They only start writing when a parameter is activated by touching it. Both of these modes don’t write new automation just by hitting play. Once you have some automation down you want to be in Touch or Latch, and if the preference I mentioned earlier is correctly set you will be swapped to one of these modes automatically. So Write is a great way to do a ‘first pass’ - to get some automation down on every write-enabled parameter on every write-enabled track. DAW Automation is mimicking console automation which, before DAWs, used to happen on a studio console, whereas recording happened on a separate tape machine. Because you are ‘recording’ something when you are writing automation new users sometimes assume that you need to be in record to write automation, you don’t. It overwrites automation with the current value while the transport is rolling. The difference between these is as follows: Write is a bulldozer. The other settings like Touch and Latch are alternative Write modes. Automation Modes control how this happens.Īt its very simplest there are three automation modes: Off (no automation), Write (record automation) and Read (play automation). Unlike Audio and MIDI, for which you can have multiple playlists per track forming alternate ‘takes’ you can only have one automation playlist per track for each parameter but it is still a recording of your fader moves or your changes to any other parameter. Automation is recorded to the timeline in much the same way as audio or MIDI, and like Audio or MIDI it exists on a ‘Playlist’ - a lane on the edit window. The mention of Latch, Touch And Write brings us neatly to the discussion of Automation Modes. While this example uses Logic Pro, check out how Fred Everything performs his automation in real time for exactly this reason, opening the high pass filter on the drum loop until the resonant peak accentuates the claps before closing it again. Exactly where that filter’s cutoff frequency needs to be depends on the content of the audio passing through it and while you could draw in automation, audition it, and repeat until you got the best possible result, it makes far more sense to perform that automation in real time. If you record automation in real time by moving the fader and recording the result, you’ll probably get the result you need more quickly.Ī great example of how important this feedback between what you do and how the result sounds is automating a filter sweep. This way of working can be slow as you’ll find yourself making a change, playing back the change, tweaking, repeating etc. After all, how do you know how much louder it needs to be without hearing the result. There’s not really a ‘wrong’ way to do things but by taking this approach you would be breaking the immediate feedback loop between what you are doing and what the result will be on playback. This can be disconcerting when you first encounter it as you move a fader and as soon as you let go, it moves back! This can result in people abandoning the faders altogether and mixing by drawing in automation on the timeline. It is now being controlled by the mixer automation, not by you. Sticking to the most important parameter for now, as soon as you automate a fader you lose manual control of it. Pro Tools’ automation can get complex but the automation in a typical music mix doesn’t have to get intimidating, as long as you understand how the tools available can help you rather than hinder. Exactly what you automate will vary from project to project, for example you would expect to use more pan automation in a Dolby Atmos mix that in a stereo mix. There will always be those cases where you need to automate an EQ or the depth of a chorus but don’t ever feel that you ‘aren’t automating enough’. While everyone is different the majority of mix automation is volume, with effects sends and some common plugin parameters like reverb time. They need Automating.Īlmost everything in a Pro Tools Session can be automated but what actually gets automated is often rather more restricted. Examples like this are symptomatic of a need to have more than one setting during a mix. You turn it up but then you put it back down again when you play back for a second time. The snare was just right relative to the vocal but now it’s getting lost. You’ll probably find in a typical project that you can set up a mix which nearly works but as you move along the timeline you start changing things. Here are some things to know if you’re getting started with Pro Tools Automation. I think I understand why and know it doesn’t have to be that way. Some people take to DAW automation like ducks to water but for others the experience is frustrating.
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