Automation

SONAR has a very sophisticated automation system that lets you record fader moves and parameter changes with a mouse or control surface during playback in real time, or edit automation graphically offline.

Automation means to record the movement of a fader, knob, or other control so that the next time you play your project, that control moves automatically. This allows you to dynamically change parameters over the course of a project’s timeline. SONAR allows you to graphically automate much more than just volume and pan controls—you can automate individual controls, faders, and knobs that control the main outs, individual tracks, buses, individual effects’ parameters (including some plug-in synths), and even individual clips. Easy to use read and write controls are featured on each automatable component of SONAR.

You can also group several controls together and automate them all by recording only a single control’s movements. You can draw freehand and geometric automation curves with the Freehand tool and Pattern tools. All automatable controls are in the Console view and the Track view (including the Clips pane), however, you can also graphically automate MIDI controllers from the Piano Roll view in addition to the Console and Track views. You can enable or disable all automation by clicking the Global Automation Playback button in the Control Bar’s Mix module. You can also enable or disable automation by track or by parameter using the Automation Read button on track strips, buses, effects bins and soft synths. This is a handy way to turn off automation for a particular section of parameters while mixing.

Below are some examples of when you may want to use automation:

If you want a track to slowly fade in or out, automate the tracks Volume control.

If a particular plug-in is only required during a specific section in a song, automate the plug-in’s Bypass parameter during the parts of the track where the plug-in is not required.

If you want a certain sound to pan across speakers at given points during a song, “record” the panning movements.

 

See:

Quick automation guide

Automation methods

Automation write modes (Producer and Studio only)

Automation time base

Automation Read and Automation Write buttons

Recording individual fader or knob movements

Automation lanes

Creating and editing automation envelopes

Automating track and bus mute

Envelope mode and Offset mode

Converting MIDI controllers to envelopes

Snapshots

Automating effects

Recording automation data from an external controller