Mixer

The mixer lays every track out as a strip: a fader with its stereo meter, pan, Mute and Solo, the sends, and the effects in that track’s rack as a short list you can switch on and off without leaving the mixer. Master sits pinned at the right edge, and all top-level tracks sum into it once.

When to use it

Open it when the question is balance rather than notes: how loud each part sits, where it sits left to right, how much goes to a shared reverb, and which effects are doing work right now. The sequencer is for arranging; the mixer is for listening to the whole.

Controls

Strip

Each strip carries its track colour along the top edge; selecting it outlines the whole card. Top to bottom, it shows the track name, pan or balance, the fader with a stereo meter and dB readout, Mute and Solo, then the Effects list and the sends. Faders of all tracks line up with Master regardless of how many effects each one carries, so equal settings look equal. Soloing a track that triggers a sidechain keeps the trigger alive; see sidechain.

Meter

Two bars beside the fader show the left and right sample peaks of the track’s output, after its fader and pan, on the same scale as the fader. A peak at −12 lines up with the −12 mark. Panning a part to one side shows in the meter, and a stereo part that leans left shows a taller left bar. A thin line above each bar holds the highest recent peak for a moment, then falls. When a channel goes over 0 dBFS, the zone above the 0 mark turns red and stays red after the song stops, so you can see which tracks went over. Click the red zone to clear it.

Effects

Each effect in the rack appears as a row with its own power switch, and the section header switches the whole chain. Clicking a row opens that effect in the rack. Rows can be dragged to reorder within a strip or dropped on another strip to copy; see effect copy. Pressing + on an empty slot opens the effect picker.

Effect picker

Library opens on Favorites, with a description for every effect and a star to add your own. Overview shows the whole catalog at once, without scrolling on a laptop screen, in four columns by category: EQ & filters with Color & drive, Dynamics with Cleanup, Space with Movement, and Pitch with Utilities. Type to search names, descriptions and categories; Enter inserts the first result.

Sends and groups

A send takes a copy of the track to a return track, so several parts can share one reverb or delay while each keeps its own level into it. Tracks can also be nested into a group that has its own fader and effects. The mixer’s New return track… entry creates the destination as you add the send.

Master

Master has the same stereo meter, a fader, Mute and its own effects chain, and nothing else: no pan, solo, clips, sends or automation lanes. Click its heading to open the master effects. Its effects run before its fader. To automate the whole mix, nest every track in one group and automate the group instead.

Latency compensation

Some effects need to look ahead, such as the Resonance suppressor and Pitch correction, and would otherwise play late. The engine delays the other paths to match, through groups, sends and Master, so doubled parts stay in phase and exports keep the last moments of the file. Adding or bypassing such an effect while playing causes a brief gap on the affected tracks as the alignment changes.

Tips

• Solo in place by lowering others instead of pushing the one you like; the meters make it easy to see where level is going.
• A red light on a track but not on Master does not distort by itself, because tracks add up without a ceiling until the output. A red light on Master means the mix is over full scale and a 16- or 24-bit export will clip, so lower the faders or add a Limiter.
• Use the Effects list in a strip to switch a module off and on while the song plays; the chain keeps running and nothing is reset.
• Give Master a Limiter only when you are ready to judge loudness; a new project leaves Master empty for a reason.