Playlists and automation question

[remote]

Does automation follow playlists? I just did some rides on Playlist 01, then I switched to playlist 02 and did some new rides. When I went back to playlist 01, I was stuck with playlist 02's automaion. Playlist 01's was erased.

Is there a way to keep different automation rides for different playlists?

[Tweakhead]

In short, no. Automation is 'track-based' rather than 'playlist-based'.

You have to make a new track, select 'other playlist' from the popup, and choose the alt playlist that you want. You now have a new track with the other playlist and this will allow you to write seperate automation for that particular recording.

[Vaphoron]

I have asked Digi for this feature a few times so hopefully it will make it in there one day. Automation playlists would be very very cool.

[jepmus]

I think I understand the reasoning for track based automation, but I'd personally find playlist based automation much more useful.

I presume that track based automation allows the engineer to maintain consistency [to a degree] through multiple takes. However, most takes are not literally identical, so adjustments for alternate playlists are generally advisable.

On the other hand, playlist based automation becomes incredibly useful when preparing multiple versions of a given piece ... i.e., doing various donuts for commercial work, multiple language mixes ... Further, presuming playlist based automation could be implemented, it should be allowed on all types of tracks, especially Aux tracks. For example, Digital Performer allows this, and I must say that it's quite handy, and helps to keep track counts, and window scrolling to a minimum.

If I need to cut 3 versions of a radio spot, all with the same music bed, I would, ideally, send my music tracks to an aux track. Volume automation, for example, would be automated on the aux track to accomodate the VO. In one donut, the VO might last for 10 seconds at the head, and 15 at the tail. In another version, the VO might be 25 seconds at the top, 5 in the middle, and 10 at the tail. In DP, I'd name each aux track playlist [ or "take" as DP calls it] as desired.

I think I know most of the workarounds, but wouldn't it be easier to "workaround" playlist based automation, as opposed to the current situation where automation is track based?

jep