Sound Design Project Organization

[Movies]

I'm taking my first step into the sound-effecty/not-necessarily-just-straight-music world and I can't figure out a sensible way to organize everything.

It certainly doesn't make sense to have a separate track for each sound/event (some of which are less than a second long), but consolidating several events on one track seems like a recipe for losing sight of everything.

Does anyone have any sort of tried and true awesome approach to keeping everything sorted and accessible while maximizing CPU usage?

Thanks!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Well, it all depends on the density: simultaneous sounds - including dialogue and music playing at once . Generally we work with 20 minute "reels" and as such, a track for every sound is manageable. You might conserve tracks by keeping similar sounds on the same track, but run the risk of having to apply plugs as opposed to inserting them in a track - which of course, gives you more flexibility in changing things as people change their minds or have suggestions to try.

I don't think track count in general is an issue per se and if you buss things to aux and master tracks, you can save some CPU on inserts by sending different tracks to the same buss. In general, I'd go with separate tracks for most cues and keep very similar sounds in one track if you are worried about overhead, but track counts in and of themselves aren't usually much of an issue, IMO.

[Movies]

I appreciate your thoughts.

I was worried that there was maybe a time-tested, streamlined process that didn't occur to me. All in all it seems like I'm on the right "track."*

*Oof.

[martian]

i tend to use track folders and a template -

very handy to have same track layout if u have 5 reels and they recut and stuff goes from one reel to the other.

my folders ( and each has a bus master sub mix fader)

dialog language A

dialog languageB

music

foley

mono SFX

Stereo SFX ( some are preset "sharp" as in panned hard center

Ambience - mix of mono and stereo -sharp and diffuse settings