Lesson 19

Mixing: volume, mute, solo

Balance your four tracks with their own volumes, and use mute and solo to take parts out or listen to one part closely.

You’ll need:

A Move that is switched on
The Set from the earlier lessons, with clips on several tracks

The idea

Mixing means setting how loud each part is compared with the others, so every part can be heard. If the bass is too loud it swallows the drums. If the chords are too quiet they vanish. A good mix feels like a band where nobody shouts over anyone else.

Move gives you three simple tools for this:

Track volume. Each of the four tracks has its own level. You change it with the Volume knob while you hold that track’s button. Without a track button, the Volume knob turns the whole of Move up or down.
Mute. Mute switches a track off without deleting anything. Producers use it all the time to build a song: start with drums only, then unmute the bass, then the chords. You can even mute one single drum sound.
Solo. Solo is the opposite: only the soloed track plays and everything else goes quiet. It’s for listening closely to one part, for example to hear whether your bassline is really in time.

While the music plays, the track buttons light up in their track’s colour and turn white when a track gets loud. That’s a quick way to spot a track that’s too hot.

In Note Mode, press the track button of your drum track.
Didn’t work?
If the pads start and stop clips, you’re in Session Mode. Press Note/Session first. Volume, mute and solo work in both modes, but muting a single drum sound needs Note Mode.
You should see: The drum track is selected. In a new Set that's the top track.
Press Play. You need the music playing to judge a mix by ear.
You should hear: Your clips play on all tracks.
Turn the Volume knob to set a comfortable listening level for everything.
Didn’t work?
Turning it while Move is stopped still changes the level, but you won’t hear the difference until the music plays.
You should see: A level meter on the display shows the overall output.
Hold the track button of your bass track and turn the Volume knob. Turn it down until the bass sits under the drums, then bring it up until you can clearly follow it.
Didn’t work?
Keep the track button held the whole time you turn. If you let go first, the knob changes the overall volume instead.
You should see: The display shows this track's level in dB (decibels, the unit for loudness).
Hold Mute. While you keep it down, press the track button of your chords track. That part disappears from the mix.
Didn’t work?
Press the track button before you let go of Mute. A quick tap of Mute on its own mutes the track that is selected, which here is the drums. If that happens, hold Mute and press the drum track button to bring them back. If lights under the knobs come on while you hold Mute, that’s the automation check from Lesson 17, and you can ignore it.
You should see: The display confirms the mute, and that track button's light dims.
Do the same again: hold Mute and press that track button once more to unmute it.
You should hear: The chords are back in the mix.
Hold Shift and Mute together, then press the track button of your drum track. Now only the drums play.
Didn’t work?
Both Shift and Mute must be down when you press the track button. Without Shift, you would mute the drums instead.
You should see: The drum track's button turns blue: it's soloed.
With the drums on their own, hold Mute and press one drum pad, for example the hi-hat. Only that sound goes quiet.
Didn’t work?
This works in Note Mode on a drum track. Find the hi-hat by ear first if you’re not sure which pad it is.
You should see: The pad goes a dim white, and the display confirms the mute.
You should hear: One drum sound drops out of the beat.
Hold Mute and press the same pad again to unmute it.
You should hear: The drum sound is back.
Hold Shift and Mute and press the drum track button again to end the solo.
You should hear: All the tracks play again.

When you’re done listening, press Play to stop.

Try it yourself

Mute every track except the drums. Then, every four bars, unmute one more track. You’ve just arranged a song intro with nothing but the Mute button.
Solo each track in turn and listen: which part is the loudest? Adjust its volume until it sits well with the others.
Mute the kick drum pad for a bar or two, then unmute it. Listen to how much energy comes back.

Good to know

In Note Mode on a drum kit or a sampler sound, you can also set the level of one sample: hold its pad and turn the Volume knob.
In the Set Overview, hold a Set’s pad and turn the Volume knob to change that whole Set’s level. This helps when one of your Sets sounds much louder than the others.
Every Set has a hidden limiter at the end. It keeps very loud moments from crackling and distorting. You can’t change it, but it’s a good reason to keep track levels sensible instead of turning everything up.