Mixer — User Manual

The Mixer is where you balance your song: set how loud each track is, place it left or right, shape its tone, and see how the parts fit together. It's its own page — open it with the fader icon in the toolbar, next to the Melody editor and Arrangement buttons.

**[Image: The Mixer page showing four channel strips and a master strip on the right, with the comparison overlay across the top. Use a project with bass, drums, keys and a lead so the strips and spectra are easy to tell apart.]**

Channel strips

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

• Name + icon — which track this is. Click the strip to select that track.
• Spectrum + EQ — a live picture of which frequencies the track is using, with a three-point EQ curve drawn over it (see below).
• Pan — a horizontal slider that places the track in the stereo field. Drag left to push the track toward the left speaker, right toward the right; the centre tick is dead centre. C means centred; L40 / R60 show how far over you've gone.
• Fader — the big vertical slider sets the track's level. It is marked in decibels (dB): the top is 0 dB (full level) and it gets quieter as you pull down. The number under the fader shows the exact level (-∞ means silent).
• Level meter — the bar next to the fader shows how loud the track actually is right now while the song plays. It turns gold as it approaches the top and shows a red clip light if the signal is too hot — that's your cue to pull the fader down.
• M / S / FX — Mute silences the track, Solo plays only this track, and FX opens its effects.

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

Drum pieces as their own channels

By default a drum track is a single channel for the whole kit, so its EQ and effects shape every piece at once. If you want to treat one piece on its own — boost only the kick's low end, or send just the snare to a reverb — open the drum editor and click the ⤴ channel button on that lane (see the Drum Editor manual).

The piece then appears here as its own channel strip (named after the kit, e.g. "Drums Kick"), with its own fader, pan, EQ, and FX. Shape it independently of the rest of the kit. Because it routes straight to the master like any other channel, it no longer passes through effects you put on the main kit channel. Click the lane's ⤴ button again to fold the piece back in and remove its channel.

Reading levels

The meter and fader both use decibels, the natural unit for loudness:

• 0 dB (top) is the loudest a track plays without being turned up.
• Pulling down a little (say to −6 dB) makes a track sit back in the mix.
• If the clip light flashes red, the track is peaking too hard — lower its fader (or its instrument volume) until the light stops.

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

Inline EQ (shaping tone)

The mini spectrum on each strip is also an equaliser. The curve has three points you can drag up to boost or down to cut:

• Low — the bass weight of the track.
• Mid — the body and presence.
• High — the air and brightness.

Drag a point up to make that range louder, down to make room for other tracks. Because the curve sits right on top of the live spectrum, you can see exactly which frequencies you're shaping. Switch to Advanced (below) to also set each band's exact frequency and width.

A common move: if the bass and the kick drum are fighting, gently cut the low on one of them so they stop masking each other — you'll see their spectra stop overlapping.

This inline EQ is the quick 3-band tone control. To clear space across every track at once, use Harmonize — it measures the playing mix and writes a separate, deeper 8-band Graphic EQ per track. You can open that Graphic EQ from a track's FX and fine-tune it by hand afterwards.

The comparison overlay

Across the top, every track's spectrum is drawn on one graph, each in the track's colour, with a small loudness bar per track underneath. This is the "how well do these mix" view: where two colours pile up in the same place, those tracks are competing for the same frequencies (this is called masking). Pan them apart or EQ one of them down to clean it up.

Simple vs Advanced

The Simple / Advanced toggle (top-right of the Mixer page) changes how much detail you see:

• Simple — big, colour-coded meters and faders only. Good for a quick balance.
• Advanced — adds the dB readouts, the spectra, the inline EQ, the per-band EQ frequency/width controls, and the comparison overlay.

Tips

• Mix at a comfortable, consistent volume — your ears get tired and start lying to you when it's too loud.
• Use pan to give each instrument its own space before reaching for volume.
• Watch the comparison overlay when two tracks sound muddy together — the fix is usually an EQ cut or a pan, not just turning one down.
• The mixer only does meter and spectrum work while its page is open, so switching to the Melody editor or Arrangement costs nothing.