A9.2: fader automation strange behaviour

#1

Hi

The behaviour I’ve come to expect from earlier versions of Ardour is that, when clicking to draw the very first automation point for the fader, that first point would be created at the current fader level no matter whereabouts (vertically) I clicked in the automation lane.

That seems like sensible behaviour to me, as you don’t need to make a mental note of where the fader was set in the static mix and adjust the first point if you don’t place the cursor quite at the exact spot – it starts off where you need it and you can move straight to creating the subsequent points higher/lower as desired.

I’ve just encountered some weird behaviour in A9 and have upgraded and duplicated it in 9.2 (both downloaded from here). When I clicked to create the first automation point (i.e. no pre-existing fader automation for the bus), the point on the automation lane displayed the expected level when I hovered over it, however, the horizontal fader in the track header (and the mixer fader) showed a different level. I realised this level was the sum of the fader level and the VCA level for the VCA affecting this particular bus.

Say the volume fader was -2 dB and the VCA level was -3 dB, the first automation point was drawn/displayed at -2 dB on the timeline but the track header fader and mixer fader both showed -5 dB.

After closing without saving and re-opening, I tried unassigning the VCA first. This time, the first automation point was created at the level wherever I clicked the mouse vertically in the automation lane i.e. clicking near the top resulted in a positive fader level, clicking near the bottom produced a point at a very low negative dB, not a point at the pre-existing fader level as expected.

I tried another bus, also connected to the VCA. That worked as expected: wherever I clicked, the first automation point was created at the current fader level.

A third bus, again connected to the same VCA, exhibited the same behaviour as the first i.e. the first point was created on the automation lane at the then-current fader level, but the fader level in the mixer and editor changed to the sum of the fader and VCA. And if the VCA was disconnected before drawing automation, the point was drawn under the cursor, not at the pre-existing fader level.

As mentioned, Ardour downloaded from here. On UbuntuStudio. I was going to say the session was created in 8.12, but the file says 8.6, I’m assuming that must be because it was created from a template (the session was only created in November and I’ve been using 8.12 since it came out but the template’s been around a while).

I’m guessing this is a bug, right? :man_shrugging:

#2

There’s an option related to this. Make sure you’ve tried it out both on and off.

yaxis
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#3

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the info. I wasn’t aware of that option at all so have never changed it. It was deselected.

After selecting that setting, the behaviour described in my first post persists.

I’ve just created a new, blank session in 9.2 (not from a template) and have replicated the behaviour. I created four buses, followed by a VCA, initially only assigning the VCA to three. I neglected to mention something in my first post: the bus that was unaffected, the fader was at 0, all the others had non-zero levels.

In my test session, the bus at 0.0 dB wasn’t affected, the automation point was created at zero (the VCA level is -3 dB). The other two, with non-zero fader settings, had the interaction between the fader level and the VCA level.

For the fourth bus, an automation point was created at the expected level. After then assigning the VCA to it, it continued to behave as expected i.e. no interaction between the fader and VCA levels.

Let me know if there’s anything else you want me to test.