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realtime-automation

Controlling Unify using DAW automation

NOTE This page is only relevant for plug-in versions of Unify.

Nearly all plug-ins expose at least some of their parameters to the host application (e.g. DAW), so that those parameter values can be changed smoothly over time using a mechanism called automation. Parameters exposed for automation are said to be automatable.

For each automatable parameter, the host application needs to know (at least) the parameter's name and its minimum and maximum values. Certain plug-in formats (e.g. VST, VST3, AU) also specify more details, such as whether a parameter is linear or logarithmic, its unit of measure, etc.

Unify exposes its Macro parameters for automation

The Unify plug-in exposes (typically) 32 automatable parameters, which correspond to the each of the macro knobs. The host only knows that there are parameters, named “Macro1” through “Macro32”, and that their values may range (linearly) from 0 to 1 (i.e., 100%). The precise interpretation of parameter values is done inside Unify, using the macro parameters system.

This is very nearly all there is to tell about Unify and automation, other than a few minor details:

  1. Automation changes to unused Unify macros (i.e., macros to which no actual parameters are linked) are ignored.
  2. Even if you edit the macro-knob names in Unify, your DAW will still only see “Macro1”, “Macro2”, etc.
  3. In most DAWs, you can manually adjust macro knobs during recording, and the DAW will record the sequence of changes and be able to replay it (as a sequence of automation messages) later.

Potential problems using both MIDI CC assignments and Automation

DAWs can record MIDI CC activity as well as automation. If you link any of your macro knobs to MIDI CCs, and manipulate those MIDI CC controls while recording automation, your DAW will record both the MIDI CC activity and the automation changes, and will attempt to send both into Unify on playback. This will very likely result in poor playback quality, as the two control mechanisms “fight” for dominance.

We suggest that you use only MIDI CC recording in your DAW for all changes related to real-time musical expression (and be sure NOT to record automation at the same time), and use automation only for programmed changes such as fade-ins, fade-outs and other transitions.

realtime-automation.txt · Last modified: 2023/05/08 18:59 by 127.0.0.1