User Manual

Chapter 50: Automation 1133
When Write Trim mode is enabled, non-trimmable
controls (all controls other than track volume and
send level) are not in Write mode, but behave as if
they are in regular Touch mode (no automation is
written unless a control is touched). This is to pre-
vent the controls from overwriting all of their au-
tomation data on every pass in Write Trim mode.
Automation Preferences
Pro Tools gives you several options for controlling
the writing and playback of automation data.
To display Automation preferences:
 Choose Setup > Preferences and click Mixing.
Send Levels and Trim Mode
(Pro Tools | Ultimate Software Only)
You can set Pro Tools to exclude Send levels from
Trim mode, so that only the Main Volume goes
into Trim when a track is put into Trim mode. This
gives you more flexibility in setting Send levels
while in Trim mode.
To exclude Send levels from Trim mode:
1 Choose Setup > Preferences and click Mixing.
2 Under Automation, deselect Include Sends in
Trim Mode
.
3 Click OK.
Smoothing
When you perform automation moves (including
Trim moves) with a continuous control, Pro Tools
records the move as a series of very small steps, re-
sulting in a staircase pattern with many break-
points. Smoothing intelligently resolves this stair-
case pattern into a single, smooth ramp from one
breakpoint to the next. (Smoothing does not apply
to switched controls such as mutes or plug-in by-
passes.) With smoothing enabled, the resulting au-
tomation data is often a more accurate representa-
tion of actual automation moves.
The “After Write Pass, Switch To” prefer-
ence affects Write Trim mode. After an au-
tomation pass in Write/Trim mode, tracks
automatically switch to the Trim mode ver-
sion of the setting specified by this prefer-
ence.
Mixing Preferences page, Automation
For detailed information on Pro Tools Au-
tomation preferences, see “Mixing Prefer-
ences” on page 116.
Any uncoalesced automation on a Send will
still coalesce when the other automation on
its track is coalesced, even if “Include Sends
in Trim Mode” is deselected.