Mixer

The mixer is where you balance the song: how loud each track is, where it sits left to right, how its tone is shaped, and how the parts fit together. It is its own page, opened with the fader icon in the toolbar.

Channel strips

Each track gets a vertical strip. From top to bottom:

Name and icon. Which track this is. Click the strip to select the track.

Spectrum and EQ. A live picture of the frequencies the track is using, with a three-point EQ curve drawn over it. See below.

Pan. Places the track in the stereo field. Drag left to push it toward the left speaker, right toward the right, and the centre tick is dead centre. The readout says C when centred and shows how far over you have gone otherwise.

Fader. Sets the track's level, marked in decibels. The top is full level and it gets quieter as you pull down, with the exact figure under the fader.

Level meter. Next to the fader, showing how loud the track actually is while the song plays. It turns gold as it approaches the top and shows a red clip light when the signal is too hot, which is your cue to pull the fader down.

M, S and FX. Mute silences the track, Solo plays only this one, and FX opens its effects.

The master strip on the right is the same idea for the whole mix: master meter, spectrum, EQ, level fader and FX button.

Drum pieces as their own channels

A drum track is one channel for the whole kit by default, so its EQ and effects shape every piece at once. To treat one piece on its own, boosting only the kick's low end or sending only the snare to a reverb, open the drum editor and click the channel button on that lane. See the drum editor.

The piece then appears here as its own strip, named after the kit and the piece, with its own fader, pan, EQ and FX. Because it routes straight to the master like any other channel, it no longer passes through the effects on the main kit channel. Click the lane's button again to fold it back in.

Reading levels

The meter and fader both use decibels, the natural unit for loudness. The top of the fader is the loudest a track plays without being turned up, and pulling down a little makes a track sit back in the mix. When the clip light flashes red the track is peaking too hard, so lower its fader or its instrument volume until it stops.

A good starting point is to get the loudest element, often the drums or the lead, sitting near the top without clipping, then bring the others up to balance against it.

Inline EQ

The mini spectrum on each strip is also an equaliser. The curve has three points you can drag: Low for the bass weight of the track, Mid for its body and presence, High for air and brightness. Drag one up to make that range louder, down to make room for other tracks.

Because the curve sits on top of the live spectrum you can see exactly which frequencies you are shaping. Advanced mode adds each band's frequency and width.

If the bass and the kick are fighting, cut the low on one of them gently and watch their spectra stop overlapping.

This is the quick three-band tone control. To clear space across every track at once, use Harmonize: it measures the playing mix and writes a deeper eight-band Graphic EQ per track, which you can then open from that track's FX and adjust by hand.

The comparison overlay

Across the top, every track's spectrum is drawn on one graph in the track's own colour, with a loudness bar per track underneath. This is the view that answers how well these tracks mix. Where two colours pile up in the same place, those tracks are competing for the same frequencies, which is what masking means. Pan them apart, or EQ one of them down.

Simple and Advanced

The toggle at the top right changes how much you see. Simple shows large colour-coded meters and faders, which is enough for a quick balance. Advanced adds the decibel readouts, the spectra, the inline EQ with its per-band controls, and the comparison overlay.

Getting the most from it

Mix at a comfortable, consistent volume. Ears get tired and start lying when it is too loud.

Use pan to give each instrument its own space before you reach for volume. When two tracks sound muddy together, the comparison overlay usually points at an EQ cut or a pan rather than at one of them being too loud.

The mixer only meters and analyses while its page is open, so switching to the melody editor or the arrangement costs nothing.