Audio Mixer

Input strips scroll sideways on the left, under the vertical label INPUTS. A strip that does not fully fit is shown cut at the edge of the section, never hidden, and you scroll the row to bring it in. The outputs are pinned on the right, under OUTPUTS: your buses, then Phones and Master. The + key in the header adds a bus (see Add, rename and remove buses).

• Strips (Narrow or Full) in the header switches all strips at once. Double-click a strip's name plate to switch one strip.
• Drag a blank part of a strip to move it, even across the divider between inputs and outputs. A line shows where it will land. Dropping on free space in the inputs area sends it to the end.
• Right-click a strip: Full Strip or Narrow Strip, Move Left, Move Right, Pin to the Right or Move to the Scrolling Strips, All Strips Narrow, All Strips Full.
• The same menu of an input strip opens with Copy Settings and Paste Settings. See Copy and paste strip settings.
• Drag the divider between INPUTS and OUTPUTS to give the buses more or less room. It moves one whole strip at a time, so neither side ever shows half a strip, and Phones and Master stay pinned at the right. The outputs take at most 70 per cent of the mixer and always leave room for one whole input strip. With VoiceOver, increment and decrement move it one strip.
• Order, widths and the divider are saved with your layout.
• Show or hide the whole panel with Studio > Audio Mixer (Option+Command+M) or the mixer key in the bottom bar. Basic mode hides the mixer without closing it.

The layout is the Mac's, with the same sizes. INPUTS are strips that scroll in the middle (a strip that does not fully fit shows cut at the edge, never hidden); OUTPUTS are pinned on the right: Returns first, then Groups in the order of the show, then Phones and Master. Drag the divider between INPUTS and OUTPUTS to give the buses more or less room. It moves one whole strip at a time, so no bus is ever cut in half, and Phones and Master stay pinned at the right. The buses take at most 70 per cent of the panel and always leave room for one whole input strip. Buses that do not fit scroll. The + Bus and + Return keys in the header add buses. In Studio's default layout the mixer sits to the right of the inputs.

• The Narrow and Full keys in the panel header switch all strips at once. A strip's own menu changes just that strip.
• Right-click a strip's name for its menu. It ends with the same layout items as on the Mac: Full Strip or Narrow Strip, Move Left, Move Right, Pin to the Right or Move to the Scrolling Strips, All Strips Narrow and All Strips Full.
• The Audio Mixer is a panel like any other: move it, dock it or open it in its own window. See Multiview and layouts.
• If the panel is shorter than a full strip it scrolls up and down.

From top to bottom:

Narrow strips keep only S, M, the fader, the meter and the name.

Narrow strips keep only S, M, fader, meter and name.

The strip menu (right-click the name) has: Solo (listen), Solo safe, Duck under speech, Duck key: its sound ducks the others, Audio follows video, Mute, Send to (Master, every Group, every Return, Headphones), Unity gain (0 dB), Centre pan, Audio processing... (see Audio processing), Copy Settings and Paste Settings (see Copy and paste strip settings), Solo mode (AFL: solo after the fader or PFL: solo before the fader), then the layout items from Layout of the panel.

• Faders run from silence up to +6 dB. Unity (0 dB) sits three-quarters of the way up. The scale marks are +6, 0, -6, -12, -24 and -48. The readout under the fader shows "-∞", "0.0" or a value such as "+3.0".
• Drag relative to where you grab, so the cap does not jump. Click in the slot to jump there. Double-click to return to 0 dB.
• Knobs (pan, headphones) drag vertically; hold Option for fine control; double-click resets.
• The meter reads dBFS from -60 to 0. Green runs to -18, amber to -6, red above. A thin line holds the peak for 1.5 seconds. A clip light stays on for about 2 seconds after a peak at full scale. Click a meter to clear the light and held peaks.

• Faders are linear in dB from -60 up to +6, with a bottom stop of silence. The maximum gain is 2.0 (+6 dB). Unity is about nine-tenths of the way up. Use Unity gain (0 dB) in the strip menu to return to unity.
• The Phones level goes up to +12 dB, shown as 400 %.
• Each fader has a level bar beside it.

• The + key in the mixer header (tooltip "Add a bus or a return") opens a menu: Add Bus (a Group) and Add Return. A new bus is named with the first free letter, for example Bus C or Return A.
• Rename: double-click the bus's name plate and type, or right-click and choose Rename. Press Return to keep the name or Esc to cancel.
• Reorder: drag a blank part of the strip, or right-click and choose Move Left or Move Right. The menu also moves the bus in the show's bus order, which is the order External Control sees.
• Duplicate: right-click and choose Duplicate. The copy sits right after the original and is named " copy" (" copy 2", " copy 3" while that name is taken). It takes the original's kind, fader, mute, Feed setting, audio processing and limiter, and every send into the original: each strip that sends to it, and the caller template, sends to the copy at the same level and pre or post setting. Whatever listens to the original, such as the room, an NDI output, a router output or a guest's return, keeps listening to the original.
• Delete: right-click and choose Delete. It is the last item in the menu.
• Every one of these is one step in Edit > Undo.

• The + Bus key (tooltip "Add a Group bus") and the + Return key (tooltip "Add a Return bus") in the mixer header add a bus at the end. The names are the first free letter, for example Bus C or Return A.
• Right-click the bus's name for its menu: Rename... (the name box opens on the strip), Duplicate, Move left, Move right and Delete bus. A Group's menu also has Feeds Master, checked while the Group runs into Master. Dropping one Group on another Group, or one Return on another Return, moves it.
• Duplicate: right-click the bus's name and choose Duplicate. It does the same as on the Mac: the copy sits right after the original, is named " copy", and takes the original's kind, fader, mute, Feed setting, audio processing, limiter and every send into it. The outputs stay on the original.
• Each of these is one undo step.

• M (tooltip "To Master") sends the strip to Master.
• Each Group has a key on the strip, lit while the strip is assigned to it. The key shows a short form of the name ("A" for Bus A, otherwise the first two letters or two initials); the tooltip reads "Send to ". Click to assign or remove.
• Each Return has a small knob with the bus name under it and its level beside it ("off", or a value such as "-6.0"). Drag to set the send level; dragging it to 0 removes the send. Option-click the knob switches the send between after the fader (the default) and before it; a send before the fader is tinted amber.
• A narrow strip has one Sends key (tooltip "Sends of "). Its menu has a check item for each Group, and a submenu for each Return with Off, -12 dB, -6 dB, 0 dB, +6 dB and Before the fader.
• The sends area of a strip scrolls when there are more buses than fit.

• M sends the strip to Master. Each Group has a key, lit while the strip is assigned to it, and each Return has a small knob with its level.
• Ctrl-click a Return's knob to switch the send between after the fader and before it. A send before the fader draws its arc in orange.
• On a narrow strip, and on any strip, the strip menu Send to lists Master, a check item for each Group, a submenu for each Return with levels and Before the fader, and Headphones.
• The sends block is three rows tall and scrolls when there are more buses.

• A Group strip has a mute M (tooltip "Mute "), a routing key (tooltip "Send to the room") with the choice Send to Room, a Feed key (tooltip " feeds Master: on" or "off"), a Limiter key (hidden in narrow strips) and a fader. A Return strip has the mute, the limiter and the fader. Checked on the routing key means the room currently hears this bus.
• Phones has a round knob from 0 to 400 per cent, 100 per cent by default (double-click to reset), a meter and a headphones icon. It sets the level of the headphones mix.
• Master has a fader, a meter, a Limiter key (hidden in narrow strips) and two buttons:
  • AFL or PFL (tooltip "Solo listens after the fader (AFL) or before it (PFL)"). Click to toggle.
  • A settings menu (tooltip "Mixer settings: microphone mode, what the room hears"). It starts with a line that says which microphone mode is in use, for example "Standard mic mode" or "Voice Isolation active". Then Microphone Mode... opens the system microphone mode picker (it is there only when the system has a picker), and Room Hears offers Master, Headphones Mix, every Group by name and Silence.
• The Room key in the bottom bar opens the same Room Hears choice from its cog or right-click. An NDI output chooses its sound in the Audio setting of its row in the Outputs window (Off, Follows the source, Master, Headphones mix, or a Group by name).

• Every bus has a mute M and a fader, and a limiter in its menu (Limiter...). A Group's menu has Feeds Master, checked while the Group runs into Master.
• Phones and Master have faders and meters.
• Right-click a strip's name for its menu. On Master it holds The room hears, which lists Master, the headphones mix, every Group by name and silence; on a Group it holds Send to the room. An NDI output, an NDI or Blackmagic output in the Router and a guest's return choose a bus by name in their own settings. Windows has no microphone mode picker in the mixer; the Echo cancellation row in Settings > Audio shows the echo cancellation status, for example "Windows echo cancellation active".