And even with the same instrument, you don't always put it on the same track. You might want different effects applied at different parts (perhaps the solo is processed differently than when playing the chordal parts). Putting the same instrument on multiple tracks gives you great flexibility in managing the sound.

You might find yourself doubling some tracks to fatten the sound. You might double harmony tracks to get a choir feel. Even if you only have a few drum tracks, you will probably have separate percussion tracks for each instrument. You might split your harmonies to multiple tracks. If you go for an orchestral feel, you are definitely going to have a bunch of tracks, depending on if you use a "strings section" sound or build it yourself with individual instruments.

If you do a mix of MIDI and audio, you will probably render each MIDI track to an audio track, but keep the MIDI track (even if muted) in case you need to make any changes and re-render.

It's easy to find yourself with many many tracks.

John

Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD
Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA

BB2024/UMC404HD/Casios/Cakewalk/Reaper/Studio One/MixBus/Notion/Finale/Dorico/Noteworthy/NI/Halion/IK

http://www.sus4chord.com