Hi all
How do you keep track of all your projects when they’re just works-in-progress?
For example, let’s say you have a tonne of half-finished stuff, one track just needs mixing, another needs to swap out the vocal sample for a guest vocal and a new bassline, another is only a 4-second loop for now, another has 20 things you need to fix, etc.
I know I could just put it in Excel, but has anyone got a better system that makes this bit of admin less painful, and turns it into a motivating ‘to-do’ list?
Thanks!
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
Comments
Ideas / projects get added to the list, with columns for certain criteria also added as the workload changes / increases.
I don't do it, probably should do it, and will try to make time to do it.
It is always possible to start doing it, and make it just another process to be done at the end of a session - keep it in the cloud so it is available from any device to allow notes to be added during listening sessions, and I would say that the google version of excel would be preferable.
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
Once its demo'd and the band commits to it it will then eventually make it onto a release where it will be totally retracked from scratch.
Eventually though that gets opened for the last time, every plugin removed, all tracked consolidated form zero point and all unused files deleted. Then it gets put in a folder called "for Ivan" and Wetransfered to the mix guy.
A know a couple of guys who use project management software for album making though and I'm sure they get things done smoother and more organised than i do.
When they're close enough to a track (or when I record a whole track, which is more the case recently), I'll save a rough mix and run it through the loudness plugin in Ozone to get it up to a standard sort of level, then add it to an appropriate playlist, which becomes a quasi-album. The tracks don't have to be finished - some don't have vocals or top lines, some are just demos of songs - but it's useful to put them into a context to hear them.
I'll play the album, put the tracks in a pleasing order and make notes on what to change in my to do list app. Any track I don't want to listen to at all gets shunted to another playlist for the runts and strays, in case I change my mind or think of a way to make it work.
When I listen to the album and don't have any notes left, it's done. Sometimes there'll be two or three versions of an "album" with different combinations of tracks and running orders.
It's useful to listen in a format where you can't actually make a change at that moment - much better to make a note, then when you open the file in the DAW listen to the multitrack and see whether the note is actually right. Often the issue you spot isn't an issue at all, or it can be addressed a different way.
When a track is changed, I re-export the mix and it replaces the old version in the playlist.
FYI, my DAW is Logic Pro X.
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
My B machine, for taking out and about, is a similarly creaking Asus Win 10 Zenbook, also running Reaper, but with less Ilok dependant plugins. Again, I try and keep it updated, but I think Windows is trying to kill it.
For all my general browsing and YT etc, I like to use a cheap Chromebook, which is where I have access to a spreadsheet.
This is how all my written stuff stays synced, through G drive, and this means I can access the files on any machine with a browser open, obviously Chrome.
I have been thinking for quite a while now, how to proceed when my MBP dies, and at least Apple have still made it an easy choice, with the M1 Mac mini, which seems pretty much unbeatable now.
No to digress too far, I'm really saying, I wouldn't touch MS Excel with a dirty bargepole, but the Google alternative does make it pretty easy to have a single, centralised document available wherever and whenever needed.
Off to start a nice template ready for my next project, and also to try and fill in some backdated stuff, thanks for the kick to do it.
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Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
I have started to work backwards from today with all the projects I have done this year, which isn't that much really, maybe 40, although I don't feel like I have been productive at all.
Quite interesting to see how many things start as little ideas, which get developed up to a point and then forgotten, so at least this idea of a database helps to at least help a good idea not go to waste.
I need anything to help inspiration these days, and the desire to have things organised is always there, still in the process of getting all the actual projects backed up, which is daunting when you see how long a few hundred gigs of data takes over USB.
The current plan is to get a printed copy to allow me to scribble while I am working, which will get input onto the document as and when, I have started this kind of thing before as a way to decide which projects to work on,which always seems to fizzle out. The desire to do 'new' stuff always seems to take precedent.
The Database project is something I highly recommend, very useful.
soundcloud.com/thecolourbox-1
youtube.com/@TheColourboxMusic
I thought it might be good to use colours in a similar way to the way I use them in Reaper, to make tracks easy to follow.
Copy and paste the coloured blocks to keep track of a project, and obviously more columns can be added, but the knock on is that it might not fit on an A4 Landscape and be readable.
I always use Magenta for my final mix bus, so at least I can see which projects have been 'completed', mix versions can just have a number added, and raw audio and raw midi can be further altered to raw REC, or imported MIDI, etc etc,
I do a lot of stuff with Stems, and usually a project will be completed from stems, so that is another sign that a project is nearing completion.
I managed to get this years work ( 40 projects) on the first sheet, and the second was just to give space for scribbling, I'm not sure how to sort projects yet, could be a use of the N ( number ) column, or dates maybe? but I have gone newest at top for now.
I am by no means good with spreadsheets, but there are probably millions of clever hidden features that can be incorporated, links to more detailed documents for each project is probably a simple process.
Any advice on improvements is welcome.
cheers
andy k