Using clip gain

Track automation is a great way to make the volume changes in the mixer over the…length of your track.…However, if we recall from our earlier discussion of inserts being…pre-fader, any changes to a track's volume control comes after the track's…inserts or plug-ins.…Well this doesn't make much of a difference for plug-ins like EQ. Dynamics…plug-ins measure the incoming signal level against a threshold to determine…when to react.…This is where Pro Tools clip-based gain comes in handy.…

For example, if we take my vocal track here and the compressor, the 1176, is…always going to be listening to this signal as it exists from the disk, so…therefore, any changes in volume that happen at the automation stage happen…after any of the inserts.…So the fact that I'm kicking up the volume here and even more here is not going…to affect what's coming into my compressor.…This is ideal actually because it allows me to set my dynamics processors like…compressors, limiters, gates and things like that, and not have to worry about…