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Jin Huang
In this chapter we are talking talking about automation. Automation, in my sense, is really when technology brings music into live. Imagine the faders moving up and down in time with the music; that’s really something make me excited. Back in the 60s, this was impossible. Automation in those days were done by multiple engineers standing in front of a huge curved mixing desk and operating the faders by hand. Here is the question: how big are your hands?
Date of Session: May 9, 2014
Time in: 13:00
Time out: 14:30
Lesson 17: Automation
Automation was made possible in the 70s by a genius designer, brilliant audio engineer, great electrician, horrible business man, Rupert Neve. Although people say he’s a horrible business man, we love what he’s been doing. In fact, as I see it, this is the thing that a person who does care about sound should do — use all his wisdom to make the best sounding console in the world, regardless of how much money is spent there. Yes, money is the problem that everybody has, but it can never be the excuse that limits the possibilities that we can achieve. We appreciate what he did. After watching Sound City, everyone wants a Neve console, so am I. Hopefully, I’ll be able to own one of the 5088 consoles the SwiftMix automation one day.
There are two main types of automation. One is VCA automation, which stands for voltage controlled automation; the other is called flying faders. Nowadays, most people would prefer flying fader as it physically turns the faders up and down to change the volumes, and that’s also what makes me so excited as well. VCA automation is more chip sounding. For digital boards, it is ok; while for analog boards where transformers are used, the chip sound of VCA automation is ruining the cake.
Automation in Pro Tools can be done in either edit window or mix window. Automation in edit window is done by drawing lines at very specific spots, and different alternatives of the pencil tool can help to achieve specific effects you might be looking. Automation in mix window is done by pulling the faders and turning the knobs directly. Even parameters within Pro Tools plugins can be automated. Using a control surface can be more efficient when automating in mix windows as you can touch the faders physically instead of operating things in screen.
Four main types of automation are read, write, touch and latch while off, apparently, means that automation is not in use. In read mode, the computer will read whatever is written there in automation; nothings special, it’s usually for playback. In write mode, automation is being written from beginning to end during playback, which means that whatever changes you make will be remembered by the computer; once playback is stopped, it will jump into either touch mode or latch mode depending on your preference settings. In touch mode, automation will not be written until you make some changes, and it will jump right to the original spot as soon as you stop changing things. In latch mode, however, automation is written once you make some changes, and it will keep writing automation until playback is stopped.
Now, it’s the mixing time. This time I brought Lionel another remix of Once. I was very happy that Lionel said there are some spots in the mix which sound great, especially the background vocal near the end of the song, which adds a nice texture to the music. Of course, there are still problems to fix. In some parts the arrangement of guitars is distractive, and the midi keyboard track doesn't sound too ‘real’, also the right side of the sound is a little heavy handed. As mixing on headphones is the only way that works for me, Lionel told me what I should be careful about when using headphone to monitoring. The hardest part of mixing on headphones is the positioning of sonic space; panning can be tricky because everything is right above my head. Due to the same reason, there is a little bit more of the natural compression and boost in low frequencies that will take place. These are the several things that I need to consider ahead of time. Mixing on headphone does have some advantages as well. It’s easy and convenient, and it’s also good for getting the right levels. The most important thing for me is that I don't need to worry about the interactions between the original sound and reflections in the room. Getting a good pair of monitoring headphones is probably the best thing for me to do now.
I’ve posted a fixed mix of Once on my soundcloud, and I’m also thinking of another mix some day, probably pretty soon. The good news is that I’ve got my new ATH-M50x, and I’ve done my final mix with it, which sounds great. Fix your eyes, more blogs are coming.
