4A Mixing

Live includes a mixer section that is accessible from two views:

The Arrangement View Mixer.

In the Arrangement View, the mixer appears as a horizontal strip to the right of the track area. To display all mixer controls for a track, unfold the track using the  button next to its name, and adjust its height accordingly.

The Session View Mixer.

The Session View is a standard vertical mixer layout, which you may find more intuitive than the Arrangement mixer. Note that the Tab key toggles between the Arrangement and Session Views if you’re working with a single window. If you’re working with two windows, the Tab key swaps the Arrangement and Session between the windows, which allows you to see your Arrangement while using the Session mixer.

The View menu options listed below show or hide mixer components. You can use different mixer view setups in the Session View and in the Arrangement View:

• In/Out
• Sends
• Returns
• Mixer
• Track Delays
• Crossfader

The Mixer Section selectors on the right-hand side of the screen duplicate the View Menu commands, making it possible to quickly show or hide different mixer components.

The Mixer Section Selectors.

Let’s look at the mixer controls:

The Mixer Controls.

1 .The Meter shows both peak and RMS output levels for the track. While monitoring, however, it shows peak and RMS input levels. Peak meters show sudden changes in level, while RMS meters give a better impression of perceived loudness.

2. The Volume control adjusts the track’s output level. With multiple tracks selected, adjusting the volume of one of them will adjust the others as well.

3. The Pan control has two different modes: the default Stereo Pan Mode, and Split Stereo Pan Mode. In Stereo Pan Mode, the Pan control positions the track’s output in the stereo field. To reset the Pan control to center, click on its associated triangle. In Split Stereo Pan Mode, the sliders let you adjust the position of the track’s left and right input channels separately. Double-click on the sliders to reset them. You can switch between the two pan modes via the Pan control’s right-click(PC) / CTRL-click(Mac) context menu. With multiple tracks selected, adjusting the pan knob for one of them will adjust the others as well.

4. To mute the track’s output, turn off the Track Activator switch. With multiple tracks selected, toggling one of their Track Activators will toggle the others as well.

5. Clicking the Solo switch (or pressing the S shortcut key) solos the track by muting all other tracks, but can also be used for cueing (see 16.6). With multiple tracks selected, pressing any of their Solo switches will solo all of them. Otherwise, tracks can only be soloed one at a time unless the CTRL(PC) / CMD(Mac) modifier is held down or the Exclusive Solo option in the Record/Warp/Launch Preferences is deactivated.

6. If the Arm Recording button is on, the track is record-enabled (see Chapter 17). With multiple tracks selected, pressing any of their Arm switches will arm all of them. Otherwise, tracks can only be armed one at a time unless the CTRL(PC) / CMD(Mac) modifier is held down or the Exclusive Arm option in the Record/Warp/Launch Preferences is deactivated. With Exclusive Arm enabled, inserting an instrument into a new or empty MIDI track will automatically arm the track.

Session Mixer Features

The Mixer section of the Session Mixer has several additional features that are not visible by default. The mixer is resizable, and dragging upwards on the top of the mixer will extend the height of the track meters, adding tick marks, a numeric volume field and resettable peak level indicators. Increasing a track’s width in this state will add a decibel scale alongside the meter’s tick marks.

These enhancements are tailored for use in traditional mixing settings, but are available anytime the Mixer section is displayed.