[question] Maintaining consistency through entire record

[medic999]

well last night i experimented and put each song into the same session, each within its own respective folder. so i can have the freedom to mix each song individually and also freeze/render stems to save cpu. but i have each song fed into MAIN busses, like Drum bus, Guitar bus, bass bus, vocal buss, samples bus. that way It gives me the ability to keep just the levels of each MAIN group the same for each song, while being able to automate/EQ/tweak the songs contents individually in each songs folder. i guess this works for me right now, and I only have 4gB as well, no issues.

 

[Potshot]

Used to do everything in one session in Cubase, now I'm on Pro Tools I do every song in a separate session and use the lovely File > Import Session Data to set the new session up the same way. Generally mix one song then import the session data to the others once I'm happy with it and tweak from there. Not overly concerned with keeping the EQ and automation and such exactly the same between said sessions as I agree that different tracks with different energy and feeling, etc. Will require different processing, but paying attention during the tracking/engineering side of things to consistency of tuning, attack, general performance should keep things nice and consistent.

 

[crillemannen]

^

+1. I use import session data aswell. Works really good. But im tempted to mix everything in one session next time because it gives you a feeling of more control. And sometimes its easy to forget some setting in one song and then make a mess.


And about consistency.. Listening to a bit older albums like Load/reload with Metallica and you will hear that every song don't sound the same. On one song the bass can have way more mids etc but it all works and the average listener would never notice that. So concistency is important, but that dosen't mean every song have to sound 100% exactly the same.

 

[LeSedna]

^
One of my favorite albums ever, "The Arrival" by Hypocrisy, is super unconsistent but still works so well and has a very rare character

 

[amarshism]

One session so I can jump between songs if I get bored. I automate a lot and my faders always stay at zero unless they're reading so I'm not concerned with that aspect.

 

[luismars]

^ I'm always jumping between songs, it helps a lot when you want to focus on some details

 

[xTomx]

Great feature, except that having it all in one session negates the need for that entirely. And I believe most DAWs also have that feature.

I like to different processing for each song, I just import from other sessions for a nice starting point.

 

[LeSedna]

I have set up my main project in a single session for around 30mn of quite complex music, it's doable on a decent laptop in Reaper at least. Unless the music is quite groovy and the songs very very different, I recommend it, still. I plan on automating EQ settings or compressors during my whole project. Kind of like having 2 different settings depending on wether a part is a traditional "fast metal" part, or something more exotic.

If the songs have different synths and instruments, it adds up tracks though. I have many instances that are only used for a few seconds so I'm trying to be intelligent and put those who have little need for EQ in the same track. Otherwise it would ends up in hundreds of tracks when I will be at the mixing stage. So for a whole album in a complex style of music, you might need to be careful. I think it is ideal for the average metal band since consistency is usually the key, and if here and there you have a ballad or something different then you can use a specific project for this one.

 

[006]

I like to different processing for each song, I just import from other sessions for a nice starting point.

So, the opposite of what the OP was asking about?

I understand your approach, though. However, you can still do it all in one session, just use automation for the differences you want.