When trying the new automation feature which gives the option to automatically show the written parameter, I really was getting enthusiastic! This is an amazing new feature, and a big time safer to all of us, who mix in Nuendo.
But then I touched my Oxford EQ, and 68 new automation lanes popped up…
Please, make this feature just available to volume and panning! Anything else doesn’t make sense in mixing!
Volume and Panning (and maybe in some cases send-levels) are at least the only parameters where I want to have a visual component while mixing. Automation-lanes of inserts like EQs (or other “multi-parameter-plugs”) are just (and only) important when editing them, and in that case, I can open them quickly via automation-panel.
As I said, I really was very impressed by this improvement, but unfortunately at the moment it’s just not usable.
BTW: I cannot find any information of all those new automation features in the new feature manual. Why not? I would like to get more detailed information about the new trimming tools.
In my opinion you do not need the visual feedback of EQ parameters in automation lanes. It’s just the GUI of the plugin I’d like to watch.
It really felt great to touch a fader during an automation pass and the appropriate automation-lane pops up automatically. It’s very clearly and comfortable. But you are loosing any benefit of this feature when you touch and automate a plugin which ends up in opening hundreds of automation lanes within a moment…
I do not use any snapshot automation style (I would be glad if this were possible!), but I’m always in touch assistant mode, especially to be safe when automating EQs and other plugins.
The touch assistant is very important for me when automating and punching EQ parameters. If not all parameters of the EQ would be “locked” to a scene with the help of automation nodes in all parameters, and only one or two parameters would be written to the range, then changing a previous scene later on would effect changes in the following automation. Just ran into this yesterday when touch assistant was deactivated by a mistake…
Since EQ is next to Volume the only task I have to automate in every single scene and on every single region, I always stay in touch assist modus.
In addition to that I think that the visual feedback of an insert plugin automation lane in most cases is just not helping at all. So it wouldn’t help me if (beeing not in touch assist mode) for example the “Q”-Parameter lane would pop up, when changing the “Q”.
For visual plugin feedback I just have a look onto the plugin GUI. Automation lanes are just needed here for editing them afterwards. And if I want to edit them, I can open them manually.
So there is just one automation parameter I really like to have as a visual control under the audio content, - and that is volume.