To LATCH or to TOUCH...

[Tripi]

I've been doing a lot of automation writing on my tracks by arming the track and hitting play. I'll grab a knob in my plugin (like the cutoff frequency on my filter) and move it. The automation curve writes as expected in the track, but always comes back to the starting point when I let go. I usually use LATCH for this, but all of the other modes seem to behave the same way. Anyone know which one would be appropriate for writing automation, and then having it stay at the last value until I hit stop? I read the manual on the different modes, but it isn't exactly helpful.

Thanks!

[Dan Worley]

Latch

[Tripi]

Thanks Dan, that's what I thought, but how do we get it to not jump back to the starting location when stopping? For something like cutoff frequency, this doesn't really work well.

[Dan Worley]

Edit: I cleaned this up and added to it. I was rushed earlier and my answer was not very helpful or accurate.

Sorry, I guess I didn't fully understand your question. I don't know. Just manually delete the points you don't want after you punch out of automation, or use a Snapshot and write to the chunk end (probably the easiest and quickest).

I don't think DP has a way to automatically write to the end with Latch or Overwrite. That should be a feature request.

Unless it's a morph or something, what I do a lot of the times is separate the section out into its own track, and then process it independently. I find that easier then writing automation to EQ parameters, and the like. Like always, it all depends on what you're going after and what you're comfortable with.

There should be a setting to write to the end though, that would be helpful. I think my old digital mixer called it Write Flyback and you could turn it off or on.

[mikehalloran]

There should be a setting to write to the end though,

I can't see how to do it other than just let it continue to the end. Time consuming, yes, but it works.

[Tripi]

I hope that i'm being clear in what I'm trying to do. Imagine grabbing a knob on a plugin and dragging it down while playing in Latch mode. Whatever setting you end at is where it should continue to play at. Right now though, DP places a dot in the automation at the point where you started writing to it. So, maybe your cuttoff starts at 5khz, and you drag it down to 200hz. When you let go of the knob, it keeps writing at 200hz, but when you hit stop, there is a point that jumps all the way back to 5khz.

Here's a quick example with Volcano. I selected all the points so they will be in yellow. Notice the very last point is right where the filter sweep began (where I hit stop). I've been manually deleting this point. But I'm sure there is a better method for this. Maybe I'm just using the wrong automation mode?

[Dan Worley]

What you're asking for doesn't exist in DP. It should, but it doesn't.

If this is the first automation pass on a parameter, the easiest thing to do is to just manually delete the last point. The other way is to use a filtered Snapshot (you can get very specific with the settings, like write to chunck end and only selected tracks and shown data types), this works well if there is additional automation points after your punch-out or you're wanting to work on multiple tracks at once.

[Dan Worley]

There should be a setting to write to the end though,

I can't see how to do it other than just let it continue to the end. Time consuming, yes, but it works.

A setting to "Write automation to end on/off" shouldn't be that hard for MOTU to add to the Automation setup, if they wanted to. They already have it in the Snapshots. I know I would welcome it. I used it all the time when working on my digital mixer.

[Tripi]

Right, I guess that is the intention. Maybe I'll write MOTU a letter today with our brilliant idea!

Thanks for the help Dan.

[Shooshie]

I hope that i'm being clear in what I'm trying to do. Imagine grabbing a knob on a plugin and dragging it down while playing in Latch mode. Whatever setting you end at is where it should continue to play at. Right now though, DP places a dot in the automation at the point where you started writing to it. So, maybe your cuttoff starts at 5khz, and you drag it down to 200hz. When you let go of the knob, it keeps writing at 200hz, but when you hit stop, there is a point that jumps all the way back to 5khz.

Here's a quick example with Volcano. I selected all the points so they will be in yellow. Notice the very last point is right where the filter sweep began (where I hit stop). I've been manually deleting this point. But I'm sure there is a better method for this. Maybe I'm just using the wrong automation mode?

It is the nature of writing automation changes to return to the starting conditions when the control is released (Touch Mode) or playback is stopped (Latch Mode). There is even a place in Automation Setup to set the return ramp speed. If you want to rewrite automation to the end, you have to remove that ramp or just leave it recording your changes to the end of the song.

It does seem like there should be a command to extend Latch to the end of the sequence, and I could have sworn there WAS such a feature, but I cannot find it. I must have been using some other DAW when I was invoking that command, but I do remember doing it.

Yeah, I'd write MOTU's Suggestion Box and ask for that.

Shooshie