Logic Pro X - #75 - Mixing (part17): Live Automation; Plug-in Automation Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to episode 75 of my Logic Pro 10
video tutorial series in this episode
we're going to continue mixing our song
living on the run in the previous
episode we talked about offline
automation so I highly recommend you
watch that first before diving into this
video in this episode we're going to
talk about live automation and we'll
also talk about plug-in automation live
automation allows you to perform in your
automation value changes so I can
grab a fader move it up or down and
actually draw in the automation shape
that I want you can also do this with a
MIDI continuous controller and you can
also do this with a control surface I'm
not actually working with any control
surface right now so I'm just going to
do it with mouse clicks in the previous
episode we created these sort of volume
plateaus with our Tom's at the beginning
just to pull up the volume a bit and one
thing I did want to show you real quick
is that when you have volume automation
or you have any automation on a track it
basically disables any sort of volume
changes you mix if I pull the volume
down here and then hit play what's going
to happen is the volume is automatically
going to jump back up to sort of follow
the automation so automation Trump's any
volume changes you make so let's talk
about live automation to turn on a live
automation mode you click on the track
that you want to apply the automation to
you go to the channel strip and you go
to the tab that normally will say read
you want to make sure this is in green
because we want it to be enabled um then
you click on the little down arrow here
and you'll see that there's three
different automation modes there's read
touch latch and write read just reads
the automation on the track and unless
you're drawing in new automation that's
the mode you want to keep on what touch
latch and right do is they are our live
automation modes so they let us
basically press play and then move the
fader around to adjust the volume
so what touch does
is if you pull the fader down or up and
then let go of the fader as soon as you
let go the fader it's actually going to
return back to the original value so let
me just let me just show you here let's
start from here I'm just going to hit
play you don't have to hit record at
this I'm going to pull the the fader up
and then I'm going to let go and you're
going to see it's going to jump back
down to its original value so I hit play
pull up let go and you'll see it jumps
down to its original value so a use for
this at the beginning here might be to
start really quiet to get rid of any
sort of background noise
pull up wait for the the drum hits and
then let go for it this may be drop jump
back down to its original value so let's
try that
so you could do something like that it's
not really going to help us out too much
over here because I'm pretty sure I
edited this where there's all pretty
much silence over here so it's not going
to matter too much then we have latch
latch is particularly useful because
when you pull the value up or down and
then let go at the value actually stays
there until you pull it down so we're
going to use this to add an EQ change to
our Tom's here rather than a volume
change but let me just show you with
volume real quick so I'll hit play pull
this down I let go the mouse stays down
I can pull it back up let go and it
stays there so that's what what latch
mode does it doesn't jump back to its
original value and then lastly is write
mode when you use write mode you're
going to get this warning that says
write mode erases multiple parameters
and one go without touching anything in
most cases it's better to use latch or
touch to be asked I never ever use write
I don't use write because if you have
multiple parameters on the track like
maybe I have volume pan
you know volume pan and I have some EQ
changers and they have three different
automation parameters on one track when
you use write it's going to overwrite
everything so I never use right
so let's go back to latch and what we're
going to do instead of creating a volume
change is we're going to create an EQ
change now you could do this with
offline automation what I basically want
to do is I want to take the sort of high
shelf here and I want to pull it up just
for that first drum hit and then pull it
back down just to bring out the
brightness a bit and just in those
initial drum hits in order to do this
with offline automation you'd have to
click on the automation parameter here
go to the plug-in which is the channel
EQ and then find the parameter in the EQ
sometimes this isn't always really that
easy sometimes you're not really sure
what you're you're working with for me I
know it's the high shelf gain and then
you can choose that and you could you
know draw on a separate breakpoint
envelope for that parameter I'm
going to do it this way just to sort of
demonstrate live automation but you
could very just as easily do it with
offline so let me just go ahead and open
up the plug-in and all I'm going to do
is hit play pull this up and then pull
it back down there you go let me just
try it one more time I need to come back
I need to start at seven point five and
then come back down to seven point five
there we go now usually what I'll do is
I'll go in after I play something like
this and I'll just clean it up with with
offline automation so I might grab my
automation select tool here and delete
some of this disorganized looking stuff
over here and I'll just actually I'll
just keep it on the starting value I'll
just start it on plus 21 might as well
all right so now that we've added this
EQ shift to the opening to the upper Tom
let's do the same to the lower Tom we
need to make sure we do before we move
down to this other track is put the
track back in read mode we don't want to
write in anymore automation we just want
to read the automation let's go down to
our lower Tom here open up the EQ for
this tom it starts at plus 6.5 I'm going
to pull it up to plus eighteen point
five we'll start there turn on our latch
mode we'll do the same thing I'll just
pull it down after the after the drum
kits
I didn't quite work out right let's try
that again
it's a bit difficult to do with the
mouse while I'm doing a screen capture
so bear with me
there you go close enough so now we're
starting with a higher value and then
going down to a lower value and again
I'm going to put this on read mode open
up the plug-in just so we can see it the
plug-in will react to the change here
and yes as I've said before you could
just as easily sort of go in here and
you know I'm just going to clean this up
with our automation select tool to get
more of a straight line out of it and
really you know and then you have to
question whether we needed the on of the
live automation to begin with we can
actually just more accurately come in
here and do this manually some people
prefer to use live automation for mixing
because it sort of gives it more of a
human feel personally I'm not not a big
fan of it because I like to be able to
get in here with surgical precision and
sort of adjust these values the way I
want them to be adjusted one use for
this I will say that's extremely useful
as with synthesizers and we've already
talked about that when we were talking
about with the es - and some of the
other since how you can automate
individual parameters and you know map
it to a MIDI CC and then be able to
automate it in real time with your hand
and be able to you know play in a
musical effect here I don't really find
it as useful especially when you're when
you're when you don't have a console you
know if you don't have a control surface
to work with
so I just wanted to show you that just
for basically for the sake of showing
you that and then also show you how you
can automate plug-in parameters let me
show you one last thing that I want to
do actually with the vocals down here
all right let me show you how to use
automation to bypass and unbind on a
track so you don't the split you know
split a track into two separate tracks
the plug-in that I want to add to my
vocals is called this the sample delay
not to be confused at the stereo delay
so let me just throw that right now that
I'm in the chorus the chorus track so
let me just go into delay and then
sample delay sample delay is a really
really simple plugin basically all it
does is it lets you delay the entrance
of the left or the right channel by some
number of samples so when you can
slightly delay one channel from the
other you create sort of like like a
false stereo effect sometimes this is
called the Haas effect h assh basically
means that when you increase the arrival
time of one channel versus the other
channel you'll start to hear the closer
channel more toward the left more toward
the right so for instance if I make my
right channel be delayed by 900 samples
that means that I'm going to perceive
this not only as a widening stereo
effect I'm actually going to perceive
the left channel as being slightly more
left than it was before even though the
the track is actually panned dead center
so let me play you the before and then
the after and I'll show you what this
you know what this sounds like Oh Lord
you lift me up and load you've pulled me
down
it's very Center let's pull this out a
bit I'm gonna over exaggerated a bit
I'll put it on 1,600 samples and no you
pull me down
we'll never change so it sort of takes
the takes the singer out of the center
which it's it's really just a you know
you're psycho acoustically tricking your
brain into thinking that it's more
toward the left even though it's not I'm
using a smaller value like 900 though
let's suit that sounds like you pull me
down
we'll never change
okay I lied im using 1300 now I'm gonna
have that on the chorus just for width
really I may have to pull the volume up
on that track just a bit just to
compensate for it because it'll tend to
sound a bit more in the background and
you might be thinking well if this is
going to sound you know if our ears are
going to hear this more toward the left
then why don't we want to maybe pan this
track more toward the right to
compensate for that the reason why I'm
not doing that is that there's a harmony
happening at the exact same time that
has already panned to the rights already
sort of have that that going on in the
race let's hear the harmony and then
also the our nice wide stereo effect at
the same time Oh Lord you lift me up and
nod you fooled me down we'll never
change
there we go so what this what does this
have to do with automation well I want
to take that exact same to same effect
and I want to put it on the pre choruses
as well there's a part stir it stir it
but measure yeah measure 18 here where I
want to turn on the sample delay but I
don't want the sample delay to be on
during the vs. so what we're going to
have to do is either split this up into
two separate tracks one with the sample
delay one without or we can use
automation to just bypass the plug-in
until I want it to come in so that's
what I'm going to do in order to save
tracks so let me just go over to my
mixer for a moment and I'm just going to
copy that sample delay my holding option
drag it over on to my verse track here
so I've got the same effect on my vs.
now and basically all I need to do is
automate this
on/off button is bypass button so what I
can do is using a live automation a
pull-up automation on the track I'm
gonna put this in latch mode and all I'm
going to do is just hit you know
basically start with this off and then
go toward the end of the verse here and
then turn it on right in this gap right
here I could just manually drag it in
there but I'd have to go find the
parameter in here so this is
automatically going to assign the
parameter for us so I'll just hit play I
have a cycle mode on there let's try
that again
there we go
that was a little late but that's okay
I'll just drag it over there we go
so basically we bypassed the plugin up
here you can see the lights off and then
right when we get to the pre-chorus it's
on you can do the same thing with any
plug-in maybe you want delay or
something on at one point but not added
on at another point or reverb or chorus
or any any effect you can bypassed
bypass that effect notice that it says
insert for bypass so it's automatically
sort of learned that parameter for us so
now what I can do is I can just sort of
manually draw it in here with bypass
automation basically it's either on or
off so if you just click up here there
you go it'll say bypass if you click
down here it'll say that just two dashes
so I want to bypass this for the second
verse and then when we get to the second
pre-chorus let's turn it back on again
there we go just pull straight down so
now I have just sort of dry Center
vocals for the verses and then sample
delay for the pre courses and courses
and again remember to change your live
automation mode back to read so let's
just listen to this real quick us is no
more bright more light for a forgiveness
living life and alone
I could compensate by you know pulling
the track over to the right a bit I'm
actually going to use a much smaller
sample delay effect here than I did
before
I'll go with 900 it's a much softer
effect so we're probably not going to
really hear the panning issue there all
right so that's just using plug-in
automation and using live automation
with our live automation modes keep in
mind that you can automate virtually any
parameter in any plug-in or any
synthesizer and logic which is really
awesome which opens up the floodgates
for for you to do a lot of things
typically when it comes to automation
like I said I leave it for the very very
end because any changes you make to a
plug-in or to the tappan or to volume
are going to be trumped by your
automation so you want to make sure
everything is basically you know as
leveled out the way you want it before
you start adding the automation and
another thing just to keep mind again
this is this is personal preference you
may have seen other mixes that you know
maybe your friend or another engineer
has done where you know you open up the
mix and it just looks like spaghetti
there's so much automation in it I take
the opposite approach I'm a big fan of a
lot of preparation on up front and
compressing and EQ a
the best you can on input while you're
recording and sending certain tracks
through multiple stages of compression
so that the level the levels are
basically you know dynamically level or
more even before you even start mixing
so that's that's that's the way my take
on it I try not to use too lot too much
automation unless I have to
or unless you know the musician says hey
can you pull that section up can you
pull that section up and you pull that
fill up can you pull that riff up
then you start to know just listen to
what the musician what the musician
wants and and go with that so just like
with the previous episodes you're more
than welcome to purchase this session if
you want to use it to practice mixing
and in the next episode we're going to
start wrapping up this mix we're going
to basically put some final touches on
it and prepare it for for mastering so I
hope you enjoyed the video and thanks
again for watching