Writing automation with Mautovolume?

[alexis1]

I guess no one here has used or demoed the latter? Comments elsewhere are often quite positive about the automation in Waves Vocal Rider, but I'd value comments from folks here a little more.

Of course many of us have used it and/or demoed it. You should demo it too, and tell us your impressions.

I intend to . It'll likely be weeks to months before I do though, I'm not getting much DAW time lately due to real life getting in the way.

What did you think of Vocal Rider's automation?

[Magnut]

What did you think of Vocal Rider's automation?

Been using vocal rider like since forever and it works like a charm. It is very easy to set up with its few controls and often sound already right in default state. I never noticed any inaccuracy when writing the automation. Quite the contrary it even does a perfect job in live situations for example on voice overs or on stage.

When using some music as sidechain input the writing, editing and reading automation feature is an essential part of the plugin. Because vocal rider does the right job from a technical perspective, but unfortunately it can't read my mind So sometimes I have to edit a specific word or phrase to get it emphasized.

I often find myself copying the automation onto other effect parameters like reverb mix, de-esser threshold or gates.

Don't know anything about Mautovolume. Never head of the company before.

[alexis1]

What did you think of Vocal Rider's automation?

Been using vocal rider like since forever and it works like a charm. It is very easy to set up with its few controls and often sound already right in default state. I never noticed any inaccuracy when writing the automation. Quite the contrary it even does a perfect job in live situations for example on voice overs or on stage.

When using some music as sidechain input the writing, editing and reading automation feature is an essential part of the plugin. Because vocal rider does the right job from a technical perspective, but unfortunately it can't read my mind So sometimes I have to edit a specific word or phrase to get it emphasized.

I often find myself copying the automation onto other effect parameters like reverb mix, de-esser threshold or gates.

Don't know anything about Mautovolume. Never head of the company before.

Thanks, very helpful to know.

[MeldaProduction]

The problem with Vocal Rider is that it is designed purely for vocals to let you "stop automating" stuff and since it can often work "not ideally" the automation is there, so you can fix it. Since it is just for vocals, its processing is actually really slow, in a way something that you could do "by hand". Probably good enough for vocals, but not exacty for any instrument. Also some of us (like me ) just hate automation, so thinking "if the plugin does something wrong, we'll provide automation, so they can fix it manually" just isn't an answer for me. I want it do the job WITHOUT the automation. That's why MAutoVolume works quite a bit differently and seems many switched from Vocal Rider. On one hand it might seem harder to set it up with a bit more features, but then you don't need to automate . And of course, it can be fast as hell, far more than what could be automated.

Note that the fact that you don't hear a difference, doesn't mean there isn't some. And the plugin might have even intentionally slowed the response and interpolate (instead of truly accurate processing), so that the output is the same. That's wrong if you ask me. Then you have ProTools and Logic with very poor automation value accuracy (seems like 24-bit, who knows, maybe even less), and time accuracy is a mystery in general - depends on audio settings, host, plugin interface... all these facts generally say "do NOT use automation like this".

And you can always automate output gain, which will have the same results, just easier and without all the audio quality degradations.

[Magnut]

The problem with Vocal Rider is that it is designed purely for vocals... ...but not exacty for any instrument.

I am sorry but I never got the point of having a universal plugin which can do moderate jobs on all sources vs. a specific plugin that does a perfect job on a particular source ^^ To me this is just a bad marketing hype: plugins that can do "anything and everything" and "you only need this one and never buy anything else".

On one hand it might seem harder to set it up with a bit more features, but then you don't need to automate

Isn't this exactly the problem that your customers have with the autovolume plugin? That they can't figure out how to set it up in a way it sounds correct and have to do specific pre- & post-processing? (I only read the other thread about it.)

[MeldaProduction]

Well, different people like different tools. You may call it bad, others may call it versatile. A single predefined speed, not enough for me. No filtering, not enough for me. etc. You don't really need to use all that actually, every compressor also has several parameters, but people learned to use them, usually. Here you just need to touch a few.
It doesn't really make any argument for the problems with automation anyways, but I wrote enough about it above.

[pumafred]

Reading all these current discussions about MAV (two threads), I looked again at the Waves site. I read about the Vocal Rider and about the Bass Rider, each supposed to be specific for the type of sound. Sounded temptingly easy, until I realised I can probably achieve the same just by using the MAV filters, to limit the input sound to the frequency range of interest. I had never even looked at those filters. The Melda products are definitely not for lazy people...
But just by digging and investigating a little bit, you get equal or better results, usually at a better price, and with additional flexibility.
(BTW, I noticed Waves Bass Rider does not write automation. Probably for the reason Vojtech mentioned: it is too active for automation, unlike vocals.)

[MeldaProduction]

[Guenon]

Where can I download an installer for the latest legacy version before the change to v10 where the automation writing was removed? Can't find one on the customer account. Thanks.

[MeldaProduction]

Download archive:
https://www.meldaproduction.com/download/archive/

[Guenon]

Cheers

[alexis1]

Reading about Vocal Rider being optimized for voice made me wonder about MAutovolume settings to do the same.

Can anyone suggest a starting point for that please, or possibly even share a preset if they have one?

Thanks!

[MeldaProduction]

I think it always depends on the actual performance. But for vocals I'd actually start with defaults. Maybe slow them down a bit.

[theodorozzz]

The reason is simple - the automation accuracy is not fast enough. When you leave the plugin do it's job (and for example automate the track volume), it's response may be faster and more accurate. Automation was added here because people asked for it as Vocal Rider has it, but personally I just don't think it's a very good idea and I'm not going to fool you about it.

- interesting! never heard about it! Even though you write this post years ago) But I'd like to ask - even in Cubase, with maximum points on automation line allowed? without any threshold etc.? It still wouldnt be too accurate?

[steve2KVR]

There have been several discussions/threads concerning this topic in past and reading through them can be quite insightful, there is an assortment of unexpected/unanticipated issues/side-effects to consider upon closer examination. I would encourage you to look/read through them. I've used/owned several with the "write automation feature" and have abandoned them because the result just didn't work for me...ymmv...hth.../s~