Testing TrackIT: An Organization Tool for Music Producers

Anyone who works consistently in a studio while managing multiple projects at the same time—whether their own productions, collaborations with other artists, or client work—will eventually come to the same conclusion: they need a system to keep their work organized. Relying solely on folders within folders, accompanied by endless versions labeled "final," "final_v2," or "final_final," stops being a practical solution as the workload grows.

Music production is a process that unfolds in stages, and each song can accumulate a significant amount of information: pending tasks, revisions, different versions, notes, reference files, deadlines, and more. Keeping all of this organized is not always easy.

TrackIT, an application developed by trance music producer Allan Morrow, aims to solve exactly that problem. Over the past few weeks, I've been using it as part of my daily workflow to evaluate whether it actually offers an improvement over other project management systems.

One of the reasons I decided to try it is that it's based on the Kanban method—the same system I use to organize my studio work, including music production, administrative tasks, managing my own releases, and the record labels I run.

For those unfamiliar with it, Kanban is a visual workflow management method in which tasks move through different stages, typically represented as columns. A simple example would be To Do, In Progress, and Done, although each workflow can be customized to suit the needs of a particular team or project. Its main advantage is that it allows you to see the status of every task at a glance, identify bottlenecks, and maintain a clear overview of the remaining work.

There are currently many applications built around this approach. However, most are designed for general project management and require some degree of customization to fit the workflow of a music producer.

TrackIT adopts the Kanban philosophy but brings it into an environment designed specifically for music producers, audio engineers, and recording, mixing, and mastering studios. That's why I believe it has the potential to become an excellent tool for managing studio projects, especially if you don't already have an established organizational system.

By working with boards—or workspaces, which the application calls Scenes—you can organize different types of projects independently. For example, you might have one board for your own music, another for client mixing or mastering jobs, and another for collaborations with different artists.

Within each Scene, you'll find the columns that represent the different stages a project goes through. The application includes a useful default workflow, but it also allows you to create, remove, or customize columns to match the way each producer organizes their process.

The next level of organization consists of the cards, which in TrackIT represent each individual project, or Track. Each card brings together all the information related to a production: task lists (To-dos) for different stages of the process, tempo (BPM), key, audio and MIDI files, notes, timeline-based comments, and even dedicated spaces for writing and managing feedback when collaborating with other people.

As tasks are completed, TrackIT automatically updates the project's completion percentage, making it easy to move the card to the next stage of the workflow until the production is finished.

One of the features I appreciate most is how clearly the application highlights projects that have become stalled. This is a very common situation among music producers: starting lots of new ideas without finishing them at the same pace.

In addition to the column-based workflow, TrackIT includes a Progress View, where all projects are displayed along a visual progress timeline, making it easy to see at a glance which stage each one has reached. The application also features a statistics section with various charts that provide an overview of your workload and help identify the stages where projects or delays tend to accumulate.

Overall, I think that, among the countless plugins, virtual instruments, and applications that most of us have installed, it's important to have a tool dedicated to organizing our work at different levels. TrackIT occupies just 6 MB once installed, fitting perfectly into that role—not as a production tool, but as a companion application for managing projects, centralizing information, and maintaining a more organized workflow when working on multiple productions simultaneously.

Features I Value the Most

Works completely offline. All information is stored locally, and any files you attach remain in their original location on your computer. TrackIT simply creates links to those files, so it doesn't duplicate them or consume unnecessary storage space.

Direct access to project folders. Each card includes a button at the top that opens the project's folder directly in your file explorer. It may seem like a small detail, but when you're working on dozens of songs, it saves a considerable amount of time navigating through folders.

Track Checklists. The customizable task checklists are one of the features I use the most. Every production can require a different workflow, so being able to create checklists tailored to each type of project is extremely useful.

Progress View. I've already mentioned it, but it deserves special recognition. This view provides a different perspective on your workload and makes it easy to see at a glance which projects are moving forward and which have been stalled for too long. It's a feature I rarely find in other Kanban-based tools.

Audio and MIDI file playback. Being able to listen to demos, ideas, or even stems directly within the application means you don't have to open your DAW just to quickly review the contents of a project.

Visual customization. Each Scene can be personalized with different colors and background images, making it easier to distinguish between different work areas and giving each workspace its own visual identity based on the type of projects you're working on.

Features I'd Like to See in Future Versions

I have to admit that I originally wrote some points in this section about features I felt were missing, but almost all of them were added in version 1.2 just one day after I finished writing this review.

Among the improvements introduced in version 1.2, released on July 16, are several features that make the application even more complete.

It's now possible to specify the time signature for each project—not everything is in 4/4—and that's a welcome addition for producers working in genres that make use of less conventional meters.

The application can also now be synchronized across multiple devices using external services such as iCloud or Dropbox, making it easy to access projects from different computers without relying on TrackIT's own cloud synchronization.

Another simple but extremely useful addition is the ability to add links to various fields within each project card. This makes it much easier to connect cloud-hosted projects, servers, audio players, or any other external resources related to a production.

Another new feature is a due date field, along with a built-in calendar that displays tracks as calendar events. Not every project can wait for inspiration to return months later, and when you're working with clients or scheduled releases, having an integrated deadline management system is extremely valuable.

Perhaps an interesting function will be the ability for multiple users to collaborate within the same Scene. That may not be feasible while the application remains fully offline. At the moment, it's possible to export a card so another TrackIT user can import it, but shared Scenes would enable true real-time collaboration between clients, artists, and team members while centralizing both project tracking and feedback in a single workspace.

Finally, although the customizable task checklists are already very useful, I think the application would become even more flexible if it allowed users to create custom fields. That would make it possible to add information such as budgets, payment status, internal references, or any other project-specific data.

I also believe many users would appreciate a Windows version. At the moment, TrackIT is only available for macOS, with support for both Apple Silicon and Intel-based Macs.

I'm genuinely pleased to see a trance music producer like Allan invest the time to develop an application like TrackIT. In an industry where most tools are focused on creating new sounds, plugins, or effects, it's refreshing to see a product that instead focuses on something just as important: organizing the creative process.

I hope TrackIT continues to evolve and gains wider adoption among producers and recording studios. It's already available in eight languages, and I believe it has the potential to become a standard for music project management because it addresses a long-standing need within the industry—one that very few applications have attempted to solve with such a focused approach.

As a thank you for reading this far, Allan has provided us with a This discount code (trackit20a) so you can add TrackIT to your own workflow. Only valid for the first 10 people who purchase TrackIT

TrackIT

We'd also love to hear what other users think, so feel free to share your experiences and comments.