We have spoke often enough about how some of us on the Pro Tools Expert team use track colours to make the navigation of our session easier and in recent days I have had a chance to "play" on some of the new gear from Avid which is very much designed with ease of navigation as a primary design factor.  

This got me thinking (no jokes please) about how we decide on the order of the tracks in our sessions and is there a common theme or layout that we all use. Let me tell you my ideas on this and then I would love you all to chime in and let me know you thoughts.

Keeping Things Close

I think it is 'traditional' to start with the kick drum channel or channels on the far left however I do not start with the kick drums. I start with Bass. I do this because more often than not the bass, be that bass guitar in a pop track or bass synth in an EDM track is lower in pitch than my kick drum tone or sample. So, I think you can see where this is going, I then assign my channels in pitch order from left to right.  The only exception is the lead vocal or lead instrument line. This I colour bright shocking pink and place right in the middle of the Pro Tools mixer. This way I am never to far from the most important element in the track or song.  

KISS

It's a simple idea but it works for me. I would be very interested to learn if there are any post workflow standards when it comes to track layout. 

As always please comment below.