Solved Removing automation tracks deletes mixer channels?

[TonalDynamics]

Hey gang,

I've got a lot of 'bastardized' automation tracks I simply want to get rid of, however when I delete them it wipes all the BUS channels they are associated with; bit of a problem as you can imagine!

Is there a way to turn off this behavior?

 

[Ari]

Thing is busses normally doen't have tracks, because a bus is a channel and not a track. But in that moment when you link an automation track to a bus they act together. What you should do is the remove the automation destination in the track controls of the automation track. If it's "none", then you can remove the track without loosing the channel. Because there isn't any channel connection anymore.

best
Ari

 

[TonalDynamics]

Hey there Ari, thanks for chiming in as always.

Thing is busses normally doen't have tracks, because a bus is a channel and not a track. But in that moment when you link an automation track to a bus they act together

Right, well the awkward bit about this in S1 is that it's the only way to automate bus channel/INSERT parameters, by which an internal process of 'Create Automation Channel - Route X BUS parameter to channel' occurs;

It's this 'linkage' between the track and BUS I'm trying to get rid of:

E.G. Another very strange feature of automation tracks is that you can't actually name an automation track — when you assign multiple BUS parameters to them as collapsible envelopes (the very method prescribed in the manual), the name of the most recently-added parameter overwrites the name of the automation track.

If you attempt to rename the automation track, it renames the last BUS channel automated.

If you attempt to use your trick and set auto to : 'None', then change the name and toggle 'Expand Envelopes' on and off, it breaks the automation track completely such that parameters can not be added or removed, which mysteriously can't be undone in the history (i.e., don't ever do this on an auto track with loads of parameters because you will lose a lot of work).

If there's no viable way to toggle this on/off, it might just be a bit of an odd quirk of S1, no?

 

[Ari]

you can't actually name an automation track

hmm, I don't know what you mean.

 

[TonalDynamics]

hmm, I don't know what you mean.

Read the rest of it

Click add/remove on the AUTO track you just made, and then assign some parameters from that BUS to it.

In my case the name of the AUTO track changes to match the name of the most recent parameter assigned.

 

[Ari]

I don't know what you mean. Maybe you could attach a very simple test song file here to show the issue?
Thank you!
Ari

 

[TonalDynamics]

I don't know what you mean.

This is what I mean:





^Automation tracks are unable to retain a unique name. Any time you add a parameter it inherits the name of the output channel to which the parameter belongs, and any attempt to rename the automation track simply renames the output channel/s along with it, as you can see with BUS1 and SUB1 above. As a final nuisance, simply removing the automation track deletes the BUS as well, along with the dozen INSERTS you have set up on it...

It's this 'linkage' I'm trying to get rid of, because with lots of automation tracks it becomes confusing since nothing can be labeled.

For now it seems either 1 parameter per auto track (messy), or perhaps or color-coding 1 auto track with lots of envelope lanes is the best option.

 

[TonalDynamics]

So this is all very messy implementation with automation tracks, however I have an immediate-but-less-messy workaround:

Simply create a 'Dummy BUS', name it to whatever you want the automation track to be called, use the volume auto from that Dummy BUS as the default automation for the Auto Track, and access all the other automation within that track via 'Expand Envelopes'.

This at least allows the labeling on the automation track to remain consistent.

 

[Ari]

I guess you never expanded your track to see the real automation track right`? Please have another look at my screenshot please. Note the difference between the Bus track and the automation track for bus volume.

 

[TonalDynamics]

I guess you never expanded your track to see the real automation track right`? Please have another look at my screenshot please. Note the difference between the Bus track and the automation track for bus volume.

Yes, you've clicked 'Expand Envelopes', I realize the parameter envelopes retain their names; I'm talking about the automation track itself being unable to retain its name, as demonstrated in the GIF I posted.

 

[Ari]

Like I already said in my very first answer - please remove the connection from the track to the channel.

 

[TonalDynamics]

Like I already said in my very first answer - please remove the connection from the track to the channel.

And as I also said before, as soon as you edit an automation on that track again the name you chose when the track was set to 'none' gets wiped.



The only solution I've found is the workaround I outlined above, i.e. assign a 'Dummy Bus' with the desired name, e.g. 'Drums Auto', etc., and leave the track assigned to that automation when it's not in use in order to keep a consistent label.

To be clear, your solution of setting auto to 'none' works for the initial problem of inadvertently removing busses with automation tracks;

I'm just trying to demonstrate this shortcoming of automation tracks being unable to retain their track names.

 

[Ari]

I thought the topic is:

Removing automation tracks deletes mixer channels?​

Just do it.

 

[TonalDynamics]

Another very strange feature of automation tracks is that you can't actually name an automation track

hmm, I don't know what you mean.

So to me, this is where the conversation 'pivoted' so to speak;

I made the assertion that automation tracks can't retain a name, to which you replied 'what do you mean', and I have been trying to demonstrate this bug/feature/whatever for the last half dozen posts or so, apparently to no avail.

The initial 'can't remove auto tracks without removing busses' problem is just a symptom of the larger issue, which is the inability to break this linkage between auto/bus names, and also makes naming automation tracks in the conventional way impossible with the current implementation in the software.

It's all good man. Just a communication breakdown I guess.

Thanks for your assistance.

 

[TDF1981]

So to me, this is where the conversation 'pivoted' so to speak;

I made the assertion that automation tracks can't retain a name, to which you replied 'what do you mean', and I have been trying to demonstrate this bug/feature/whatever for the last half dozen posts or so, apparently to no avail.

The initial 'can't remove auto tracks without removing busses' problem is just a symptom of the larger issue, which is the inability to break this linkage between auto/bus names, and also makes naming automation tracks in the conventional way impossible with the current implementation in the software.

It's all good man. Just a communication breakdown I guess.

Thanks for your assistance.

The misconception here is that you think there is something like a universal automation track. There isn‘t. As soon as you assign an automation from a channel to your track, that track IS that automation and thus has its name.
This is how it works in Studio One and there is no other way around it.
What you could do is set up a folder and add any automation track you need to that folder, so you can hide them and unhide them whenever you need them.