Share your tips for keeping things organised. Anything from mnemonics to ikea hacks for studio spaces.
Here’s my simple one. Use something like Google keep or Evernote to keep track of what’s going on in each track. Especially useful for effects pedals or synths without presets as you can take pics.
i try and keep all of my kits/patterns etc consolidated in a way that i don’t lose focus for a particular song. i’m also trying to be more thoughtful with how my elements sit in the mix and interact with one another. finally, i also made this lil’ grid to sketch out ideas.
p.s. i’m also big on standing sometimes, and so, made this ikea standing desk for cheap.
http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Ikea-Standing-desk-for-22-dollars.html
evernote looks waaay cool, but nothing beats a good old pad for me
http://shop.moleskine.com/en-us/notebooks-journals/limited-editions/lego-limited-edition-notebook-1
I used to use a normal notepad but I like having pictures as a reference. Still that being said, every studio should have a note book
A few months ago someone showed me this amazing software that scans your computer automatically consolidates the file type(s) of your choice (say, .WAV, .aif, .flac, etc) and places them into folders based on common terms (snare/hat/vox/Fx/Radiohead/Earth Wind and Fire/Miley Cyrus).
For the life of me I can’t find it.
Anyone know what program I saw?
Because I have sample libraries EVERYWHERE and it’s such a waste of time.
Currently using a piece of paper to note all the patterns and progressions for my liveset…
Next step is to use my iPad and TouchOSC to do this, make a dedicated master conductor MIDI controller and have TouchOSC send program changes to the Octatrack and Machinedrum when I touch a pattern name on the tablet screen.
Organisation meets fool-proof productivity.
I’m unapologetically anal about this 
I use a physical notebook that I spend a fair amount of cash on, cos I know doing so will make me take care of it and keep better track of it. Every time I sketch a track, I make a new page with general notes at the top (BPM, vibe, names of any scratch recordings) then at the bottom half of each page I draw one column for each instrument used so I can make specific notes on each (snap, patterns, volume levels, tweaks, progressions, etc.). That way I can come back to the sketch later and pick up where I left off.
Though I don’t do as much with electronic records, every month or so I’ll back up all my active projects/snaps and update this running list I keep of them on a Word doc. Any time I complete one I mark it as done, and write a few lines to remind me what’s on each bank. I save a copy of everything to a portable drive in case of crashes or theft, both of which I’ve experienced.
Shameless plug: I use my pet project fltspc http://fltspc.itu.dk
A surface collects in-progress track notes and links to Dropbox-hosted files. Handy for posting listening notes to myself over a period of a week or two as I let something sink in.
Once I am happy with the completed track, I move the notes off to another surface for archiving.
i follow this religiously
