volume...panning..... midi parameters..... synths.... all can be controlled by envelopes. 


I use the manual edits. I often need to switch from one instrument to another as I have done in the last song I worked on....

http://www.soundclick.com...34&songID=11843061

Using my sharp edit points...or as I like to say ...surgical edits, it still sounds natural and I can get them precisely where I want..... I even use that method to edit out clicks and bad notes. You can not tell where it's done like that if it's done right. 

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.

You are technically correct, Herb. The automation controls the fader. Of course, neither the automation envelope nor the "fader" are real things at all, just a stage in the computation chain.


Ambient, the number of things you can automate is staggering. Almost every knob and slider on every plugin and soft synth can be automated. So let your imagination run wild.

But not the attack and release times on the X1 bundled Virtual Strings synth :( makes realistic orchestration much more difficult.

That sucks. You should at least be able to automate attack time on strings. Jeesh, what were they thinking?

But I suppose you could throw on the Transient Shaper and automate that.

Best workaround I've got is to just use multiple instances with each having different settings. Annoying, but workable. Might even be able to play with using inverse grouping on the volume and use that to shift between the short attack and long attack settings... Hmm, that could just work nicely, just as long as the non-linearality of it doesn't sound weird.

I do the same thing. For rock 'n pop string beds I typically have "long strings" and "short strings" busses and use volume automation to bring one up and the other down according to the needs of each passage.