New Sound on Sound Review V3

It's just a standard way to fine tune automation levels. It's just what it says... you pull down/up a fader by 1db and hold it and the envelope - no matter what the curvature of it - trims by 1db. It retains it's previous shape through the write operation and just gains/trims. It's perfect for fine tuning vocal automation after that wide strokes. In Reaper you can't trim automation. If you hold a level in write it erases previous automation (afaik) so any minor changes in level you want to make have to be done with the mouse if you want to keep the exact envelope shape through the changes. Here. I wrote an envelope manually and then copied and pasted it to another track. I'll write trim automation on the second envelope so you can see what I mean. It's a realtime trim. Some parts are trimmed 1db and others 1.6/1.8 as I move the fader. It's a really good way to tweak automation without destroying your previous wider moves. When it finishes the second envelope still has the same general shape, the wider moves.

Nope. If you enter with latch writing it will destroy the previous curves if you just hold the fader like I did in that video. Try it. It overwrites every node it comes to with the current level instead of (like trim) with a value +/- X from the current level. In my video in Reaper in latch it would have resulted in a flat envelope. I'm not sure how else to explain it. If you've never used console automation you may not understand. You can trim an envelope in Reaper inside a loop range by some vague percentage value, or drag select some nodes and trim a range with the mouse, but you cannot just trim automation like that in realtime with changing values with the channel fader as you make passes and listen. Reaper has an offline trimm (they all do), but no realtime trim... like the reviewer said "no proper trim". It's pretty common. It obviously won't stop you from making music if it's not there... but it's pretty standard. Not the only way to skin that cat though. No big deal. If you don't need it... don't worry about it. :)

Coming from Nuendo I know what Lawrence means and I agree that it would be a very useful mode to have BUT only if we can set it to work either the way it does now or the "typical" other daw way with a button as I really like the trim control as it is now too. One thing that annoys me in most programs that rules in Reaper is the fact that volume automation can be et in the background and then you can have your faders (on say your MCU) in trim/read and just use them as normal whilst your volume automation is doing its work in the background! :) that's very cool! plus the time selection trim function is easier than Nuendo's to get working if I recall correctly.

Cubendo does the offline thing much the same way. If you set a loop range and put the automation lane in write and move the fader it trims the envelope off line in that range just like Reaper's trim/read mode. Again, if you don't need or use realtime trim don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. I just was trying to help Dave understand what it was.

What Reaper doesn't do is adjust the level of the envelope points in front of the play cursor while playing, to superimpose the envelope fader movements onto the current automation.

Or a volume plugin but he is right would be a great feature to have along with all the other nuendo features for automation. item automation would be the best though as that would give us very cool things like multiple takes, time stretching, easy copying and saving for later use, reversing? ;)

Sound on Sound said that reaper doesn't have trim automation but it does, unless I am missing something. But I admit that it's not perfect.

jonespice, thanks for the visual but that's not a relative trim. Lawrence's capture shows it very clearly. Btw, it's a very interesting and useful feature I'd like to use in Reaper :)

Hmm...what about this: Select the section where you want to trim the curve; Right-click on an envelope point and choose "Select all points in time selection"; Drag points up/down, referencing level offset via the point you're dragging. If you need to trim the whole thing, you can skip step 1 and just choose "Select all points" when you right-click. This seems to me to achieve pretty much the same thing.