That snippet reminded me I've been curious about what everyone else chooses for the color of their tracks in the DAW. Do you use track colors to help organize your work? What's your reasoning for choosing each color? (Or, if you don't choose specific color or color families, why not?) A related question is how you order your tracks: do you have an order you like for them, and why?
For me, here's the order (top to bottom) I always lay out my tracks, and my rationale for specific colors:
Black/dark grey - global automation tracks. This may be DAW specific; I use Studio One. With it I can assign one automated parameter to actually appear within a track itself, but for global parameters (think Vol on the master fader), Studio One allows separate tracks. I use a dark non-color so as not to detract attention from any of the other tracks that follow. I also shrink these tracks down to their minimum height unless I'm working on them.
Green - for drums and percussion. Green means "Go!", like at a traffic light. What instrument part makes the song "go" - the drums, of course! Lighter green goes to "higher" instruments (cymbals, triangle? shaker?), middle greens to toms/snare, and dark green to kick.
Blue - for the bass part (synth/keyboard bass, or the real thing, etc.). Because "blue" and "bass" both begin with the letter "B".
Red - for rhythm guitars, or anything that fills the role rhythm guitars play. For red-hot, smokin' guitars! Also, red as a color is a bit brighter therefore "higher" than green (drums) or blue (bass), and the guitars kind of ride up on top of the drums and bass.
Yellow - for whatever part has the main melody of the tune. So, for pop/rock styles, the lead vocal. For an instrumental, whatever instrument carries the melody. Of the colors I use, yellow stands out the most...just like the melody should.
Lighter yellow or orange - for whatever part has "secondary" solos. Examples are lead guitar parts in a pop/rock tune, perhaps a harmonica that fills in often between verses of a song, etc.
Darker yellow or orange - backup vocals or parts that predominantly harmonize with the main melody. That color stands out some, but not as much as bright yellow. Likewise, parts harmonizing with the melody should rise above the rhythm section, but should not steal the show.
Purple - "filler" - organ/keyboards (that are not already taking a solo role), etc. Purple is more muted in comparison to the other colors so far, kind of laying in the background; the role of these types of parts, like pads, should also stay in the background (usually).
Basically, I assign colors based on the role that instrument plays in the song, not necessarily on the instrument itself. (A guitar part could be either red, or yellow/orange, depending on the role it plays in the song.) Almost every tune will have green/blue/red/yellow, and everything else depends on the song. Additionally, I can set colors on Bus or F/X tracks in the mixer view which do not appear alongside the audio tracks. For these, I always use grey for busses, and white for F/X.
Your turn...I'm curious to hear your thoughts.
