Hey guys, in this video we’re going to look at how to use automation controls in Presonus
Studio One 4.
This is part of our video series going through all the basics of using Studio One, so before
getting started, make sure to check out all the previous videos in the series if you haven’t
so you’re all caught up.
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So let’s start with what automation is.
Automation allows us to program in controls like volume changes, panning, and plugin controls.
It will save it to our track so it changes the same way each time the song is played.
We’ll close the mixer view and go back to the tracks view to start with automation.
Right click on the track we want to apply automation to and select Show/Hide automation.
Make sure that’s checked off.
We’ll get a dropdown that says Display: Off by default.
This is the dropdown that will show us the current automation we are working on.
Some of the one’s well see for every track are Volume and Panning.
If we go to add remove, we can add automation lanes for any of the controls in our plugins
or our sends.
For now, we’ll just consider the volume automation and use that for this tutorial.
Let’s start with the automation modes at the top.
We can see right now it’s set to Auto: Off which means there’s no automation applied,
and it won’t read any automation that’s saved.
We’ll set it to touch first, which means that as we have our mouse clicked down on
the control, it will keep it there and save the information as we are recording.
If we release the mouse, it drops back down to default.
Then as it’s playing back, we can just click and drag the slider to write and make adjustments.
When recording automation, we can do this from playback, we don’t need to press the
record button on the project, just the play button.
Latch mode keeps it at the last set point when we release the mouse.
Write mode will overwrite everything regardless of if we touch the control at the beginning
or not.
We know all of these will allow us to write automation, but it depends on preference which
mode we want to be in.
When we’re done, we just set it back to Read mode so we can hear the automation again
when we play back, and it won’t write in this mode.
If we need to see all the automation lanes for a track at once, there’s a small little
automation button along the bottom left of the tracks that will open this for us.
Another way we can add automation is to draw it on.
In the automation lane, we can use the paint tool at the top and click and drag it along
the automation lane to draw in the automation.
To delete the automation, we can use the eraser tool and click all the points to delete them,
switch to the select tool to select a bunch of points and press the delete key, or right
click on the track’s automation and click Remove Track Automation.
So that covers the basics of using automation in Presonus Studio One.
Just to recap, we can add automation manually by drawing it on an automation lane, or we
can record automation and click and drag on the controls to adjust it.
In the next video, we’ll cover how to use a MIDI control surface in Studio One, and
use that as a MIDI input device that can be recorded for automation.
Thanks for checking out this video on automation controls in Presonus Studio One 4.
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