Pro Tools Automation is a big subject, it’s one of the things most frequently highlighted by users as something which most DAWs just don’t do nearly as well, though Nuendo is very capable in this area too. You can keep automation simple, you don’t have to use more advanced techniques, but if you’re a Studio or Ultimate user, taking the time to explore the advanced features can really make a difference to the results you get. Here are five techniques you should check out, most of which are unfortunately not availble in Pro Tools Artist or Intro, from simple additions to basic automation use through to the more advanced stuff.

Create Breakpoint At Previous/Next Value

For many people automation just involves manually creating breakpoints in automation playlists using the mouse. There’s nothing wrong with that approach and for many automation operations it’s unnecessary to hear what you are doing in real time while creating automation, for example the results of bypassing a delay send or automating a mute are predictable.

In my experience the single most useful addition to the basic click with the mouse to manually create automation breakpoints workflow is using modifier shortcuts to create automation breakpoints at the same value as the previous or next breakpoint. If you’ve ever found yourself trying to match a previous or next value precisely, this is for you.

The shortcuts are:

• Add Breakpoint At Previous Breakpoint Value - CMD+Opt (Ctrl+Alt on PC)

• Add Breakpoint At Next Breakpoint Value - Opt+Shift (Alt+Shift on PC)

This is useful whenever you’re mixing with the mouse. It’s great for automating music under dialogue. The good thing is, you can click at any height within the automation playlist, as long as it's at the right point in time. The breakpoint is written at the right level, depending on whether you're holding Shift+Option or Option+Command.

The Write Buttons

A useful next step in automation use is using the Write buttons in the Automation Window (these buttons aren’t available in Artist or Intro) to control how the playlist gets written to. For example you can quickly write to the whole timeline, or to the next breakpoint. A good example is when setting static levels when starting a mix. Rolling transport with all tracks writing automation, you can quickly rough out a starting point for a mix and for example apply those levels back to the beginning of the mix using Write to Start, overwriting all the moves you made finding that starting balance.

The Write functions are also useful for cases where an attribute has been set differently earlier on a track (for example an EQ) and you want to write new, static settings later on. This can be the case where multiple different dialogue recordings exist on the same track. Each recording may require its own EQ, so by selecting a clip, setting the EQ in Latch mode and then using Write to Selection function, the EQ settings for that clip can be applied statically across the whole selected duration. This is an alternative to Clip Effects where the EQ is a bit limited. With Write To, any EQ plugin can be used to apply clip-by-clip settings. 

Trim Automation

It’s often the case that volume automation gets very detailed. The benefits of using automation, rather than relying too much on compression, is significant. However mixes are a moving target and it’s common for the user to want to tweak levels on tracks after detailed automation has been written. The Automation Trim modes exist for this purpose and this feature overlays an new layer of automation on top of underlying automation. It’s possible to use Trim in any of the write modes such as latch and touch. The Trim automation can be left separate from the underlying automation or combined with it by coalescing the two layers, freeing up the Trim Automation for more passes is required. It can get complicated but one of my favourite uses for trim Automation is as a set of live trim faders using Trim Read mode. One of the things new users in particular sometimes find offputting about mix automation is the fact that the faders become controlled by the Pro Tools automation rather than directly by the user, with users resorting to tweaking levels from compressor makeup gain and the like! Trim Read mode creates a new set of faders, not yet controlled by an automation playlist and can be used for tweaking an otherwise finished mix. With a virtually zero learning curve but unfortunately only available in Studio and Ultimate..

Preview

Preview and the related Capture features are Ultimate and Studio only features. Preview is meant to give you an easy way of non-destuctively comparing two different automation settings. It’s an AB process for automation which can be used before committing to one of the other. It can get complex but fundamentally it’s not complicated. But there are a few things it’s important to know or it can get confusing.

The way it works is that, with the tracks you want to try alternative automation on in one of the Write modes, you enable Preview in the Automation Window. The Preview Button goes green. If you roll transport your existing automation will play unless you touch a control in which case you will take control of that parameter’s automation playlist and you can write new, alternative automation. The track’s automation mode will go green to indicate it is in preview. You can now write your alternative automation to the Preview Buffer.

The most common mistake people make using Preview is to try to compare between the new and old automation by clicking on the Preview button in the Automation Window to toggle between new and old automation passes. That’s understandable but wrong. Instead Command+Click (Control+Click on PC) on the button to AB between new and old automation. If you are happy with your new automation, the Punch button (which turns blue to indicate there is automation data written in the Preview Buffer) is used to write the contents of the Preview Buffer to the automation playlist. Exactly how this gets written depends on the use of the Write To buttons. For example if you hit Write To Selection On Stop and click Punch your Preview Automation will be written to your selection when you stop transport.

Preview can be useful if you want a large number of automation changes to happen at once, one example being a scene where the perspective switches to how a character is perceiving things. You could listen just prior to where you want the jump to happen, playback with Preview engaged and then punch it in precisely where you want.

Capture

Capture Mode is often seen as complementary to Preview and while they can be used together, they don’t have to be. Capture is a feature where you can take automation data from the timeline and use it elsewhere. This is useful if you want to replicate the state of multiple automation parameters elsewhere in your session. For example: scene A1 has its own reverb, EQ, levels etc. Later on, another scene in the same location, scene A2, requires the same settings. Pressing the Capture button, as the name implies, captures the automation to the Capture Buffer and it can be punched in the same way as with Preview.

If you’ve used Preview before you’ll have noticed that the Capture button is activated during Preview use. This indicates that not only can automation data be captured from the main automation playlists in the timeline, but also from the Preview Buffer. When not in Preview the Capture button can be used to capture the contents of the Automation Write Buffer - that means the data which is being actively written to the playlist, indicated by a red automation line. However you can also capture automation from write enabled tracks which isn’t in any buffer at all, you can capture straight from the timeline, as opposed to the previous two examples where only controls which had been moved and were therefore actively writing new automation were captured. To do this hold Option/Alt when clicking Capture. Taking this further you can Option-click on the Capture Punch button to write to all tracks not just the write enabled tracks.

Capture, can seem difficult to understand at first but it is a really powerful feature in the right application. For some examples of how powerful it can be, read Nathaniel Reichman’s article Why Pro Tools Capture Mode Is Awesome and for more tips on Automation check out  our article Pro Tools Advanced Automation - Cool Expert Tips