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A little automation can go a long way.

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Automation is something that every producer can benefit from using, but you might not know how it can be employed or what effect it can have on your sounds.

This being the case, we've put together a list of practical examples of automation in action, complete with audio clips so that you can hear the results of its application.

All of our sounds were created in Logic, but it's the principles that are important here, and these can be applied in any DAW with automation facilities.

1. White noise pad

Here's the electronic equivalent of the reverse cymbal. We've programmed a little beat pattern and bassline, before activating only the white noise generator on Logic's ESP synth. Having drawn in a note lasting a full bar, we've automated the cutoff to create a 'rise', as well as the amount and speed of the LFO routed to the filter. That's why the result isn't just sweepy, but twisty and washy too.

2. Squelchy bass

Big, fat basses that evolve and grow throughout the duration of a note are all the rage, whether in dubstep, DnB or even house. You can get this effect using filter envelopes alone, but if you want variable growl each time, automation is the key. Here, we've written a basic part and automated the filter cutoff by varying amounts. We've also used Logic's curve tool on some sweeps so that they take you by surprise.

3. Automating pads

Left to their own devices, pads can often become dull and simply take up space. Here, we've livened one up considerably by varying its tone, vibrato, distortion amount and effects settings. We've routed it to two auxiliary buses, then adjusted the reverb and delay/phaser combinations on them.

4. Dub delays

Here we've programmed a basic dub part, but we occasionally wanted to delay the snare to get some characteristic heavy echoes. To do this, we set up our delay of choice on an auxiliary channel and automated the send level from the snare to it. Most of the time, the delay remains straight, but every once in a while, the send rises to produce a greater amount of echo.

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