Tweaks disabling automation

[Garry Knight]

Let's say I have a track fader at 0dB. I want the volume lowered during a particularly loud part so I change the Mixer/Track Volume envelope. Later on I decide that the overall volume throughout the track would be better if it were lowered by 1dB so I drag the fader down. And that cancels out the automation and I have to re-do the envelope.

Wouldn't it be better if I could drag that fader down and the entire envelope would be adjusted downward by 1dB? I've tried to think of a downside to this and can't come up with one. Does anyone agree?

I did a search for this subject but couldn't find anything on it, although it seems like an obvious feature request to me.

[chrk]

I did a search for this subject but couldn't find anything on it,

Fader moves over existing volume automations has been discussed a couple of times here and elsewhere, but hitting the right search terms isn't easy.

There's two workarounds to touching a fader:
Either you highlite the time on the automation lane containing all automation points, now you can drag the whole lane by grabbing it at one automation point. Clicking on a straight part of the line will create a new automation point and you'd be moving only that. It's a bit awkward, you have to watch the value in the track volume field on the right to see where you're heading. Plus you can too easily move the whole automation in time - pressing ALT while moving will prevent this, and pressing CTRL will allow micro movement.

The other way, and this has been suggested a lot of times, is to drop the Utility audio effect at the end of your effects chain (clean, no preset) and use its gain parameter to push or pull the overal volume without harming the automation.

[Garry Knight]

There's two workarounds to touching a fader:

I discovered how to move the entire envelope by trial and error. And I use the Utility to automate the volume on my tracks, leaving the track faders for overall mixing levels. But thanks for your response. I'm wondering if other people think my suggestion is a good one.

[JoshG567]

I think it is a matter of taste, Garry. I haven't gone with that specific division of labor (utility vs. faders), but I see the attraction.

When using utility one is limited to a range of +- 35 dB, whereas the track faders go from -inf to +6. I think that's why I tend to automate the faders and do any "static level" tweaks by dragging the whole automation line or just cutting/boosting the makeup on my RMS compressor, which is usually last in the channel strip/signal chain. Kinda sloppy but that's me.