| CandyRaver666 |
CR's tip #423 : AUTOMATE IT
Automation is one of the most powerful features available in your sequencer.
Yet to most, it is a vague word, and an even more nebulous concept.
I wish to re-iterate that automation is one of the most powerful features available in your sequencer.. You need to be using it.
And the good news for once, is that it is actually easier than it sounds.
Almost any parameter can be automated. In this brief post, I will be discussing automation with a mouse and pointer, although a lot of digital mixers (and midi control boxes) can record the automation as you physically push faders up and down.
The most common parameter automated is volume and panning next. Lets concentrate on these for this example. Examples are discussed from Cubase SX, but should be as straight forward in any sequencer.
Automating volume :
-Click on the MIDI track you wish to automate (or audio, or whatever).
-Lets say that track "ARP" needs to fade out away after the end of a sixteen bar phrase.
-I want the track to fade from volume 100 to volume 0 in three bars.
-Right click on the MIDI box title
-Select "Show automation" (volume is displayed as the first automation, but may be changed to whatever you wish)
-A whole new track appears under your MIDI track titled automation
-in the background of the automation track, the track events appear faded
-in the foreground of the automation track, there appears a straight line (usually of a standout colours, user selectable, blue by default)
-this straight line represents the real time volume for that MIDI. This means that the whole MIDI does not change volume. Cubase defaults to volume 100, but this can be changed by simply dragging the line up or down, or changing volume in the main window
There are many ways of automating, but I am presenting possibly the simplest
-Select the "pencil" tool
-Click on the automation volume line at the point you want the automation to start
-A black dot appears on the line
-Place another click on the next automation event and watch another black dot appear
-Now switch to the "select" tool
-Dragging on these dots now brings a straight line between the two dots. Dragging it up shows that the volume increases from point 1 to point 2. Dragging it down decreases the volume accordingly from point 1 to point 2.
-These lines are straight, but can be drawn free hand with the pencil tool
So, to automate the volume dropping I :
-Click on the volume a bar 13 with the pencil tool, obtaining a black dot
-Again at the end of bar 16
-Drag the dot at the end of bar 16 to zero
I should see now a straight line from bar 1-13 (constant volume), and a line sloping down to zero from bar 13-16.
I have automated a volume fade.
Repeat it as many times as you want to increase and decrease volumes (this is where a digital mixer is nice, because your real time mixing becomes read into Cubase. Of course, you will probably need to come back and correct it though, because of human delay between hearing the sound and moving the fader, but at least you know when to change the parameter and by how much).
Automating Panning
This is one of the nicest effects that can be automated in my opinion.
For example, I have a piano arpegio in my current track which is automatically panned.
In one 16 bar stretch, it pan hard left to hard right every two bars and back, giving the impression of a piano playing "around" you.
-Once again, I select the track I wish to automate
-Right clicking, I select "Show automation"
-Volume appears as default, but I select pan
-Once again, I see a straight line (usually a different colour to volume, green by default but user selectable).
-Now, I select the pencil tool
-I make a click (black dot) every two bars, ie. at 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17
-I drag point 1 to zero (hard left)
-I drag point 3 to max (hard right)
-I drag point5 to zero (hard left) etc.
-Now when I finish, I can see that my automation is a zig-zag triangly type shape.
-Intuitively, you can now see that every two bars it pans smoothly hard left to hard right.
-Close your eyes and press "Play". Sounds great, eh ?
This is just a snap shot on automation.
It's actually very simple to use, but we have the boffins writing these sequencers to thank for making it so simple.
My advice to you is to use it whenever you can to make the track more interesting. |
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