Audio Region Based Automation of Almost Anything

One of the things I always liked about Sequoia was the region based handles for controlling the gain of a region independent of the channels fader setting. I finally figured out the workaround to do this in Logic.

 

If you want to control say, a gain plug, or nearly any other plug-in parameter with Region Based Automation, here's how.

 

Using the Gain plug on track 1 as an example, start out with a single audio region. Select the region. Have the track display the gain parameter automation. Then, select: "Move current Track Automation to Region". You'll notice that the automation, now region based, no longer controls the gain parameter.

 

Open the Event List window. There's nothing there now but just grab the newly made region automation trace and wiggle it up and down then let go. Presto, you'll see a fader message appear in the event list.

 

At this point, moving the automation trace up or down will have no effect on the the gain slider when you play through this region. So, in the event list, drag the channel number for the fader event, presently channel 1, to channel 2. Notice the word Gain appears next to the event? The Gain parameter is now automated. (See footnote)

 

Now you can click more control points into the region and they'll all have the channel 2 assignment. But here's the weird part, it doesn't work with the pencil tool. Anything you now draw into the region with the pencil, you'll have to manually change the channel of those events.

 

Another catch is if you snip this region up, some of the children revert back to channel 1 so keep an eye on your event lists.

 

I've also noticed there are some parameters of third party plugs that this doesn't work well for. You'll just have to experiment.

 

(Footnote: I think this is because when Logic instantiates a plug-in, it increments the plugs MIDI channel assignment to the next number. I'm pretty sure that's what it's doing anyway! For some reason it doesn't update the automation for the plugin channel assignment but uses the tracks channel number. Probably some good reason for this. As you can see, changing the channel number manually gets you around this.)

A followup to this post:

 

If you first make sure you have at least one automation data node clicked into the region before converting it to Region Based Automation, then the channel number for the controller will be correct, and you won't have to change it in the event list. However, the pencil tool, as described above will still enter the wrong channel data and you'd have to change that manually.

 

I've found that not using the pencil tool in these circumstances to be the best method.

I've been trying something like this with no success. I can (sometimes) convert my TBA on my Gain plug to RBA but any aditional info I put in after the fact is ignored. I can edit the pre conversion automation but the stuff that comes after has no effect on my gain plug.

 

Sometimes even just the conversion process from TBA to RBA refuses to happen with Gain plug automation. What's goin on here?

I've been trying something like this with no success. I can (sometimes) convert my TBA on my Gain plug to RBA but any aditional info I put in after the fact is ignored.

 

Next time you try it, keep an event list open for that region so you can see if the correct data is being added. I wish this aspect was a little more user friendly. But at least it's possible.

Don't know what I'm doing wrong but I cannot get Gain TBA to convert to RBA at all now. It just stays as TBA. Think I'm just gonna let this one go.

another way of accessing region based automation (it works in Logic 5) is to select a region and then access Hyper Edit from the upper panel menu, once Hyper Edit is selected the region will get colored blue as shown in the screen shot above and by selecting different parameters from the Hyper Edit menu u can evoke them in the region automation view

but if you need certain automation settings work for just a single region on the track leaving unaffected the rest of the regions that follow u gotta make sure that u set the very next region automation to the desired default values so the whole track settings will be restored, otherwise, once changed by a single region automation, the track settings will stay changed for the rest of the regions too

Hey Fader8, how is this any different then just right clicking, going to Automation > "Move Current Track Data To Region"? I'm on Logic Pro X, so I'm guessing maybe this is how Logic does this now?

Hey Fader8, how is this any different then just right clicking, going to Automation > "Move Current Track Data To Region"? I'm on Logic Pro X, so I'm guessing maybe this is how Logic does this now?

Yes, there's been quite an evolution in Logic Pro since Fader8 posted this technique back in 2007!!

 

Logic Pro X 10.1 now has region automation for these applications, so you don't even need to move or convert anything, just create region automation directly.