Seeing automation tracks in your DAW

[Double Tap]

I've looked around a bit for this, including on Admiral Bumblebee's (excellent) comparisons site, and can't find anything that helps.

In the DAWs I've used (Cakewalk, Tracktion Waveform), you can only see one automation track at a time. So for example if I want to automate changes to resonance, cut off, envelope attack and volume in a synth, I can do that but I can only see one automation curve at a time.

Is there a DAW which will allow me to see all the curves at once? From what I read, Live has automation lanes but you can also see only one at s time.

[Passing Bye]

In Bitwig you can see them all, probably in many other DAW's, Studio One, Reaper...

[pottering]

Is there a DAW which will allow me to see all the curves at once? From what I read, Live has automation lanes but you can also see only one at s time.

You can see more than one Automation lane in Ableton Live, there is a "Add Lane for Each Automated Envelope" right-click option.

https://patches.zone/advanced-automation-ableton-live

It is the MIDI CC and modulation envelopes that are only Clip Envelopes and are shown only in the Clip Editor.

[Double Tap]

Ah, fantastic, thanks to both of you. The patches.zone piece is very good.

[Junkyard Sam]

accidental double post - how do I delete?

[Junkyard Sam]

Automation is great in Reaper:

• You can display as many automation lanes as you want.

• Copy & paste automation is easy between lanes.

• You can snap and move automation points easily.

• On FX parameters you can click a button and apply a realtime LFO to the parameter. You can also link a sidechain to it, or link it to MIDI.

• With the SWS Extensions (free - used by most Reaper users) you can write automation to envelopes. This is different from the realtime LFO because it outputs based on time selection. So you could have a sine wave on one part, random on another, etc, and get as complex as you want - all on one lane.

Automation is so easy in Reaper -- you just hit "V" with a track selected and it exposes the volume automation for that track by default, and then you can link it up to anything you want.

Right click in that area and select "Show All Active Track Parameters" and it will expose all the lanes, so you can see all the automation like you asked for.

What's amazing about Reaper is -- it's very powerful, but also easy to learn. For example, if you drag tracks onto another then it becomes a track folder. I know most DAWs have track folders now, but with Reaper, your track folder is now set up as a bus. (Another thing Cakewalk can't do - not to knock it, but since you mentioned it.)

(Traditional bussing and routing is supported, of course, but that folder method is an example of how bussing is dead simple for a new user. Automation is similarly easy!)

[Farshout]

I'm sure you can do it in every recent DAW!
In Cakewalk: create an automation lane and then look for the " + " sign at the bottom left of it, that's used to enable another automation lane. You can use the " - " sign to hide it.

[ReleaseCandidate]

I'm sure you can do it in every recent DAW!

Yes, any major DAW has that feature, I know it to work in Cubase, Digital Performer, Bitwig, Live. Only Studio one lacks a 'show all' button or feature (maybe a macro exists).

[Double Tap]

Turns out I was also wrong about Tracktion - it was just that the feature wasn't obvious and I didn't read the manual...