manual/include/muting-and-soloing.html

<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 &gt; Preferences &gt; 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 &gt; Preferences &gt;  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>