Automation

Blazar Core automates the fader of every track, any control in an insert effect's window, and the Morph orb. You can draw curves by hand or record them while the song plays.

Show volume automation#

Press A to show every track's volume curve over its lane. Press A again to hide it. A track with no points yet shows a flat line at its fader's level.

Draw and edit points#

• Add a point: click the lane. The point lands on the grid while the magnet is on. A click on the line (or on an empty curve) keeps the line's level, so nothing changes until you drag the point.
• Move a point: drag it. Hold Shift to change only its level.
• Delete a point: double-click it, or select it and press Delete.
• Right-click for the mode menu, Delete point, Clear volume automation and Hide automation.

Automation modes#

Each track has an automation mode. Choose it from the chip beside the track's type in its header, or from the right-click menu.

• Off: the fader alone; the curve is ignored.
• Read (the default): the curve plays, and the mixer fader follows it.
• Touch: while the song plays, holding the mixer fader writes its moves. Let go and the track reads the curve again.
• Latch: writes from the first touch until playback stops.
• Write: writes the fader for the whole pass.

The mode chip shows while automation is shown, and always when a track is not in Read.

Record fader moves#

1. Set the track to Touch, Latch or Write.
2. Play the song and move the track's fader in the mixer.

While you write, the written part of the curve is drawn in rose, and the mixer's level readout turns rose (it is teal while the curve sets the level). After a pass the curve glides back to what was there over a quarter of a second. Each pass is one undo step. During a recording, the pass is part of the take.

R and W in the mixer#

Under each channel's level readout are two small keys:

• R is lit teal while the channel reads its automation. Click it to switch reading off, or back to Read.
• W is lit red while the channel writes. Click it to start writing in Touch, or to stop (back to Read).
• Right-click either key to choose Touch, Latch or Write.

R and W set all of the channel's automation at once: the volume, its effects' controls and the Morph orb.

Automate plugin controls#

You can record any control in an insert effect's window, such as a Pro-Q band.

1. Set the track's automation chip to Touch, Latch or Write.
2. Play the song.
3. Move a control in the effect's window.

A lane for that control opens under the track and records your moves.

• Touch writes while you hold the control, and glides back to the curve when you let go.
• Latch writes from the first touch until playback stops.
• Write writes every lane of the track for the whole pass.
• Read plays the curves back into the plugin.

Edit the points in a plugin lane the same way as volume points: click to add, drag to move (Shift keeps a point's time), double-click or Delete to remove. Right-click a lane for its menu: clear, hide or remove it. Each write pass is one undo step.

Show and hide lanes#

The × in a lane's header hides it. The track's automation chip lists its lanes so you can show them again.

Curves follow their effect when you move it to another slot, and they are saved with the session.

Blazar Core's own effects can be automated the same way; Blazar Compressor's six controls, for example.

Automate the Morph orb#

The Morph window's Read and Write keys, and the small R and W on a strip's Morph field, record and play back the orb's path through the song. See Automate the orb.

What is saved#

Curves and modes are saved with the session. A template keeps each track's mode, but not its curves.