The automation mode enables you to record and draw automation curves into lanes.
Automation lanes can emit CC messages, control the effect parameters of their track, and even output control voltages.
Each track can hold up to 64 automation lanes, and each pattern of a track can have different automation events.
Creating an automation lane
The automation screen is divided in lanes. Scroll to the bottom of the list, and click on + ADD. You will be prompted to choose a destination, which represents what you wish to automate.
DESTINATIONS CC MESSAGES PITCHBEND AFTERTOUCH PROGRAM CHANGE VELOCITY Overrides the velocity of the current pattern NRPN MESSAGES Non-Registered Parameter Number PAIRS OF CC MESSAGES For 14 bit CC MSB/LSB CV IN For recording purposes CV OUT EFFECT PARAMETER
Once the automation lane is created, simply Press some pads on the matrix to add or remove automation points, called events.
Tip Hold 2ND and Press a pad to put an event at the very end of the step for sharp transient:
The screen below shows the symbols used to represent the content of automation lanes:
Six automation lanes are created on the current track:
cc8 has events
cc14 is locked
aftertouch is muted
CV out 2 has no events
Pitchbend has a default value
NRPN has events
Tip It is possible to create a curve before selecting a destination. Simply Press some pads when "+ ADD" is selected. This will create a VOID lane, with no destination. Click on a VOID lane to assign its destination afterwards. This helps sketching out ideas quickly, by storing curve shapes for later use.
Editing an automation lane
To modify the parameters of an existing automation point, Hold a pad filled with an event. Its value will be displayed on left screen and the pad color will change. Scroll the associated encoder to fine-tune displayed value (e.g. 0 to 127 for a midi CC message).
To perform a multiple selection, Hold a pad on the matrix, then Hold another pad to select multiple events. You can now edit the parameters of all the events contained in this portion of curve, like its minimum and maximum values, as well as a parameter called centroid, which moves the central value of the curve:
Muting an automation lane
Simply scroll to the desired automation in the list, and press 2ND + mute to mute this automation lane. You can also click on an automation lane and select the MUTE LANE option.
Note Mute states are per-pattern based.
A muted lane is represented by the M status icon.
Interpolation
Rotate encoder ⑥ to enable this option and draw lines and curves using very few automation events. This saves memory and time, and can be easier for drawing certain shapes.
Disabling this parameter allow for drawing stepped automation, meaning that values will be held until the next change.
Interpolation ON
Interpolation OFF
The default status is always ON for automation lanes created manually. However, recorded automation are not interpolated by default, to keep the recording faithful to the original.
Tip Thanks to interpolation, a ramp can be drawn using only two points :
Default value
Encoder ⑧ allows you to define a default value that will be used if the automation lane is empty. Automation events are stored per pattern.
Default values are useful to send fixed values, without the need of creating any automation event. It also allows to reset a parameter after a pattern change.
For example, setting a default value of 0% on a pitchbend automation can be smart, to make sure that the pitchbend is reset upon switching to a pattern that does not automate pitchbend.
Tip If the default value is active on the current pattern, the lane will show the following status icon: "····"
Automation lane context menu
Click on an automation lane to access additional features and actions :
MUTE LANE Mute the selected lane.
CLEAR EVENTS Deletes all events on the lane, for the current pattern.
DELETE LANES Deletes the lane from the entire track. All events in all patterns will be deleted as well.
CHANGE DESTINATION Changes the destination of a lane, without altering the events.
Note Data definition might change, depending on source and destination types : 16bits CV data will be downscaled to 7bits CC data.
COPY Copies the automation lane events of the current pattern and destination.
PASTE Used in conjunction with COPY, allows to paste an entire automation lane.
MAXIMUM RATE (192ppqn ... 1ppqn) To avoid saturating a device with too many messages, automation lanes can be configured to output at a given maximum rate. For example, at 24ppqn, an automation lane can send a message at most 24 times per quarter note.
Tip While this is primarily intended as a safety feature, to not overload a MIDI device's bandwidth, it can have musical applications, as well. Limiting the max rate to 4ppqn, for instance, will send a message once every sixteenth note at most, which can create very rhythmical parameter changes. This is akin to a sample-and-hold function.
LOCK With this parameter ON, the lane's automation events cannot be modified. Pressing pads has no effect. Recording will not overwrite the lane events, nor record new ones for this lane.
Tip This can prove useful to save a CV IN recording, as an unlocked CV IN lane will always be overwritten.
Tip When a lane is locked, the lane will show the following status icon: 🔒
Copy / paste lanes
Hold an encoder while + ADD is highlighted to open a different context menu.
INSERT Adds a lane. Same action as clicking + ADD.
PASTE In conjunction with COPY, pastes an entire automation.
PASTE TO... Same as PASTE, with the possibilty of choosing the destination of the pasted events.
Recording an automation lane
When RECO is active, you can record incoming data as an automation for the active track.
For MIDI messages recording, such as CC, pitchbend or aftertouch, the lanes are created automatically, as soon as a event is received (with interpolation set to OFF) :
For CV in recording, lanes must be created prior to recording.
Tip To prevent overwriting a lane with incoming data, you may use the LOCK option described in the above section fo this manual.
Note Recording of program changes and NRPN messages is not supported.
Note Regardless of the destination, you can store 1 data point per clock tick. Hapax has a resolution of 192ppqn (192 ticks per quarter note), which means that at 120BPM clock ticks are 2.6ms apart, resulting in a sampling frequency of 384Hz, which according the Nyquist Sampling Theorem means a maximum frequency of 192Hz can be captured.
Note For a given tempo, the maximum frequency that can be captured is: f = 192 * (BPM / 120)
