Group Channel volume automation problem

I’m not entirely sure if this is a bug or just undesirable behavior, but if you create an automation point on a group channel’s volume automation lane, when it didn’t already have automation on it, the value of the automation point will still remain even after undoing it.

So lets say you set your group channel fader to -5dB, and accidentally added an automation point for -10dB afterwards, the group channel fader will stay at -10dB even after you undo it (assuming you didn’t have pre-existing automation). A group track’s automation displays by default so I’ve done this by accident many times and its frustrating having to guess where I had the fader value previously as it doesn’t appear in the mix console’s history.

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+1 for Steinberg to refine this behavior.

This happened to me many time . Sometimes CMD + Z fixes it (not the console history) because it registers the very first automation point at the value that fader actually was before as it was an edit.

Anyway, the way I’d like this to work would be having cubase always know at which value the fader is, like if there was an automation point written. This way, while automating faders in touch mode you would have it return to previous value once you release the fader (PT works this easy and makes much sense to me, because you build your static mix and than start automating).

My work around is manually writing an automation point at the end of every track. Not very fast when your mixing scores with hundreds of tracks.
Also, nesting VCAs gives me some unwanted behavior while trying to write an automation point on a fader that doesn’t have any automation point in it. Often writing an automation point under these circumstances moves the fader to a different value than where it was, it seems like something like this happens, trying to make an exemple:

  • Audio Track fader: 0dB (no automation point)
  • VCA: -4 dB,
  • Nested fader that controls previous VCA and, consequently, audio track fader: -3dB.
    Now, if I try to write an automation point on the Audio track, cubase will put that automation point at -7dB, like if that was the result of all nested VCAs. Only that the audio track fader is at 0 dB, so, now, as a consequence, that audio track fader is now at -14 dB instead of at -7dB.

I really have to pay attention and be really conscious of where all faders are before writing automations.
Hopefully we can get this behavior improved. :pray:t2::crossed_fingers:t2:

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Same here.

I keep a backup project that I update once a day after all work has been done on that day.

Just a quick tip for any of you experiencing this problem: Set the default group automation line to mute in order to prevent setting accidental volume values.

How do you do this? I wasn’t aware you could change the default automation lane

Click on “volume” on the right side of the group or fx track in the tracklist. Now in the menu select “mute”.

Wait aren’t you just changing the displayed automation lane? I thought you meant actually changing the lane that displays by default when creating a new group channel. I don’t make the automation error often enough to bother changing the lane every time I create a group channel so unfortunately that doesn’t really address the problem for me.

That’s great practice! I also save sequential session numbers (i.e “my mix_01”, “my mix_02” etc) after any significant change, or when I have a balance that works on a certain section, so I can go back easily and check.

Still, something inexplicable happened, and that’s why I wanted to post my experience here: I saved a mix session at the end of the day, did a print, sent it to client, backed up and went to sleep. I woke up, listened the bounce, got few minor notes form client, got excited :laughing:, opened the project and balances were all wrong. Totally different mix.

I spent a lot of time figuring out how it was sounding different.
I checked the time of the bounce and the time the session got saved and it was the same time reported on my mac! That’s a mistery I can’t explain!!! Only, now, I’m scared AF every morning. :joy:

I got a feeling about what was sounding different and found out about that it might have been nested VCAs.

Hopefully there’s no bug, and just something went wrong while saving l the session, that line single time. :crossed_fingers:t2:

Accidents like this can indeed be scary.

I’m a heavy user of key commands with a proclivity to type fast. Every once in a while I enter some erroneous combination, delete a bunch of tracks inadvertently, keep on working, and then boom: what have I done!

Back-ups is a must when doing this as a profession.

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Couldn’t agree more. :grinning: