← Music Tech Studio1.8 AutomationAutomation Lane
hover anything for the why
Dry Groove · 103 bpmThe stem's shape is dashed for you to match, the bars it names shaded. Where the lane fails a check, the fault is in coral.
Presets
Hard pan by bar: the keys centred for bar 1, hard left through bar 2, hard right through bar 3, centred again for bar 4, every jump on its barline. The move the papers set most: a keyboard in 2019, a synth riff in 2020, a vocal phrase in 2017.AO3"L – R as directed": the scheme is four words, so the marks live in the doing. Scope exact, both positions at full travel, left then right, the jumps on the transients.AO4Write it in that order: what the lane does and where it fails is AO3; what the scheme asks and the fix are AO4, as is the practical mark.
Level
Play runs the four bars round. Hold: lane off switches the lane off while you hold it, so you hear what the move is adding. The space bar plays and stops.
PartKeys
the part the stem names
The papers name one part: the keyboards in 2019, a synth riff in 2020, the bass in 2021, a riser in the drums in 2023, a vocal phrase in 2017. The lane belongs to whichever part is chosen here; the other three play as they are.
TargetPan
writes to the pan pot
The parameter the lane writes to. The points stay when you switch, so the same shape can be heard doing four jobs: a step on the pan is a rhythmic effect, on the filter a gate, on a send a mistake. Volume, pan and send live on the channel; the cut-off lives inside the insert.
ShapeStep
hold, then jump
How the value gets from one point to the next. The spec's three data types: step (hold, then jump), linear (a constant rate), curved (fast, then easing in). The stems say which: a list of hard positions is a step; "smoothly" is a ramp.
GridBar
points snap to the barline
Grid-synchronised or free-form, the spec's two timings. On the bar or the beat a jump lands on the barline and the transient; free is where a hand-recorded pass puts its points, and where the 2020 report's sloppy placement came from.
ValueC
press Play
The control the lane is moving, seen moving: the picture of automation in every DAW. While the loop runs, grab it and the lane records what you do at the playhead, a point every 16th of a beat whatever the grid, and hands the lane back when you let go. That is Touch mode.
What you should hear
centrepan now
Step · 4 pointsthe lane
bars 2, 3 and 4where it moves
as directedthe scheme's checks
all from the points, the shape and the stem
Privacy
Every word here comes from the lane: the value at the playhead in the stem's words, how many points and which shape join them, the bars it moves in, and whether it passes every check the scheme makes for the stem it was set.