User guide

Tracktion 4 Reference Manual
145
Chapter 7: Mixing And Mix Automation
Chapter Contents
7.1 : An Overview Of Mixing With Tracktion
7.2 : Sub-mixes And Effects Sends
7.3 : Mix Automation
Creating Automation Curves
Editing And Deleting Automation Nodes
The Automation Lock Mode — Locking Automation To Clips
Recording Automation Changes Live
The Automation Button Options
7.4 : Using Control Surfaces
Installing And Conguring A Control Surface
Creating A Custom Control Surface
Using The Mackie Control Universal
Using The Mackie C4
Using the Remote SL
Using the Frontier Design Group Tranzport
7.1 : An Overview Of Mixing With Tracktion
You may recall from Chapter 3.4 that Tracktion’s lter section provides the facilities by which you can
mix your edits. From setting levels, applying EQ, and adding reverb to a track, it will all be performed in
the lter section. If you have not yet read Chapter 3.4 it is probably worth doing so now, as it explains
many key concepts that you will build on throughout this chapter.
The rst thing that may come as a surprise if you are used to other sequencers is that there is no
mixer view. The lter section is the mixer, and due to its extensible nature, it allows you to do many
things that would not be possible with a standard mixer approach. If this still doesn’t make sense, try
simply imagining Tracktion’s lter section as being a mixer that has been turned through 90 degrees.
So, mixing in Tracktion, as with any sequencer, or even hardware environment, is simply a case of
using the vol / pan lter to set the level and stereo position of a track, and adding a few extra lters to
treat audio with, say a little chorus, reverb, EQ, and compression.
Of course there’s a bit more to mixing than just that. Sometimes, for example, you need to vary mix
parameters over the course of the song, or have effects on one track react to changes on another. The
rest of this chapter will provide you with guidelines on how to do these kinds of things in Tracktion, as
well as some tools that can make the mixing process easier.
7.2 : Sub-mixes And Effects Sends
The rst thing we will look at is setting up sub-mixes (sometimes called group mixes, or bussses) and
effects sends in Tracktion. You have already seen a little about both of these topics in previous chap-
ters. Here we will review what these terms mean, and a little about how they work.
After the simple default track routing that you have already encountered, the next easiest type of ef-
fects routing in Tracktion is the sub-mix. A sub mix basically refers to having a group of tracks being fed
into some kind of master track. In the hardware world this would often be achieved by cascading mix-
ers; for example, a single 8 channel mixer might be used for micing up a drum kit, another mixer would
be used to catch the vocalist along with some room reverb, and so on. Each of these mixers would then
be fed into one master mixer which would be used to set the overall level for each member of the band.
Larger mixers make this easier by having internal busses where you can route multiple tracks as a