Part 7 - Automation

WHAT IS AUTOMATION

• Instructions for parameters to change over time
• Viewed as a (pinkish) line through the arrangement, adjusting in height to visualise the varying selected parameter level

USE IT FOR: MIX BALANCE

• Make something louder or softer at different moments
• Moving pan positions around

USE IT FOR: AVOIDING REPETITION AND CREATING MOVEMENT

• Even if phrases repeat compositionally
• They don’t have to repeat sonically
• Automation can create timbral movement
• E.g. open and close a filter, adjust an effect dry/wet

For an overview, see this video from Ableton showing how to use automation in the arrangement view of Ableton Live:

Press the shortcut "A" (so long as the computer MIDI keyboard feature is disabled) or the automation mode button (above the track names) to enter automation mode. You can select the parameter to automate with the drop down below the track name. Alternatively, the last parameter you selected / moved will already be selected (so selecting the parameter itself is typically faster).

• Clicking on the red line to add a breakpoint
• Clicking and dragging breakpoint to reposition it
• Alternatively, use the pencil tool to draw in automation (it will adhere all breakpoints to the current grid size if the grid is not disabled)
• Holding the Shift button whilst dragging a breakpoint to “fine tune” smaller edits
• Right click a breakpoint and select “edit value” to type in an exact number
• Holding Cmd to temporarily toggle the grid off
• Hovering the mouse just above or below a line of automation allows you to select and move the entire line
• Holding the Option / Alt key whilst selecting a line of automation allows you to create a curve
• To view multiple automated parameters at once you can create a new automation lane by pressing the (+) button below the parameter selection drop down.
• Removing lanes is done with their corresponding (-) buttons, and temporarily collapsing the lanes is done with the (v) arrow button.

If you modify a parameter manually that was previously being automated, its automation will be disabled. You can right click the parameter and select "re-enable automation" to activate it again for a specific parameter. Alternatively you can press the “re-enable automation” button to at the top of the screen to reactive all disabled automation in the session. This button will only light up when automation has been disabled somewhere in the project.

To record automation in real time, make sure the automation arm button is active. Make sure you don't have any tracks record armed by accident, otherwise you might override content on the timeline. When you are ready, press record and whilst the track is playing, adjust a parameter to begin creating automation.

LOCK ENVELOPES Press the lock button to protect automation from being affected by clip editing E.g. you are swapping in and out different MIDI clips with different progressions, but want to be able to retain the effect automation
DELETING ALL AUTOMATION FOR A PARAMETER QUICKLY Right click menu on the parameter > delete automation There are other useful automation related shortcuts in the right click menu too

THE DANGER OF AUTOMATING VOLUME

• One parameter I would advise you not to automate is your track fader
• Why? Because any parameter that has been automated can no longer be manually adjusted (without accidentally breaking the automation)
• So mixing becomes really difficult, as every volume change needs to be made as automation

THE ALTERNATIVE: USE A UTILITY PLUGIN

• The audio effect called "utlity" has a few simple features, including a gain dial
• Add one to your track that needs automated volume adjustments, and automate that gain dial instead
• Leave the track fader as an overall mix level adjustment tool
• Note that the gain dial runs from -inf to +35, which is a different scale than the track fader (-inf to +6)

• Find a few simple loops (e.g. a drum, bass, and chord part)
• Duplicate them several times, so you have many repeats of the same loops
• Whilst it sounds very repetitive right now, your challenge is to use automation only to create interesting movement and change. Here's some ideas:
  • Try using lots of audio effects on your loops, and automating various parameters. Many will have a "dry/wet" which is a good one to automate.
  • You can try automating things like volume (ideally, utilising the "utility" effect as described in the previous step) to create fade ins and outs.
  • Try adding automation in different ways: clicking in breakpoints, using the automation shapes from the right click menu, and recording.