Quirky organizational tactics?

[H8_Seed]

I know that everyone has their own way of organizing things so that they know what's going on at all times in their track. I know it's highly individual. However, do you guys do something that helps you organize that you don't think anybody else does?

It'd be easier to just give an example. For me, it's easier to lay out a track once I arrange it in Finale 2011. I don't know why, but for some reason, seeing it in actual musical notation as opposed to the pattern blocks of FL Studio makes it so much easier for me to crank out any given track in my experience. What about you?

[bartekko]

I usually color my clips according to what part are they playing in. (like- the intro drums/lead/bass midi's are colored white)

[H8_Seed]

I usually color my clips according to what part are they playing in. (like- the intro drums/lead/bass midi's are colored white)

I do color-code the different elements of my song (Bass is green, beat is red, lead is purple, etc.) but I figured that would be a more frequently-used tactic. I've definitely never heard of someone coloring their clips based on the part of the song though, that's very interesting

[[voodoopony]]

Up to down, I tend to have the sidechain on top [anything above the sidechain is unused], then the beat, then the kick-bass, bass, pad, lead[s], and misc fx. Nowadays I've gotten really into compression use and resampling, but same rules generally apply.

[Versilaryan]

All my stuff is horribly unorganized. xD The layers typically go in the order that the sound appears in the song. Eventually, though, I'll get irritated and spend an hour organizing everything into some arbitrary groupings. >.>

[Mundius]

I now started organizing different instruments to different tracks. It tends to get very hectic in my pattern playlist, with instruments intercrossing between each other at times.

50th post, woohoo.

[Facade]

Best organizational tactic:
COLORS!

[Kragt]

I organize the rack based on what comes in first. (It just happens to happen that way.) And I color code some stuff. Normally just enough for me to know that one thing is not another thing. I reserve crimson red and deep purples for editing. If its red I know I want to redo that specific part. Purple means I need to take a closer look at that part, but it may be passable.

Apart from this try to keep all the EQs and other addons to any instrument next to that instrument, just so I know that that EQ or device affects that instrument.

Also I keep possibly useable clips far far away to the right for when I mess with em. Most of the time they get stored away for furture use in other songs but mostly the sit there.

I think thats about it, everything else sits about randomly.

Forgive my spelling today, in a hurry.

[Dr_Dissonance]

seeing it in actual musical notation

This. I can churn out a good 3 minute piece in an hour or two using Sibelius and music notation...
Takes me far longer when looking at colourful blocks!

So yes, I keep everything in musical notation too!

[PinkieGuy]

Rhythm Guitar L
Rhythm Guitar R
Lead Guitar L
Lead Guitar R
Bass Guitar
Clean Guitar L
Clean Guitar R
Solo Guitar
Clean Solo
Drums
Vocals Clean
Vocals Harmony 1
Vocals Harmony 2
Screams
Growls
Samples
808 Kick drum
Synth Vsts

That's my order. It's ordered by "Most Commonly Used" to "Least Commonly used" for my metal tracks.

[ArtAttack]

Not so much an organizational thing, but I'll write a whole 16 measure dubstep drop with all the synths and drums (usually about 20 channels in all) in one pattern in FL studio. This leads to not much happening in the playlist XD

[Interrobang Pie]

Sometimes I do my songs in a sensible order. Sometimes...

Yeah none of you have no idea what this means.

As for FL, I always colour code my stuff - Bass is Blue, Leads are yeLLow, Shapes are Cyan (really pushing it there), and peRcussion is Red. Also I use purple for actual instruments and green for background stuff.

In the playlist editor I always put a channel for a plugin's notes and then a channel for the automation stuff. Even if I never use automation for that plugin.

Similarly, every plugin gets a channel in the mixer, even if I leave it as default and never apply any effect shits.

[zorg]

@i-pie: i kinda get that black n green thing...

hmm, anything i can think of is using one pattern per instrument most of the time, then (ab)using the slice tool in the playlist (and the slide tool too); it's amazing how you can alter existing data like that...

though if i have inspiration, i use one pattern for everything (maybe except drums) so i can see the ghost channels, then at the very end, i separate them into patterns by instrument.

or rarely, start with the separate short pattern method, and if then i get an idea, combine bits into a bigger part and so on... it really depends on the track and my mental status.

[bartekko]

Making a group of tracks really helps when you got like, 10 lead patches at once...