macro adjust automation?

[struknes]

The entire song is too hot. Is there a macro volume adjustment for automation, so I don't have to adjust the tracks individually?

[Tarekith]

No, but you can just turn down the master fader, that's what it's for.

[DjPseudonymous]

I think he may be asking about another thing, since I occasionally have run into this too.

Let's say I have a set with about 20 tracks, 5 of which are in 3 groups. Most of tracks have volume automation. In mixing it in arrangement mode, I got a mix I liked but some of the tracks had a volume level at or near maximum (+6.0). I wanted to add another track with a second lead on it, but I wanted the whole arrangement to be quieter (let's say, 5 dB) because adding this new track would probably require some tracks to be a little louder, and some a little softer.

If there were no automation, you could click on a track name, do Select All, and then drag the volume level of any track up or down and all the tracks volume would raise or lower proportionally (which is a cool feature). So I did that with all the non-automated tracks including the grouped tracks.

Make sure you don't also modify the volume of any group master tracks if you're going to change the included ("grouped") tracks. Then you would effectively be attenuating the tracks in the groups by -10 dB.

To modify the automated (both grouped an non-grouped) tracks, first drag the loop brace to cover the whole arrangement. Then position the cursor over part of the red automation curve (not at a breakpoint). The entire curve should highlight. Subtract your desired attenuation from the value in the Volume box (if it's 4.6, for instance, your target will be -0.4 to get a 5 dB volume reduction.) Then click and drag the cursor downward (use Ctrl [PC] modifier to get more accuracy, if necessary) until the Volume box reads -0.4. (If the track starts at -Inf volume, this won't work but there's a way around it.) The whole curve with all its breakpoints should move together to the desired new position.

If you have dozens of tracks this is of course a pain and will humiliate you into not doing arrangements where each track is at "10" next time.
Anyway my set only had a dozen or so tracks I needed to do this on, and when listening to the arrangement afterwards it sounded right.

If it were possible to somehow select all tracks over a time selection and drag the automation curve in one of them, with all the rest following as does work if there is no automation, this would be a lot easier. But I don't think it's so vital that someone needs to ask for such an enhancement.

For all I know (and I've used Live since version 1.5) there is an easier way to do this than I give above, if so I would be glad to hear it.

[jestermgee]

You could use a utility device to adjust track volume independent of track fader but only per track, not all at once. If you tend to add things after automating your project you could use the utility for volume automation and save faders for making offset adjustments.

In Live 10 you can best groups so you could just group all automated tracks and use a single fader.

You could create a send bus and send all your tracks to it only which you then use to adjust the overall levels as a bus does