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Automation
Introduction
In essence, automation means recording the values for a
particular Mixer or effect parameter. When you create your
final mix, you will not have to worry about having to adjust
this particular parameter control yourself – Cubase will do
it for you.
Recording your actions – an example
If the settings in your current project are crucial, you may
not want to “experiment” with automation until you know
more about how it all fits together. If so, you can create a
new project for the following example. It does not even
have to contain any audio events, just a few audio tracks.
Proceed as follows:
1. Open the Mixer window.
2. Click the global Write button (“Toggle Write for all
tracks”) in the Mixer common panel.
Cubase is now in global Write mode.
3. Start playback and adjust some volume faders and/or
other parameter settings in the Mixer or perhaps in a
Channel Settings window.
Stop playback when you are done, and return to the position where you
started playback.
4. Deactivate Write mode and click the global Read but-
ton (“Toggle Read for all tracks”) in the Mixer common
panel.
Cubase is now in global Read mode.
5. Start playback, and watch the Mixer window.
All your actions performed during the previous playback will be repro-
duced exactly.
6. If you wish to redo anything that was recorded, acti-
vate Write mode again and start playback from the same
position.
• You can have Write and Read activated simultaneously,
if you want to watch and listen to your recorded Mixer ac
-
tions while you are recording fader movements for another
Mixer channel, etc.
Where did the automation data I recorded end
up?
When using global Write automation, you can write auto-
mation data on the automation tracks of all channels. In
the previous write operations, you probably added auto
-
mation events for many different channels and parameters.
• To view all the automation events you recorded during
the operations, select “Show All Used Automation” from
the Project menu or from the track list context menu.
For each of the channels one subtrack with automation data is now
shown in the Project window. The automation events recorded are
shown as points in the automation curves.
Working with automation curves
Within a Cubase project, the changes in a parameter
value over time are reflected as curves on automation
tracks.
About automation curves
There are two kinds of automation curves: “ramp” and
“jump”:
• Jump curves are created for on/off parameters such as
Mute.
• Ramp curves are created for any parameter that gener-
ates continuous multiple values, such as fader or encoder
movements, etc.
Examples of jump and ramp automation curves
About the static value line
This is reflected in the event display as a straight horizon-
tal black line, the “static value” line. This line represents
the current parameter setting.