I’m not sure how relevant this is to people, but it occurs to me that having a second mute and a second volume both of which would not be automatable but still visible on the mixer would be very useful.
I find myself using Free-G a lot because it’s a simple and quick way of scaling the volume of track that already has volume automation on it; the trimmer could be used, but sometimes you don’t want to play with the gain there. I could also in principle use the mute on it to create an absolute mute that isn’t subject to Nuendo’s automation. But it would make so much more sense to have both of these on the mixer where they can be enabled disabled and visible at all times.
The volume is a more complex proposition, but the mute could simply be a click + modifier key that enables a global mute that nothing can alter but the same (it could even use the same button but turn it a different color).
Preview+Trim is your friend. in preview mode, your main fader is essentially a second fader. the Audio will still play back and be effected by the auto that you created, but the fader will not move. if you move the fader say +5db, automation is maintained, just 5db louder. When you are happy, punch the trim preview in and you’re done.
+1. Use trim. With Nuendo 5 you will see a new trim lane (when trim is engaged). In your automation panel preferences you will see options related to this where you can freeze trim manually, on pass end, or when exiting trim mode.
Nuendo 5.5 also added some nice automation scaling tools when rubber-banding nodes.
Thanks for the tips, guys. Finally got around to look at the Automation in detail for v5 and there’s lot’s of useful stuff, as was pointed out. Trim definitely deals well with automation shifting. Found quite a number of useful things there. It seems a little more convoluted than accessing simple fixed gain control, but that’s also just getting used to a workflow.
I still think I could benefit from an “absolute” mute switch, outside of automation. I’ve had muted tracks unmute and pop back into the mix at undesirable moments; and then have had to spend time tracking them down. It’s more relevant when I’m mixing from one project for different outputs, or when content is on standby pending approvals. I suppose I should be “disabling” tracks but sometimes WIP is just that: WIP.
I agree with the other guys though. I think trim would do the trick. Also, adding a non-automationable gain control would add a bit more “convolution” and I’m willing to bet that as soon as SB adds it people will ask for it to be automatable…
I’m with others again. Use the project window to mute events and you get instant feedback on what’s muted, on multiple tracks simultaneously.
But if you don’t like working like that, how about a macro that first turns off automation read, and then mutes the track? And then another macro for the opposite… Wouldn’t that solve your problem?