Prevent Clip From Creating Audio Tracks

Our clips have 8 tracks of audio which is unfortunately not something that can be changed. My sequence has 4 as a default with 3 and 4 turned off. When I drop a clip into the timeline (I use the keyboard shortcuts for insert and overwrite, I do not drag the clips down with the mouse) it creates channels 5-8 and adds the audio to them. Is there a setting that exists that will prevent clips from creating extra audio channels? Someone else made the sequences and doesn't want anyone else to alter them. I have asked them to change the sequence so it starts with all 8 channels but 3-8 turned off, but it seems like I should just be able to set a personal setting to prevent tracks being created.