Drawing envelope points

To create an envelope quickly, you can draw freehand envelope curves in the timeline.

1.With the Draw , Envelope , or Time Selection tool active, hover over an envelope.

2.Hold Shift, and then click and drag over the envelope. As you drag, a trail of envelope points is created.

3.Release the mouse button when you're finished drawing.

If the Smooth and thin automation data after recording or drawing check box is selected on the External Control and Automation tab of the Preferences dialog, the number envelope points will be reduced when you release the mouse.

Unthinned envelope

Thinned envelope

Thinning envelope points

Thinning envelope points decreases the number of points on an envelope while retaining the envelope’s overall settings. Right-click an envelope and choose Thin All Points from the shortcut menu to thin the entire envelope.

To apply thinning to a section of the envelope, create a time selection, right-click the envelope, and then choose Thin Selected Points from the shortcut menu.

Note: Thinning is intended to reduce the number of envelope points created through automation recording and will have little or no effect if you create envelopes by adding and editing points manually.

Deleting envelope points

You can delete a point by right-clicking it and choosing Delete from the shortcut menu. If you want to delete all envelope points, right- click a point and choose Reset All from the shortcut menu.

Adjusting individual envelope points

You can set the level of each envelope point by dragging it up or down. As you move an envelope point, a tooltip displays both the point’s occurrence on the timeline and its level.

Other ways to set the level include:

•Right-click an envelope point and choose a setting from the shortcut menu.

•Choose Select All from the shortcut menu to raise or lower all points on the envelope.

•Right-click an envelope point and choose Set To from the shortcut menu. This displays a box in which you can specify a setting.

You can adjust an envelope point’s location on the timeline by dragging it right or left. If snapping is enabled, the envelope point snaps to time divisions as you drag. Hold Shift while dragging to override snapping (press Shift after you click). For more information, see Using snapping on page 89.

USING AUTOMATION 143