It is most common that composers in the modern age use templates to kick off new compositions. These templates do a whole lot of things for the composer right away - from track delay, plugin chains and reverbs to panning, VSTi presets and more. But, there are 2 main ways to design your own template - using multitimbral instruments with keyswitches and using what is called single articulation templates.
I use single articulation templates because this approach provides me with the kind of flexibility that speeds up my workflow. I'll show you what I do and why in this video :)