a curiosity from a newbie

[askekk]

how many tracks do you use when making a song? like, generally speaking. i find my self feeling stressed when i'm reaching my 10th track. and by track i mean midi, audio, send etc. you get the idea. nothing much, i'm just curious.

[jellycaster]

generally speaking, as few as possible, but as many as takes to achieve the sound i want. this usually means 8-12, but if i start layering guitars, this can quickly go up.

[Tarekith]

Usually less than 20 in total.

[ansiaaa]

it really depends on the kind of music and the way you create your sounds (building up layers, using one track with many effects, ...).
I don't think I have a final answer... as many as I need I guess!

if you feel overwhelmed by the number of tracks, try to get the grasp of composition with simpler songs, then when you feel safe in that environment go and try more complex songs that require you more tracks

[!STiTCH!]

12+ most times. I've even got a couple in the 28-32...what a pain.

[3phase]

varies with me.. but i need, or i am within the 12 track range most of the time,, sometimes less ..sometimes many more ..
I would wish all that all thhese faderboxes would have a twelve channel layout instead of 8.. 8 is a bit tight

So from the controler support you only have a good life with live when you keep it as 8 tracks...

many records was done with just 8 tracks..its possible..

however in studio production 16 tracks was the considered standard and 24 tracks was seen as good... this went like that for ages.. only big acts had 48 track productions where two 24rack 2 inch tape machines was synchronized, and 22 minutes of recording time have cost a few hundret dollars on each machine.. so go figure how much your HD recording time would have cost in the tape times..

[Rabalder]

31-track "locked" performance-setup.
I have set up 4 "master-tracks" for recording((+ drums)if I want to record my performance...)

[ciw]

30-40 (not counting the individual parts in effect or drum racks - considerably more with those)

But it's not so bad as it sounds because at any one time most of those aren't playing. For example if I have two rhythm sections at different points they'll be on two different groups of tracks (e.g. kick, snare, hihats all x2). I prefer to perfect a device chain for one specific sound rather than mess around with arrangement automation where possible. I think that's good (software) engineering practice, one control controls one thing rather than affecting other parts elsewhere in the song... and live allows you to do it with no penalty to CPU (just to your RAM usage).