when did VCA behaviour change?

[tomlowd]

i may be a complete goose asking this but it's been driving me nuts for awhile....

six months ago we upgraded from 7.2 HD to protools 9 HD, and i swear the VCA behaviour has changed, and it drives me nuts. formerly, i could over ride the VCA fader with an individual channel.

for instance: i'm mixing music stems into my tv show. i have a group of 8 stereo pairs, controlled by one VCA master. i want to fade all of them out in unison except for the vocal channel, which needs to be up. so i hold the vocal channel where i want it, and fade down the VCA. everything sounds good, but on review i discover the VCA has written down the vocal channel as well! with the VCA at the bottom any automation i write to an individual channel is overwritten by VCA.

now am i crazy or is this different than it used to be? is there some setting i can change to stop this happening? i loved that you could adjust individual faders while doing global moves to the rest of the group.

thanks!

[markuse]

I'm still on 7.4 HD so I can't tell you when the behaviour has changed, but I'd actually consider this "feature" as a bug, although it can be quite handy as you already stated. But thinking of the original electronical concept of a voltage controlled amplifier, this behaviour is technically incorrect since you can't amplify 0 volts.
Also the resulting automation curves in PT (at least in 7.4) don't make sense anymore, especially if you try to pencil-edit them.


Best
Markus

[tomlowd]

you'll miss it when it's gone

[lylesdonald]

I know this won't help you out any but I am on 8.1.1 HD and the VCA's do not override any individual fader moves. Just an F.Y.I.

[alyerpal]

On PT 9.0.3 (regular, not HD, though) and I *can* hold a single fader in a group in place, while moving all the rest with a VCA.

[tomlowd]

cool! but can you hold the VCA completly down and still write automation to a fader within that group?

[lexaudio]

Originally Posted by tomlowd

cool! but can you hold the VCA completly down and still write automation to a fader within that group?

Yes, but I wouldn't advise it.

The fader resolution at the bottom is very small, so the slightest move on your VCA will slam your group tracks to the top.

Best to keep the master VCA as a control for your group mix, fade outs, trims, dips and raises and do your mixing within the groups.