Specifications

Pro Tools Reference Guide460
In this initial state, only a single automation
breakpoint appears at the beginning of each au-
tomation playlist. If you move the control with-
out writing automation, this breakpoint will
move to the new value.
You can permanently store the initial position
of an automatable control by doing one of the
following:
• Place the track in Auto Write mode and press
Play to write a few seconds of automation data
to the track
• Manually place a breakpoint on the automa-
tion playlist somewhere after the initial break-
point. (See “Graphical Editing of Automation
Data” on page 467 for more information.)
Automating Switched Controls
Pro Tools treats switched controls (such as
mutes and plug-in bypasses) as touch sensitive
controls. Automation data is written for as long
as the switch or button for that control is
pressed or touched.
For example, if you have just written a series of
mute on/off states on a track in quick succes-
sion, the manual method for clearing this auto-
mation data would require you to move to the
Edit window, choose automation playlist for
Mute, select the mute automation data, and de-
lete it.
In Pro Tools, it is not necessary to perform all of
these steps. Instead, perform another automa-
tion pass on the track and hold down the Mute
button when it reaches the state you want to re-
move. For example, when playback gets to the
first muted section, the Mute button become
highlighted. At this time, press and hold down
the Mute button. As long as the button is held
down, Pro Tools overwrites the underlying
mute data on the track with the current state of
the switch (on or off) until playback is stopped.
Automating Sends
Pro Tools provides automation of send level,
send mute, and send pan (for stereo and multi-
channel sends only). This makes it easy to con-
trol effects levels and placement during mix-
down with great precision.
Send level and mute can also be configured to
follow groups.
To automate a send level, mute or pan:
1 In the Automation Enable window, make sure
the automation type is write-enabled (send
level, send mute, send pan).
2 Choose an Automation mode for each track
you want to automate. For the initial automa-
tion pass, choose Auto Write.
3 To display send controls, do any of the follow-
ing:
• Select Windows > Mix Window Shows >
Sends View, then click the send to open the
Output window for the send that you want
to automate.
• Choose Display > Sends View Shows and
select the individual send from the sub-
menu.
4 Click Play to begin writing automation.
5 Move the controls you want to automate.
6 When you have finished, click Stop.
Send mutes and levels can also be config-
ured to follow Mix Groups. See “Automa-
tion Preferences” on page 456 for informa-
tion.