Can anyone enlighten me as to who makes the best all around (and technically engineered from a mixing/mastering standpoint) templates if I were looking to buy a few for reference and use with Ableton?

When I Google search I get all sorts of sites hocking their templates, but I would like to have some pro/semi-pro opinions on which/where the best ones before going out and spending the money.

Thanks!

 

F9 Audio (James, Freemasons), HQ, super detailed, updated, great walk-through vids. Not on a trance side though.
Freshly Squeezed Samples - trance oriented. Not much recent stuff for Live, unfortunately..

 

I Can Send You Something Good For Trance !

 

All the templates you find (for any DAW) are all going to be about the same quality to you. Once you start replacing samples, and plugins, you will end up with something you can learn cookie cutter mixing from. But you can do that without buying a template. Everything has to be dialed back in and adjusted anyway. I'd check out some free ones and save my money.

 

I would suggest checking the "The Thrillseekers The Making of Hydra Video Series Package TUTORiAL MP4" on the sister site, worth better than any template (he shows his starting template in the first/second video)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb2lABwYqYBmA5VFcu5vMUGv6ZIhSPmkU

Protoculture was also a good one (because of the Cubase project file in it)

ps. Adam Ellis has also created a good one https://www.myloops.net/?s=starting+template&post_type=product&dgwt_wcas=1

 

Last edited: Jul 23, 2022

First of all, thanks for replying btw ;).

I get that, but I want to see how a professional song would actually be eq'd, sidechained, mixed, compressed, etc with all the bells and whistles. I've downloaded several templates that are really just stems loaded in to make it "sound" decent not actually arranged and processed and mixed for production output. That's why I have the question, I'd like to see something close to pro to reverse engineer so to speak...

 

First of all, thanks for replying btw ;)

I've heard of FSS, I'll look into that and also F9!

 

OK, Thanks, I'll check those out. So Adam Ellis is good?

 

If you have something to share sure I'd like to check it out! LMK

 

Driving Uplifting Trance Essentials Vol. 1 (For Ableton Live) by Myloops (soundcloud.com)
See This And You Will Thank Me Later !

 

I completely get it. I have looked at so! many various templates of different genres (in Logic but it doesn't really matter). The first thing I usually do is bounce the project and listen to the song the way it was mixed inside the DAW. I have never done this and not known why the song was relegated to being a Template. It's because it's a way to make some money or to AT LEAST have something to release after figuring out the song is not going to do well commercially in it's own Genre. Or just as commonly, the template is built to become one; and those are made to be demonstrational and those tracks are obvious when you bounce them too. They do not have the same level of artistic effort put into them, but show whatever technical aspects it's meant to demonstrate. Group channels, mix chain construction, and things like this.
I'm sure I have picked up little tidbits and tips/tricks from looking at them.

If I was making some kind of EDM like Trance; where many of the producers are banging out track after track at a high level; my first stop would be installing Izotope Neutron 4. There is a video from the above mentioned trance producer Protoculture about mixing Trance music in it; but it happens to be for Neutron version 3. They aren't wildly different from version to version, so you could easily carry over any info you get from one to the next. If use of Neutron has been embraced/adopted by the top level guys/ladies in the genre, you are going to see much less detailed work inside the actual DAW stock plugins/software. The more advanced mix tactics and mix decisions will be done after Neutron gets loaded into the channels they wish to use it with.

My main point however, was that none of them are so much better than the others. As of course, their marketing would lead one to believe; as you mentioned in your first post. Save your money, and check out the ones you get a chance to; when they are free.

happy hunting.

 

I bought Steve's (Thrillseekers / Hydra) "The Thrillseekers The Making of Hydra Video Series" from his Bandcamp site when it was released. He goes through his setup, channels, FX - everything in the first hour. After looking at that, it was pretty easy for me to make my template. It's a better investment to look at these videos and create your template than to buy a template and don't know how or why it is like that ;)

On a side note, Steve's setup is made in Cubase.