Automation - what do you usually automate?

[OHADOHAD]

SSup?
So I've been kinda organising my studio and I got to the point of setting macros.
I have 2 korg nanokontrol and I basically want to assign all faders and knobs for live performance... So what do you automate or playing with usually? Filters? Decay? Sends? Volume?
Looking for some ideas basically...
Cheers

[Alume]

Volume, thats all.

[Alume]

Seriously though for live use.

I'd go highpass, lowpass, volume and fx macro racks.

Something like that.

[willemb]

reverb send, delay send, decay/release(!), filter, gentle pitch on hats or rides, filters

[TvSkY]

Volume, thats all.

recently this is all i actually automate

everything else I like to set to free running lfos

then you just get what you get , the arrangement sort of flows on its own

sometimes you get gold

sometimes you dont

when you dont you hit record and start again

[Lost to the Void]

I automate fucking everything. Sometimes too much.

[wormcode]

Sends, volume, panning, crossfades, pitch, distortion/overdrive. Pretty much in that order from most to least. When talking about synths I pretty much always automate the filters even if it's only like +/- .01% just to get a little something moving.

[gedda]

I automate everything in the sound creation phase. I just record a long loop and hope for the best.

[Mslwte]

The most common thing I do is letting the ableton LFO on the auto filter run free, I've used that constantly for years. I also use the m4l LFO and map that to anything really and mess with the setting in there. I like the jitter function a lot.

But I'll also draw in automation, free hand. I like odd random shit going on and like to discover happy accidents as much as possible.

[OHADOHAD]

I'm also into random stuff, if it's got a random button I'm in!
You all mentioned parameters I kinda thought about, so let's play the limitation game
For each channel you can only automate 2 things in a live situation, you have a knob and a filter for every channel, what will you go with?
Volume and decay for drum parts and volume and filter for synths?

[ozias_leduc]

Speaking of automation, a mate gave me his "Leap Motion" recently because he never used it. It's a hand sensoring infrared device. I can control a load of parameters by moving my hands through the air. Whichever way you move or rotate your hands can control a different parameter - up, down, left, right, open hand, closed fist, left hand, right hand, tilt hand etc... 40 parameters in total.

Pretty fun!

[davidblackwing]

I automate fucking everything. Sometimes too much.

There is never too much, man.

[ozias_leduc]

i wish ableton live could be a bit better organized with it though... gets very cluttered sometimes!

[msl]

Volume, fx sends, filter cutoffs, sometimes panning.


.

[Wiu]

Automate the automation. Anything that stays the same for any more than like 3 seconds is way too 90's really. Loopy shit that won't stand the test of time.

[Lost to the Void]

Automate the automation. Anything that stays the same for any more than like 3 seconds is way too 90's really. Loopy shit that won't stand the test of time.

Thats not strictly true. Repetition is the power of techno. Out of that repetition the mind creates it's own things, and THAT is what hooks the mind in to a loop as it gets "caught" in the repetition getting itself involved in it. Amplify that sound so the mind is even further trapped in to it, and you have the psychology of techno. Thats why you can hear a tune in a club that you own, suddenly find there is a melody in there that you had never heard before, then go home and play the same record and the melody is no longer there.
If you take away that ability for the mind to imprint it's own stamp on the sound, then it becomes like pop music, the mind gets impatient and wants something else, and once you loose that, you lose the groove and the whole basis of the music falls apart, techno being visceral and immediate, rather than more involving music, needs that repetition to work. Hence 4x4 kicks etc.

Read some NLP stuff, it really explains how and why repetition works on us.

[Mattias]

Pretty sure he was taking the piss there. But with an ounce of truth to it still. hehe

[Lost to the Void]

Ah yeah. In that case
Lol etc
Very
Funny

[Barfunkel]

Joke or not, lots of techno nowadays sounds like the automation is the cake and not just the icing on it. IMO, if the rhythm, composition and sound design don't work no amount of studio trickery, no matter how advanced won't save the track. Maybe it'll turn it into a releasable track (which doesn't mean much in this digital era, if it ever did), but at least I wouldn't buy it, nor will it come a timeless classic.

People on the dancefloor love a good, energetic track, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone going crazy because there's some automation on the reverb predelay setting or whatever. 909 hats yes (particularly if used sparingly), tweaking the filter of a 303 or a clone yes (this might count as automation though, if you draw midi CC values instead of doing it manually with a knob). Many other simple, even cheesy tricks yes. But automating some minor parameters usually no.

[Lost to the Void]

Yeah honestly I don't know why anyone bothers at all.
Just buy a synth, load up the demo song that comes in the ram and record that.

Making music is too much of an effort to be honest.
Don't buy any gear at all, they have these spcial websites where you send them money and they make tunes for you.
Fucking audience won't know the difference.
Fuck them, they are all fucking idiot drug monkeys anyway,