Some ideas for color collections. What are yours?

[braduro]

I love using ableton to it's fullest, but I've been racking my brain figuring out a good use for the color label collections in 10.
My first idea has been to assign a color for "performance" and another for "studio".

The distinction being that some plugins, some m4l, some racks, have the potential to blow up in your face, despite them being very creative or useful tools. Or they are simply not "fun". Those are assigned "studio". And some devices have been thoroughly vetted for their stability, have a wide range of sonic character which will nonetheless minimize the risk of feedback loops, crashing, disjointing your gain stages etc. These fall under "performance"

I've also created place saver collections which I've named "Bass Audition", "Keys Audition" (which could mean chord progression OR lead sound), "Kit audition", and "Effect Audition" respectively. These are a toggle status for the short list of presets that appeal to the current track I'm working on. That way I don't need to scratch them down on a pad, or keep a number of sub folders expanded at the same time (which resets when you hot swap presets in any case.) Then I can clearly make a decision and compare it to the runner-ups.

As an after thought, I added the "effect audition" I usually build out my midi chains ala cart, but I imagine I could just use this same category for the "current effect I'm deciding on". And because some effects and grooves have a number of options that could work, if I've already narrowed it down to one effect but deciding between presets, I can then keep tabs of my top choices. So this category is really for deciding between different racks and devices, but also deciding within choices, ie presets, of a single device. Convolution reverb or the new echo for example can really head in a number of different directions based on your decision.

I'm really thinking this out as i write this, so by all means chime in.
I imagine if I was using more samples I would use this place-saver idea for them, but when I do sample it's a pretty targeted idea that I've cut up myself.

Of course this is a comment on how I use presets to begin with, but ultimately it's my ears that decide at the end of the day. I might be looking for a sonic profile that helps me shift to other decisions about my tune, etc. But this really isn't a thread about my policy on presets but more a thought on what to do with the collection colors.
What ideas for them come to mind for you?

[jestermgee]

Whatever works for you personally I would think.

I don't even use the collections system in L10 at all... I rarely ever use the Live browser categories because the lack of tagging makes it completely useless without renaming 50,000 files with tag details. I ditched the live browser years ago and created my own, shifted everything from Live into it and created my own sub categories etc so it's all organised exactly how I would like with my own favourites, enough folders/sub folders to narrow things down to find things quick. For VST sounds I use Komplete Kontrol.

But not everyone wants to go to such lengths.

If you want to know what colours you should apply to sound groups/types, stick with the way most drum instrument colour their tags (or how the light spectrum is laid out)... Red end of the spectrum for the lower frequency sounds, blue end for the high frequency sounds and everything in between.

[sporkles]

I simply use the colour labels for quick access to my most used instruments and fx. Instead of clicking "VST" and "Fabfilter" and selecting Pro-Q2, I now just click "FX" (Blue) and Pro-Q2. Another advantage is that I've also got some go-to FX racks that I can now access from the same way as my favourite VST fx, so I don't have to click and scroll too much. I like it, but I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface. I think it is a very nice way to speed up your workflow.

[braduro]

Sparkles, I think you could accomplish the same thing in a way with the "Favorites" label, as it were. Although a category as such could get out of hand real quick, I might imagine.

My system is working really nicely. It's not that I planned to do this much background prep for my library. I have a license for Stray's DDC and I have a midi fighter twister that I recently acquired, but the same impetus applies with whatever you're using: I've had a reason to rack my brain and figure out what the heck deserved some dedicated control, is fun and delivers musical results, etc. So I've had reason to sift through the library and look for candidates.

I've matched the collection colors with the track colors that I already have dedicated for resampling of the various submixes.