Track Timeline

Hi.

There is this thing where you can draw out your song on to a bit of paper, but I dont know what its called.

drums <----30sec---->vocals<----5sec-----> etc etc

Anyone know what these are called?

Like on this video at 5.47 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEwoxM1Li68

thanks

That's called a track sheet and is used in studios to keep track (ahem) of where instruments vocals are in relation to the tape configuration. Not so neccessary now with digital DAWs that allow labelling of tracks.

Try looking at making a spreadsheet to keep all your metadata. For example: which disks are used on what machine and for what song. Display the contents of those disks. Then you can start buliding a sequence on paper (though I'd use bars and beats rather than minutes and seconds myself). I only have numbers on my disks. Those numbers don't mean anything without the spreadsheet. The advantage being, if you recycle some disks, you can update the content on the spreadsheet without having to cross off any written stuff on the actual label.

I find it really helps the arrangement to do this. Slight inconsistencies or over-repeated bars can be quickly dealt with by cross referencing it during playback.

HTH

Dope video, btw.