PLANNING
That said, it's worth being methodical, planning how you're going to go about recording and also how you're going to name your files and at what stages you're going to keep files for archiving.
The combination of multiple tracks at high bit depths and sample rates and a good deal of editing, rendering, remixing, and tweaking can result in one piece of music generating 10 to 20 gigabytes of data.
When the project is finished, most of this data you'll want to bin, but some you'll need to keep, should you wish to go back to make alterations or re-mix the project (in the example below, it's likely that the four directories would probably fit on a single DVD).
One way is to split the project into key stages and create a directory structure to mirror this.
We recommend a "bin" sub-directory, to keep on top of the vast number of files that can be generated (if you have the space, it's worth keeping absolutely everything until the project is completely finished) and then a sub-directory for each key stage of the project.
How you identify the key stages of your project really depends on how you work. But here's one example to give you an idea:
Pre-mix Mono Tracks: For original source recordings (without any effects).
Early Mix Tracks: For tracks that may have been edited (e.g. the project is now one minute shorter), or have had effects applied to them and have been rendered (sometimes this has to be done, because running real-time VST effects can be heavy on processing and use a lot of RAM, thus if you have 20 tracks, and 10 of them are running a couple of VST effects, your PC will soon start struggling. So sometimes to relieve the burden, you may need to render the tracks you are most certain about.
Final Mix Tracks: For all the rendered tracks that make up the final mix.
Mixes: Once you've rendered the final mix (i.e. the individual tracks are rendered to one stereo track), the track may need to be mastered, down-sampled and converted to 16bit audio for CD and/or MP3 compatibility.
Dustbin: For everything that will not need to be archived yet may need to be recovered, but is ultimately earmarked for the recycle bin (note: don't use the recycle bin, although files are recoverable, your bin may not be able to store that much rubbish!)
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