I have never used one before, but plan to for a project that I am about to finish tracking. Where does a volume envelope fall in the signal chain? Logically, I would think it would be before any effects in the FX bin. Maybe it would make more sense if I describe what I would like to do:
 
In a few songs, there are certain parts where the kick drum and snare need to come down or be turned up. I have a compressor, gate, and reverb dialed in, so I do not want the envelope affecting the signal going in those effects. Is there any way to have the envelope affect the processed signal after the effects?
 
 

Ambient

Where does a volume envelope fall in the signal chain?

As far as I know, a track envelope is not an additional part of the signal chain.  Therefore a volume envelope controls volume at the same stage as the volume fader.  A clip envelope is separate though.  It comes after clip fades and before the clip effects bin.

Check out the signal flow diagram in the Sonar PDF manual.

Volume envelopes are at the end of the track's signal chain, the last thing that happens before being routed to a bus. The exception would be an aux send with the "Pre" option selected, in which case the signal to that send would bypass volume automation.

I didn't use them when I started, but now I can't imagine trying to mix without them. Just turn on the "WRITE" button on the track or bus and then ride the fader. Then you can go in and "see" the envelope you created? and you can edit it. Add nodes, move nodes, etc... Once you get your problem with envelopes "licked?" Life will never be the same.

I didn't think they were in the signal path at all... instead simply being a controller for the volume fader which is already in the signal path.

I use them extensively. Not a single project is lacking them on almost every track. 

I never use the WRITE AUTOMATION to move the faders. Instead, I add them to the track manually, and make all my edits manually. To me, that is so much cleaner looking in the track and surgically precise. 

This picture below shows what my typical projects look like. The yellow volume envelopes are all manually inserted and the nodes are manually added. I zoom in to drop them surgically into the tracks and then zoom back out again to edit them with levels.




I also find them to be quite handy for quick fades at the ends of the tracks..... where I may not really want a master fade.... I can for example, let the acoustic fade slower then everything else or like in the last song I posted, let the fiddle pay on for several seconds by itself after everything else was done and out.




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The Band19


I didn't use them when I started, but now I can't imagine trying to mix without them. Just turn on the "WRITE" button on the track or bus and then ride the fader. Then you can go in and "see" the envelope you created? and you can edit it. Add nodes, move nodes, etc... Once you get your problem with envelopes "licked?" Life will never be the same.

Thanks for this brother, up until now my envelopes always involved the scissors and a much longer process.

Thanks for the responses everyone! Like "theband19" said, life will never be the same! haha

If I hit the "write" button, how do i record the automation? Do I just hit play and adjust my faders, or do I have to hit record? If I hit record, does it automatically know to record an automation and not from the input that is assigned to that track?

By default, once you hit the 'write' button on a track, if you ever move the fading during playback or recording, it records the new movements.

I use a combination of recorded and hand drawn. Guitarhacker has some images of all manually made envelopes which as he said, keeps things tidy. I do things manually like this sometimes. But most of the time I prefer to write because I feel it sounds more natural and dynamic. Everything gets messy with the automation write nodes, but if it's wrong, I just re-record it. I use a Korg NanoKontrol for my write stuff. This this is SUPER cheap. I suggest everything gets one. Great value.

http://www.korg.com/nanoseries2

Much better than a mouse. The thing I like about it is you can 'feel' the music. Doing things manually takes trial and error to get it right. With a fader, a couple of runs through to get a 'feel' for the response and you can make the music MOVE. But as always, it depends on the individual. If doing it manually works for you, then it works for you. It's as simple as that. There is no right way, only different ways for different people. But I highly suggest trying it out.

Thanks for clearing that up! So what other things can be controled via automation?