Automation

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Automation

Automation has had varying degrees of success in many apps, more often than not, in the way it's presented to the user. Some apps will use bezier curves to present automation data and a means of edit to the user, while others will use straight lines between "nodes", and the user can add as many as they want to create nice curves, or silence noise, and other artifacts in a recorded wave. Automation is, in more than one case, poorly presented, with tiny nodes making it hard to locate and select with a mouse, cramped automation tracks or lanes, and often badly functional management of multiple lanes in a single track.
We've opted for a simple approach in OOM2, and decided the user should have the choice where and how they want to manipulate automation data, without the often remarked comments about bezier curves, in that they can distort the data either side of the edited node. Either way suits some users and not others, and both are valid for particular use cases, but for editing artifacts out of waves, a set of straight lines is a definitive function, and so, in OOM2, that's what we considered important enough when building the automation. At some stage in the future, we'd like to have both formats in OOM, so all users have a choice, but this won't make it into OOM2.
OOM2 automation is entered and edited on the track itself, over the wave. There are 2 builtin per track automation lines, or as we call them, lanes, which are Volume and Pan. Both are commonly used for automation writing. Contrary to many apps, OOM2 doesn't use fade ins/fade outs (which may be included in OOM3), but leaves the choice of fade shapes to the user, using the Volume automation data to do the job. With that in mind, we've worked hard to make the process of manually creating automation curves and fades as simple as possible. The automation is not moved with a part, but stays with the track, so users should aware of this when writing complex automation over many clips.

In the simple example picture, we can see 2 thick coloured lines, one orange and one green. The user can have one or both of these visible, selecting and deselecting them in the track header, using the A button. This opens a menu in which the user selects which automation he wishes to see in the track. The orange line is Volume, and the green line is Pan. This is consistent for all tracks and busses capable of automation writable lanes.

The Volume lane has some additional information displayed when it is active, which are the faint lines marked 0dB, and -12dB. These are guides for the user when locating nodes. In addition to these guides, each node when active and being moved displays a dB value. When a node is selected the mouse cursor disappears, so the user can see a blue target circle, and locate the node more precisely.

The Pan lane is structured in the same way, but where the Volume lane displays dB when a node is being moved, the Pan nodes display a value between -1 (the lower half of the track ), and 1 (the upper half of the track), with 0 being the centre line. When pan is displayed, a light centre line is displayed as a guide for the user.

To edit automation manually, the user presses the line tool icon at the bottom of the arranger window. (Shortcut is the F key)

Once the user has pressed the line tool icon, and is in automation mode, the cursor changes to a hand. To add a node to an active lane, the user hovers the hand cursor over the active lane, presses and holds the CONTROL key, and hold clicks on the lane, moving the mouse slightly. The hand cursor will disappear, and the user will see the new node, with a small blue circle defining that node as active, as well as value text next to the active node.

With multiple automation lanes displayed in a track, things can get confusing fairly quickly as to which node is active, and which one will respond to the mouse. We've taken the guesswork out of this, and created a priority system for all automation lanes, being active, and inactive. When a lane is active, the user can add and remove nodes from that lanes, and any active lane renders any other lane inactive. The user simply selects a node in the desired lane to make it active, and the lane will brighten in colour, with inactive lanes becoming semi-transparent, so the user has a clear visual cue as to which lane is active. We still recommend to users to have one lane at a time visible, as it's easier to keep control over any changes, and your working automation view is less cluttered.

The user can select multiple nodes by selecting a node, pressing SHIFT, then clicking on additional nodes to add to the selection. Once you have selected all the nodes you want, you hold the SHIFT key, then with the mouse cursor away from nodes, but anywhere in the window, you can move your selection up or down, and sideways. To select all nodes in a track, with the intent of either moving them or deleting them, press CTRL + A (in automation mode). All nodes will highlight, using the same SHIFT + mouse movement, you can move the entire automation lane up and down, or sideways. If you wish to restrict that movement to only up and down, then position the cursor in the blank space on the left of Bar 1, and move your selection. If you wish to delete your entire track's worth of automation, when in automation mode, simply use the CTRL + A command to highlight all nodes, and press delete.

Note that the CTRL + A command is a toggle, so if you press it to highlight all your nodes, then simply press it again, to unhighlight them.

Any singly selected node can be removed by making the desired lane active, then hovering the mouse over a node, and pressing **Delete**. This is true for all nodes except the first one, in any lane, which is your anchor for the lane.

As well as the builtin lanes for Volume and Pan, automation for plugins is also displayed in the track, if the plugin is built with that capability. All plugin lanes are grey, and carry no visible value. To avoid confusion, we recommend to users that they follow the common sense principle of viewing one or two plugin lanes at a time, at least to begin with. Given there are hundred of LADSPA plugins available, with a wide range of variables, it's beyond our intent at this time to display correct value types for each one in turn.

When you've finished with your automation editing, press any other icon in the toolkit to exit automation mode, with the pointer tool (shortcut for the pointer tool is A) returning you to normal operation. If you wish to hide the automation from view once you've written it, then simply uncheck the lanes in the track A icon popup menu.




OOM2 automation is designed to be quick and easy to use, with simplicity in mind. With a lazy select system, large highlights on a selected node, and value indicators, the user can get a lot of work done in a short time.


Home QuickStart Manual Installing OOM Getting started The Composer Performer Mixer Window TrackView Tracks Windows Instrument Sets Patch Sequencer Shortcuts Automation