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livetrax/manual/xml/automation.xml
Paul Davis 45d3ec1437 merged with 1697 revision of trunk (which is post-rc1 but pre-rc2
git-svn-id: svn://localhost/ardour2/branches/2.1-staging@1698 d708f5d6-7413-0410-9779-e7cbd77b26cf
2007-04-11 13:07:51 +00:00

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<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE section PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
]>
<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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