Automation pro tools se

There are two approaches to adding Automation moves to a mix. They can be drawn in and edited , with the mouse, utilizing the Pencil Tool's various shapes Fig 4 , or you can ride the faders and knobs in realtime, recording your moves—the traditional method Fig 5. Fig 5 Automation data entered in realtime—notice the multiple nodes data points for these realtime curves.

When you do create Automation this way, there are a number of additional operational modes you have to be familiar with. There's an additional Automation process, Trim, that lets you make realtime changes to already-recorded Automation data by offsetting the Automation values—I won't have the space to get into that here, so I'll just go through the main modes.

Off is simple—if there is Automation in a track, Off disables it—the automation data will be ignored in playback—without having to erase the data itself.

Automation has its own recording logic, that has nothing to do with the audio Record button. Realtime automation is recorded in the Transport's Play mode—when you select one of the 4 recording modes, you've record-armed that track for automation. The modes determine exactly when, and under what conditions, automation recording will actually kick in. In Write mode, Automation recording will start as soon as you hit Play, and continue until you hit Stop.

If there's any previous Automation data in the track, it will be over-written erased. This is also where all automation can be suspended.

Individual tracks can be suspended — by command-clicking for Mac or control-clicking for Windows — the name in the track name box. To be noted is that suspending automation in the edit window will affect any tracks assigned to groups. To bypass the group, hold control while adjusting the automation; this will suspend the track of choice.

Read mode will still be used for playback, once the data has been written in one of the other modes. Write Mode will write automation from the point the playback starts until the point at which the playback stops. Touch Mode writes automation while the fader is being touched on a controller or while the fader is clicked with mouse. The fader will stay in Write mode until it is released, at which point the fader will return to the previously written data placeholder.

Latch Mode will work in the same way as touch mode, except when it is released it will stay at that position and continue writing until playback is stopped. Plug-in Automation is where things get more interesting, with most parameters on a plug-in being automatable.

Some examples include setting the EQ, compression changes, creating filter sweeps, making reverbs slightly different for verse and chorus, etc.

A second option would be to click the automation enable button. Write mode differs from Touch and Latch in that all enabled parameters are overwritten as soon as playback starts. Trim mode modifies the behaviour of Touch, Latch and Write modes, such that instead of writing over the existing Volume and Send Level automation lanes, a new Trim automation lane is created, which combines with the existing automation.

This is particularly useful if you have a number of small rides in a section that you want to keep, while automating the whole section up or down. Pro Tools users without Ultimate can achieve something similar by simply editing the automation with the Trim Tool F6.

To protect users from accidentally overwriting their freshly written automation, write-enabled tracks can be configured to revert to Latch or Touch as soon as playback stops. Open our example project. Hit play and you should be able to hear elements of the mix changing over time. To display the automation, click the triangle at the bottom left of the track in the Edit Window.

This will show or hide the automation lanes. By default the automation on the channel is set to Read. Switch this to Off to hear how the loop should sound. You can adjust any of the parameters in Off mode and it will behave as if there was no automation at all. The parameter will remain in whatever position you leave it in. He's also taught all aspects of recording and music technology at several NY audio schools, and has been writing articles for Recording magaz Read More.

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