. Automation: Track Based Automation (TBA)
- What is Track Based Automation?
- How do I set up automation on an Arrange track?
- How do I select nodes on an automation track?
- How do I move or copy automation data on a single track?
- How do I move or copy automation data from one parameter to another?
- How do I move or copy automation data to another track?
- How do I loop a sequence that has automation data?
- How do I adjust the overall level of automation data on a track?
- How do I turn an effect on/off at specified places?
- How do I control automation with my synth's knobs?
- What can I use Automation Event Edit for?
- What can I use the Automation Folder for?
- Which automation keycommands are available?
- How do I quantize automation nodes?
- How do I set the automation mode of all tracks to Latch (Read, Write, etc)?
- How can I bounce a piece of audio, without bouncing (e.g.) volume and panning, which I want to keep editable?
- The "automation curve" tool isn't working
.1 What is Track Based Automation?
Track Based Automation (TBA in Logic-lingo) lets you record, edit and play back movement of various faders on tracks in the Arrange window directly. Prior to Logic 5.2, the only way to automate objects was by using Object Based Automation (OBA), which uses regular MIDI sequences on dedicated Arrange tracks. In newer Logic versions, OBA can still be used, but most people probably prefer TBA, which is what this chapter is concerned with. For some OBA-related stuff, see the chapter on Getting started with Logic Audio.
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.2 How do I set up automation on an Arrange track?
First, increase the height and width of the Arrange track so you can see and edit automation data. This is done in the Arrange window by using the "finger" cursor to drag the lower left corner of the Arrange track down (or Command [Ctrl] + down-arrow), and Command [Ctrl] + right arrow to increase the width.
Then use View->Track Automation and select "Current track" in the dialog that pops up.
Now automation data for the Volume parameter should be visible on the Arrange track.
(You can also just use View->Track Automation without first adjusting the height and width of the Arrange track, but then all Arrange tracks have their heights and widths adjusted.)
Try holding down the right mouse button and draw some random automation data, like this:
fig. 1: Randomly drawn automation data
(this automatically changes the status of the automation track from "Off" to "Read", which is necessary if you want to hear the changes when playing back the track.)
Now the volume of the track should change according to the automation data when it is played back. You can switch to another parameter by clicking on Volume, and picking a parameter from the menu that pops up.
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.3 How do I select nodes on an automation track?
Select all nodes
Command-click [right-click] in the lower part of the automation track information, for example just to the right of the "Read" parameter. If you have clicked the right place then the sequence's automation data should be highlighted, but not the name of the sequence:
fig. 2: Selecting nodes
In track 1, all automation data is selected - this is what you wanted.
In track 2, the actual sequence is selected.
Select all nodes from a certain point onwards
Option-click [Ctrl-click] in the Automation area, at the desired "start point" (not necessarily on a node). All nodes from that point until the end of the track will be selected.
Select only some nodes
Hold down shift, then click-drag a rectangle around the nodes you want to select, or (with shift still held down) click individual nodes or line segments.
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.4 How do I move or copy automation data on a single track?
Move: Select the automation data you want to move, then click-hold on a node and move the mouse left or right.
Copy: Open Automation Event Edit (see section 13 below: Which automation keycommands are available?). Select the event(s) you want to copy, press Command [Ctrl]-c to copy and Command [Ctrl]-v to paste, then enter the destination.
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.5 How do I move or copy automation data from one parameter to another?
Suppose you have some automation data for the Filter Cutoff parameter of an EXS24 Audio Instrument Object, and that you want to copy this data to the Filter Resonance parameter of the same instrument.
Hold down Command [Ctrl] while clicking on Filter Cutoff. This opens a pop-up menu where you can select which parameter to copy the data to. In this case, pick EXS24 and then select Filter Resonance. Now a pop-up question asks you "Do you want to convert or copy/convert the automation data?" - select Copy Convert.
The automation data is now copied from the Filter Cutoff to the Filter Resonance parameter.
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.6 How do I move or copy automation data to another track?
Open the Key Commands window and type "Automation" in the "Find" box. You'll notice an "Automation Folder" command that has no key commands assigned to it. You'll also notice an Automation Event Edit command that does not have any key command assigned to it. The only way to access these commands is by assigning them key commands. I used key commands like "Option, 1" and "Option, 2" (these commands are not used by any other Logic function). Once you've done this, you can access these windows from the Arrange window and do your pasting and copying as you would with normal MIDI events.
Note: in order to be able to open either of these windows, you have to have an Arrange track selected that already has some automation data on it.
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.7 How do I loop a sequence that has automation data?
Select the sequence that has track automation data. In the menu, select Options->Track Automation->Move Current Track Automation Data to object. Now when the sequence is looped, automation data is played back for the looped sequences too.
You can reverse it by selecting the sequence, then in the menu, select Options->Track Automation->Move Current Object Data to Track Automation. (In the Automation data of the arrange track, it may say "0 unused". If you click-hold on this, the parameter you have automated should become visible in the pop-up menu, and by selecting it you are back to where you started.)
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.8 How do I adjust the overall level of automation data on a track?
Absolute change: Select all nodes, then click-hold on a node and move the mouse up or down.
Relative change: Instead of clicking directly on a node as with absolute changes, click somewhere else, away from the nodes, in the automation area, and, while keeping the mouse down, drag up or down.
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.9 How do I turn an effect on/off at specified places?
We will look at two cases:
- Case 1: Turn an effect on a bus on/off
If you only use e.g. reverb in some parts of your song and you'd like to save CPU power, use automation to turn off the effect when it is not needed. You have to do two things (this assumes you have your reverb on Bus 1):
1) On the instrument's Arrange track, pick the automation parameter "Send 1" and set it to -infinite at the point where you want to turn off reverb (insert a node slightly to the left of this point, otherwise the send level of the reverb effect will be dropping from the start node to the bypass node, and this is not what we want - we want the send level to be constant until we "turn off" the effect.).
2) On the Bus 1 track, pick the automation parameter "Insert#1 Byp." and set this to "Bypassed" at the specified time:
fig. 3: Turning an effect on/off
- Case 2: Turn an effect on an insert effect on/off
Assuming you have your effect in the first Insert slot: on the instrument's Arrange track, pop open the "automation parameter" menu, and from the "Main" submenu, pick "Ins #1 bypass". Now automate as usual. (Notice that the bypass parameter is not located in the effect's submenu, but in the main submenu, which at first sight may seem strange.)
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.10 How do I control automation with my synth's knobs?
Here is the basic example that came with the Logic 5.2 update notes:
Lets say we have an Audio Instrument Object with an ESP synthesizer and want to control the Filter Cutoff parameter with an external modulation wheel. (the following assumes you have an ESP synthesizer running as Audio Instrument 1.)
- Create a Transformer object
- Open the Environment window by pressing Command [Ctrl]-8, navigate to whichever layer you like (we'll assume you're in a layer called "MIDI Instr.", but any layer, including the Audio Mixer, will do) and from the window's New menu, pick "Transformer".
- The Transformer is selected by default and its parameters are displayed. Make sure the Icon box is checked.
- Connect the Physical Input-object with the Transformer-object
- Switch to the "Click & Ports" layer.
- At the Physical Input-object, hold down Option [Ctrl] and click-hold on the topmost small triangle (the SUM outlet).
- In the menu that appears, select Midi Instr.->(Transformer)
(if (Transformer) doesn't appear on the list, you forgot to put a checkmark in the object's Icon parameter as mentioned above.)
Note: if in Options > Preferences > Display Preferences you unchecked "Sort Instrument menu by Layers", then all available objects are sorted by functionality instead. In that case the transformer should be available under the submenu "MIDI effects".
- Connect the Transformer-object and the Audio Instrument Object with the ESP synthesizer
- In the Midi Instr. layer, hold down Option [Ctrl] and click-hold on the small triangle leading out from the Transformer-object.
- In the menu that appears, select Audio->Audio Instrument->AudioInst1 (or "Audio Instrument->AudioInst1", depending on your Preferences -- see second bullet above).
- Connect the Transformer-object to the "to Recording & Thru" (sometimes called "to Sequencer")-object
- Open a second Environment window by pressing Command [Ctrl]-8, use Window->Tile Windows horizontally.
- In the top Environment window, select the Midi Instr. layer.
- In the bottom Environment window, select the "Click & Ports" layer.
- In the Midi Instr. layer, grab the small triangle leading out of the Transformer-object (below the one you just connected.)
- Drag the cable into the "to Recording & Thru"-object in the other Environment window.
- Close the Environment window with the "Click & Ports" layer and maximize the other.
Note: if you had created the transformer in the Clicks and Ports layer instead of the MIDI Instr. layer, you could have saved yourself some fiddling with windows and popup menus, since you'd have the Physical Input and "to Recording & Thru" objects right there in front of you.
- Set parameters in the Transformer-object
- Double-click on the Transformer-object.
- In the drop-down box, select "Track Automation Splitter (true->top cable)"
- Under Conditions: Status, click on "All" and set it to "=". In the small box that appears just below, click on "Note" and change it to "Control".
- Set the other parameters in a similar way until you end up with this:
fig. 4: Setting parameters in the Transformer-object
Now make a sequence with some notes on the ESP synth Arrange track and try moving the modulation wheel on your synth.
This should change the Cutoff parameter of the ESP.
(I would like to explain WHY you have to do each step above, but I have not had much time to look at Environments yet, it is complex IMO.)
More info on this topic can be found here:
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.11 What can I use Automation Event Edit for?
You can use it to copy automation data (see section 4 above: How do I move or copy automation data?)
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.12 What can I use the Automation Folder for?
See previous question. One would think (or hope) that you could use this Arrange-like page to do things like looping track-based automation data. At first sight this seems possible: select an automation sequence, trim it to be e.g. exactly 4 or 8 bars long, and set it to loop (just as you would with a regular MIDI sequence: set Loop to ON on the left hand side of the window). Close the window, and hit play: automation loops fine. Now re-open the Automation Folder: notice how the length of the automation sequence has changed to some seemingly random length -- thus throwing off your entire looping experiment. Conclusion: does-not-work-at-all, period. There are more such illogical problems with the new (as of v5) track based automation, which would lead one to think that the entire concept isn't fully mature yet. [top] [contents]
.13 Which automation keycommands are available?
Press Option [Ctrl-Alt]-k to bring up the list of available keycommands. In the "Find" text box, type "automation", and this should be shown:
fig. 5: Automation keycommands
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.14 How do I quantize automation nodes?
In the Arrange window, select the nodes you want to quantize (see section 3 above for various selection methods). Make sure the Arrange track is selected. Next open the "Automation Event Edit" window for the current track. This can be done by key command only, so if you haven't done so already, you should first assign a key command to "Automation Event Edit" (also see section 12 above).
Now when the Automation Event Edit window opens, you'll notice how only a couple of events are selected: by selecting nodes in the Arrange window prior to opening the Event Edit window, we made sure only the nodes were selected. This indeed is what we want: this way we'll be quantizing the nodes only, leaving the ramps between nodes intact.
In the Event Edit window, click-hold on the "Q" button on the left hand side of the window: a popup appears from which you can pick the quantization value. That's all there is to it. Close the Event Edit window.
The picture below shows "before and after", where we quantized the nodes to the nearest whole beat.
fig. 6: Automation nodes, before and after quantizing
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.15 How do I set the automation mode of all tracks to Latch (Read, Write, etc)?
Question: I like to set all tracks to a certain automation type, but I don't want to have the Master Out react since it's nice to use it for volume control. Having to switch it to off every time I change all the tracks is a bit of a pain.
Answer: To switch all Audio Objects to the same automation type, hold down Option [Ctrl] while picking an automation mode on one of the objects. This will however also change the Master Out object(s). You could use the "Master Volume" (that's the one without any bounce button) for volume control instead of the "Output x-y" objects.
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.16 How can I bounce a piece of audio, without bouncing (e.g.) volume and panning, which I want to keep editable?
- Open the Automation Folder. This can only be done through a key command: open the Key Command window and search for "Automation Folder".
- Let's suppose your to-be-bounced piece of audio is on a track assigned to Audio10, and let's also suppose that Audio20 is unused (no plug-ins, no sends, volume at 0 dB, etc.). In the Automation Folder select the automation sequence on the Audio10 track, and copy it to the Audio20 track (either copy/paste, or Option-drag, or whichever method you prefer).
- Select the fresh copy of the automation sequence (i.e. the one on the Audio20 track), and open an Event List for it.
- In the Event List select one volume event and one panning event. From the window's Edit menu, pick "Select Similar Objects" to select all volume and panning events.
- Again from the Edit menu, pick "Toggle selection", so that everything but volume and panning is selected. Hit the backspace key to delete all selected events. Close the Event List.
- Select the original of the automation sequence (i.e. the one on the Audio10 track). Again open an Event List.
- Select one volume event and one panning event. From the Edit menu pick "Select Similar Objects". Hit backspace to delete all volume and panning, and close the Event List.
- Close the Automation Folder window.
- In Arrange, solo the Audio10 track and bounce. Since you deleted volume- and panning-automation, you want to set volume to 0 dB and panning to centre on the Audio10 object before you start the bounce.
- Assign an Arrange track to Audio20, and put the bounced audio in its proper place on this track. Make sure the Audio10 object's automation mode is set to 'Read'.
- Mute the Audio10 track.
- The automation for the Audio20 track will consist of the original volume and panning automation which is thus still fully editable.
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.17 The "automation curve" tool isn't working
If you use Logic Gold: the curve-tool is Platinum-only, despite the fact that it's mentioned in the Gold manual, so you're stuck with lineair automation-ramps only, unfortunately.
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