Graphical Automation

Automation

Automation is a process where you can set a value-curve for track or effect-settings (DSP chain) and is being applied to the track your cursor is currently set focus to.

Creating Automation

If you click the Automation button on the Renoise property-button bar,

Automation Editor

You will see a curve window (one of the few Renoise has) in the panel that appears up-front.

The upper first three parameters on the left part of the panel (TrackVolPan) will always be directly at your disposal. The other subparameters belong to a VST effect i used for that current track i have my cursor currently set to. For each available DSP / VST or Device parameter (meaning, slider or value that you can set for this effect), you can set an automation curve for that particular track in that particular pattern. The value of that parameter will be changed to the node or interpolated value the curve position is attached to the line(s) of the track in the pattern. The vertical lines in the grid represent the lines in a pattern unlike the curve in the instrument envelope where these represent the amount of ticks. Whenever you doubleclick an automation-effect, the name turns green. The current row in the pattern that has the cursor-focus will be highlighted by a light-grey marker-line as shown in the next example, the current selected pattern-row is the first row:

As an explanation for these green type of lightening icons in the effect-parameters of the automation panel:You will notice that the parameter-values are linked to either an effect command or an automation point as soon as you see green icons appearing next to the DSP sliders of the DSP panel and you will see the sliders move when playing the pattern or hitting the enter-key on any of the rows within the track inside the pattern:

To have the DSP-value been recorded to an effect-command, toggle the record DSP sliders to envelopes or pattern-commands button to File:Vvoois renoise effect record.png. To make it record the value to an automation point, toggle it to File:Vvoois renoise automation record.png.

A right-click on each dsp slider, sends it’s current value to either the effect-column or to the automation curve. (depending upon how you set the previously described toggle-button). You can also assign MIDI controller to these sliders, instead of one value, all values during recording are set to either automation or effect-column.The curve can be changed by using the mouse, ctrl-, alt- and shift-keys. You can also select areas and copy them into different spots of the envelope (and exchange clipboard data between automation envelopes and instrument envelopes).

To enable automation for a track-effect parameter, double click on the parameter and you will see the block change into a lighting icon and a straight line appears in the curve window. Also the first node-point of that parameter in the automation curve frame, will have the start-value that it has been initially or previously set to at start of the song or in the previous sequenced pattern. So if you would like to have the automation parameter start at a value in pattern y that has the same value that automation in pattern x ended with, just doubleclick the parameter node in the automation parameter list.

Automation Tools

File:Vvoois renoise automation4.pngThe toolbar below the curve contains from left to right:

• File:Vvoois renoise automation copy.png - copies current (selected) curve-values into memory
• File:Vvoois renoise automation paste.png - Pastes curve-values from current clipboard into the curve-window.
• File:Vvoois renoise automation cut.png - Removes the curve and automatically disables the automation for this effect parameter.
• File:Vvoois renoise automation value.png - Value of the current selected node, this can be manually adjusted by double-clicking it and change it to the exact value you desire.
• File:Vvoois renoise automation zoom.png - Zoom mode, 4 levels to pick in cases your pattern sizes are huge.
• File:Vvoois renoise automation3.png - Play mode, this sets the curve shape to use.
• File:Vvoois renoise automation presets.png - Preset containers to store presets (right mouse = store, left mouse is recall)
• Process tools
  • File:Vvoois renoise automation yflip.png - Flip curve across vertical-axis
  • File:Vvoois renoise automation xflip.png - Flip curve across horizontal axis
  • File:Vvoois renoise automation humanise.png - Randomly change value of each node to a value around it’s current value.
• Generate tools
  • File:Vvoois renoise automation gencurve.png - Generate a smooth interpolated curve
  • File:Vvoois renoise automation genrandom.png - Generate a randomised curve.

Editing Automation Selectively

To select a specific area inside the automation window, click and drag the region in the time-line bar of the automation window. You can also choose to copy and paste the area into the automation window in another preset on any arbitrary position of the automation curve. If there currently no automation envelope exists, the contents will be automatically pasted into the beginning. You can even paste the contents of the automation envelope to the instrument envelopes and vice versa.File:Vvoois renoise automation copy.gif