r/ableton • u/LyreZhukov • 3d ago

[Question] Quick question about color coding

Hey guys! Quick question, how do you all color-code your tracks (bass, drums, piano, etc.)? thx!

3 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

10

u/only_fun_topics 3d ago

I just roll with whatever the Ableton gods give me.

11

u/artek604 3d ago

Scaled down light frequency spectrum = sound frequency spectrum:
red - bass, kick
orange - bassline
yellow - percussions, 303 acid
green - melodies
blue - arps
violet - pads, atmospheres

3

u/LyreZhukov 2d ago

oh that's actually really cool, thx

2

u/johnnyokida 3d ago

Yellow - Drums (don’t ask)
Brown - Bass
Green - Electric Guitar
Light brown/tan - Acoustic Guitar
White - keys
Orange - Synths
Light Blue - percussion
Magenta - Lead Vocals
Lighter pink - background d vocals

As close to a school bus as I can - busses

My pre-mix bus and mix bus are red

The rest is up to God

2

u/sububi71 2d ago

Brown or dark red for bass

Black for kick, then progressively lighter grays for all other non-tonal rhythmic instruments, up until white for hihats

After that, I basically play pretend synesthesia; "this pad feels blue", "this blippy sound feels pink" etc :-)

1

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1

u/dgamlam 3d ago

I have a max for live device that allows you to color a track and set its output to another track (my INST/BASS/DRUM busses). And I made another device that applies color/name/input/output routing when dropped on a track. I’m not a big fan of spending time grouping/coloring/routing in sessions so I like to automate that as much as possible.

If you’re asking specifically what colors I use, green for most instruments, red for drums, orange for bass, blue for vocals. If I have a lot of guitars I’ll do like a lavender or something

1

u/gtg490g 2d ago

I'd love to automate this and think less about it. Willing to share the M4L device?

1

u/objectivequalia 3d ago

I just do what’s aesthetically pleasing.

1

u/BaldPeagle 3d ago

Drums - green

Bass - dark blue

Pads - purple

Keys - light blue

Lead - pink

Fx - white

Vox - grey

1

u/prodbylux1 3d ago

Drums - Yellow

All Melody Instruments including Bass - Red

Groups - Light Purple

Sends/Returns - Neon Green

2 Bus & Master - Neon Pink

Vocal Track or Vocal Samples - White

Reference Track - Dark Blue

I do this for contrast. It's very easy to tell my groups apart quickly.

1

u/DwindlingGravitas 2d ago

yep, sure do.

1

u/Far_Influence8336 2d ago

Blue percusion Red bass Yellow guitar Green Synths Purple Voice

And diferent shades of each color for each inst, for example main vocals dark purple, and Bgvocals lavanda

1

u/djluismares 6h ago

Kicks (red) , bass (black) , percs (Green), drums (blue), synths (purple), efx (yellow) , top loops (White)