Mixing Audio, 3rd Edition

28Automation

It is as simple as this—commercial mixes are full of automation. This process, which is performed naturally by professional mixing engineers, is somewhat overlooked by the novice. Even before the invention of multitrack recorders, engineers used to ride levels of different microphones during recording. With the introduction of multitrack recorders, this practice didn’t stop, but some of it was postponed to the later mixing stages. Before automation computers were integrated into consoles, the engineer, the assistant, the producer, and even the band members (as many hands as were needed) used to gather around the console to perform automation passes that were printed straight onto the final two-track. Each person knew exactly what ...