I'm thinking that there's probably a happy medium: Have a mixing template with - say - your three favorite channel strips - a few of your go-to comps and reverbs already sitting on your tracks but bypassed. Then you can A/B them as you go. It seems you would have the best of both worlds: efficiency-of-time AND creative options. Just my two cents.

I never used a mix template before but I have always watched people how they organize their mixes and their approaches in mixing. They can be good but I would hate to be stuck in a system doing the same EQ cuts and boosts, using the same plugins and everything else. Like you say, doing the same mixes can bore you. Good video by the way, I am totally with you on this! 😎

you bring up good points! i don’t think that a painter showcasing a set of works that have the same colors would be necessarily boring if they are very well done, consistency could be a good thing artistically as well. the thing for me is that i sort of need a formula of plugins/gear i can trust, a chain of processing that will give me good results across the board. for music creation I like experimenting till I love the song, but in the mixing and mastering phase I just need to get more consistent results because I do not own a pair of speakers worth thousands of dollars and i want to make sure that things translate with the headphones, earbuds, and speakers i own inside my studio.

Agree. I never use templates unless I'm mixing an entire album with a common theme. I use templates only for uniformity

Good perspective for someone just starting out. Great video!

in my early years a template was like my training wheels, i didnt want to stop using it. As time passed i become to realize how much has been limited due to the same use of plugins and familiarity. Since 2020 i only create blank sessions and go from there, theres more room to work and its always a suprise with each new session. great video i agree with you.

Very well said, Master 💪

I’ve started using one but in the way that you’d have a console and outboard gear setup. For example you’re almost always going to compress a snare and eq it. So I’ve spent the time narrowing down my favourite plugins for the job and each time I’d ’patch it in’ like you would in a studio. My settings are never the same. Always start from scratch but I’m going to load an eq and compressor anyway so may as well save me that time. Then any other ‘on the fly’ creative stuff I still leave room for. I was careful not to box myself in but this is working great for me.

I use a template depending on the scenario. If I’m doing an album I’ll use a template. If I’m targeting a genre I have more general templates because people want what they heard from a previous song I did in that genre

Great video - and to your point, the effort to setup a template once you’ve imported the audio isn’t that hard. And I agree - a template doesn’t necessarily help you ask “what’s right for this track?” …. I know you’ll likely get some flack over this video but I like the approach you’re advocating… Cheers.

I have been using the same colours/routing/system for nearly 30 years. My mixing template is truly bonkers it's that big. But my templating system is different from the masses. I have no plugins in it. It's just routing, colours, VCAs etc etc. Everything is there ready to go and ready to populate with whatever plugins my creativity desires at that time. It's like building a console in a way. We never had to build our console before using it in the "good ol days". I have a theory. Every time you have to leave that creative half of your brain to complete a technical task (and then go back to your creative side again) you pay what I call a "transfer fee". A small amount of time where the brain resets itself to process the next thoughts and actions we take. I have seen engineers lose their creative path with mixing issues as they route, name, colour, move, check for pre/post fader etc, etc, etc. "What was that idea/setting/technique I was embarking on again??". Especially with projects that have track counts in the hundreds. My goal is to leave my creative side as little as possible. There is no situation where I have to route, colour etc, etc. And I only use around 30 percent of what is actually in my template. I hide or delete what is not needed. It's quicker and easier to delete what is not needed, rather than construct what is I believe. And remember people, I have NO plugins inserted, it's just routing (472 tracks of routing though lol). This will be one of the first subjects I discuss on my channel, which should be up by the end of this month, all going well. BTW, I love your sound too bud, and if you're ever up in FNQ hit me up. Cairns is a great place for fam bam holidays and we'd be more than happy to show you around. Andrew, Studio Bungalow.

Using templates isn’t about replicating sounds or creating shortcuts. It’s about getting the mindless tasks out of the way to get you into a creative headspace quicker. Creative mixing doesn’t come from choosing different plug ins albeit being a fun an experimental process. However, mixing creatively is a mindset. It’s a skill you need to practice. Some of the top mixers work in an analog domain in which their tools are inevitably limited. However their creative approach towards mixing transcends the gear and relies completely on their vision. Frankly, I think starting your mix from scratch every time is inefficient and creatively draining. Nothing kills my vibe more than having to route, colour code and group 50-100 tracks and loading a plugin chain on each track.

Completely agree with you. I tried to use templates but in one way templates makes me feel scared and boxy lol. I definitively prefer starting from scratch...And we have to keep in my mind that each project and song have its own color and its own soul, so always using the same template make everything very artificial.

I've never tried using one , I have a pretty clean sound, but I'm still learning ... I use presonus hardware and studio one 6.5 pro , I use almost everything Ik multimedia has , midi instruments , Amplitube 5 and Tonex layered with a mic'd cab , sounds super amazing , the best thing I've learned lately was how to cut the right frequencies for that clean separated sound.. I have a thing set up thar has my basics already loaded like u explained , and it does help.... specially when inspiration strikes , click and go

Not really, I like creating and experimenting on mixing and using new and old plugin, getting better at it, I do tend to rush process in recording and mixing certain individual tracks, not thinking I should have all tracks loaded then start mixing collectively. But I agree to not having preset mixing templates… be creative not complacence.

I've never had a template. I mix like it's tape. Start from scratch.

I respect and understand your perspective, but personally, having a template helps me stay out of the rabbit hole, which, in my case, completely disrupts the creative process of 'shaping' sound with a few but selected tools. Taking the metaphor of a painter, I see plugins that do similar things more as shades of the same color, not as different colors. Ciao!

Thanks for sharing your opinion. But a blank canvas isn’t always helpful for creativity. Having clear boundaries and tools can increase creativity more & increase productivity & inventiveness. You assume this process is gonna make things more fun or creative and it’s not true. Especially in considering engineering, finding a tool you trust is important. And some of the most creative engineers I can think of (Jeff Ellis for example) don’t use a template but use the original session from the artist. He budgets for buying every DAW & plug-in and by doing so he learns new plugins but doesn’t waste time in creating templates from scratch. In fact, many industry engineers will do this. I personally have tools that I love and trust and my creativity is centered on how I learn those well and get creative in my use of those with different projects. Simply using some other tool for mixing & production arguably doesn’t say very much about the creativity of the user. It’s just a different plug-in, so it’s going to sound different. But in mixing, producers & artists aren’t look for their content to sound different, they’re committed to the rough and just want it to sound heightened & quality checked.

I use a "mixing template", but it doesn't have any processing, I just use it to have all the routings set and speed up that process. So it is not a mix template.

Is about brain power management

I hesitate to disagree with you, because it never (rarely) happens, and this might be "disagree light" or a very nuanced conversation which I'd LOVE to have with you!....BUT... My analytical brain used to think the exact same thing about five or six years ago, and then, my creative brain for whatever reason gave having a template a try after I had somewhat of an epiphany. To use my all too common analogy of the tradesperson or the chef. They find the tools that work really well for them, and often the decision to use those tools might be as simple as they are really great quality tools that do a job reliably and well and from a pragmatic point of view, might be affordable to use, break and then replace or have a really great warranty. The woodworker has the tools that they know really well, and the interesting and slightly unpredictable piece of wood is the thing that makes the woodworkers creative brain make a new fresh decision based on all of their experience. In the same way, the chef uses all the same knives and blenders and wooden spoons that they know and love, but when the new ingredients comes in or they can't get the ingredients because it's out of season, they come up with a creative way to work around it. You, my friend are a fantastic drummer, and I guarantee that you have a really great ergonomically way to set up a drum kit that makes you play really well, and with all your experience, you could close your eyes and be creative and play up a storm. And this is because you have all of those 10,000+ hours banked and the technicals of the instrument get out of your way and you're just in flow. You can change out a snare drum to get a different vibe for a song or deaden your toms to get a 70's vibe but unless you want to waste a whole bunch of time I bet you aren't changing out the bulk of your kit you know and love. I've worked with lots of "legacy artists" that have a few main "flavoured" guitars and amps that they know inside and out and they use them so they aren't thinking about the technical and just thinking about the creative. Long, story even longer, I probably should've made this a video....but I think your analytical brain is overriding your creative one on this idea. Mine did too for so long. So the moral of this ridiculously long winded story is if you find the tools that you love and get all of the analytical crap out of the way then the tools become second nature under your hands, just like when you play the drums or guitar or anything that you are proficient at. You leave your brain open to just have the creative thought. Your analytical brain is telling you that this is totally counterintuitive I know… But a template that has all of your bus rooting, some short reverbs and delays, some medium reverb and delays, and some long reverb and delays and some channel strips, compressors, eq's (set flat like we used to do in an anosluge studio....reset the board") that you know REALLY WELL are there ready to go and drag files into OR the opposite, they're ready to import into a client file that would be more trouble than it's worth to mess with and start again. Like the tradie or the chef, It just becomes a shortcut. The great quality tools you know really well, that have become second nature and you know all of the flavours you can choose from to get you to a creative idea quickly. And just like the "working horse drum kit & changing out the snare" analogy you by your very nature as a creative curious person will all be looking for new tools to add and change within your template, but you will always have your meat and potatoes tools that will do the bulk of the heavy lifting to get the boring stuff out of the way so you can get more time for the fun stuff. It's just a coming at the same problem from the opposite direction... not seeing the "standard tools" or the "boring method" as stifling your creativity, but as making the analytical stuff second nature and getting out of the way to enable your creativity. You do all the analytical mucking around with the new tools in your spare time, and if you like anything you throw it into your template and give it a try in the next batch of work you're working on so you're not wasting any time with something new when you're in a creative flow.

Billy Decker strongly disagree 😂

Templates makes everyone sounds the same :)