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When working with a buddy who has no experience, he started automating the mixer levels on the arrangement part of my ableton set. I almost never do this and showed him how I work but does anyone actually change their faders during the song a lot?

In most of my productions there is very little dynamics, just that it needs to seem louder after the drop than before. Anyone on here actually change their levels for example bump up your drums and lead when bass drops out? I thought a limiter at the end of all my effects would make up for most changes and keep consistent levels but idk.... is this a good habit to practice?

of course you can automate your faders.
It`s very effective.
I often automate my faders to create transitions between synths.
to mention one of many uses.

In reponse to your thread title, me!

But I have no idea how to do in on ableton. Sorry.

Think more liike a DJ. Itll get you places.

someone correct me, but isnt it bad to ride the fader? to say if you wanted to bring that sound back into the song later on, and you would have to automate it back to the exact position it was before so the mix is the same, at least this is true for FL because they still dont show the value when drawing automation, so i just put a fruity balance (volume knob) on the end of my channels signal chain and turn that all the way down/up. and it doesnt mess with the level fader, also use the balance for sidechaining

Basic A wrote:Think more liike a DJ. Itll get you places.

if you can work with values then it`s easy.
I always just return the fader to it`s original value.

okay everyone back up the point got left back in my post

Im good on knowing how and when to automate level values in regards to fading a track in or out. Also, I know how to DJ but i appreciate the tips ill keep them in mind.

Rephrased question: Will adjusting levels of tracks during the song help achieve an overall better mix when things are changed to compensate for each other.... just an example slightly lower your bass guitar when ur rhythm guitar comes in(not dubstep I know) or possibly raise your hi hats when something else treble comes in??

Does this make more sense?

i believe its quite common practice to automate volume faders on the mixer, bring stuff in/out, alter levels at key points e.t.c.. Get your mix down, then go about building your volume automation.

Even Hardware mixing desks have built in volume automation these days. Ever seen a video of one in action? Looks pretty sick, the faders are moving about on their own.

shouldn't get used to automating your faders in ableton - at least in the arrangement mode, because it will complicate things later on. make your automations within your midi/audio clip.

on that note, i do automate my faders in ableton in session mode when i'm fucking around. or if it's at the final stage of the mixdown and i don't plan on moving any more clips around - normally just to make quick edits.

yeah u just gotta make sure if you change the level on your mixer after u automate the fader that u make sure ur automation agrees with it.

i automate faders, but i redo all my automation at the end when im mixing,

its part of the mixing process. at the intro, you arent gonna need the same level of lead synth as you are during the chorus. makes total sense to me.

samkablaam wrote:i automate faders, but i redo all my automation at the end when im mixing,

its part of the mixing process. at the intro, you arent gonna need the same level of lead synth as you are during the chorus. makes total sense to me.

yeah exactly...automating the fader is pretty much a must in those situations unless you want to be overwhelmed by the synth in the intro or not even be able to here it in the chorus...

I don't like doing this. It just creates more chance of a fuckup imo. I use the faders for mixing and leave them at that, if I feel the need to automate volume ill either use velocity or channel volume.

I'm not a huge fan of volume auto anyhow, is much prefer to do fade ins/outs with filters or reverberated.

I don't like doing this. It just creates more chance of a fuckup imo. I use the faders for mixing and leave them at that, if I feel the need to automate volume ill either use velocity or channel volume.

I'm not a huge fan of volume auto anyhow, is much prefer to do fade ins/outs with filters or reverberated.

i only do it for fade outs or fade ins, but the even if i did id use a gain plug-in or preferably a filter, as if i automate the volume, if i then want to lower it slightly i have to go in a lower the automation at each point, rather than just bringing the fader down a bit.

@randorando you can copy values and paste in fl 10

If you want to automate volume in Ableton it is usually a good idea to use the native Utility plugin, this leaves the fader free for when you want to mix down your track.

RandoRando wrote:someone correct me, but isnt it bad to ride the fader? to say if you wanted to bring that sound back into the song later on, and you would have to automate it back to the exact position it was before so the mix is the same, at least this is true for FL because they still dont show the value when drawing automation, so i just put a fruity balance (volume knob) on the end of my channels signal chain and turn that all the way down/up. and it doesnt mess with the level fader, also use the balance for sidechaining

In Ableton you can just highlight a specific portion of the timeline, and drag the automation line down. Then it makes breakpoints for you, so the rest of the track still has the mixer in the original position



I usually don't screw with the mixer at all though, unless I'm doing fade ins, or fade outs.

blinkesko wrote:@randorando you can copy values and paste in fl 10

how would you go about doing this is a automation clip though?