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