3 Each track and bus has two buttons which have important implications
4 for signal flow: <dfn>mute</dfn> and <dfn>solo</dfn>. The behaviour
5 of these buttons is configurable in Ardour, to suit different studio
9 <h2>Without a monitor bus</h2>
11 When using Ardour without a monitor bus, there is only one way
12 in which mute and solo will work:</p>
15 Mute on a track or bus will mute that track on the master bus,
16 so that it will not be heard.
19 Solo on a track or bus will solo that track or bus and mute all
20 others. Soloing a bus will also solo any tracks or
21 busses which feed that bus.
25 <h2>With a monitor bus</h2>
27 For setups with a monitor bus, more options are available, mostly
28 governed by the setting of the
29 <kbd class="option">Solo controls are Listen controls</kbd> option
30 in <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Mixer.</kbd>
33 With <kbd class="optoff">Solo controls are Listen controls</kbd>
34 unticked, behaviour is almost exactly the same as the situation
35 without a monitor bus. Mute and solo behave the same, and the monitor
36 bus is fed from the master bus, so it sees the same thing.
39 With <kbd class="option">Solo controls are Listen controls</kbd>
40 ticked, the master and monitor busses behave differently. In this
41 mode, solo controls are more properly called <dfn>listen</dfn>
42 controls, and Ardour's solo buttons will change their legend from
43 <kbd class="menu">S</kbd> for Solo to show the listening point,
44 either <kbd class="menu">A</kbd> for After fader or
45 <kbd class="menu">P</kbd> for Pre fader.
48 Now, without any mute or listen, the monitor bus remains fed by
53 Mute will mute the track or bus, so that it will not be heard
54 anywhere (neither on the master nor monitor busses), much as before.
57 Listen will disconnect the monitor bus from the master bus, so
58 that the monitor bus now only receives things that are "listened to".
59 Listen will not perform any muting, and hence the master bus will
60 not be affected by a listened track or bus.
64 When solo controls are listen controls, the listening point can be set
65 to either After-Fade Listen (AFL) or Pre-Fade Listen (PFL). The precise
66 point to get the signal from can further be configured using the
67 <kbd class="menu">PFL signals come from</kbd> and
68 <kbd class="menu">AFL signals come from</kbd> options.
71 The solo-mute arrangement with a monitor bus is shown below:
74 <figure class="center">
75 <img src="/images/solo-mute.png" alt="mute/solo signal flow">
76 <figcaption>Mute/solo signal flow</figcaption>
80 Here we have a number of tracks or busses (in orange). Each one has an
81 output which feeds the master bus. In addition, each has PFL and AFL
82 outputs; we have a choice of which to use. PFL/AFL from each track or
83 bus are mixed. Then, whenever anything is set to AFL/PFL, the monitor out
84 becomes just those AFL/PFL feeds; the rest of the time, the monitor out is
85 fed from the master bus.
88 In this scheme Solo has no effect other than to mute other non-soloed tracks;
89 with solo (rather than listen), the monitor out is fed from the master bus.
92 <h2>Other solo options</h2>
94 <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Mixer</kbd> has some
98 <h3>Solo-in-place mute cut</h3>
100 When using solo-in-place (SiP), in other words when soloed tracks are being
101 listened to on the master bus, this fader specifies the gain that will be
102 applied to other tracks in order to mute them. Setting this level to
103 −∞ dB will mean that other tracks will not be heard at all; setting to
104 some higher value less than 0dB means that other non-soloed tracks will be heard, just
105 reduced in volume compared to the soloed tracks. Using a value
106 larger than −∞ dB is sometimes called "Solo-In-Front" by other DAWs, because
107 the listener has the sense that soloed material is "in front" of other
108 material. In Ardour, this is not a distinct mode, but instead the mute cut
109 control offers any level of "in-front-ness" that is desired.
112 <h3>Exclusive solo</h3>
114 If this is enabled, only one track or bus will ever be soloed at once; soloing
115 track B while track A is currently soloed will un-solo track A before soloing
119 <h3>Show solo muting</h3>
121 If this is enabled, the mute button of tracks and busses will be drawn
122 outlined to indicate that the track or bus is muted because something else
123 is soloed. This is enabled by default, and it is recommended to leave it
124 that way unless extremely comfortable with Ardour's mute/solo
128 <h3>Soloing overrides muting</h3>
130 If this is enabled, a track or bus that is both soloed and muted will behave
134 <h3>Mute affects…</h3>
136 These options dictate whether muting the track will affect various routes out
137 of the track; through the sends, through the control outputs (to the monitor
138 bus) and to the main outputs.