How to open or create a recording template in Cubase?

I’ve heard that that in order to save time when recording a new song, it’s good to use a recording ‘template’, which has all the tracks and routing set up ready to go instead of you having to set it all up manually each time.

I use Cubase. I may be over-thinking, but is a ‘template’ just a blank Cubase project, which you then save and use for the future? Or is a ‘template’ something more than that?

I’m also wondering, if you open a ‘template’, does the audio/midi data for the project get saved in the same folder as the ‘template’? How would this work when recording many songs? You don’t want to the audio/midi data for every song in the same folder.

It seems that in Cubase, you can set up where the project folder is when you create and empty Cubase project, but can you also do this when you up a ‘template’?

Yes, except for the ‘blank’ part. While you can have a totally empty or blank Template, the real value comes in setting it up so it is configured exactly the way you like. Also you can have multiple templates for different tasks, i.e. writing, recording vocals, whatever. My main Template is setup with a handful of my go-to Virtual Instruments, a variety of Audio Tracks pre-configured for guitars, vocals, etc. plus Group Tracks and even some Effects.

You don’t really Open a Template. Rather you create a brand new Project that is based on a Template (pretty much just like Templates in Word where one might be for a personal letter and another for a business notice). Make sure Cubase is set to prompt you for a location when creating a new Project to avoid intermingling Audio Files from different Projects.

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Thanks for the reply. So how do you actually create a brand new template - is it just a matter of starting a brand new project, setting it up as you like, then saving it as a template? It probably is as simple as that I guess?

Yes, in File>Save As Template…

When I make a Template I also always create a regular Cubase Project of it in its own folder, same as if it were a song. This isn’t required at all, but doing so makes sure I have my own duplicate of the Template in addition to the copy of it Cubase maintains in its Template Folder.

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