Some people take to DAW automation like ducks to water but for others the experience is frustrating. I think I understand why and know it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are some things to know if you’re getting started with Pro Tools Automation.

You’ll probably find in a typical project that you can set up a mix which nearly works but as you move along the timeline you start changing things. The snare was just right relative to the vocal but now it’s getting lost. You turn it up but then you put it back down again when you play back for a second time. Examples like this are symptomatic of a need to have more than one setting during a mix. The values need to change over time. They need Automating.

Almost everything in a Pro Tools Session can be automated but what actually gets automated is often rather more restricted. While everyone is different the majority of mix automation is volume, with effects sends and some common plugin parameters like reverb time. There will always be those cases where you need to automate an EQ or the depth of a chorus but don’t ever feel that you ‘aren’t automating enough’. Exactly what you automate will vary from project to project, for example you would expect to use more pan automation in a Dolby Atmos mix that in a stereo mix.

Pro Tools’ automation can get complex but the automation in a typical music mix doesn’t have to get intimidating, as long as you understand how the tools available can help you rather than hinder. Here’s some things to know.

Losing Control

Sticking to the most important parameter for now, as soon as you automate a fader you lose manual control of it. It is now being controlled by the mixer automation, not by you. This can be disconcerting when you first encounter it as you move a fader and as soon as you let go, it moves back! This can result in people abandoning the faders altogether and mixing by drawing in automation on the timeline. There’s not really a ‘wrong’ way to do things but by taking this approach you would be breaking the immediate feedback loop between what you are doing and what the result will be on playback. After all, how do you know how much louder it needs to be without hearing the result. This way of working can be slow as you’ll find yourself making a change, playing back the change, tweaking, repeating etc. If you record automation in real time by moving the fader and recording the result, you’ll probably get the result you need more quickly.

A great example of how important this feedback between what you do and how the result sounds is automating a filter sweep. Exactly where that filter’s cutoff frequency needs to be depends on the content of the audio passing through it and while you could draw in automation, audition it, and repeat until you got the best possible result, it makes far more sense to perform that automation in real time. While this example uses Logic Pro, check out how Fred Everything performs his automation in real time for exactly this reason, opening the high pass filter on the drum loop until the resonant peak accentuates the claps before closing it again.

Finding The Right Level

So once you have a rough static mix and have identified something which needs automating, where do you start? Firstly do a couple of pre-flight checks. Open the Automation Window from the Window menu. You’ll probably use this a lot so it’s worth trying to remember the keystroke to open it, - CMD+4 on the numeric keypad. In here you’ll see the buttons which enable or disable automation, either globally using the big Suspend button, or by type (Plugin, Volume Send Volume etc.). If you have a higher tier of Pro Tools then you have a more complete set of tools available to you but if you are an Intro user you can do most of what these missing features do, you just have to do them manually.

A second thing worth checking is that in the Pro Tools preferences the setting ‘After Write Pass Switch To” in the Mixing tab is set to Latch or Touch but not to “No Change”. This is to avoid accidentally overwriting your automation.

Automation Modes

The mention of Latch, Touch And Write brings us neatly to the discussion of Automation Modes. Automation is recorded to the timeline in much the same way as audio or MIDI, and like Audio or MIDI it exists on a ‘Playlist’ - a lane on the edit window. Unlike Audio and MIDI, for which you can have multiple playlists per track forming alternate ‘takes’ you can only have one automation playlist per track for each parameter but it is still a recording of your fader moves or your changes to any other parameter. Automation Modes control how this happens.

At its very simplest there are three automation modes: Off (no automation), Write (record automation) and Read (play automation). The other settings like Touch and Latch are alternative Write modes. The difference between these is as follows: Write is a bulldozer. It overwrites automation with the current value while the transport is rolling. Because you are ‘recording’ something when you are writing automation new users sometimes assume that you need to be in record to write automation, you don’t. DAW Automation is mimicking console automation which, before DAWs, used to happen on a studio console, whereas recording happened on a separate tape machine. Different processes.

So Write is a great way to do a ‘first pass’ - to get some automation down on every write-enabled parameter on every write-enabled track. Once you have some automation down you want to be in Touch or Latch, and if the preference I mentioned earlier is correctly set you will be swapped to one of these modes automatically. Both of these modes don’t write new automation just by hitting play. They only start writing when a parameter is activated by touching it. The difference between Touch and Latch is what happens when you let go of the parameter. In Touch writing stops when you let go. In Latch the parameter stays writing until you stop the transport.

So Touch is ideal for momentary tweaks to existing automation, for example lifting a particular word in a vocal. Latch is particularly useful for switched controls as in Touch mode the Touch behaviour makes switches momentary meaning you have to hold them down to get them to write! There is a preference ‘Latching behaviour for Switch Controls In Touch’ for exactly this reason so even if you’re using Touch you’re probably using elements of Latch. There’s even a mode called Touch/Latch which makes all parameters latched apart from the fader which remains in Touch. A helpful way to think of Latch is that it’s like Write but instead of starting to write when you hit play, it only starts when you touch a parameter.

Enabling Automation Parameters

Just about everything in Pro Tools can be automated but to keep things manageable only a few are enabled by default. To automate additional parameters they have to be enabled.  By default Volume, Mute, Pan Send Volume, Send Mute and Send Pan are enabled. Plugin parameters are not. There is a preference to enable Plugin parameters by default but it is quick and convenient to enable plugin parameters manually as needed. To do this CMD+Opt+Ctrl+Right-Click on the parameter you want to enable Start+Alt+Ctrl on a PC). If you want to review the enabled and the available parameters for a plugin click the Auto button and if you want to enable every parameter with a single click CMD+Opt+Ctrl+Right-Click the Auto button.

How To Create Automation

Unless you’re happy drawing in your automation, with your parameters set up and your mode selected you can start writing automation by hitting play and performing your moves. The next question is how to do that? The ideal way to do it is using a control surface, in the video above we see Adam Hawkins automating delays on a vocal performance. He uses a C24 control surface to perform these moves in real time but not everyone has one and unlike most DAWs, Pro Tools only has limited control surface functionality over MIDI. Pro Tools uses Eucon which is technically superior to MIDI control but you need a Eucon compatible control surface. I have an Avid S1 and can’t recommend it enough but a Pro Tools Intro user doesn’t want to be told they have to buy hardware before they can try out real time automation. There are two solutions. The first is software control. You can just grab the fader or control and move it. A useful feature here is to click on the little fader icon on the right of the output selector of the track header or send. This opens a floating fader window and if you Shift+click multiple floating faders can be opened at the same time.

A drawback with this approach is that it’s only possible to change one parameter at a time, another is that using the mouse you have to move a control to start it writing. On a control surface the faders and knobs are touch-sensitive and can tell when you touch them. The free solution to these problems is to use the free Avid Control app on a tablet or phone. As well as the deep control of Pro Tools you get using this app, it’s also a great way to create automation. When you have your first pass completed try a second pass in Touch mode to fine tune.

Viewing and Editing Automation

Automation playlists can be displayed underneath the main playlist where your Audio and MIDI are displayed. This can be especially useful if you want to see multiple parameters at the same time, but most of the time it’s quicker to view automation on the main playlist lane, particularly as changing what you are viewing is so easy. You can select from the view drop down in the track header but a far quicker alternative is to hold CMD+Ctrl (Start+Ctrl on PC) and click on the parameter you wish to view. Click a fader for volume, a pan control for panning and whichever plugin parameter you want to see for plugins, Click the track name to return to waveform. Because Volume automation is so often used it has its own dedicated keystroke. Press minus to view that.

Returning to the subject of late automation, while your poor reaction time might be responsible there is another potential cause. System delay introduced by certain types of plugin can easily build up to the point where it the latency is a significant factor on your mix in the same way as it would be if you were playing an instrument, after all the are both recording a performance. See how to compensate for this in this video in which Jacquire King measures and then corrects for excessive system delay.

The basic toolbox available to the lower tiers of Pro Tools are powerful enough to get any mix task done. The Advanced Automation features of Pro Tools Ultimate make things faster, important for busy mixers but if you are a new user, or just someone with a fuzzy understanding of Automation you’ll find that whatever you need to do, you can almost definitely automate it.

In this free video brought to you with the support of Avid Julian looks at getting started with Pro Tools automation using the facilities on offer in Pro Tools Intro. From enabling parameters for automation to creating mix and plugin automation in the different automation modes.

Beyond the basics there is a lot of ground to cover in Pro Tools automation. However intimidating they might appear, the additional facilities on offer in the higher tiers of Pro Tools are there to solve problems and speed things up. In these two premium videos Julian introduces some next steps in automation.

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