The sound of music.(using Cubase's automation features to take the strain out of mixing)

Byline: Niall Magennis

The sound of music

Using Cubase's automation features to take the strain out of mixing

Sometimes it can feel as if you need the arms of an octopus to control everything in your home studio when you're trying to record or mix a track. There are so many knobs, switches and sliders to control that it can seem overwhelming. But now you can simplify the process. This month, we'll look at how automation in Cubase can help you control nearly every parameter of not just the softsynths and effects, but also the main mixer in Steinberg's premier sequencer.

Automation gives you total control over all the sliders, dials and switches on the different bits of virtual kit you use within your sequencer. This means you can give strict instructions to each device to tell it exactly what it should be doing at any time during your track. For example, you can tell the mixer to fade up track three just before the chorus kicks in for the second time and instruct the reverb effect to lengthen the reverb tail during the third verse. And you can do all this without having to move any knobs or sliders while your track is playing. Once you've grasped the basics, you'll be able to use automation to add extra movement and creativity to your tracks.

We'll start by showing you how to create and edit automation data for your plug-ins. Then we'll explain how to use automation to control your mixes. We'll be using Cubase SX version 3, but you should be able to follow this workshop using earlier versions of the software.

As we've already discussed, Cubase allows you to automate lots of functions, but thankfully automation is applied to all these functions in much the same way. Let's start by looking at how you can add automation to a part that's being played by a synth plug-in.