I like to count things and make lists, which I suppose is an ADHD/OCD activity, and it includes keeping a running rhythm pattern with my feet and, of course, touch-typing, which is a useful skill but also is ADHD/OCD.
Making lists is like making outlines; and the key to outlining is that you need at least to have pairs, where for example if there is a Roman numeral "I", then there should be a "II".
When I first started doing software engineering, I got a job doing COBOL programming; but, even though I have a Computer Science degree, I knew nothing about COBOL programming; yet I realized (a) it was important to look busy and (b) everything in COBOL was procedures that were performed; so I would start a new program with something like the following:
PERFORM 000-INITIAL-START
PERFORM 010-INITIAL-START-SUB-000
.
.
.
PERFORM 100-PRIMARY-PROCEDURE
PERFORM 110-SECONDARY PROCEDURE
and so forth . . .
Then I would fill the first procedure with sub procedures:
PERFORM 000-INITIAL-START-SUB-001
PERFORM 000-INITIAL-START-SUB-002
I was able to look busy for days without actually doing any real work; but eventually the outline of the COBOL program would be so "complete" that it became easy to start focusing on doing things like adding, subtracting, and so forth.
Since there were daily quotas in those days for programmers (now called "software engineers" and "developers"), I always had good quota numbers and managers often remarked on what a good worker I was.
Yet, at least until I started learning how COBOL worked, I mostly was just creating, expanding, and enhancing outlines.
This strategy works nicely when you are focusing on organizing thoughts and idea; and I like to use a mind-mapping application called "SimpleMind Pro", which (a) is available for the Mac and Windows and (b) is affordable.
These are a few of the mind-maps from my ongoing books on "The Art of Digital Music Production" and are useful for visualizing lists and groups of various things that are categorized.
STRATEGY FOR STUDIO ONE TEMPLATES
Since you already have a set of templates and do not want to cause everything to stop working, you can start a new system and once it's perfected, you can start using it.
The overall structure for data in macOS and Windows is based (a) on {folders, subfolders, files} for macOS and (b) on {directories, subdirectories, and files} for Windows.
You can start by creating mind-maps to explore different ways to organize and categorize instruments, voices, and effects, as well as musical genres, styles, and so forth.
When that is working nicely, you can create a corresponding hierarchy of folders, subfolders, and files, where the files will be Studio One templates and might even be ".song" subfolders themselves. This also can include text files with information about what the various Studio One templates do.
Even when you include a virtual festival of world instruments, at a high-level instruments are grouped or categorized by the way they produce sounds, where one system groups instruments this way and is called the Hornbostel-Sachs System {Idiophones, Membranophones, Chordophones, Aerophones, Electrophones}.
(1)
Idiophones are instruments that make sound by vibrating themselves, like cymbals and bells
(2)
Membranophones are instruments that make sounds via stretched membranes like drums.
(3)
Chordophones are instruments that make sounds by vibrating strings like guitars, concert harps, and grand pianos.
(4)
Aerophones are instruments that make sounds by vibrating columns of air like pipe organs, flutes, oboes, and voices (singing).
(5)
Electrophones are instruments that make sound electronically and via computer software like synthesizers and VSTi virtual instruments.
When doing digital music production using Studio One, everything ultimately is an Electrophone once it is recorded as audio on Audio Tracks.
I also like the strategy of grouping and organizing by VSTi virtual instruments, where a few popular instruments are {SampleTank, Kontakt, Opus, UVI Workstation, Falcon, and so forth}. In this strategic variation, the idea is to create a template with one instance of each of the VSTi virtual instruments you have in your collection and then to enable one when you need it, followed by cloning it to create a new instance.
This is what I do for a basic drumkit, where instead of trying to fit everything onto as few staves as possible--which is vastly cluttered and is a big mess--I put each drum, cymbal, and Latin percussion instrument on its own staff. I like to do headphone mixes where sounds move from place to place; so I usually have two kick drums and three snare drums, each on its own staff. If I need more, then I create more staves, but always
one instrument per staff.
For reference, EW ComposerCloud+ (EastWest) and Sonic Pass (UVI) are available as monthly subscriptions and have everything arranged and grouped by various countries, musical genres, styles, and so forth, which makes them an excellent way to get a sense of pretty much everything that can be part of what I call the "New Modern Orchestra" or perhaps the "21st Century Orchestra", where songs can be constructed using subsets of thousands and perhaps millions of tones and textures, especially when you consider every possible sound a synthesizer can make.
You might want to explore Asian, Indian, Persian, Turkish, and Middle Eastern instruments, which in EW ComposerCloud+ are organized in the "Ra" and "Silk" collections, as well as in other related collections.
World Suite 3 (UVI) has similar types of groupings where there are subsets of six instruments in various genres, styles, and tempos; and the subsets can be used as ensembles and actually play themselves or can be used as singleton instruments, which is the way I use them for things like shakers, maracas, cowbells, and so forth.
It's a bit mind-boggling at first, but after a while (a) it starts making sense and (b) you can organize sounds by tone and textures rather than by countries, genres, styles, and so forth.
You can make mind-maps of everything, including different types and categories of harmony.
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