Thanks Matt... I have found that I have gone back and forth from complicated to simple templates and have, since Live 12, landed on a few specifics that help my workflow better. My default template (when Live loads) is a very simple Session view that has 1 midi track @ -6db, 1 audio track @ -6db, and reverb(with a utility on it)/delay returns + a bounce in place bus, with span on the master - and that's it. This is what I like to call my idea playground. Then if I want to work it further, I can pull it into my standard Arrangement template, which is still pretty simple, but has a few more buses, including a mix bus, and more tracks that further divide up into bus sections for each. My default midi and audio tracks are all @ -6db. I also have a reference track (with a utility on it set @ -12db), a midi arrangement track for making colors, an SC trigger, a couple of BiP lanes, etc. I typically don't put anything on either of these templates master, except span. However, I have a saved rack for mixing, that I drop on my master, once I get there. Racks are so helpful! I typically do mix downs, as a second save of the project, so I can go back and fix things - so its important to save variations - I often do this and each track typically has versioning, as I am a nerd. Plus I can go back and listen again, after my ears have had a break. Finally, I have a mastering template, that I pull in my mixed bounce into and work from that. This mastering template has SmartLimit on a Pre-Master track (so its easy to turn on and off so I can triple check things on my headphones) and all of mastering chain on the master. Everything on my master is turned off when I load it, as I take an additive approach to mastering. I have kept all my complicated templates and still sometimes use one, but sometimes I wonder what I was doing, when I created that. Yes - I am constantly changing and evolving these templates. However - from the start, I like things to be really really simple, as I know what I need and all the clutter seems to slow me down, at the start. On a side note, I organize my Live projects by - Artist and then - 1. Ideas 2. InProgress 3. Working 4. Mastering 5. Completed 6. InTheWild. I keep versioning in each song's folder, so the whole folder moves from Idea to InProgress (still not a completed song) to Working (meaning its a complete song - but needs stuff or I am mixing) to Mastering to Completed to (not always) InTheWild. InTheWild is you guessed it - submitted if it is mine or back to whoever I am working with. I do not work with any labels - cause labels are bad, mmkay. When I say submitted - I have it on the streaming services earning my .1% of pennies. Not a clue why I submit them, other than for others to enjoy or hate, as it ain't about the money. I simply enjoy making music.

Thank you so much!! An Ableton monitoring tutorial would be amazing❤

Your template is pretty similar to mine, only all my groups are sent to a premaster, no instruments are loaded up, and my processing is neutral and turned off until I need it, whether serial or parallel. Also my master has ONLY metering plugins, that way if i resample audio its not hitting a master eq curve or limiter being double processed. but its self contained pre routing to the pre master where my limiter is.