hey,
say I have a nice mix, and I want to experiment in some parts to change eq, levels, plugin settings etc, but I dont want the part after the experiments to change.
the only way I found was working for me is to go to the end of the song, change all the parameters of the things you want to experiment with, in the “write” mode, so everything before on the track is “written”. This is REALY a lot of work, and it is NOT a very intuitive way.
But if you change parameters now, as soon as you release the controlls, the parameters jump back to the “old” value.
This is actualy the way I would like the automation to work by default, but I could not find the proper settings for this.
The other way of course is to do this at the start of the song, but the problem with this is that this also changes your sound!!! (you HAVE to MOVE the controls to go into write mode). especialy with eq-settings and plugin-settings this is a big problem.
I used to have an analog desk with automation, (soundcraft spirit studio 24-8-2 auto + steinberg Spirit studio software on Atari 1040ST!!!) that could actualy do this!
You just went to the start of the song, pushed “write” and play, and all your levels and mutes were recorded to the end of the song. Then you went into “auto” mode to change only the parts where you moved some controlls.
Also is there a way to insert “mixer- snapshots” at a certain timecode?
If I understand your question correctly, you can turn off the “Read Automation” and then move the fader. When You want it to go back to the old setting, turn “Read Automation” back on. Be careful though because if you have a channel with no automation written, once you move the fader, there is nothing to go “go back to”. Of course, you can always “Revert” to the last saved version. Trevor’s advice is probably the best answer though.
HTH
J.L.
I’ll try to explain it a little better. When you want to automate something, you FIRST have to MOVE the fader/button in write mode,in order to create an automation event. After that you have an event that you can tweak. But my problem is, that since I had to move the object, the value is not exactly the same anymore. Lets say you want to automate 4 bands of EQ, but you want to start with EXACTLY the values that you have now. This is almost impossible, because when you move the eq to put it on write mode it’s virtualy impossible to put it back at exactly the right start value. When you do this at the end of the song, it creates a automation data line with the original value UNTIL this point. Since you now have this “line”, it is possible to jump in an out of automation anywhere in the song, while keeping the old values for the rest of the song (before and after the “automation punch in/out”). My only “complaint” about this is that it is not very intuitive, because you clearly have to decide wich parameters you are going to change, then go to the end of the song, move all the parameters you THINK you are going to adjust, and then start automating. This can be quite a challenge when you for example try to create a “dubstyle” bridge, in the middle of a song, and there is absolutely no room for experimenting, you have to decide what to automate first, otherwise your mix is messed up.
I was hoping that there would be an automation mode that has the described behaviour (like “even when you first punch in somewhere in the song the original value is used before AND after punch in/out”).
I hope it is a little bit more clear what my problem is, maybe I’m overlooking something obvious, so enlighten me please…
Pag238 of the PDF manual seems to explain what you are asking, unless I misunderstand.
_"The Fill options define what happens in a specific section of your project when you punch out of a running automation pass.
The Fill options write one particular value across a defined section of your automation track – any previously created data within this section is overwritten.
The following Fill options are available:
To Punch
Lets say you are automating the volume for a pop-song in realtime. The volume must be softer in the chorus section than for the verse. You do not yet know how much softer, but the change in volume from verse to chorus must be abrupt.
Proceed as follows:
Select “Touch” as automation mode and click the “To Punch” button once to activate it as Fill option.
The “To Punch” button is highlighted.
Start playback somewhere during the verse and touch the fader at the moment of change from verse to chorus. The automation pass is punched in.
To Start
“To Start” is similar to the “To Punch” option, but with the following difference: When “To Start” is selected, punch- ing out of automation will fill the automation track from where you punched out to the start of the project.
To End
Let’s assume you are automating volume for the back- ground tracks of a two-minute part in your project. Rather than holding the fader for two minutes, you can proceed as follows:
Select “Touch” as automation mode and click the “To End” button once to activate it as Fill option.
The “To End” button is highlighted.
Start playback and touch the parameter control to punch in the automation pass.
Move the fader until you have found the setting you want and release the fader.
This will punch out the writing of automation data. As you let go of the fader, the automation curve will take the found value setting, from where you punched out to the end of the project."_
“To end” is close, but the point is I don’t want to touch any controls to activate automation in the first place, as this will change my settings the way things work now… (exept for faders with fader touch maybe)
Also the solution/workaround in my first topic (top) is working for me, but I was just wondering if there is a better workaround for this, as it is holding me back on mix-creativity, as you have to decide what you want to automate before you start…
It is not always a problem, sometimes when you automate you do it to the end of the song, but sometimes you just want things to revert to the previous state when you stop automating… I see no easy way or “automation mode” to create this behaviour …