Automation
Automation lets you draw a parameter's value across a section instead of leaving it static. A reverb that opens up into the chorus, a filter sweep that builds for four bars, a delay mix that swells and recedes — these are all automation.
Each automated parameter gets its own automation lane below the note grid, above the effect strip.
Adding an automation lane
- Open the effect's popup card by clicking it in the effect strip.
- Each macro knob/slider has an Automate [name] button next to it.
- Click the button.
A new lane appears below the note grid with a flat horizontal line at the parameter's current value. The lane is created on demand — you only get a lane for parameters you actually automate, so the panel stays uncluttered.
The panel can hold up to four lanes visible at once (it scrolls if you add more). The lane header shows the effect name and the parameter name, with a small coloured stripe matching the effect's category (Shape / Color / Space / Character).
Drawing the envelope
Each lane is a breakpoint envelope — a series of points connected by straight lines.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Double-click empty space | Add a breakpoint at that tick / value |
| Drag a breakpoint | Move it in time and value |
| Right-click a breakpoint | Delete it |
The line between any two breakpoints is linear. A flat line is a hold; a sloped line is a ramp.
The lane shares its horizontal scale with the piano roll, so a breakpoint that lines up with bar 3 in the lane is bar 3 in the editor — zooming or scrolling the editor moves the lanes too.
Shape presets
Drawing every breakpoint by hand is tedious for common shapes, so each lane has a shape preset dropdown:
| Preset | Effect |
|---|---|
| **Flat** | Single value held across the section — useful for resetting |
| **Ramp Up** | Linear climb from a low to a high value across the section |
| **Ramp Down** | Linear descent |
| **Swell** | Low → high → low — the classic build-and-release |
| **Dip** | High → low → high — a momentary drop |
| **Build & Drop** | Slow climb, sudden release at the end — for transitions into a drop |
Pick a preset and the lane fills with breakpoints that produce that shape. From there you can drag the points to taste.
What you can automate
Most macro knobs and sliders on most effects can be automated. The macros are:
- Macro 0 (typically the main "amount" knob)
- Macro 1 (a secondary parameter)
- Macro 2 (typically Mix / Wet)
Toggles (on/off) and selectors — such as the Filter's Low-/High-/Band-Pass Mode — are not automated this way; they're step changes, not envelopes. Change those at the section level instead.
Where automation fits in the priority order
When the playhead reaches a tick, the parameter's value is decided in this order:
- Track-wide effect setting (the bottom of the chain)
- Section's effect setting (overrides for this section)
- Automation lane value at this tick (overrides the section setting)
- Per-note override (only while the note is sounding — see note-effects.md)
So automation always wins over the static section setting, and per-note overrides win over automation. When a per-note override ends mid-ramp, the engine looks up the current automation value and falls back to that, not to the static baseline — so you don't get an audible jump out of the override.
Automation in the arrangement
The arrangement grid shows automation activity at a glance:
- A wavy glyph next to the FX badge on a section cell means that section has automation lanes with data.
- The 2-px coloured marker on the left edge of a cell means the section's effects differ from the previous section — so you know you're crossing a setting change as well as automation.
Automation and per-track effects
Some effects have built-in trigger logic — the guitar Wah is the obvious example. The Wah's mix is normally driven by the strum-step trigger chips ("on Open", "on Held", etc.).
If you draw an automation lane on the Wah's Mix parameter for a section, the chip-driven triggers are skipped for that section — your curve takes over. This is the right behaviour: when you've explicitly asked for a custom shape, it should beat the automatic behaviour.
To go back to chip-driven triggers, delete the Wah Mix automation lane from that section.
Tips
- Subtle is better than dramatic — a 30% swell across 4 bars often reads as "alive" without screaming "automation".
- Automate Mix on time-based effects — Reverb mix and Delay mix sweeping in/out are by far the most musically useful automations. Automate the amount of effect more often than the shape of it.
- Use Build & Drop on Filter — closing the filter for the last bar of a verse before opening it on the chorus downbeat is the cleanest "build" you can do.
- Pair with section-level effects — if a section has Reverb off entirely, automation is moot. Turn the effect on at a low mix and automate from there.
- Don't fight the macros — automating Mix is usually more musical than automating an underlying setting like Decay or Rate. Mix already does what listeners hear as "more or less effect".