livetrax/manual/xml/automation.xml

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<section id="sn-automation">
	<title>Automation</title>
	<para>
		This chapter will explain how to use Ardour's automation facilities to make
		editing and mixing your sessions more productive.
	</para>

	<section id="what-is-automation">
		<title> What is automation? </title>
		<para>
			Automation refers to Ardour's ability to remember changes you made to
			various parameters in the session, and at what point along the timeline
			playback had reached when you made them. Later, Ardour can make these
			changes happen automatically at the same point on the timeline, thus
			leaving your hands free to do something else. A typical practice when using
			automation is to work on one or two tracks while leaving others alone,
			recording the edits/changes. Once satisfied with the track(s), you can move
			on to adjust other tracks. As the overall mix changes, you can return to
			earlier tracks and adjust their existing automation.
		</para>
	</section>

	<section id="what-can-be-automated">
		<title> What can be automated? </title>
		<para>
			You can automate all changes to track/bus gain control, panning (currently
			only for stereo output) and all plugin parameters. Future versions of
			Ardour will allow automation of mute/solo controls, non-stereo panning, and
			send gain levels.
		</para>
	</section>

	<section id="automation-modes">
		<title> Automation Modes </title>
		<para>
			Each parameter that can be automated has a button available to control its
			state of automation. Each button can be used to put the parameter into one
			of 4 possible automation states:
		</para>

		<variablelist>
			<title></title>
			<varlistentry>
				<term>Off</term>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						No changes to the parameter are recorded, and any existing automation
						for the parameter is ignored. This is the default.
					</para>
				</listitem>
			</varlistentry>

			<varlistentry>
				<term>Play</term>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						Existing automation data controls the value of the parameter, and
						graphical/hardware editing of the value is disabled.
					</para>
				</listitem>
			</varlistentry>

			<varlistentry>
				<term>Write</term>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						All changes to the parameter are recorded as new automation data,
						overwriting any existing data for that point in time.
					</para>
				</listitem>
			</varlistentry>

			<varlistentry>
				<term>Touch</term>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						Existing automation data controls the value of the parameter, but new
						changes to the parameter are recorded, overwriting any existing data for
						that point in time.
					</para>
				</listitem>
			</varlistentry>
		</variablelist>
	</section>

	<section id="basic-automation-recording">
		<title> Basic Automation Recording </title>
		<section id="automation-recording-gain-and-pan">
			<title> Gain and Pan </title>
			<para>
				Each track/bus has two automation control buttons for gain and pan in its
				mixer strip. For each track/bus that you wish to automate, click on the
				relevant automation button. From the popup menu that appears (showing all
				automation states) choose <guibutton>Record</guibutton> . As long as the
				automation state remains in "Record", then any changes you make to gain or
				pan for that track/bus will be recorded.
			</para>
		</section>

		<section id="automation-recording-plugin-parameters">
			<title> Plugin Parameters </title>
			<para>
				Many plugins have many parameters that you might wish to play while
				recording gain automation, so Ardour offers independent control of
				recording changes to these parameters. You can access the controls in
				either of two ways:
			</para>

			<itemizedlist>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						open the plugin's editor window, and click on the appropriate automation
						control button. From the menu that pops up, choose
						<guibutton>Record</guibutton>
					</para>
				</listitem>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						make the automation track for this parameter visible (see
						plugin_automation_tracks on how to do this), and click on the automation
						control button in the track controls. From the menu that pops up, choose
						<guibutton>Record</guibutton> .
					</para>
				</listitem>
			</itemizedlist>

			<para>
				To record edits to the parameter, click on the appropriate
				<guibutton>arec</guibutton> button. As long as the button stays pressed,
				all edits to that parameter will be recorded.
			</para>
		</section>
	</section>

	<section id="basic-automation-playback">
		<title> Basic Automation Playback </title>
		<section id="automation-playback-gain-and-pan">
			<title> Gain and Pan </title>
			<para>
				Each track/bus has two automation control buttons for gain and pan in its
				mixer strip. For each track/bus where you want existing automation data to
				control gain and/or panning, click on the relevant automation button. From
				the popup menu that appears (showing all automation states) choose
				<guimenuitem>Play</guimenuitem>. As long as the automation state remains in
				<guimenuitem>Play</guimenuitem>, you can no longer control the gain and/or panning from the
				graphical user interface or an external hardware control surface.
			</para>
		</section>

		<section id="automation-playback-plugin-parameters">
			<title> Plugin Parameters </title>
			<para>
				For each plugin parameter you want controlled by automation data, you need
				to activate automation playback which can be done in one of two ways:
			</para>

			<itemizedlist>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						open the plugin's editor window, and click on the appropriate automation
						control button, and choose <guimenuitem>Play</guimenuitem> from the menu
						that pops up.
					</para>
				</listitem>
				<listitem>
					<para>
						make the automation track for this parameter visible (see
						plugin_automation_tracks on how to do this), and click on the automation
						control button in the track controls. Choose <guimenuitem>Play</guimenuitem>
						from the menu that pops up.
					</para>
				</listitem>
			</itemizedlist>

			<para>
				You also need to enable automation playback for the plugin itself. This
				needs to be done in the plugin's editor window by clicking on the
				automation button in the upper right corner. Without this step, the
				individual parameter buttons will not enable automation playback.
			</para>

			<para>
				The plugin automation button also allows you to globally disable
				automation control of all parameters by unsetting it (clicking it so that
				it is no longer "pressed"). This leaves the individual automation control
				buttons in whatever state they were already in, but it stops the use of
				automation data for all parameters. This can be useful if you have a
				hardware control surface, and have automation-playback-enabled several
				parameters. You can override the automation playback settings and manually
				control parameter values from the control surface without having to click
				on each parameter's automation control button individually.
			</para>
		</section>
	</section>

	<section id="editing-automation-data">
		<title> Editing Automation Data </title>
		<para>
			The editor window can display all automation data for a track. Each type of
			automation data is shown in its own "track" to make it easy to see the
			data, and to edit it.
		</para>
	</section>
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