Why Resolve still maintain two types of audio automation?

I'm trying the new Resolve 16 Beta 3 ad I was hoping that with the new version audio keyframing problems would be solved. Sadly that's not the case.
I think the audio level automation is inconsistent.
Currently we have two kind of audio automation: Edit/Clip and Fairlight. Why?

Usually, in other softwares we have clip level and automation. Clip level allows to set the entire clip level and automation allows to record and/or edit a level "curve".
In Resolve we can draw two different curves and this is useless.



So we have two audio keyframe systems. What is the purpose of 2 different audio keyframe systems with tha same function?
Audio keyframing should be one, the same, editable in Edit Page or Fairlight Page.

Am I the only one thinking that?

Also, take a look to the Fairlight automation editor. It's a mess. We can record a fader level curve but we can't modify it with precision. There's no way to edit automation points with the mouse other than drawing a shaky and inaccurate curve/line.



Wouldn't it be easier and more useful for the automation to write the same clip volume curve and use the "old" keyframe editor?

Attached images are not loading, making it difficult to determine which aspects of audio automation you are referring to.

There's only one type of Automation, and it creates keyframes on the track.

Clip keyframes wouldn't be considered automation, as you have to create and adjust them manually. They also, as their name implies, work on the clip, not the track.

I've never seen an NLE that doesn't offer both clip and track keyframes.

Media Composer has clip gain and clip automation. Clip gain is not keyframable, it only changes the entire clip gain. There's only one "keyframe system" and it can be used adding/editing keyframes manually or recording using mouse or MIDI.

Edius works in the same way. You can set clip gain and record track automation. There's no keyframes for clip gain.

Cubase/Nuendo: same story.

Which NLE/DAW has both clip AND track automation?

Resolve and Premiere Pro are the two I'm most familiar with.

Both offer

1. Clip Gain, which can't be keyframed

2. Clip Volume, which can be keyframed manually

3. Track Volume, which can be keyframed manually or using Automation

You're seeing the latter two.

Which NLE/DAW has both clip AND track automation?

Pro Tools.

Two areas of improvement for Resolve-Fairlight Automation:

1) lerp* between automation points
2) automation should be able to be easily drawn in and edited with the mouse (per point editing, level & position)

I agree with Daniele Bemportato, (the original poster), Daniele also put together a very clear example, and images of what is the current issue, and why it is problematic for end users.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_interpolation

I have not tried it in previous versions, but you can keyframe-edit clip volume on the Fairlight page in 16.1.1. It would be better if it worked the same as track volume editing.
Breakpoint editing of fader volumes is not as easy as in Pro Tools, possibly because the little boxes are not that clear. Otherwise it seems to work with no problems.
I use the term breakpoint editing as that is what it's called in PT.

Just tested clip volume keyframing in the Edit page. It works here as well. As you can see, with the clip volume at a zero point the fader position is unaffected.

If a user sets up an audio bus in Fairlight page, and wants to control the volume level of the bus track, the only way to automate that is with the tiny, hard to edit automation points.

It's impossible to draw in a simple fade out without having to draw in 100's of automation points.

If a user sets up an audio bus in Fairlight page, and wants to control the volume level of the bus track, the only way to automate that is with the tiny, hard to edit automation points.

Without a physical fader or rotary, you could also use Preview mode and Glide Range.

Original poster is on point here. Trying to get into DR17 and this way of manually editing volume automation with a mouse drives me bonkers.

The implementation of drawing key frames into clip gain is on point. Coming from pro tools , I constantly write on faders automation, and then perhaps tidy and trim it with the mouse, and this is very difficult to do precisely in Fairlight.

Are there any advantages to the current implementation I am not aware of?


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17 does offer the option to attach the Automation to the clip, so if you move the clip, you move the keyframes.

Automation following edit is a great, necessary new addition. In fact, there are so many incredible steps made in Fairlight with this release, that it really both excites and then frustrates when little things like this arise.

The original image that the OP put up sums it up perfectly.



After deleting a bunch of automation nodes, the resulting straight line and sudden dip to the next node seems to make no logical sense, and no other audio DAW seems to operate this way, so as a result, anyone playing with Fairlight from a Pro Tools, Nuendo, or Logic background gets stumped and has to resolve the issue with additional steps.

As with Pro Tools, I use the clip volume to roughly even up clips and don't use any keyframes on them. I only use track automation when mixing, and for that I use a physical fader (Faderport) with Resolve.
Pro Tools gets the benefit of my eight fader Mackie HUI.