Automation Nation

By Joe Gore

Part 1 of 2
This month and next we'll focus on one of the most powerful — and misunderstood — functions in Pro Tools: automation.

Automation breathes life into your mixes. It allows you to exert total and exact control over levels, panning, sends, and almost every conceivable processing effect. It can deliver subtle tweaks or unleash mind-bending manipulations unthinkable on even the most powerful analog mixing boards. In other words, there's a lot more to automation than programming the volume faders to go up and down.

Having said that, moving the volume faders does make a good starting point. Let's try it with this month's practice session, "Bianca." You can download it here.
Windows | Macintosh

As usual in this column, the initial session is a big mess. Your job: make it sound cooler via automation.

Meet Bianca
Solo the tracks and become acquainted with the elements: A sleazy-cheesy female vocal. An electro-type beat. Bass and filtered-percussion loops. A weird, broken-clock sound called "Space Bells" and an ambient pad named "Atmosphere." The session also includes an aux track with a long delay dialed in, though no sounds are routed through it yet, and a master fader.

In past columns we've refined arrangements in the edit window by duplicating, muting, and deleting audio regions. Not this time — we'll only use automation.

But first, let's touch on two potentially confusing things about automation.

First, while automation moves are stored with the track they belong to, they are controlled by a separate set of record and playback controls. In other words, you don't need to record-enable a track in order to record automation info for it. Conversely, the fact that you are recording audio onto a track doesn't mean you're recording any automation. Why the separate audio-record and automation-record settings? So you can edit automation without altering the underlying audio.

The second tricky detail: There are five different automation modes. See for yourself: Click-hold on the little "a" beneath the title of any audio track and look at the pull-down menu. The default setting, "auto read," means the track will play back automation data but not record any new info. (That's a moot point for now, since there's no automation data in this session yet.) "Auto off" turns off automation playback. (Duh.) The other three settings are record modes.

Start Your Automation Engine
The most direct way to enter automation data is by dragging a fader and "recording" the move as part of your session data. The techniques are identical whether you're moving Pro Tools' virtual faders with your mouse or a fader box such as a Digi 002 or HUI controller.

Make sure automation is enabled by opening Windows > Show Automation Enable. "Auto suspend" should not be selected, but the other seven boxes should be highlighted in red.

Mute the session's "Space Bells" and "Filter Perc" tracks for now and listen again. Sound a little more coherent, huh? But the "Atmosphere" track gets a little obnoxious, especially when it plays over the vocal. Let's duck it down with a volume fader.

Did you know that you don't need to switch to the mix window to move faders? Just click on the little asterisk beneath the "Atmosphere" track's volume control, which opens a volume fader for this track only. Note that the fader includes an indicator showing the current automation status. Set it to "auto touch," either here or via the little "a" button.

In "auto touch," Pro Tools only records automation data when you are "touching" (click-holding if you don't have a control surface with touch-sensitive faders) or moving the fader. Try it. Press play (not record!) and pull the fader down while Bianca makes her preflight announcements.

When you play back the track, you should see the fader retracing your moves. If you're not satisfied with the results, click Command/Ctrl + Z to undo the pass, and then try again.

Now try these other alternatives:

• Change the setting to "auto write," which lets you overwrite any automation data on the track. Note how Pro Tools automatically reverts to the "auto touch" setting after the automation pass — an ass-covering feature that protects you from inadvertently overwriting your automation data.
• If you like part< of your performance, remain in auto-touch mode, but don't click on the fader until you get to the part you want to replace.
• "Auto latch" is like auto touch with one difference: When you overwrite existing automation in auto touch, the fader jumps back to the previous take's setting as soon as you release it. In auto latch, it stays wherever you left it until you stop the transport. The distinction sounds more confusing than it is. Try it a few times, and you'll start getting the hang of it.
• Once you have a fader pass you dig, change the automation setting to "auto read." Your automation will play back, but you won't risk overwriting it by mistake.

Go ahead and try some of these moves on other tracks, but first save a version of the session with only the "Atmosphere" track automated and return to it before continuing with the lesson.

Who Needs the Mix Window?
Since you can open faders right in the Edit Window, why bother with the Mix Window at all?

Excellent question, Joe! In fact, many Pro Tools users rarely refer to the Mix Window. Others find that its overview of all channel faders provides a better overall sense of the mix. It may be partly a matter of whether you originally honed your mixing chops with an analog console or a mouse. You'll develop your own preferences over time.

Faderless Fading
Recording fader moves is a simple and intuitive way to work, but Pro Tools offers much more precise means of automation. You can edit automation info with the same tools you use to shred audio.

Unmute the "Filter Perc" track and enlarge its view by click-holding on the ruler grid to the right of the i/o column and selecting "large." Next, click-hold on the "waveform" button beneath the track's "mute" switch. Select "volume."

In this view, the horizontal line depicts the track's volume, currently at its default setting of 0 dB. You can write volume data directly on the track with the grabber and pencil tools.

Let's say, for example, that we want the percussion loop to appear between the two vocal sections, but not right on top of the "Atmosphere" sound. Perhaps a fade in between bars 9 and 13.

Try it. Select the Grabber tool and click on the line at bar 9. A little white dot appears, just like the one already at the beginning of the track. These are called "breakpoints." Create another at bar 13. (Since Grid mode is selected and set to "1 bar," the dot automatically snaps to the bar line nearest to wherever you click. If you want to create a breakpoint between bars, you need to decrease the grid value or switch to Slip mode.)

Now lower the bar one breakpoint as far as it goes, like so:

Don't change the bar 9 breakpoint yet. Since we want our fade-in to start at that bar, we need to create another breakpoint somewhere between bars 1 and 9. Do so — the exact location doesn't matter. Then click-hold on the new dot and drag it down to the lowest setting at bar 9, like this:

Play the results so far. The percussion loop enters suddenly at bar 9. To create a smooth fade, erase the bar 9 breakpoint by Option/Alt-clicking on it.

Note that if you click open the track's fader, it will mimic the edits you just made. The same is true if you switch to the mix window view.

You can also edit breakpoints simply by drawing on the line with the pencil tool. Don't forget: For speed's sake, select tools with the function keys whenever possible. You select between the five pencil modes by repeatedly pressing the function key or by click-holding on the pencil icon. Select "Line," and try replicating these shapes by click-holding over the track so that the percussion sounds cut out for the second vocal phrase before fading up once more. Note how holding down the option key inverts the pencil tool — now it's an eraser. The line tool offers a different feel than the grabber, but both do pretty much the same task.

Experiment with these various techniques and try them out on some of your own sessions. But do save your work so far, because it will be our starting point for next month's lesson. We'll learn the remainder of the automation tools and then get into some — um — freakier applications.

Click here to read previous columns.