Ableton/Live/UG/27 Clip Envelopes/03 Mixer and Device Clip Envelopes
- Clip envelopes can automate or modulate mixer and device controls. Automation sets a control's absolute value; modulation only changes that value relatively, so both can act on one parameter.
- Automation is drawn in red, modulation in blue. On knobs, automation moves the needle while modulation shows as a blue segment of the ring.
- Example: volume automation fading out over four bars plus a modulation envelope rising over four bars first makes a crescendo, then fades once the falling automation limits the range.
- Session clips have both kinds, switched with a toggle below the choosers; Arrangement clips have only modulation.
- In the Control chooser, red LEDs mark automation and blue LEDs mark modulation; a parameter can show both.
- Two modulation envelopes affect volume: Clip Gain, and Track Volume, which acts on the mixer after the effects. A small dot under the volume slider shows the modulated value and follows the slider.
- Send modulation is also a percentage: it can lower a send to −∞ dB but never past the Send knob's setting.
- Pan modulation scales with the Pan knob: centred, it can sweep fully left to right; turned towards either side, its range shrinks; fully left or right, it does nothing.
- Every device on the clip's track is in the Device chooser. As with the mixer, a clip envelope can only move a device control relative to its current value, unlike a preset, which sets values outright.
