How do YOU use automation?

[Jesse G]

I use it a lot on aux sends and the volume of aux tracks with delay and reverb on them. Adjust how much of each is heard for each part of the song, make it ramp up and go back down, etc. Sometimes if there is a bar where the instruments cut out and it's only vocals, I'll completely cut out all time-based stuff and then bring it back when the instruments kick back in.

 

Sometimes I'll mess with panning too, like if there is a guitar intro and then another guitar track comes in after the intro, I'll have the intro guitar panned center-ish and then when the second guitar comes in, have it switch to hard left and the other guitar is hard right.

 

Sometimes I use fader-riding instead of compression and I do the usual fade in/out stuff also.

 

What do you guys do with automation?

[wwwjd]

nothing fancy here. to control virtual faders, becuase I don't have a control surface hooked up. "Fader Riding" as it were. I still miss being able to FEEL the flow/time of a song and add mah skillz to the mix performance. I miss the old way. There I said it.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I use it for all kinds of stuff... I rely on it pretty heavily. Fader moves / level rides / changes, aux send and return stuff, mutes, EQ and other plug-in automation (I use quite a bit of that actually...), panning... I'm not a huge fan of doing "static" mixes, and even when it isn't blatantly obvious that things are spinning around and drastically changing, I've usually got something going on. A little ride on a word to deal with a sibilance or plosive issue or to bring up part of a word that wasn't as enunciated as I might have wanted, a switch of the L/R positioning of the dirty guitar double tracking when we hit the chorus, muting one thing for the verses and then unmuting it and muting something else on the choruses or whatever... even if it's not readily apparent, it gives it some subtle animation and movement. Automation allows me to do that kind of stuff a lot more easily, and IMO helps keep things interesting.

[Phil O'Keefe]

 

nothing fancy here. to control virtual faders, becuase I don't have a control surface hooked up. "Fader Riding" as it were. I still miss being able to FEEL the flow/time of a song and add mah skillz to the mix performance. I miss the old way. There I said it.

 

 

I can do it either way, but I'd feel restricted if I had to use either / or - the mouse OR the control surface. I like the control surface for the "feel" of mixing, the soul of it - the "performance", and the mouse for really tight edits and fine tuning.

[I was The Funk]

I use it to do real-time things in a mix that I might not have enough hands to do later. Or I have an idea of something and I don't want to keep doing it over and over. Also, since exports are not realtime I use automation to record my movements in the mix because won't have the opportunity to do so during the output of my mix.

 

I automate everything I can. Usually eqs for moving lowcuts around when mixes get more dense, fader movement, panning, reverb and delay sends. If anything requires a real-time change, it gets automated.

[Lee Knight]

I use it for everything. But one little trick I'd like to mention. Let's say the vocal was:

 

Take a little peek

 

That k at the end of peek gets lost. Sinatra wouldn't lose it, but most guys do. So you bump it up 3dB or so. Then you hear Pee-K. That stuff makes a huge difference in how engaging a vocal is.

[Jesse G]

I use it for everything. But one little trick I'd like to mention. Let's say the vocal was: Take a little peek That k at the end of peek gets lost. Sinatra wouldn't lose it, but most guys do. So you bump it up 3dB or so. Then you hear Pee-K. That stuff makes a huge difference in how engaging a vocal is.

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

Good point - and the opposite can be true as well - if you have something where the singer over-emphasizes something, or you have a little level jump, click or plosive (maybe at the beginning of "peek" ), a little ramping volume automation at the right spot can de-emphasize it and make it sound more natural. It's pretty amazing what you can do to fix problems and / or add to the intelligibility and even change the feel and vibe with just volume automation alone.

[Zooey]

I use automation to add interest--I've got faders and sends moving constantly throughout a mix.

 

Balance is another issue. I'm trying to nail the balance as close as I can at the tracking stage. This often means tracking with outboard comp and EQ and just committing early on. If I can park all the faders at zero and get the mix pretty close to workable, I'm happy. This takes some planning ahead, but the results are worth it.

[temnov]

I was recently working with vocal recorded live by the person with bad cold. Never had a chance to re-record. But thanks to automation I was able to:

- EQ all "ts" "ks" and plosive out;

-Change the tembre of voice when is sounded too harsh;

-automate levels at the end of phrases making them sound even;

- add some reverb at the end of separate words;

etc..

 

Automation is the best DAW's feature

[Jesse G]

Automation is the best DAW's feature

 

Agree

[MrKnobs]

 

nothing fancy here. to control virtual faders, becuase I don't have a control surface hooked up. "Fader Riding" as it were. I still miss being able to FEEL the flow/time of a song and add mah skillz to the mix performance. I miss the old way. There I said it.

 

 

So get a control surface. I still use a Tascam DM-24 mixer, which has automated everything and moving faders.

 

Terry D.