One of the simplest and most powerful mix tools that DAWs made easy is mix automation. Often used to handle simple tasks like volume and pan, here’s some great ways to use DAW automation that can supercharge mixes and save you money buying dedicated plugins.
Autopanner
Auto panning is a powerful effect useful on numerous sources including guitars, keyboards and hi-hats. There are dedicated plugins that can help you do this, including some free ones.
However, there are some tools built into every DAW that can make creating automated pan effects a breeze. Create an automation lane in your DAW of choice assigned to the channel pan. Then choose the draw tool, it will have various shapes. For this example a square wave is chosen, this will mean the pan is instant with a zero attack envelope. Your DAW should allow you to draw to the grid and by selecting the grid value will draw the envelope to match. In the example below a hi-hat is auto panned to match the pattern, you can see some bars pan at 1/4 and some 1/16. It’s a very simple technique and can add a lot of interest to the right mix.
Tremolo
Sometimes confused with vibrato, tremolo is an effect that modulates the amplitude of a signal with a rhythmic pattern. The effect is great on electric guitars and electric pianos, especially when used in stereo.
Using the same technique as above, but this time varying volume automation it’s simple to do with automation. However, it’s worth experimenting with the envelope shapes as the sinewave can often give a more pleasing effect.
As you can see in the example below, there’s both volume and pan automation on a basic two chord guitar pattern to add a lot of extra movement into the part.
Filter Modulation
An almost essential technique for those working with synths, filter moduation adds interest and movement otherwise bland synth parts.
In this example we’ve assigned the low pass filter frequency of the McDSP Filterbank 202 to an automation lane and increased the resonance of the filter so that as the LP frequency changes it increases the resonance too. It takes a flat synth pad and makes it breath. A lot of modern synths already have this effect built in, however if your synth doesn’t or you are using a loop then this is one technique that can really make a difference.
To help ensure some difference the automation has been drawn freehand, otherwise it can get repetative and boring very quickly.
Summary
These are just three simple examples of how the automation system in modern DAWs can be used for some creative effects and to add interest to a part.
Why not tell us how you use automation in your DAW to add interest to your mixes.