10 Mixer

The Mixer tab has a channel strip for each playlist track, summed into the Master strip on the right.

Choose Window ▸ Mixer, or press ⇧⌘M (Ctrl+Shift+M).

10-1 Signal flow

Each track's sound goes through, in order:

1. The clips' own settings (clip gain, pitch, fades, clip pan).
2. The track's effects (see 9 Instruments and effects).
3. The track's strip: fader, pan, mute and solo.
4. The master's effects, the Master fader, and a limiter.

Moving a control is heard straight away, even partway through a clip.

10-2 Track strips

1. Name — Double-click to rename the track (up to 40 characters). Press Return (Enter) to keep it, Escape to cancel. Clear the name to go back to Track n. A track silenced by another track's solo is shown in italics.
2. Pan — Shows C (center), or L / R and a percentage.
3. Fader scale — +6, 0, -10, -20, -40 dB.
4. Fader — The track's volume.
5. Meter — The track's level.
6. Volume readout — The fader's level in dB. Click it and type a value.
7. R and input menu — Arms the track to record, and chooses the input channels it records. See 5 Basic recording.
8. M / S — Mute and solo.
9. FX jack — The track's effects (see 10-5).

10-2-1 Fader

The fader goes from -∞ (silent) to +6 dB. The scale gives more room near 0 dB than at the quiet end.

To	Do this
Move it	Drag the fader cap
Jump to a level	Click the fader's track
Move it finely	Hold Shift while dragging
Reset to 0 dB	Double-click the fader
Step it	↑ / ↓ (0.5 dB), Shift+↑ / Shift+↓ (0.1 dB), Page Up / Page Down (3 dB)
Go to the top or bottom	Home / End

Keys work after you click the fader.

In the volume readout, type a number in dB (it's kept between -60 and +6), or -inf for silent. Press Return to set it, Escape to cancel.

10-2-2 Pan

Drag the Pan knob up or down. Hold Shift for fine moves. Double-click to center it.

10-2-3 Mute and solo

• M mutes the track. Its amber light is lit while muted.
• S solos the track: only soloed tracks are heard. Its light is lit while soloed.

While any track is soloed, the other tracks' mute lights glow dimly: they're silenced by the solo.

10-3 Master strip

1. Clip — Lights red when the mix goes over 0 dB and the limiter rounds off its peaks. Click it to clear the light.
2. Fader and meter — The whole mix's volume and level. Works like a track's fader.
3. Volume readout — As on a track strip.
4. Reset — Puts every fader, pan, mute and solo back to its default.
5. FX jack — The master's effects.

The master has no pan, mute or solo.

10-3-1 Resetting the mixer

1. Click Reset. It changes to Sure?.
2. Click it again within 3 seconds.

10-4 Meters

Meters show each strip's level while the song plays, and fall back to silence after you stop. The color is green up to -10 dB, amber up to 0 dB, and red above. A thin line holds the latest peak for a moment.

10-5 FX jack

The FX jack at the foot of each strip shows the channel's effects:

• Empty — The channel has no effects.
• Plugged, with a number — How many effects are on the channel.
• Blue light — Lit while at least one of them is on.

Click the jack to open the Effects Rack on that channel.

Drag an effect from the sidebar onto a strip to add it to the end of that channel's chain. Drag an instrument onto a track's strip to add it as a synth row, with a new pattern of it on that track (see 9-3-1 Instruments). The strip is highlighted while a drop would go on it. See 9-3 Adding a plugin to a channel.