Pro Tools Automation Explained

If you've not messed around with automation much, you're missing out on an incredibly powerful mixing tool. From creating dynamic interest to correcting troublesome areas and much more, automation provides you with the means to strategically micromanage your mix, as it were - from making the smallest volume tweak to using an effect for only one note. Aside from all the expected basic automation tools, Pro Tools includes many specialized features, and Eli Krantzberg has put together a Pro Tools video course over two hours long that shows you everything you need to know about Pro Tools' powerful automation functions. These videos are for new and intermediate Pro Tools automation users.

Videos

• Automation in Pro Tools (02:45) - Automating the movement of things like volume, pan, sends, and plug-in parameters helps us bring out the best of each of the elements in our music by directing the listener's attention where necessary. With the reworking of the Pro Tools product line, as of April 2022, more advanced automation features are available to more levels of Pro Tools users than ever before. Join me in this series and get your automation chops together so that you can take advantage of all that Pro Tools now has to offer.

• Viewing Automation (08:41) - Discover the various techniques and shortcuts for viewing automation in Track View and managing automation and controller lanes.

• Touch & Latch (07:14) - Watch as these two most commonly used automation modes are put to work creating send and pan automation. Hear how the AutoMatch value effects the ramp time when reverting to previous values in Touch mode.

• AutoJoin with Latch Mode (04:52) - Pro Tools has a unique solution to a problem that occurs when writing automation across multiple tracks using Latch Mode and a punch in is required. See how AutoJoin lets you resume writing automation in Latch mode.

• Touch/Latch (03:19) - Discover this automation mode, which places a track?s Volume control in Touch mode and all other automatable controls in Latch mode. The Volume control follows Touch behavior, writing automation when touched and returning to previously written levels when released. All other controls follow Latch behavior, writing automation when touched and continuing until playback stops or you punch out of writing automation.

• Write (02:24) - See how Write mode is used to erase and overwrite existing automation values.

• Trim Mode (08:25) - Learn how Trim mode automation is useful when you want to preserve all of your existing volume or send moves but need to make levels a bit louder or softer to balance a mix.

• Smoothing & Thinning (04:37) - Discover how these functions are used, either manually or automatically, to reduce the overall number of automation breakpoints in an automation playlist, resulting in improved system performance. Watch a Presonus Faderport 2 control surface in action writing real time touch automation and see how to set it up to work with Pro Tools.

• Controlling Automation Behavior (09:14) - Learn about excluding send levels from Trim mode using the Automation Follows edit function, the automation safe modes, and suspending regular and Trim automation of individual controls on individual tracks or across all tracks.

• Automating Plug-in Parameters & Storing an Initial Control Position (05:34) - See how to enable plug-in parameters for automation and how to store an initial control position so parameters don?t get changed accidentally.

• Switch Controls & Copying Automation to Sends (04:59) - Explore how on/off switch controls like mutes and bypass buttons are automated and how to copy track automation to sends (useful for headphone mixes).

• AutoMatching Controls (05:20) - Learn how to use the AutoMatch button in the Automation window to automatically change automation controls to their existing automation levels.

• Priming Controls for Latch Mode Automation (03:23) - Watch as Latch prime is used to prepare for an automation pass before starting playback by setting initial automation values while the transport is stopped.

• Punching in with Latch Prime (01:41) - Discover how to combine Latch priming with AutoJoin, Capture, and Punch Capture to automatically punch in automation writing on a track.

• Drawing Automation with the Pencil Tool (05:38) - Learn the basics of drawing in automation with the mouse using the various pencil tool shapes.

• Editing Automation (05:07) - See how to use various tools and modifiers to effectively create and edit breakpoint automation.

• Cut, Copy, Paste, & Clear (06:50) - Explore the various workflows using both the regular cut/copy/paste commands and the Cut Special, Copy Special, Paste Special, and Clear Special functions.

• Clip Gain Settings & Track Volume Automation (03:07) - Discover some elegant workflows for either converting or coalescing volume when working with both clip gain settings and track-based volume automation.

• Glide Automation & Write to Enabled (06:30) - Watch as the extremely cool Glide and Write To functions are put to work morphing between multiple parameter values on the LoFi plug-in, send level, and pan position.

• Write To Functions (08:18) - Discover workflows for writing automation to either a selected time range, the beginning or end of the range or project, next breakpoint, punch-in point, and more.

• Working with Mute Automation (03:03) - See how to create, overwrite, and extend mute automation in real time.

• Exploring Snapshot Automation (07:40) - Discover the world of snapshot automation, including setting initial detente starting values before creating snapshots, writing snapshot automation over existing automation data, capturing automation and applying it elsewhere, and using trim values as snapshots by applying the relative changes to selected automation.

• Previewing Automation (05:16) - Learn about the extremely cool Automation Preview mode, which lets you audition changes to a mix and compare them to existing automation values without committing them to the automation playlist.

• Capture Automation (04:55) - See how Pro Tools lets you capture current automation values at one location in a session and quickly apply them in another location, using the Capture and Punch Capture commands.

• VCA Master Track Automation (07:41) - Learn all about setting up, automating, and coalescing automation on VCA master tracks.