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Automate a parameter

Task: make a value change over the course of the song — a fader that rides up into the chorus, a filter that opens over eight bars. Automation plays back from the arrangement, and you can see and edit it right on the timeline.

Automation lanes on the timeline

Every automated parameter draws as a curve with breakpoints over its track's row in the arrangement. To work with it directly:

  1. Click the ▾ in a track's header to break its automation out into a sub-lane below the clips.
  2. Click + Lane and pick a parameter (any of the track's synth, macro, or mix params). A lane appears with a keyframe at the playhead.
  3. Edit the curve directly:
  4. Alt-click a lane to add a breakpoint.
  5. Drag a breakpoint to move it (up/down = value, left/right = time, snapped to the grid).
  6. Double-click (or right-click) a breakpoint to delete it.
  7. The × in a lane's header removes the whole lane.

Stack several lanes under one track for several parameters at once. When a track is collapsed, its automation still draws as a translucent overlay on the clips.

Shape the motion

Right-click a lane for its menu:

  • Smooth (ramp) vs Stepped (hold) — interpolate between points, or hold each value until the next (a stair-step).
  • Curve ▸ — Linear, Ease in, or Ease out between points.
  • Remove lane — clear this parameter's automation.

Bus, group, and master automation

Buses, groups, and the master don't have clips, so they get their own content-less rows below the tracks, carrying only automation. The master row is always present; a bus row appears once the bus has automation. A control group (VCA) fader is automatable too (group/<name>/gain) — automating it scales all its members without touching their own automation.

Keyframe at the playhead (the quick way)

You don't have to open a lane to drop a point. From a parameter's own right-click menu in the mixer (a fader, pan, or effect knob) — or a macro's ⋯ menu in the RACK panel — choose Automate at playhead: it stamps this value, this beat. Move the playhead, change the value, and stamp again. Two keyframes make a ramp.

Write mode — perform it live

To capture movement instead of drawing it, arm Write in the RACK panel. While the transport plays, your macro moves (including snapshot morphs) are recorded as automation. It's latch-style: a parameter you touch stops reading its own automation so your hands don't fight the playback, and the recording is revealed when you stop.

Automation vs. an LFO vs. a knob

Automation is for an exact, drawn-in-time shape. For hands-off cyclic movement or to perform a change live, use a different tool from the same right-click menu:

  • Add LFO… — a low-frequency oscillator (rate, depth, shape, tempo-sync) wobbles the parameter continuously, no keyframes. That's modulation.
  • MIDI Learn — bind a hardware knob or CC to the parameter and play it by hand. That's MIDI-learn; manage bindings in the Maps window.

See What to use for what for choosing between the three.

See also