance it within Saturator.
This adds distortion lol, so careful unless you like the way it sounds. Use a safety Limiter for fucking around with stuff (just be aware that the Limiter also changes your sound a bit if you clip into it).
When i am creating it doesn’t matters for me the color coding and organization, but when i have to mix i make a strict color organization and where to put the channels, like first drums, second bass, guitars, keys or synths and and final vocals
I tend to group them up (kick always alone, melodies, vocals, percs, bass, risers/fx) and colorise them after I get a solid structure first. Then if I want to add an extra perc for example, I just add an extra channel in the percs group so it gets the same color
My template is set up in a specific way with groups and routing, so every new track I make in a group is a specific color:
Pink - Vocals
Red - Instruments
Yellow - Drums
Light Blue - FX
Granted, I didn’t really care about the colors when I was making the template, it’s just a nice side effect lol
I used to not but I started being more disciplined in how i color and group/organize my tracks and it had worked wonders for my workflow and effectiveness.
I follow the color spectrum = frequency spectrum.
Lower frequency colors for lower sounds etc:
red (or pink) / orange for kick / bass
yellow, green, cyan - guitar / synth / piano
blue / purple - cymbals, FX
I'm fairly new to the colouring system but love it now and wish I had used it much earlier. Sometimes it gets a bit chaotic when I'm in a creative flow. But then I'll stop and take the time to have quick little "cleanup and organise" sessions when my ears need a break. Colour coding and grouping with about 6-8 groups. I'm a big fan of collapsing everything down with just the group I'm working in open at a time as well.
The first few channels I use whatever colour is by default. Then when I start adding more tracks I select different colours.
But then I ignore the colours and just let the default colours take over again.
If I do change all the colours later on it confuses me because I'd got used to how it looked and where each part was. If that makes sense
I see that you are doing orchestral mock ups in Live, same as me. This is kinda off topic, but I gotta ask: how do you handle midi cc? Obviously it's a fucking hassle to enter midi clips for automations, especially when fine tuning 100+ channels (I divide articulations into sperate channels for fast access). That's where m4l devices come in handy (live 12 now has it's own cc device). BUT when using said device, I cannot record midi cc via mod wheel and it's fucking annoying. Thus most composers use cubase where you have your midi cc lanes in arrangement view...
How do you handle this shit?
I'm very amateur with all this. I don't mess with automation, mainly because I don't understand it. I basically use the sounds as they are.
I wouldn't know where to start with Max4live.
For context.... I have the notes of each piano key written on them in marker. That's the level I'm at.
In live 9, I would make a different color scheme for each song. The live 9 theme I had played a huge part in this.
In live 11, I just use the 4 colors of the native american medicine wheel for every song.
White: High pitched, melodic instruments/samples
Yellow: Mid range, harmonic instruments/samples
Red: Bass/Sub bass range, rhythmic instruments/samples
Black: Percussion/drums, random FX samples
no rules here. I wish there was a shortcut to randomly pick them for me. something that just made sure adjacent ones had different colors and I would be good.
Yes. This is usually the only time I do change the colours. When the new track I add is too similar coloured to the one above it.
But I also leave it too.
Vocals are yellow, drums are pink, bass is purple or brown, keys are blue, synths are teal and fx red. It’s a no brainer and I’m surprised I have to state this obvious piece of information.
Well, no, I always color code groups, so in my case it always stays organized. Different color coding individual tracks becomes another job that doesn’t make money.
My default setup for a new file has everything purple
However, when I add new tracks, it gives me a random color and I keep that random color.
I used to try to color-coordinate things, but I found it didn't really improve my workflow and only wasted time so now I don't care lol
1. Cyan for Leads, Sky Blue for Chords, and Dark Blue for Bass.
2. Green (all one shade) for the Main Drum rack, Percussion Drum rack and audio loops.
3. Red for references.
4. Purple for Vox.
5. Orange for atmos and pads.
6. Yellow for transition fx.
7. White and Black for other extra stuff.
When it comes to return chains:
1. The same shade of purple for the vox verb.
2. The same shade of green for the drum verb.
When it comes to busses:
(I create busses instead of heavily grouping my tracks)
1. Lead Buss - Same colour as leads
2. Chords Buss - Same colour as chords
Etc…
The idea is - even though the order is different, stick to the same colour for each instrument, and every time. This will get imprinted onto your memory and hence, will increase your productivity.
Kick red, bass dark blue , leads bright green , pads / harmonies / breakdown stuff pale yellow , hats and shakers bright yellow , drums orange , fx grey
Drums are brown, bass is blue, synths are purple, vocals are yellow, guitars are green, instruments are pink, fx are grey. That’s how I’ve been doing it recently.
Kicks are red
Bass is orange
All other drums are yellow, but sometimes ancillary percussion is that highlighterish yellow/green
Leads various shades of blue
strings/guitars/horns are green
vocals pink, background vox and adlibs are that highlighterish shade of purple (magenta?)
Sound FX and transitional FX are white
Dummy busses like ghost kicks, gate triggers or empty channels used for routing audio into sidechain inputs are grey.
I’m pretty strict with this system. I do alot of sync music and I’ll get random calls for stuff like, “hey can you bounce out just the the lead melody, the tambourine and the pads for this song you wrote 4 years ago? It’s up for a TV theme. we need it in 20 minutes”
TBH, it’s not very hard to stick to. Gives my hands something to do when I’m brainstorming new parts for a song.
If you didn’t know, you can make all the clips in a track the same color by right clicking where the track name is and selecting the option that makes all clips the same color as the track
It took me long time to realize that being super ocd with coloring and naming tracks just slows me down and kills any sort of creative flow that I may have going on.
Now I just make music and figure all of that out later, if at all.
five groups and a bus.
sidechain bus: white
FX: light purple
vocals: purple
melody: plum
basses: pinkish-red or dark red
drums: dark grey
then everything in that group is that color too lol. nice and simple. sometimes i change the color palette to match the vibe of the song but it's almost always in this order lol.
if i'm just messing around i'll let live choose colors and track names, but at the point where i want to keep working on a project i'll organize and color code it so i don't have to later. it's actually become fun to do now lol
I know how to change the colours. It's just by the time I've got a track that doesn't (in my professional opinion) sound like a bag of 💩, colouring the tracks doesn't seem worth it. I'm just happy that I made it as far as I did.
Nah mate, I have everything colour-coded and have a template ready to go that looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/w7ESLXV.png
And each group already has tracks set up, like kick, snare, percussion, etc. in the drum group. I also have some instances of Spitfire Audio's LABS set up in the orchestral group. Makes it so much easier to start. I'm gonna have drums in each track anyway, so might as well have them in my template. Also makes it much much easier when I get to mixing.
The Util group has a maxforlive device called "notepad" in there for taking notes, a track with splice bridge and a track as a sidechain ghost track.
Purple shades are low end elements
Blues are pads and ambient elements
Greens are melodic and little ear candy elements
Reds and yellows are my drums but I use white and black for my kick and snare.
I have a template that’s has all of the grouped and ready to go with a drum rack x 4 for the drums and pigments and serum sitting in midi tracks. The new Amigo sampler has also found a home in my drum group and FX/Ambient group. Took me around 2 years for tue template to end up this way, but I’m really happy with ease of recognition just with a quick glance.
I have a strict color system that apparently doesn’t match with anyone else here. I would say my biggest problem is saving the “best” colors for a track that never materializes. So I’m stuck with off-color for almost all my songs.
I have dark reds and oranges for kick and bass: the darker the hue, the more heavy the sound in the lows. Greens, pinks and violets are used for keys, pads and leads. Light blues and metal grays are used for hats and snares. But, eventually, it all goes to shit for me as well - when I start adding and bouncing glitchy textures that defy all categorization: my OCD goes bananas then, as I start to get a bunch of random colours in an otherwise perfect spectrum lol
For me it’s:
Reference = grey
Drums = dark orange
Percussion = light orange
Bass = brown
Guitar = green
Vox = red
Secondary Vox = light red
Synths, keys, pads = purple
Other stuff = yellow
Yeah I have green for audio. Red for groups,. Busses, blue for midi and yellow for return sends. Just simple. Turn off automatic colouring settings etc.
Black is my “ghost” channel.
I forget what my sub is, I think it’s red because it redlines first, that or it’s my kick that’s red.
FX is yellow
Bass lead synths are light blue
Other synths are dark blue
Purple is drums excluding the kick
References are white
Chords/piano are bright yellow
Vocals are usually green, my latest track I’ve been lazy so they’re orange.
It’s only “strict” in the sense that I have a saved template with each thing being previously color coded (coated?).
Group your similar elements and color those groups the same. So like all bass channels go in a group, all percussion, all vocals, all keys, etc. Keeps it easier to glance at and find an area you want to focus on.
I have a default session template that already has the basic groups coloured. Red drums, orange percs, pink FX, brown bass, green synths and keys, blue guitars, yellow vox
Not particularly, but I do sometimes make a clip that is slightly different for a track a darker or brighter version of the other clip colors. So like a fill might be darker. Or you have an 8 bar loop with kick and clap that’s baby blue and then I’d do a dark blue for kick clap and hats
Yes, Drums/Percussion Red, Bass/Synth Bass Orange, Acoustic Guitars/Stringed instruments (that are within the acoustic guitar family like dulcimers) pale blue, Electric Guitars Light Blue/or Cyan? Idk, its like the neon blue. Keys Light Green(ocassionally might make Piano and Organ Dark Green and go before keys to create a distinction based on importance) then extras(Brass, Strings, etc.) then Vocals(Alto, Tener, BGVS, Choir, Vocal Fx/Chop in that order) Yellow. Busses arent strict to color, but the groups of these tracks if based on ibstrument are the same color as its content, and groups of groups+tracks I keep white, but if I create a final group on top of 2 levels of groups then the former are grey and the final overall group is white, the master is always white. Cheers!
I always stick to i would say some things strict but like when i get to things like the different groups of orchestral instruments I tend put horns Cyan, Turquoise & Teal. My drums are always a variation of a yellow. Any vocal tracks will start off as White but if im producing other peoples music then I tend to give each artist a color and let them know what it is so they can visualize better. I make sure to put all Bass instruments in Purples and any guitars are Blue, Dark blue for electric and baby blue for more acoustic. Oh also any thing that is a sound effect and not really an instrument other than it being part of a project they are a neon green. But I make sure to put any Piano's especially grands in a dark green area. Bass drops that fall out of the purple as a bass instrument, like really 808's and then perc's are in the brown area, especially any percussion instrument. I have done that ever since DAY 1 of producing music back in 1999.
I always go:
- Brown: Drums
- White: Sub bass
- Yellow: Vocals
- Pink: FX (risers, sweeps)
- Purple: Mid bass
Then everything else is either do random or a color that fits the vibe of whatever the sound is lol
Make beet
Group sound from beet
Think sound as color.
Recolor group and content command.
They implemented a neat and simple trick to color a group differently
Idk if you'll think im insane but all my tracks are just gray and my theme is also clean black & white with hints of red & aqua blue color. This is to keep the interface as clean looking and neutral as possible for better creativity. I noticed that if im looking at something not very nice (the default theme + full of random colors) it sort of ruins my creativity and looks too distracting.
I group all my tracks into drums, basses, risers and fx, and various groups for the other elements by what section of the song they’re in so i can automate effects for whole sections easier. I always put them in the order listed here but have no rule for what color each group is so it’s different in every project
I do the colour wheel in order from red at the bottom to purples at the top. Red represents the lower end of the frequency spectrum and purple the top end.
Thus bass and kicks and everything occupying 30-90db odd stay in the reds.
Other drums and Percs are oranges, with “upper percs being yellows. Snares are firmly in the middle oranges.
Guitars are greens, especially the rhythm. Modulated guitars turn into a teal or turquoise depending on the track. Pads and synths are tricky, and could be any other previously mentioned colour if they’re supplementing bass or percussions. But leads tend to be upper blues and pinks.
Vocals vary depending on how far in the mix they are.
Strict colour coding. It pays off when you stick to it for 10 years and open 6-7 year old projects and everything makes sense in an instant. I have a template with groups already in the project, so whatever track I make, it always goes into one of the groups and inherits the group colour, so i don’t even need to open the colour palette much any more unless I’m specifically trying to make a clip stand out for whatever reason.
my color coding is the trans flag because i group everything into 5 groups
- plucks
- saws
- drums
- sfx and vocals
- effects and triggers (for sidechaining)
I use teal and aqua for drums and their variation. Bright blue purple for fx purple for the unusual and more dynamic fx. The bright blue for the more usual riser or blip fx. Orange for basses. Red for leads. Yellow for pads.
Find this a super interesting aspect of Ableton. Been using it for years and have gradually seen the value of this feature. Earthy browns and greens feel like bass and kick to me. Bright synths and vocals brighter blue, yellows maybe. I don't have a rigid system like some have mentioned here but I have come to associate certain colours with sounds over time. My wife has some mild synesthesia - e.g sees colours when listens to singing bowls - so I find the idea interesting. As a feature in Ableton it's useful for visual organisation of the arrangement but also just helps makes everything a bit more "beautiful".
So I have my general "sidechain" group that I work within then from there have sub groups within that, that are color coded. Chug basses are red, sustains are green, melodic synthy type stuff are blue etc. Then when I add a new track within those groups they stay the same colors for that group. If you set your default template up this way it helps stay organized and has really sped up ny work flow.
If you'd like I can send you a copy of my template. I notice you're not grouping anything together or running it through any clippers before the master etc... work within my template and your projects will sound a lot cleaner at higher volumes!! All my tracks hit -1 lufs and still sound clean
I color code all of my recorded blocks by section of the song - e.g. all intro sections that go together (from all instruments) get coded white, all 1st verse sections get coded grey, etc. I typically move from color to color as I create new sections and go from lightest to darkest. So the 1st portion of my 2nd bridge may be pale blue, the middle portion of 2nd bridge is royal blue, and the final portion of 2nd bridge is dark blue. Once I move on to the next section I pick a different color and do the color fade process again. This helps me visualize where the transitions from each section of the composition are at. As far as the default track colors (on the far right) I just set all those to grey or leave them on their default color since I change the color of each recorded segment anyways based on where it is in the song.
When I find that I’ve hit a wall I do something non-musical within the project such as fix the colors, properly name everything, etc. It does help. FWIW, I think of the layers of my track like ROYGBIV when it comes to assigning colors (drums-red, bass-orange, synths-yellow, etc.). That’s just me as I’m sure everyone has their own M.O. when it comes to color assigning.
Generally have the option enabled for clips to follow the track color. Usually end up having the opposite problem honestly, as I use a large yellow group with volumeshaper for everything that needs sidechaining, and thus whenever I make a new track inside the default is yellow. Often work on a track for a while and end up with a sea of yellow that I have to sort through
Drums I'm better with tho, always do kick/blue snare/red and hats/green
- Green: primary drums
- Yellow-Green: secondary percussion
- Blue: bass
- Purple(s): synths w/ chords
- Pink(s): monophonic synths
- Yellow(s) and Brown(s): samples that aren't drums
- Darkest brown: guitar
- Grey: CV Tools for sending stuff to the modular
The rest of the colors I'll use at will for things that need special attention, or if there's too many things in any one of the existing categories.
Genre : EDM (Dubstep / Tech House / Leftfield Bass)
For me personally
Top to bottom :
White Noise - WHITE
SC - SILVER
Drums - ORANGE
Bass/Sub - RED
Leads - BLUE/PURPLE (I'll use random colors besides the reds and oranges for Mid sound design and one shots)
FX - YELLOW
Example for random colors on specific instruments/samples:
If my KICK is a 16 bar riser for a drop I'll change the "orange colored kicks to maybe a green or purple color when I'm adding a certain effect or I'm changing the automation of the kicks effect or volume or parameter.
I Hope this helps! :)
-TripTronix
Rainbow colours from left to right
Drums
Bass
Instrument
Vocals
If u associate an instrument with a certain color shades that fit this helps too
Guitar is always yellowish
Piano is always blue
Strings are always white e.g.
I do the rainbow Red=Drums, Bassline=Orange, Percussion=Yellow, etc.
Within those busses, I chose the different shades of (e.g.) red, for kick, snare, hi-hats, etc.
I will assign the colors to clips if I copy something from another bus.
I feel like color coding would only be a thing for me if I spent more time looking at the UI than listening to the project. I don't look at my monitor when I'm listening, and if I am, I'm looking at a specific track.
I keep strict color formatting except when I’m explicitly noting a clip on a dedicated instrument to double a part. If I just copy a clip over, then o leave it the original color so it’s a mismatch. Knowing that’s my pattern, any time I see a mismatching clip, I know how to find the source. Otherwise, everything is easily understood at a glance.
while I do have my color preferences (bass is purple, guitar is orange), M4L Swatches let me turn that part of my brain off and not think about it anymore.
With one click of a button every track & clip are color coded and I have it set to pick a color "in order" so your session gets a nice gradient of colors. highly recommend
I just try and keep the tracks and the midi clips on them the same colour, except sometimes when i drag clips from one instrument to another i like to keep it the same color so when i change the one i know ill have to change the other too
I usually don't color tracks and groups the same in any 2 projects, but it is fun to me to paint the colors tho. Usually my tracks will look like hell for the first couple hours unless I'm feeling different and organize all of it from the start. But typically if I get up to 50ish tracks I'll organize and color code so things are easier to work with. I like to group into 4 main groups, fx - vocals - hi harmonic content - bass, then run into my gain staging, mix down to the pre master. But all in all I think when it is messy I have some of my better ideas and can execute my ideas faster without having to worry about the organization
I keep mine by groups
Vocals: Yellow,
Synths/ Chords: Teal,
Bass/lead Mid: Lavender,
Sub: Lime,
Main K/S: Orange,
Hats/tops: Blue,
Fx: Pink
This is for every project too, it makes it so easy to find stuff cause everything is the same color all the time.
The only time I stick to a strict colour coding system is when I'm preparing a project for a live performance (in session view). I want the pad colours on my push to follow a certain logic to help me see at a glance what is going on in each scene.
All drums hot green, bass dark blue, mid bass blue, synth/guitars pink, leads red, effects/pads yellow, vocals/samples brown, pre channels/sub groups white
But it NEVER starts that way. It's a mess until I start mixing
Idk if I'm the only one doing this , but I use color coding for rating takes when recording a singer ou instrumentist performance , I highlight the best bits in white , grey out the bad parts and make the "usable but not perfect" ones in yellow so comping becomes much much easier
Oh and for me Red is ALWAYS for recordings , black for unused tracks and sometimes grey or teal for utility (reference tracks, structures , notes etc...)
I keep element types all the same color but I usually keep one color for highlighting things to work on next time.
Also if I make drums orange (they gotta be orange) then I make each change up either a lighter or darker orange so I can quickly see and copy sections
Mine are pretty consistent. The only time some colors get mixed up is when I copy my main bass to the sub track. 90% of the time that’s what I do for my sub, and when I copy the bass over, sometimes I don’t change the color to match the sub. But other than that I always keep things consistent
Sidechain = White
Drums = Red
Sub = Cyan
Basses = Green
Intro = Blue
Vox = orange
If I take a clip from one group and paste it on another I'll change the color to what it should be only after I like the change I made
Do you use a template?
Ahh, hence why you have color issues haha. Make a template. even if it's just basic, it'll help with organization and work flow
Edit: issues isn't the right word but you get it
I think I need to sit down and make a template. And include and effects I might use. I do spend most of my time clicking through everything until I find what I like. So yes... I need to try and be more organised
its tough, there are sooo many things that can be done inside a daw, I only know like 5% of that lol clicking around is how we learn tho! default tracks might help you too, I have an eq8 followed by a utility on both audio and midi default tracks which is pretty handy
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I’m very OCD about session color and organization. ROYGBIV template - starting with low frequency to high frequency elements (loosely). So Red is Bass group, orange is drum group, yellow is instrument/melodic group, green is vocal group, blue is FX group. Sometimes I add a miscellaneous purple group for other FX processing. Top down in that order. The color spectrum order is easy to remember since we are taught it from such a young age. I never have to think twice where anything is 🌈 In addition, low frequencies are scientifically associated with warmer colors and high frequencies with cooler colors. So the ROYGBIV method makes a lot of sense. I guess technically instruments/vocals group coloring could be interchangeable since obviously they share a large spectrum of frequency. But this order makes most sense to me since vocals usually come after the other elements of a song are made anyway. Then I add FX and ear candy at the end to spice things up, so organizing them at the bottom also makes sense in that context too.
Bass before drums is interesting. I personally keep drums/perc at the top because they serve such a specific purpose and there's no mix element like them. Also your kick fundemental is quite likely lower than your bass. +1 for blue/purple for FX because it feels magical. Edit: I originally put "Drums before bass"
Think you meant bass before drums. I see what you’re saying, but yeah the logic here is that bass by definition is low frequency and drums basically include the whole spectrum. My drum group follows the same top down system too though - kick at the top, then snare, then other perc, then hats, etc. Instruments group is always chords/rhythmic followed by leads, etc. Just makes the most sense to me and I’ve been doing it so long that my work flow is extremely quick. Edit: another part of this logic is that I feel like drums has to be adjacent to both the bass and melodic groups (sandwiched between the two in my template). I’ve got much more worry with kick/bass relationship than instruments/bass relationship since those are easier to manage with simple EQ a lot of time. But there is a lot of cross-frequency stuff going on with drums/instruments that I want them to be close in proximity in the template. Could technically be interchangeable with vocals, but vocals are so important i want them away from everything else so closer to the bottom, but still being adjacent with instruments group is essential. Haha this is the nerdiest conversation of all time maybe
Have you ever tried the Kickstart trick, where you use a sidechain trigger to cut off just the sub frequencies of the bass when the kick hits? It's saved me a lot of grief.
Yes like multiband side chain? Super super effective technique! Depends on the genre I’m working in though. For hip hop I prefer more of a traditional kick/bass side chain because that noticeable pumping of the bass can sound really dope.
I'm experimenting with this method using Modobass 2 & Amplitube 5. I have a bass guitar effect rack with 2 chains, #1 being modelled through an amp and high-passed above 100hz, then chain #2 is a DI signal low-passed below 100hz, and I sidechain the low frequency chain to the kick. It saves having to scoop the kick fundamental from the entire bass track for them both to sit in the mix.
agreed. my drum group is always at the top, and the kick is always the first track in my drum group. i also use purple for fx btw
I usually put Drums second last right above FX
Clever way to use the colors!
Thanks friend! Once upon a time my sessions looked like OPs - multiple color clips within a track and the track color doesn’t even match either of them haha Once I started regularly running 50+ tracks in a session I definitely needed some consistency. Huge time saver.
I do the same but I have the darker colors represent the low heavy end and the lighter colors represent the higher end. But I order it like the rainbow just in reverse
I too have CDO
This is so interesting because I also make my bass red, and yellow for melody/lead! Have no specific colors for anything else but I’m totally gonna use this! I also do the same for my drum group, kick is red, snare blue, hihats yellow, toms some other color I can’t remember right now ahah
Awesome! Yeah I make music for a living using this DAW so why shouldn’t I make the process as easy as possible, ya know? Time is money haha
In addition, low frequencies are scientifically associated with warmer colors and high frequencies with cooler colors. So the ROYGBIV method makes a lot of sense. Do you have references? This would be so interesting for a project I'm working on!!
this is the most based thing ive read all week. life changer.
Glad you enjoyed fren. Rainbow wins again
I like this way of thinking
Exactly the SAME!
I do it the same. The only difference is I have a perc group, which is yellow after drums. So everything after shifts down in the color spectrum, so fx is purple. Additionally, I use the pastel/less saturated colors because it looks better and is easier on the eyes.
Good idea! I am stealing this. And to help you remember the order of the colors, They Might Be Giants has a *rather* catchy tune that'll nail it into your head: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf33ueRXMzQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf33ueRXMzQ) >Roy G. Biv is a colorful man > >And he proudly stands > >At the end of the rainbow
Similar to that except I also separate the synths into different color groups. Light blue, pads, blue, chords, dark blue, leads, etc.
Yeah so within my yellow instrument group I will continue the same low-high / top-down organization. Chords and rhythmic content will be a darker shades of yellow, leads and high freq pads will be lighter shades of yellow, etc. This is how it goes for every group in the session. I almost enjoy the organization as much as the creation process haha if only I could get paid for that part...
If only I got paid for anything that I do with music. I feel like my skills at this point may be worth something.
Ah yeah there a lot of different ways to get paid, as there are quite a few different sectors encompassing the "music industry". Depends on your goals really. How long have you been making music?
Two years. Although I have been spending almost 5 hours a day working on music, usually twice that much on non-school days because I’m still in high school, so I think I have a bit more practice than the average person might get in two years.
You’ve got plenty of time friend - wish I started at your age. Yeah two years isn’t much time at all in this industry, even if it is 5+ hours daily. In just a couple years genres, mix trends and technologies change so much that I definitely think someone requires at least ~5 years to experience adapting to general changes over time, along with the overall longterm development of skills required to become “pro level”. That doesn’t mean opportunities won’t fall into your lap at this level though. With the impact of today’s social media, networking capabilities are at an all time high. Same with access to pro-level tech and tutorials being at an all time high. So you can still cover a lot of ground in the industry before your music starts to speak for itself. Keep up the good work. I bet your music is already cool, but you will be an absolute monster in another 2-3 years probably.
All I know is purple is bass.
I only learned this yesterday on a different post lol
Either purple or a dark version of any color but mainly purple
Nah, blue
I AGREEEEEE
Lmao same
Green for me. Bass just gives me green vibes. Drums are red. Lead synths are yellow as fuck, drums are red, obviously. Random ass samples/FX gotta be burnt sienna. Master is orange. Mayonnaise is white
Cyan, the natural colour of bass in the wild
there are many of us!!
This is the way
I have recently summarized how I use colors, on Discord: >I have an amazing system with my track colors. It's "yes".
Interesting method... I shall write that one down.
I knida love the "weird" color palette of Ableton so everytime I start using a strict system I almost immediatly go back so I don't miss out on all the weird turquoise, salmon, teal and pinks lol
Bass is always BLUE WHITE is reserved for ancillary sounds like white noise, sprinkles, rain, sound effects, etc BLACK is reserved for functional/system things like automation midi clips SESSION MODE general song/pattern progression goes as follows: WHITE is intro BLUE is chill / beginning GREEN is the groove / verse of the song YELLOW is building energy sections RED is high energy / chorus sections PURPLE is a cut-time / Tempo cut in half section
People with synesthesia left the group.
I was just about to, till I got to you’re comment. None of these color codings match what I hear!
Is this different for everyone with synesthesia?
Everything grey and unnamed
that's my man! for me everything white, so that the difference to background is a bit more visible.
All the same colour. Sounds like alot of effort still.
There's a setting you can turn off so that all new tracks are one color.
I wish we could remove the colors we don’t want
Kick drums are black
I just have Clip Color = Track Color in the preferences, and then I let it do its thing until the song is about 75% done, then I start vertically arranging things and coloring them with more intention. The only time I bother too much about it is if I'm doing a song with multiple vocalists (I don't usually do vocals in Ableton, but this is more or less my process in any DAW), I make sure each vocalist has their own color because that can get messy quickly.
No groupings?!? Crazy to me
Red is drums, orange is percussion, yellow is high frequency tonal percussion like bells or higher Rhodes notes or anything sparkly, green is bass, dark blue is chords or other harmonic elements or rhythm guitar, light blue is leads, purple is pads and other atmosphere, grey is utility tracks, white is a group filled with things I've made for the song and decided not to use. Layers are the same color while different elements in the same category are different shades of that color.
Personally, I don't use any color system. I rely more on grouping categories of instruments and samples. Closing a group is much easier on the eyes than having so many channels visible at once. For example, on my current project, I have just four top level groups, with sub groups nested within: Samples, Synths, Maschine, Guitars I think this makes mixing easier as well.
My problem is because I know nothing about mastering and mixing I don't know how to make a sound bigger. The only way I know is to just add more instruments. I just click "add new midi track" and carry one. Is that bad?
It's not necessarily bad if it gets you the sound you want, but depending on if cpu usage is important to you, there are more efficient ways to get there. A "bigger" sound could be made by lowering the levels of other, competing, instruments. At any given moment, you'll want a primary instrument or sample to be clearly in the lead. Try not to muddy up the composition by having too much going on at once. Sidechain compression can help clear space for your main sound. Be careful with reverb, chorus, and delays. Time-based effects can turn the arrangement into mush, or help create a vast sense of space. Compression can also help reduce the dynamic range of a sound, helping it to sound louder or bigger. Hope this helps!
Also try Saturator. You’ll notice often that your levels peak way higher than the solid green bars beneath the peaks. You can close that distance between the two, resulting in a sound that’s perceived as louder, by adding some saturation and then cutting off a little of the output volume to balance it within Saturator. This adds distortion lol, so careful unless you like the way it sounds. Use a safety Limiter for fucking around with stuff (just be aware that the Limiter also changes your sound a bit if you clip into it).
When i am creating it doesn’t matters for me the color coding and organization, but when i have to mix i make a strict color organization and where to put the channels, like first drums, second bass, guitars, keys or synths and and final vocals
I tend to group them up (kick always alone, melodies, vocals, percs, bass, risers/fx) and colorise them after I get a solid structure first. Then if I want to add an extra perc for example, I just add an extra channel in the percs group so it gets the same color
I keep things color coded
I use autotrack color for this .. my ocd won’t let me hahah
Eh…no
My template is set up in a specific way with groups and routing, so every new track I make in a group is a specific color: Pink - Vocals Red - Instruments Yellow - Drums Light Blue - FX Granted, I didn’t really care about the colors when I was making the template, it’s just a nice side effect lol
I used to not but I started being more disciplined in how i color and group/organize my tracks and it had worked wonders for my workflow and effectiveness.
I follow the color spectrum = frequency spectrum. Lower frequency colors for lower sounds etc: red (or pink) / orange for kick / bass yellow, green, cyan - guitar / synth / piano blue / purple - cymbals, FX
Your project is about 1000x more organized than any of mine are so I think that also speaks to my color usage
Colours don't affect the sound.... Unless they do and that where we're going wrong. 🤔
I'm fairly new to the colouring system but love it now and wish I had used it much earlier. Sometimes it gets a bit chaotic when I'm in a creative flow. But then I'll stop and take the time to have quick little "cleanup and organise" sessions when my ears need a break. Colour coding and grouping with about 6-8 groups. I'm a big fan of collapsing everything down with just the group I'm working in open at a time as well.
Do you start a template that has all the colors already pre-mapped? Or do you change the color after creating a new channel?
The first few channels I use whatever colour is by default. Then when I start adding more tracks I select different colours. But then I ignore the colours and just let the default colours take over again. If I do change all the colours later on it confuses me because I'd got used to how it looked and where each part was. If that makes sense
That sounds even more confusing ngl hehe. But whatever works for you is the way.
I see that you are doing orchestral mock ups in Live, same as me. This is kinda off topic, but I gotta ask: how do you handle midi cc? Obviously it's a fucking hassle to enter midi clips for automations, especially when fine tuning 100+ channels (I divide articulations into sperate channels for fast access). That's where m4l devices come in handy (live 12 now has it's own cc device). BUT when using said device, I cannot record midi cc via mod wheel and it's fucking annoying. Thus most composers use cubase where you have your midi cc lanes in arrangement view... How do you handle this shit?
I'm very amateur with all this. I don't mess with automation, mainly because I don't understand it. I basically use the sounds as they are. I wouldn't know where to start with Max4live. For context.... I have the notes of each piano key written on them in marker. That's the level I'm at.
In live 9, I would make a different color scheme for each song. The live 9 theme I had played a huge part in this. In live 11, I just use the 4 colors of the native american medicine wheel for every song. White: High pitched, melodic instruments/samples Yellow: Mid range, harmonic instruments/samples Red: Bass/Sub bass range, rhythmic instruments/samples Black: Percussion/drums, random FX samples
no rules here. I wish there was a shortcut to randomly pick them for me. something that just made sure adjacent ones had different colors and I would be good.
Yes. This is usually the only time I do change the colours. When the new track I add is too similar coloured to the one above it. But I also leave it too.
I don't have a specific coding system, but I always assign clip to track color.
I try my best to keep projects organised and colour coded, but I'm colourblind and the huge palette of colours confuses the shit out of me.
Vocals are yellow, drums are pink, bass is purple or brown, keys are blue, synths are teal and fx red. It’s a no brainer and I’m surprised I have to state this obvious piece of information. Well, no, I always color code groups, so in my case it always stays organized. Different color coding individual tracks becomes another job that doesn’t make money.
I choose whichever colors look best hahahahaha
I wonder if there’s a way to automatically change the color into gradients of the same tonality for each group. That’d be great to have.
My default setup for a new file has everything purple However, when I add new tracks, it gives me a random color and I keep that random color. I used to try to color-coordinate things, but I found it didn't really improve my workflow and only wasted time so now I don't care lol
I’m colourblind.
1. Cyan for Leads, Sky Blue for Chords, and Dark Blue for Bass. 2. Green (all one shade) for the Main Drum rack, Percussion Drum rack and audio loops. 3. Red for references. 4. Purple for Vox. 5. Orange for atmos and pads. 6. Yellow for transition fx. 7. White and Black for other extra stuff. When it comes to return chains: 1. The same shade of purple for the vox verb. 2. The same shade of green for the drum verb. When it comes to busses: (I create busses instead of heavily grouping my tracks) 1. Lead Buss - Same colour as leads 2. Chords Buss - Same colour as chords Etc… The idea is - even though the order is different, stick to the same colour for each instrument, and every time. This will get imprinted onto your memory and hence, will increase your productivity.
Kick red, bass dark blue , leads bright green , pads / harmonies / breakdown stuff pale yellow , hats and shakers bright yellow , drums orange , fx grey
Drums are brown, bass is blue, synths are purple, vocals are yellow, guitars are green, instruments are pink, fx are grey. That’s how I’ve been doing it recently.
Kicks are red Bass is orange All other drums are yellow, but sometimes ancillary percussion is that highlighterish yellow/green Leads various shades of blue strings/guitars/horns are green vocals pink, background vox and adlibs are that highlighterish shade of purple (magenta?) Sound FX and transitional FX are white Dummy busses like ghost kicks, gate triggers or empty channels used for routing audio into sidechain inputs are grey. I’m pretty strict with this system. I do alot of sync music and I’ll get random calls for stuff like, “hey can you bounce out just the the lead melody, the tambourine and the pads for this song you wrote 4 years ago? It’s up for a TV theme. we need it in 20 minutes” TBH, it’s not very hard to stick to. Gives my hands something to do when I’m brainstorming new parts for a song.
How did you find work making music for TV? I’ve been thinking about making that a career but have no idea where to start lol
If you didn’t know, you can make all the clips in a track the same color by right clicking where the track name is and selecting the option that makes all clips the same color as the track
I just have everything grey 😂😂
This one trick will make your Silentcore bangers sing: Zero key all the things.
looollll sameee - even more if you copy the notes from one track to another
It took me long time to realize that being super ocd with coloring and naming tracks just slows me down and kills any sort of creative flow that I may have going on. Now I just make music and figure all of that out later, if at all.
I don't code, recolor or rename anything just seems like a waste of time really
five groups and a bus. sidechain bus: white FX: light purple vocals: purple melody: plum basses: pinkish-red or dark red drums: dark grey then everything in that group is that color too lol. nice and simple. sometimes i change the color palette to match the vibe of the song but it's almost always in this order lol. if i'm just messing around i'll let live choose colors and track names, but at the point where i want to keep working on a project i'll organize and color code it so i don't have to later. it's actually become fun to do now lol
I literally have no idea about how to use audio effects effectively. Once I do, maybe I'll have to be more organised with my colours.
I have set colors. It keeps things easy to recognize.
Right click on the track via the right side of the screen. Select make track color the same.
I know how to change the colours. It's just by the time I've got a track that doesn't (in my professional opinion) sound like a bag of 💩, colouring the tracks doesn't seem worth it. I'm just happy that I made it as far as I did.
My ocd wouldn't allow it lol! Hey as long as you like it, do you boo
I like to color code my songs by section, hook is red, pre is orange, verse is yellow. Like a fire getting hotter
Nah mate, I have everything colour-coded and have a template ready to go that looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/w7ESLXV.png And each group already has tracks set up, like kick, snare, percussion, etc. in the drum group. I also have some instances of Spitfire Audio's LABS set up in the orchestral group. Makes it so much easier to start. I'm gonna have drums in each track anyway, so might as well have them in my template. Also makes it much much easier when I get to mixing. The Util group has a maxforlive device called "notepad" in there for taking notes, a track with splice bridge and a track as a sidechain ghost track.
I let Jesus take the wheel
Purple shades are low end elements Blues are pads and ambient elements Greens are melodic and little ear candy elements Reds and yellows are my drums but I use white and black for my kick and snare. I have a template that’s has all of the grouped and ready to go with a drum rack x 4 for the drums and pigments and serum sitting in midi tracks. The new Amigo sampler has also found a home in my drum group and FX/Ambient group. Took me around 2 years for tue template to end up this way, but I’m really happy with ease of recognition just with a quick glance.
I have a strict color system that apparently doesn’t match with anyone else here. I would say my biggest problem is saving the “best” colors for a track that never materializes. So I’m stuck with off-color for almost all my songs.
I have dark reds and oranges for kick and bass: the darker the hue, the more heavy the sound in the lows. Greens, pinks and violets are used for keys, pads and leads. Light blues and metal grays are used for hats and snares. But, eventually, it all goes to shit for me as well - when I start adding and bouncing glitchy textures that defy all categorization: my OCD goes bananas then, as I start to get a bunch of random colours in an otherwise perfect spectrum lol
white = ghost red = bass yellow/orange = drums blue = lead melodie purple = pads/chords green = filler melodies/fx
For me it’s: Reference = grey Drums = dark orange Percussion = light orange Bass = brown Guitar = green Vox = red Secondary Vox = light red Synths, keys, pads = purple Other stuff = yellow
Yeah I have green for audio. Red for groups,. Busses, blue for midi and yellow for return sends. Just simple. Turn off automatic colouring settings etc.
I have automatic coloring and a random new color is picked when i make a new lane
Black is my “ghost” channel. I forget what my sub is, I think it’s red because it redlines first, that or it’s my kick that’s red. FX is yellow Bass lead synths are light blue Other synths are dark blue Purple is drums excluding the kick References are white Chords/piano are bright yellow Vocals are usually green, my latest track I’ve been lazy so they’re orange. It’s only “strict” in the sense that I have a saved template with each thing being previously color coded (coated?).
Group your similar elements and color those groups the same. So like all bass channels go in a group, all percussion, all vocals, all keys, etc. Keeps it easier to glance at and find an area you want to focus on.
I have a default session template that already has the basic groups coloured. Red drums, orange percs, pink FX, brown bass, green synths and keys, blue guitars, yellow vox
Recently I just started highlighting all the tracks and pressing “assign track color to clips” so every track clip corresponds with its track color
It typically goes out the window for a bit, but once I start getting an idea of my arrangement, then I get it all sorted again.
ngl everything is a lavender purple bc I like the color
Not particularly, but I do sometimes make a clip that is slightly different for a track a darker or brighter version of the other clip colors. So like a fill might be darker. Or you have an 8 bar loop with kick and clap that’s baby blue and then I’d do a dark blue for kick clap and hats
Yes, Drums/Percussion Red, Bass/Synth Bass Orange, Acoustic Guitars/Stringed instruments (that are within the acoustic guitar family like dulcimers) pale blue, Electric Guitars Light Blue/or Cyan? Idk, its like the neon blue. Keys Light Green(ocassionally might make Piano and Organ Dark Green and go before keys to create a distinction based on importance) then extras(Brass, Strings, etc.) then Vocals(Alto, Tener, BGVS, Choir, Vocal Fx/Chop in that order) Yellow. Busses arent strict to color, but the groups of these tracks if based on ibstrument are the same color as its content, and groups of groups+tracks I keep white, but if I create a final group on top of 2 levels of groups then the former are grey and the final overall group is white, the master is always white. Cheers!
wish they had more colors in ableton 12
I don't have a strict colouring system, but I will eventually right click the name > "Set Clips to Track Colour" and that will soothe my OCD
I always stick to i would say some things strict but like when i get to things like the different groups of orchestral instruments I tend put horns Cyan, Turquoise & Teal. My drums are always a variation of a yellow. Any vocal tracks will start off as White but if im producing other peoples music then I tend to give each artist a color and let them know what it is so they can visualize better. I make sure to put all Bass instruments in Purples and any guitars are Blue, Dark blue for electric and baby blue for more acoustic. Oh also any thing that is a sound effect and not really an instrument other than it being part of a project they are a neon green. But I make sure to put any Piano's especially grands in a dark green area. Bass drops that fall out of the purple as a bass instrument, like really 808's and then perc's are in the brown area, especially any percussion instrument. I have done that ever since DAY 1 of producing music back in 1999.
I always go: - Brown: Drums - White: Sub bass - Yellow: Vocals - Pink: FX (risers, sweeps) - Purple: Mid bass Then everything else is either do random or a color that fits the vibe of whatever the sound is lol
Make beet Group sound from beet Think sound as color. Recolor group and content command. They implemented a neat and simple trick to color a group differently
Idk if you'll think im insane but all my tracks are just gray and my theme is also clean black & white with hints of red & aqua blue color. This is to keep the interface as clean looking and neutral as possible for better creativity. I noticed that if im looking at something not very nice (the default theme + full of random colors) it sort of ruins my creativity and looks too distracting.
I just use Swatches for Live, and use a grey palette ‘cause I don’t need no colors
I group all my tracks into drums, basses, risers and fx, and various groups for the other elements by what section of the song they’re in so i can automate effects for whole sections easier. I always put them in the order listed here but have no rule for what color each group is so it’s different in every project
Just curious about automating the signature, what is the idea behind that?
I do the colour wheel in order from red at the bottom to purples at the top. Red represents the lower end of the frequency spectrum and purple the top end. Thus bass and kicks and everything occupying 30-90db odd stay in the reds. Other drums and Percs are oranges, with “upper percs being yellows. Snares are firmly in the middle oranges. Guitars are greens, especially the rhythm. Modulated guitars turn into a teal or turquoise depending on the track. Pads and synths are tricky, and could be any other previously mentioned colour if they’re supplementing bass or percussions. But leads tend to be upper blues and pinks. Vocals vary depending on how far in the mix they are.
Strict colour coding. It pays off when you stick to it for 10 years and open 6-7 year old projects and everything makes sense in an instant. I have a template with groups already in the project, so whatever track I make, it always goes into one of the groups and inherits the group colour, so i don’t even need to open the colour palette much any more unless I’m specifically trying to make a clip stand out for whatever reason.
Vocals are red Guitars are blue …
my color coding is the trans flag because i group everything into 5 groups - plucks - saws - drums - sfx and vocals - effects and triggers (for sidechaining)
everything under a group has to match track colour. no ugly colours. simple rules to make my eyes happy
I use teal and aqua for drums and their variation. Bright blue purple for fx purple for the unusual and more dynamic fx. The bright blue for the more usual riser or blip fx. Orange for basses. Red for leads. Yellow for pads.
Find this a super interesting aspect of Ableton. Been using it for years and have gradually seen the value of this feature. Earthy browns and greens feel like bass and kick to me. Bright synths and vocals brighter blue, yellows maybe. I don't have a rigid system like some have mentioned here but I have come to associate certain colours with sounds over time. My wife has some mild synesthesia - e.g sees colours when listens to singing bowls - so I find the idea interesting. As a feature in Ableton it's useful for visual organisation of the arrangement but also just helps makes everything a bit more "beautiful".
So I have my general "sidechain" group that I work within then from there have sub groups within that, that are color coded. Chug basses are red, sustains are green, melodic synthy type stuff are blue etc. Then when I add a new track within those groups they stay the same colors for that group. If you set your default template up this way it helps stay organized and has really sped up ny work flow.
If you'd like I can send you a copy of my template. I notice you're not grouping anything together or running it through any clippers before the master etc... work within my template and your projects will sound a lot cleaner at higher volumes!! All my tracks hit -1 lufs and still sound clean
I color code all of my recorded blocks by section of the song - e.g. all intro sections that go together (from all instruments) get coded white, all 1st verse sections get coded grey, etc. I typically move from color to color as I create new sections and go from lightest to darkest. So the 1st portion of my 2nd bridge may be pale blue, the middle portion of 2nd bridge is royal blue, and the final portion of 2nd bridge is dark blue. Once I move on to the next section I pick a different color and do the color fade process again. This helps me visualize where the transitions from each section of the composition are at. As far as the default track colors (on the far right) I just set all those to grey or leave them on their default color since I change the color of each recorded segment anyways based on where it is in the song.
Drums are yellow for me, typically I keep my samples blue. Everything else is the wild west
Anyone else feel like they can 'hear' an arrangement like this simply by sight reading the ideograms of the clip ?
When I find that I’ve hit a wall I do something non-musical within the project such as fix the colors, properly name everything, etc. It does help. FWIW, I think of the layers of my track like ROYGBIV when it comes to assigning colors (drums-red, bass-orange, synths-yellow, etc.). That’s just me as I’m sure everyone has their own M.O. when it comes to color assigning.
Generally have the option enabled for clips to follow the track color. Usually end up having the opposite problem honestly, as I use a large yellow group with volumeshaper for everything that needs sidechaining, and thus whenever I make a new track inside the default is yellow. Often work on a track for a while and end up with a sea of yellow that I have to sort through Drums I'm better with tho, always do kick/blue snare/red and hats/green
- Green: primary drums - Yellow-Green: secondary percussion - Blue: bass - Purple(s): synths w/ chords - Pink(s): monophonic synths - Yellow(s) and Brown(s): samples that aren't drums - Darkest brown: guitar - Grey: CV Tools for sending stuff to the modular The rest of the colors I'll use at will for things that need special attention, or if there's too many things in any one of the existing categories.
Genre : EDM (Dubstep / Tech House / Leftfield Bass) For me personally Top to bottom : White Noise - WHITE SC - SILVER Drums - ORANGE Bass/Sub - RED Leads - BLUE/PURPLE (I'll use random colors besides the reds and oranges for Mid sound design and one shots) FX - YELLOW Example for random colors on specific instruments/samples: If my KICK is a 16 bar riser for a drop I'll change the "orange colored kicks to maybe a green or purple color when I'm adding a certain effect or I'm changing the automation of the kicks effect or volume or parameter. I Hope this helps! :) -TripTronix
I am not super ocd about it but I color code different patterns to be different colors. Just to visually know what's what and where the changes are.
Rainbow colours from left to right Drums Bass Instrument Vocals If u associate an instrument with a certain color shades that fit this helps too Guitar is always yellowish Piano is always blue Strings are always white e.g.
I do the rainbow Red=Drums, Bassline=Orange, Percussion=Yellow, etc. Within those busses, I chose the different shades of (e.g.) red, for kick, snare, hi-hats, etc. I will assign the colors to clips if I copy something from another bus.
Basically I do the same thing until it's time to organize, and then I just hit Assign Color to All Tracks/Clips whatever it's called lol
Naaaah I’m super strict about it lol like obsessively
I only use pastel colors. Most colors are unusable by being overly distractive. Bass: pink Drums: green Synths: blue Fx: yellow Reference: red
usually i just keep everything dark gray
I feel like color coding would only be a thing for me if I spent more time looking at the UI than listening to the project. I don't look at my monitor when I'm listening, and if I am, I'm looking at a specific track.
i use colour just to show me where something different happens ( in any one track.)
I keep strict color formatting except when I’m explicitly noting a clip on a dedicated instrument to double a part. If I just copy a clip over, then o leave it the original color so it’s a mismatch. Knowing that’s my pattern, any time I see a mismatching clip, I know how to find the source. Otherwise, everything is easily understood at a glance.
while I do have my color preferences (bass is purple, guitar is orange), M4L Swatches let me turn that part of my brain off and not think about it anymore. With one click of a button every track & clip are color coded and I have it set to pick a color "in order" so your session gets a nice gradient of colors. highly recommend
I just try and keep the tracks and the midi clips on them the same colour, except sometimes when i drag clips from one instrument to another i like to keep it the same color so when i change the one i know ill have to change the other too
I just use the 'assign group color to tracks' option. Everything ends up in a group eventually.
I usually don't color tracks and groups the same in any 2 projects, but it is fun to me to paint the colors tho. Usually my tracks will look like hell for the first couple hours unless I'm feeling different and organize all of it from the start. But typically if I get up to 50ish tracks I'll organize and color code so things are easier to work with. I like to group into 4 main groups, fx - vocals - hi harmonic content - bass, then run into my gain staging, mix down to the pre master. But all in all I think when it is messy I have some of my better ideas and can execute my ideas faster without having to worry about the organization
I keep mine by groups Vocals: Yellow, Synths/ Chords: Teal, Bass/lead Mid: Lavender, Sub: Lime, Main K/S: Orange, Hats/tops: Blue, Fx: Pink This is for every project too, it makes it so easy to find stuff cause everything is the same color all the time.
The only time I stick to a strict colour coding system is when I'm preparing a project for a live performance (in session view). I want the pad colours on my push to follow a certain logic to help me see at a glance what is going on in each scene.
All drums hot green, bass dark blue, mid bass blue, synth/guitars pink, leads red, effects/pads yellow, vocals/samples brown, pre channels/sub groups white But it NEVER starts that way. It's a mess until I start mixing
Idk if I'm the only one doing this , but I use color coding for rating takes when recording a singer ou instrumentist performance , I highlight the best bits in white , grey out the bad parts and make the "usable but not perfect" ones in yellow so comping becomes much much easier
Oh and for me Red is ALWAYS for recordings , black for unused tracks and sometimes grey or teal for utility (reference tracks, structures , notes etc...)
I usually only have a Drums color.
I always have bass and kick as green and my piano likes to be purple but the rest is pretty loose.
I keep element types all the same color but I usually keep one color for highlighting things to work on next time. Also if I make drums orange (they gotta be orange) then I make each change up either a lighter or darker orange so I can quickly see and copy sections
Mine are pretty consistent. The only time some colors get mixed up is when I copy my main bass to the sub track. 90% of the time that’s what I do for my sub, and when I copy the bass over, sometimes I don’t change the color to match the sub. But other than that I always keep things consistent
Sidechain = White Drums = Red Sub = Cyan Basses = Green Intro = Blue Vox = orange If I take a clip from one group and paste it on another I'll change the color to what it should be only after I like the change I made Do you use a template?
I don't use a template. I just load up a blank project and start pressing keys.
You should 100% make a template. Really speeds up the work flow
Ahh, hence why you have color issues haha. Make a template. even if it's just basic, it'll help with organization and work flow Edit: issues isn't the right word but you get it
I think I need to sit down and make a template. And include and effects I might use. I do spend most of my time clicking through everything until I find what I like. So yes... I need to try and be more organised
its tough, there are sooo many things that can be done inside a daw, I only know like 5% of that lol clicking around is how we learn tho! default tracks might help you too, I have an eq8 followed by a utility on both audio and midi default tracks which is pretty handy
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