Chapter 15: Automating Your Mix

In Chapter 14, Mixing Your Project in Logic Pro, we focused on mixing, but when it came to setting volume levels, pan positions, and all the settings in the plug-ins, everything we did was what is often referred to as set and forget. Sometimes that works just fine, but, more often than not, automating the levels, panning, and plug-ins so that the parameter values change over time can bring a sense of movement and liveliness to your project.

In this chapter, we will discuss the following topics:

• A brief history of automation
• Creating region automation without the project playing
• Creating track automation with the project playing in Touch mode
• Creating track automation with the project playing in Latch mode
• Editing and deleting automation

A brief history of automation

In the 1970s, the development of recording consoles and tape machines progressed to the point where we could now mix multiple 24-track machines synced together. This meant that the engineer might have many more adjustments to make in real time than he could realistically perform with just two hands, or even two engineers with four hands could.

Console makers such as AMS Neve and SSL rose to fill the void with console automation, allowing the console to memorize the engineer's moves. It is often claimed that Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the first records to employ this ability, and as complex as it is, it certainly had to be at least one of the first.

Initially, the faders and knobs would not be moving as you were hearing the changes, but Rupert Neve created a console in the 70s that introduced flying faders, and all of today's DAWs can emulate this, as do even inexpensive hardware controllers from companies such as Mackie and...

Offline Region automation

I am going to begin by automating panning in the region you see on track 8 at bar 3.

Region panning automation

Let's begin with the following steps:

1. Press A to see automation. It defaults to Track automation for volume, the automation is visible on every track, and is assigned to Read mode.
2. Should you want this track to be bigger, press Control + Z on the computer keyboard or, alternatively, go to the View menu and choose Zoom Focused Track, and any selected track now gets bigger.
3. Click on the word Track and it switches to Region, which is what I want to use to create panning for this region in this instance.
4. Hold the mouse down on Volume and navigate to Main | Pan | Absolute:

   Figure 15.4 – Set to create region-based panning automation

   As you turn the pan knob from left to right or right to left while listening to a stereo recording, any material that was panned to one side starts to disappear. You aren't moving anything...

Live Track automation

Clicking in control points without playback is a very precise way to automate, but sometimes you just want the feel of doing this in real time. This is especially true with volume, where listening to a part and riding the fader produces a very musical result.

Automation modes

There are four Automation Modes, as can be seen here:

Figure 15.11 – The Automation Modes

• Read: Reacts to any automation. Turning it off does not remove the automation, but it is ignored until turned back on.
• Touch: While playing the project back, it stays at the level you are drawing with your mouse until you release it, and then snaps back to its original level.
• Latch: While playing the project back, it stays at the level you are drawing with your mouse until you release it, and then remains at that level until you resume movement.
• Write: While playing the project back, it erases all the automation on that track, whether visible or...

Trimming automation

Logic gives you lots of ways to alter your automation. To delete control points, select one or more points while holding the Shift key, and then just press the Delete key and they are gone.

We have two choices for trimming the level of volume automation – Trim and Relative, again both offline and in real time.

Offline Trim

If you hold your mouse down over the Automation Value field, you will see the word Trim appear:

Figure 15.15 – Trim volume

Simply dragging Trim up or down makes it lower or higher while preserving all the automation control points.

This isn't limited to volume automation. Remember all those EQ bands that we automated? You can trim the frequency changes in the same manner.

Real-time Trim

If I return to either Latch or Touch mode on a track, I now have the option of either choosing Trim or Relative:

Figure 15.16 – Trim or Relative for Latch or Touch mode

...

Copying automation

You can copy automation within a track or between tracks, but there are some things you need to understand for the latter.

Copying automation within a track

Copying visible automation within a track works the same way copying works in the workspace with anything:

1. Select the control points with the Marquee tool, or hold down the Shift key and drag over them.
2. Hold the mouse down, and they all turn white.
3. While holding down the Option key, drag to copy them to the desired location, releasing the mouse first. So easy:

Figure 15.19 – Automation copied within a track

Copying automation between tracks

The process is slightly different when copying automation between tracks:

1. Select the control points in the track you wish to copy from with the Marquee tool or hold the Shift key and drag over them.
2. Either go to the Edit menu and choose Copy, or, better yet, press Command + C.
3. Go to the track you...

The track automation Event List

Most users do not know about this list, because it is only available by key command. The key command is …. drum roll …. Ctrl + Command + E.

It looks pretty much like the Event List and works the same way. Here, you can alter existing automation control points to your heart's content:

Figure 15.20 – The track automation Event List

The question is, can you select the control points and copy them by pressing Command + C, go to another track and open the Track Automation Event List, and press Command + V to paste them? You betcha!

Deleting automation

Automation can easily be deleted by going to the Mix menu; with or without being visible on a selected track; all automation on a track; automation on a track where all regions have been deleted, a so-called orphaned track; redundant automation (control) points, or for all tracks as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 15.21 – Automation deletion options in the Mix menu

Customizing MIDI controllers for automation

If you go to Mix | Automation Preferences, the following window appears:

Figure 15.22 – Automation preferences

If I was writing this book a couple of years ago, I would have spent some time instructing you as to how to use Automation Quick Access to teach your MIDI controller to use its knobs or faders to control automation in real time. Nowadays though, there are a slew of affordable MIDI controllers that come with mapping for Logic Pro, so there is no need to do so. If you are a beginner, you should certainly consider buying one.

Alternatively, you can download the free Logic Remote app for an iPad or iPhone if you own one and use that for this purpose.

Summary

In this chapter, we covered a brief history of automation and Logic Pro's automation capabilities. We learned how to automate both with playback stopped and in real time during playback. We also learned about all the different automation modes for real-time automation, and how to edit, trim, copy, and delete our automation.

In the next chapter, we will become familiar with the concepts of mastering versus pre-mastering, and bouncing a mix or stems for distribution.