Where is this keep original project active?
I do the same as you do, and never over the years, have I had any issues with renaming. I write and produce 5 days a week except when out of town.
I keep 3 general folders, with lots of song projects in each folder:
- Ideas (hooks, beats, 4-bar measure, cool unique synth patch in the 4 bars, bass sequence etc.)
If the idea hasn’t been developed or opened within a year, I purposely re-open it and reassess. A few stay. Some get shelved. Many get deleted. It’s a total judgment thing. And since my genre is older pop, it’s certainly style/dated.
The titles are always working titles. They will probably be re-named later.
2.Developing.
Folder is moved from Ideas when I decide it’s worth completing a composition. That means full song but just the basic tracks. For myself it’s still 75% in midi realm. Only guest players, scratch vocals, or unique 1-shots are typically .wav. Major and most effects added, EQ, compression, etc. Again, if they sit here for a year, I reassess. Shelve, keep, and maybe 10% deleted. That 10% can be difficult considering you spent some time and somehow decided you were just polishing a turd with quick plugs. Maybe it should be shelved instead? But once every 5 years going through the shelved folder does it still sound like polishing a turd?
All midi, bad audio etc was kept and disabled in a Cubase track folder in the track list at the bottom of the Cubase project called Archives. Then I hide the Archives folder. This way, I can recall anything I need when I mess up. I’m going to screw up. It’s just when and how. At this stage, I also make use of Track Presets and Effect Chain Presets simply to have quick back-ups of everything.
Also, EVERYTHING is kept organized, and with exception of .vstpresets, most presets are kept inside the 3 folders stated here, and maybe additional sub-folders for further organization. That can be a struggle. For example NI Kontakt wants to force you to store the multi at their default location. If you store it in your song project file, the next time you go to store a multi with Kontakt, it reverts back to the default folder instead of where YOU want to store it. Mario says this is because of NIs presets browser which suggests NI is more focused on promoting their own features than user flexibility. To me it’s “dumbed down.” It’s not just NI. Other developers make it difficult to store stuff where you deisre, it’s just that Kontakt is so common.
I save both the developer Plug-in preset and Steinbergs .vstpresets. While .vstpresets are not stored with my project, I keep a folder for each song inside the documents folders organized. With developer updated plug-ins, and not using proper IDs, the .vstpresets system can fail down the road. Thus, 2 different methods.
Very rarely do I come up with a title. It’s still a working title. But if it’s worthy, it moves to Finalizing.
- Finalizing.
Folder is moved from Developing to Finalizing. Finalizing is everything that comes after Developing but before Mastering. Adjust effects, eq, compression, most everything is now .wav. A good part of the tools here are “mastering” tools, but I prefer to think of them as finalizing tools. I don’t self-master because I feel having a good set of objective experienced ears in a better listening environment is worth it. Plus, when you hear your own material hundreds of times, your hearing become adjusted to errors, and to someone else it might be very obvious.
I also add that with finalizing tools, you can go farther than many people think. Think in stages such as final (in no order) limiting/compression, tone, and imaging. Get this down, and your mastering engineer can elevate this is ways you think are not possible. Serban, while it’s somewhat a mystery, spends a lot of time with tone and imaging before sending it out.
I usually come up with a title, so therefore another re-name, but that depends on if I’m sending the demo out for further development.
With Cubase, it seems everyone works so different, so while I often rename, maybe others organize their files differently. But as @JezD says, for me it’s simple and takes very little time.
If I were new with Cubase, or cross-grading from another DAW I would probably do it the same as the OP, because it seems that is sort of the default method withing really thinking about how you are going to work. I think I get both sides. And the Cubase way is different.
