Track Sheet Layout?

[confooshus]

Where can I find a listing of the standard track layout preferred for sessions? i.e. - kick, snare, etc... bass.. acoustic gtr, electric... and so on... I recently turned in a project to be mixed, and the guy was a little pissed at my random order... Thanks!

[Dave Martin]

If the mixer is pissed at your track order, tell him to kiss your ass. Then tell him to get busy and crosspatch so that everything is where HE wants it to be.

I've found that very little is more random than the way that different engineers lay out tracks, both for basic tracking sessions and for overdubs. As it happens, my track layout started to develop when all I owned were two DA-88's. Drums went on the second machine, or on tracks 9 through 16. When I started using a room mic on the kit, it ended up being on channel 24 (since machine 3 was mainly used for keyboards and percussion), and the subkick ended up on track 31 (32 was the click, and that machine was mostly electric guitars - where I seldom needed more than 6 tracks). Acoustic instruments and bass went on the first 8 tracks, and vocals typically were recorded on tracks 33-48 (if I needed that many tracks - if not, other crap might show up there). Though I'm using a Pro Tools HD3 these days, drum tracks are STILL on 9-16...

And everyone is different - most of the engineers I know who were mentored by a in in-house or full time engineer lay out their tracks the same general way that their mentor did. Those who made it up on their own put the tracks in whatever order makes sense to them personally. And all of the track layouts work. And they're all good.

[robmix]

Originally Posted by Dave Martin

If the mixer is pissed at your track order, tell him to kiss your ass. Then tell him to get busy and crosspatch so that everything is where HE wants it to be.

Maybe not the best way to handle the situation, but it was my first thought as well

Most people layout drums first, kick, snare, hat, toms, OH, room, then bass, gtrs, piano/keys, vocals, strings and extra stuff on the end. Of course there's some variation but laying it out this way should prevent you from being yelled at. It can be more time consuming when you have to search 48 track track-sheets for the kick.

[Berolzheimer]

I take it you're on tape? II mean, if you're in a DAW he should be able to figure out how to reshuffle the tracks to his liking.

[Dave Martin]

Originally Posted by robmix

Most people layout drums first, kick, snare, hat, toms, OH, room, then bass, gtrs, piano/keys, vocals, strings and extra stuff on the end. Of course there's some variation but laying it out this way should prevent you from being yelled at. It can be more time consuming when you have to search 48 track track-sheets for the kick.

Well, I've seen drums on 1-6, I've seen them on 19-24 (the actual number of drum tracks varies as well...). I've seen the kick on the outside of the tape (working under the assumption that if the outside track gets screwed, there's not that much high end to go away), and I've seen hat on the outside track (on the premise that it probably won't make the mix anyway). Toms can be high to low on ascending tracks (drummers perspective), or low to high (audience perspective). I've had as few as no acoustic guitars and 8 tracks of electric guitars, and as many as 6 tracks of acoustics and no electrics.

On the other hand, the tracking engineer should probably be consistent throughout a given project; if your drums are laid out on the first 10 tracks on the first song, that same kit should probably be laid out the same way on other songs it's used on... For me, bass is always on track 5.

[WDG]

Was it the randomness of the tracks orpoor written explanation that T'ed him off?

[Fletcher]

Originally Posted by robmix

Maybe not the best way to handle the situation, but it was my first thought as well

You guys are a hell of a lot nicer than me... my first reaction would have been to tell the moron to suck my cock and hang up on him.

FWIW, I usually track drums on the first however many tracks are needed, my Bass DI goes on 21, Bass Mic goes on 22... guitars are usually like 14-17, percussion ends up on 23 & 24, Keyboards/Vocals/etc. goes somewhere between the end of the drums and 14 and/or from 18-21. Organized arbitrary or so it seems... see if you're an old analog dog you'd know that bass can modulate the SMPTE code so you need to leave a buffer track [code printed to 24... and nothing of significant value on 23 unless you striped code before starting the project]... this setup also puts the things with the greatest tendency to move in the middle of the desk [as I don't tend to move bass and drum tracks with automation a whole hell of a lot.

[Berolzheimer]

FWIW, I usually organize my tracks this way these days:
Bass tracks first, then kick, as I like to work them together, then snare, OH & room mics, which work together to form the basis of the drum sound; then toms, percussion if any, other rhythmic instruments- Ryth gtrs, keys, etc. then more atmospheric stuff, then lead instruments if any, then lead vox, then BG vox. So it's sort of a progression from the groove and the vibe to the leads. I mix mostly ITB nowadays so I can keep whatever faders I'm riding in the middle at any given time, and by grouping them that way it keeps my sends & cross bussing & such nice & neat.

[Robert Randolph]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

my first reaction would have been to tell the moron to suck my cock and hang up on him.
.

I think that's the wisest thing ever uttered on this forum.

Total agreement regarding to this subject.

[robmix]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

I usually track drums on the first however many tracks are needed, my Bass DI goes on 21, Bass Mic goes on 22... guitars are usually like 14-17, percussion ends up on 23 & 24, Keyboards/Vocals/etc. goes somewhere between the end of the drums and 14 and/or from 18-21. Organized arbitrary or so it seems... see if you're an old analog dog you'd know that bass can modulate the SMPTE code so you need to leave a buffer track [code printed to 24... and nothing of significant value on 23 unless you striped code before starting the project]... this setup also puts the things with the greatest tendency to move in the middle of the desk [as I don't tend to move bass and drum tracks with automation a whole hell of a lot.

Fletcher's layout and the logic behind it jibes with my experience as well. Track 24 has always been code, which makes 23 a voodoo track, drums and bass on tracks 1 - 10 or whatever since they'll layout further down the console and probably not move after the initial balance.