Original subtitles

In today's video we'll be learning how to

use automation in

Studio One.(...) (Music)

Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're

well. It's often said that automation is

the difference between a good track and a

great track and I'm inclined to agree.

With automation we can breathe life into

a track by adding dynamics. We can also

make sure that things stay in balance

throughout the course of a track and we

can create some cool special effects. So

in today's video I'm going to be starting

off with the absolute basics and running

through everything you really need to

know about automation in your tracks. So

let's not dilly dally around, let's get

started with the basics.

So before we get stuck into the basics of

automation I just want to check some

options with you in Studio One. So that

if you are following along you get the

same or similar results to me as you go.

So here in Studio One I'm going to press

CTRL and comma on the keyboard to bring

up options. I'm then going to go across

to Advanced, click on that. I'm then

going to go down to the Automation tab

here and click on that. Now I'm not going

to go through all these options with you

today. I would recommend if this is your

first time to try automation and you want

to follow along just set things up the

same as I've got them set here. In

particular make sure you've got this one

set where it says Automatically Add

Envelopes for all touch parameters. Make

sure that that is checked. If you've made

any changes at all then click on Apply at

the bottom and then click on OK to get

rid of this window. Now the first type of

automation we're going to do is Volume

Automation. That's where we do change the

volume of something by moving the fader

on our console in Studio One. That's on

the piano that I've got set up here is

this fader down here which you can see me

moving there. Now just as I mentioned the

piano I'm using I'll just open it up here

is Noir Pure. This is a contact library

that's a native instruments one but if

you haven't got that and just use any

instrument at all it really doesn't

matter so I'll close that there.(...) So

what I'm going to do is start off with

the fader at zero. I'll just drag that

all the way down to zero so we won't be

able to hear the piano and then I'm going

to gradually fade it in. Now I want to

record my actions as I go along. So down

at the bottom below the fader where it

currently says Auto off I'm going to

click on that and change it to right

mode. And that changes red and says right

there. That means it's going to write or

record any actions that we take on this

channel especially with the fader at the

moment. So let's press play on the

keyboard we don't need to press record we

just play the track and then it's going

to record any actions we

make. Let's go ahead and do that.

So I'm gradually pushing the fader up.

Okay and then I'll just stop. Now you

will have noticed right away that this

display right at the top here has

changed. This is showing us our

automation data as it's been recorded or

written. Okay we're going to get back to

this in a moment but if you don't like to

see that all the time you can just press

A on the keyboard to go back to the

regular view that you have on tracks.

Press A again to bring it back up. If you

don't want to use keyboard shortcuts then

you can just press this button at the top

here to show and hide automation data.

We're going to leave it on for now. Now

the next thing I'm going to do right down

here where we had this set to write is

I'm going to change it to read. Okay this

means that now when we play the track

it's going to read this data and it's

going to repeat the actions that we made

when we wrote or recorded the data. Let's

go ahead and press play.

So honestly no hands it's all happening

without me doing anything at all.(...)

And you'll see that that's faded in as we

record it. Now stop there. Now if we look

at this display at the top you'll see

this sudden cliff here and you can

probably guess what's going to happen if

I play from that point.

Suddenly our fader goes back down to zero

and that's because when we started

recording or writing automation data that

fader was down at zero which means it was

set to zero for the whole track unless we

did anything else. And we did something

else which it recorded but then after we

stopped it set it back to zero again. So

that's not very handy at all. I actually

want it to stay at that level for the

rest of the track so I can get rid of

this node here. We'll call these little

dots nodes okay. If I select that node

and press delete on the keyboard it just

gets rid of that and you can see that

it's going to maintain that volume for

the rest of the track.

Okay now I'll just undo that. Another way

that we can do it even easier is just to

double click on a node and that gets rid

of it as well. Now these nodes are very

very handy because if you don't want to

actually record your actions but you want

to be very very precise or just do

gradual things without having to record

it then you can use these nodes. To

create a new node for example I can just

hover over the blue line there. I'll just

click on that and it's created a new

node. I could then just drag that down

like so and automatically create a fade

out. Let's see how that goes.

Okay and of course if I'm not happy about

that I can just grab it and drag it

around like so to different positions.

Notice it is snapping so if you don't

want it to snap to specific positions

then make sure you've got snap turned off

okay so you can do things like so. Now if

I hover over this line you'll see that a

new little kind of a node appears. I can

actually grab that and drag that now and

I can make curves like so okay concave or

converse curves. That means that you can

create automation using nodes and then

just make them really really natural with

these kinds of curves.

Let's have a listen now.

So what I sometimes like to do is record

my actions as I did originally but then

just use that as a guide and draw new

curves in there. So I can now just select

a bunch of these nodes here for example.

I've seen roughly where my fade in

happens and I'm just going to drag across

from the bottom here to do a range

selection and I'll just get rid of those

nodes. I'm going to press delete on the

keyboard to get rid of them like so and

then that's created this line between

them and then I can adjust that to make a

nice curve. Now the reason I sometimes

like to do that not always is just that

if I do want to do some editing it's much

easier to edit just a few times. So I can

do that by adding a few nodes than having

a whole bunch as we did there earlier. As

you can see it was like this before. If I

wanted to make any changes it's going to

take a lot of doing so I much prefer just

to get rid of those as I say and then

just create a nice curve myself like so.

Okay so that's the very basics of sort of

recording and then reading back our

actions. Next we're going to look at the

different modes of recording actions.

So we originally created our automation

by being in right mode on the channel and

that recorded any movements we made on

the fader there. So I want to show you

another couple of ways of recording our

actions other than right mode. If we go

down to the bottom where it says read at

the moment I'm just going to click on

that and you can see there's another

couple of modes we haven't used. That's

touch mode and latch mode. I'm going to

start off with latch mode here. So when

we're in latch mode what's going to

happen is when we start to when we press

play and start playing the track it's

actually going to be in read mode. It's

just going to go ahead and read any

information there. But as soon as we grab

that control in this case the fader it's

going to start to write or record the the

movements that we make on that fader. And

then it's going to continue to do that

until we press stop and stop the track

from playing. So let's see that in action

now. I'll press play. So our piano has

faded in.(...) I'm then going to grab the

control and kind of wiggle it up and

down. You can see what's happening there.

(...) And I'm going to

release that control.

Now you can see at the top it's

continuing to record that level of the

fader there on the automation track up

here. And it's going to keep recording

that level until we press stop. OK.

OK so that's one way of recording new

information when you've got some existing

information there. I'm going to press

undo.(...) So we go back to how we were.

And we're going to look at the other mode

which is touch mode. So

we'll go to touch mode.

Now this is a little bit different in

that it's going to start off in read mode

again. So it's going to read any

information that's there. And as soon as

we touch this control and make some

changes it's going to write those changes

as it did before. But unlike latch mode

as soon as we release this control it's

going to go back to reading any existing

information that was there.

So let's see that in action.

Starting off with the fade in.

I'll grab the control.

Do the little wiggles again like so. And

then I'll release the control.(...) And

you can see it's carried on reading and

we've still got that fade out which we

designed earlier intact. OK. So those are

the two other right modes that we have

being touch and latch. Now I'll undo that

and I'll show you another use for these

two modes. So I've already recorded that

volume information there. And now rather

than record volume information I want to

record pan information using the pan

control up here. So if I

have it in write mode like so.

Press right. OK. And then I'll go ahead

and press play and I'll start making some

changes to the panning here. OK.

So I'm going from left to right.

And you probably can't hear anything very

much at all. And that's because it's

actually re-recording the volume

information. I'll press stop and you'll

see here. I'll just change to pan at the

top here. OK. So where we have this

selector here it says volume. We can now

change this so we can see our panning

information. So you can see it has

actually recorded that new panning

information which was going from left to

right. But it's also actually destroyed

the right the volume information that we

had there. We don't want it to do that.

We want to leave that intact. So that's

where both the touch and the latch modes

become very important for us. So I'll

undo that so that we've got our volume

information back. Again I'm going to

record some pan actions. But I'm going to

change this over to let's change it to

latch mode. I think is where we'll move

it to. OK. So this time I'm going to

press play. Move the pan around but we

should hear the piano fade in again.

Starting from the left.

Going over to the right with the pan.

I'm going to push it over.(...) So it

finishes off in the center.

OK. Now I'll press stop.(...) And I'll

switch over to pan so that we can see the

pan information there. And you can see my actions have been recorded there for the

panning. But my volume if I switch back

to volume is still intact. We haven't

destroyed it at all. So that's another

really good use for both for

both latch and touch modes.

By the way are you enjoying this video

and finding it helpful. If you are then

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videos. Now back to this video.

So what can be automated in Studio One.

Well as it turns out quite a lot. We've

seen the basics already like the fader

and the panning. We can also automate

mute. And we can also automate our

inserts and sends as well. So I've got a

send set up here. It's sending off to

this bus over here which has a reaver plug in it. And it's sending off to this

bus. And this bus over here which has a

reaver plug in it. And I can control the

amount that I'm sending over to that bus

using this controller here. It's set down

to zero at the moment. So I want to

automate that and have it gradually fade

in. So I'll just start

playing now and do that.

(Music)

Ok so I've created that there. If we move

the change the display up there. You can

see that that has been recorded there in

the automation. You can also switch sends

off and on and record that off and on

action as well. So lots you can do in the

channel itself. But what about plugins?

Well I mentioned over here that we

actually have a plugin on this bus here.

And this is the Rev Intensity plugin from

Arturia. So I'll just double click on

that. Open that up. One of my favorite

reaver plugins at the moment. So let's

try and record something in this plugin.

Now in order to record some of the

actions that we can take in this plugin.

At the top left corner of the plugin you

can see we've got some controls there. To

set that to recording automation. I'll

actually choose latch mode here. Let's go

with that. And then I'm just going to

change this size control here. So let's

play and then adjust that size control.

(Music)

Ok that had a freaky effect didn't it? So

you can see that what it did there. I'll

just change this to read mode. What it

did there was it created a new lane here.

So of course a plugin itself doesn't

normally have a kind of a track in the

track view here. So it's created an

automation lane there. And it set up this

size parameter here. Which was the

parameter that we were changing. Now you

can change all kinds of things in

different plugins. So for example over

here with this actual virtual instrument

plugin. This piano here. Sorry I'll try

that again. This piano plugin over here.

I'll click on the right button. There's

our piano. I'm going to adjust this color

control here. So again I'm just going to

change this. So it's in latch mode. And

I'll change this color

control. Let's go for that.

(Music)

And you can see that that's been

recorded. This time not by creating a new

lane. Because this is the virtual

instrument which is on this existing

track here. But it's created a new

automation lane within the actual piano

track there at the top there. Okay. Now

you can actually manually create your own

automation lanes. So I could go down here

at the bottom. I'll right click and I'll

go add automation track. So I'll add that

in there. Starts off blank. But I can

actually select anything that can be

automated from Studio One. Select where

it says none here. I'll go to add remove.

Click on add remove. So there's two basic

sections which we can see here. Console

and instruments. So console relates to

anything down in the console. So if I

expand that you can see the different

tracks that we've already got. Piano,

piano rev and main which is our main

fader. Okay. So let's say we wanted to

adjust the volume on the main fader. I

know we could do it in a regular mode.

But let's just do it fun this way. We'll

go down to main. We'll open that. Select

its volume parameter and then go add over

here. And then we've created an

automation track just for that purpose.

So now I can do a fade out with our main

control. Just quickly do

that there. And I'll press play.

And you can see that our main fader or

wherever on the right where my face

normally is goes down like so. Now undo

that because with that all the way down

there we can't hear anything. And we

could have added all kinds of things in

there. Let's add something else here. So

the other section that we have over here

is instruments. I'll open that up.

There's only one instrument. That's the

piano at the moment. You'll see here for

those of you who ask me about this often

that you can actually automate all kinds

of MIDI information here and add your

automation on automation lane there. You

can add, you can change things about the

audio like so. And then there's all of

these parameters from within that plugin

from within the piano plugin. Which if I

scroll down you'll see there's so many of

them. All of those things can be

automated. This is a kind of a handy way

if you go into this view to see what

actually can be automated on a plugin.

So I think things get really interesting

when we start to automate VCA's. Now you

may not know what a VCA is. So I'll just

give you a quick crash course now. I'm

going to demonstrate it to you rather

than explain it. I'm going to select this

piano here and this bass guitar. I've

added bass guitar track in here. I'm just

pressing control on the keyboard so I can

select both of those. Then I'm going to

right click here and then I'm going to go

to add VCA for selected channels. I'll do

that and you'll see that a new fader

appears right on the end here with a nice

red fader cap on it. It looks very very

different and it hasn't got lots of

options up here. VCA's are not audio

channels of any kind. You can't do sends

or inserts with them or anything like

that. These act as remote controls for

other faders. Now I created this VCA for

the piano and the bass. So as I move it

up and down, you'll see the piano and

bass faders move up and down. But notice

they're maintaining their relationship

with each other here. You see how the

piano is a little bit louder, the bass is

a little bit quieter. Yeah, they they

keep in line with each other or out of

line with each other. Now if I were to

adjust that relationship like so, then

the VCA is going to maintain that new

relationship. So VCA's are kind of like

remote controls for other faders. They're

very very handy when you want to control

sub mixes. Okay, so how do they relate to

automation? So at the moment I've got the

automation switched off for these two

channels. But I have recorded some so

I'll change them to read mode. Okay, and

then I'll go back to the beginning of the

track and I'll press A on the keyboard so

that we can see the automation there for

the piano and the bass guitar. And you

can see it's very similar to what I

created earlier on. It fades in and then

it fades out again relatively soon.

Slightly different but almost the same.

So now we have a VCA controller

controlling the volume of these two

faders as well. So what happens when we

adjust it? Well let's move halfway

through so we can see that the faders are

up a little bit here with the automation.

And now I'm just going to move this VCA

fader down a little bit. Now if you look

at the top where the graph is you'll see

a new gray line appearing. I'll just

wiggle the VCA up and down so that you

can see that gray line. So that's showing

the new actual position of the fader.

Okay, so it's not destroying our

automation. It's remembering how we

started out but it's relatively changing

it. So it actually relatively keeps that

kind of fade in and fade out happening.

Very very handy indeed. We can also

automate the VCA itself. So I'm just

going to switch that over to right mode.

Let's start the track at the beginning

there and I'll mess around with that VCA.

Okay, so now we've got a couple of things

happening. The VCA itself is being

automated. I'll change it to read mode

and it's going to be moving up and down.

And it's also going to be adjusting the

final volume of these faders while

maintaining the relationship between the

two of them. Very very powerful if you

want to create nice organic but kind of

very controlled automation within your

mix.(...) So there's some things that I

would dearly love you to do. First of all

if you're confused about anything at all

please do ask in the comments down below

and I'll do my very best to help you out.

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