Get the Most from DAW Automation: 3 Creative Approaches:

In the early 1970s the recording industry changed drastically with the introduction of mixing consoles that could record and play back fader movement. Leading up to this, mixing multitrack tape recordings was a group effort. For larger sessions of 16 or 24 tracks, up to four people could be needed behind the desk just to manage faders.

Digital audio workstations (DAWs) sophisticated the entire automation process, providing creators and engineers with the ability to control nearly every parameter with precision. In this article, I’ll show you three ways to use automation for more expressive, stand-out music.

What Is Mix Automation? Everything You’ve Been Too Afraid to Ask:

In this article, I will try to answer all the questions you’ve always had about mix automation but were too afraid to ask. We’ll go over what automation is, why you’ll want to use, and the basics. To learn three creative applications of using automation in a DAW, check out this article.

6 Parallel Compression Mistakes in Mixing:

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably had some experience with parallel compression, the process of blending a compressed track or submix with an uncompressed copy. Getting this balance right allows us to enhance the punch and power of a signal without altering the original transients or eating up lots of mix headroom.

5 Common Vocal Mixing Issues Nectar 3 Solves:

While every performance has its own quirks, there are certain issues that almost always crop up in mixing sessions, like masking of the vocal with other instruments. For this reason we designed Nectar 3, the latest version of our vocal mixing suite, with assistive audio features to solve common problems by using your creative input. Let’s look at five scenarios:

Nectar or Neutron? When to Use Which in a Mix:

What if we mixed a tune with only Neutron 2 and Nectar 3 for the job? Would we still use Nectar on vocals and Neutron on everything else? I say no—Neutron has great applications on vocals, and Nectar sounds awesome on many instruments.