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> to either <kbd class="menu">A</kbd> or <kbd class="menu">P</kbd> to
47 Now, without any mute or listen, the monitor bus remains fed by
52 Mute will mute the track or bus, so that it will not be heard
53 anywhere (neither on the master nor monitor busses), much as before.
56 Listen will disconnect the monitor bus from the master bus, so
57 that the monitor bus now only receives things that are "listened to".
58 Listen will not perform any muting, and hence the master bus will
59 not be affected by a listened track or bus.
63 When solo controls are listen controls, the listening point can be set
64 to either After-Fade Listen (AFL) or Pre-Fade Listen (PFL). The precise
65 point to get the signal from can further be configured using the
66 <kbd class="menu">PFL signals come from</kbd> and
67 <kbd class="menu">AFL signals come from</kbd> options.
70 The solo-mute arrangement with a monitor bus is shown below:
73 <figure class="center">
74 <img src="/images/solo-mute.png" alt="mute/solo signal flow">
75 <figcaption>Mute/solo signal flow</figcaption>
79 Here we have a number of tracks or busses (in orange). Each one has an
80 output which feeds the master bus. In addition, each has PFL and AFL
81 outputs; we have a choice of which to use. PFL/AFL from each track or
82 bus are mixed. Then, whenever anything is set to AFL/PFL, the monitor out
83 becomes just those AFL/PFL feeds; the rest of the time, the monitor out is
84 fed from the master bus.
87 In this scheme Solo has no effect other than to mute other non-soloed tracks;
88 with solo (rather than listen), the monitor out is fed from the master bus.
91 <h2>Other solo options</h2>
93 <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Mixer</kbd> has some
97 <h3>Solo-in-place mute cut</h3>
99 When using solo-in-place (SiP), in other words when soloed tracks are being
100 listened to on the master bus, this fader specifies the gain that will be
101 applied to other tracks in order to mute them. Setting this level to
102 -∞ dB will mean that other tracks will not be heard at all; setting to
103 some higher value less than 0dB means that other non-soloed tracks will be heard, just
104 reduced in volume compared to the soloed tracks. Using a value
105 larger than -∞ dB is sometimes called "Solo-In-Front" by other DAWs, because
106 the listener has the sense that soloed material is "in front" of other
107 material. In Ardour, this is not a distinct mode, but instead the mute cut
108 control offers any level of "in-front-ness" that is desired.
111 <h3>Exclusive solo</h3>
113 If this is enabled, only one track or bus will ever be soloed at once; soloing
114 track B while track A is currently soloed will un-solo track A before soloing
118 <h3>Show solo muting</h3>
120 If this is enabled, the mute button of tracks and busses will be drawn
121 outlined to indicate that the track or bus is muted because something else
122 is soloed. This is enabled by default, and it is recommended to leave it
123 that way unless extremely comfortable with Ardour's mute/solo
127 <h3>Soloing overrides muting</h3>
129 If this is enabled, a track or bus that is both soloed and muted will behave
133 <h3>Mute affects…</h3>
135 These options dictate whether muting the track will affect various routes out
136 of the track; through the sends, through the control outputs (to the monitor
137 bus) and to the main outputs.