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+
+<p>
+ Each track and bus has two buttons which have important implications
+ for signal flow: <dfn>mute</dfn> and <dfn>solo</dfn>. The behaviour
+ of these buttons is configurable in Ardour, to suit different studio
+ set-ups.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Without a monitor bus</h2>
+<p>
+ If you are using Ardour without a monitor bus, there is only one way
+ in which mute and solo will work:</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>
+ Mute on a track or bus will mute that track on the master bus,
+ so that it will not be heard.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ Solo on a track or bus will solo that track or bus and mute all
+ others. Soloing a bus will also solo any tracks or
+ busses which feed that bus.
+ </li>
+</ul>
+
+<h2>With a monitor bus</h2>
+<p>
+ For setups with a monitor bus, you have more options, mostly
+ governed by the setting of the
+ <kbd class="option">Solo controls are Listen controls</kbd> option
+ in <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Solo / mute.
+</p>
+<p>
+ With <kbd class="optoff">Solo controls are Listen controls</kbd>
+ unticked, behaviour is almost exactly the same as the situation
+ without a monitor bus. Mute and solo behave the same, and the monitor
+ bus is fed from the master bus, so it sees the same thing.
+</p>
+<p>
+ With <kbc class="option">Solo controls are Listen controls</kbd>
+ ticked, the master and monitor busses behave differently. In this
+ mode, solo controls are more properly called <dfn>listen</dfn>
+ controls, and Ardour's solo buttons will change their legend from
+ <samp>S</samp> to either <samp>A</samp> or <samp>P</samp> to
+ reflect this.
+</p>
+<p>
+ Now, without any mute or listen, the monitor bus remains fed by
+ the master bus. Also:
+</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>
+ Mute will mute the track or bus, so that it will not be heard
+ anywhere (neither on the master nor monitor busses), much as before.
+ </li>
+ <li>
+ Listen will disconnect the monitor bus from the master bus, so
+ that the monitor bus now only receives things that are "listened to".
+ Listen will not perform any muting, and hence the master bus will
+ not be affected by a listened track or bus.
+ </li>
+</ul>
+<p>
+ When solo controls are listen controls, the listening point can be set
+ to either After-Fade Listen (AFL) or Pre-Fade Listen (PFL). The precise
+ point to get the signal from can further be configured using the
+ <kbd class="menu">PFL signals come from</kbd> and
+ <kbd class="menu">AFL signals come from</kbd> options.
+</p>
+<p>
+ The solo-mute arrangement with a monitor bus is shown below:
+</p>
+<img src="/images/solo-mute.png" alt="mute/solo signal flow" />
+<p>
+ Here we have a number of tracks or busses (in orange). Each one has an
+ output which feeds the master bus. In addition, each has PFL and AFL
+ outputs; we have a choice of which to use. PFL/AFL from each track or
+ bus are mixed. Then, whenever anything is set to AFL/PFL, the monitor out
+ becomes just those AFL/PFL feeds; the rest of the time, the monitor out is
+ fed from the master bus.
+</p>
+<p>
+ In this scheme Solo has no effect other than to mute other non-soloed tracks;
+ with solo (rather then listen), the monitor out is fed from the master bus.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Other solo options</h2>
+<p>
+ <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Solo / Mute</kbd> has some
+ more solo options:
+</p>
+
+<h3>Solo-in-place mute cut</h3>
+<p>
+ When using solo-in-place (SiP), in other words when soloed tracks are being
+ listened to on the master bus, this fader specifies the gain that will be
+ applied to other tracks in order to mute them. Setting this level to
+ -∞&nbdp;dB will mean that other tracks will not be heard at all; setting to
+ some higher value less than 0dB means that other non-soloed tracks will be h
+ eard, just reduced in volume compared to the soloed tracks. Using a value
+ larger than -∞dB is sometimes called "Solo-In-Front" by other DAWs, because
+ the listener has the sense that soloed material is "in front" of other
+ material. In Ardour, this is not a distinct mode, but instead the mute cut
+ control offers any level of "in-front-ness" that you might want to use.
+</p>
+<h3>Exclusive solo</h3>
+<p>
+ If this is enabled, only one track or bus will ever be soloed at once; soloing
+ track B while track A is currently soloed will un-solo track A before soloing
+ track B.
+</p>
+<h3>Show solo muting</h3>
+<p>
+ If this is enabled, the mute button of tracks and busses will be drawn
+ outlined to indicate that the track or bus is muted because something else
+ is soloed. This is enabled by default, and we recommend that you leave it
+ that way unless you are extremely comfortable with Ardour's mute/solo
+ behaviour.
+</p>
+<h3>Soloing overrides muting</h3>
+<p>
+ If this is enabled, a track or bus that is both soloed and muted will behave
+ as if it is soloed.
+</p>
+<h3>Mute affects…</h3>
+<p>
+ These options dictate whether muting the track will affect various routes out
+ of the track; through the sends, through the control outputs (to the monitor
+ bus) and to the main outputs.
+</p>
+
+
projects / ardour-manual / blobdiff