Let's say I have some rhythm guitar tracks with the fader at -9 dB. Automation is done everywhere in the song, mainly bringing the rhythm down a little for more dense parts of the song so that the mix doesn't get too crowded.
The mix progresses, and now I'm suddenly finding that I might need to boost the entire rhythm guitar track. Trying to move the fader from -9 to, say, -7, will not work, because since there is automation data, it will just snap right back to whatever the automation was.
Now, here are some obvious things will not work in my situation:
- Track gain knob (guitars may be DI tracks running into amp sims, so messing with the gain will only alter the tone, not the actual levels. Also in this particular case, printing the amp sim is not a solution - no destructive processing allowed. Another case where the gain knob won't work is if for example a bunch of vocals running into a compressor. Altering the gain will just mess with the compression, not the final output)
- Bus levels. Due to the way the mix is laid out and the general workflow concerns, it may not be convenient (or might even break workflow) to fix it at the buses. It MUST be done on the tracks, not buses.
So back to my original question: How to alter the ENTIRE track level after automation has been drawn? I don't see an easy way to do this, short of inserting a copy of any of the stock Sonitus plugins with an output setting (compressor or EQ) at the end of the plugin chain and just utilize the output to boost/cut the entire track... UGLY HACK!!!