mixing-and-panning-tracks.md

Mixing and panning tracks

Using the Track Controls

You can adjust volume and panning per track on the left-hand side of any track:

{% hint style="info" %} Note: If you collapse a track or make it vertically smaller, Audacity will hide the pan and volume sliders from view. To see them again, expand the track by dragging down on it's lower edge. {% endhint %}

Using the Mixer Board

You can access the Mixer Board via View > Mixer Board.

This shows all track controls side-by-side, with a volume slider on the left per track, as well as per-track volume meters.

By default, the icon for each track is the Audacity logo, but it can be changed if the track name contains the following keywords:

{% tabs %} {% tab title="Misc. instruments" %}

• acoustic piano, acoustic pno = acoustic piano
• back vocal, back vox, bg = backing vocal
• electric piano, electric pno, key = electronic keyboard
• loop = loop track
• sax = saxophone
• synth = synthesizer
• trumpet, horn = generic brass instrument
• turntable = record player
• vibraphone, vibes = vibraphone
• vocal, vox = lead vocal {% endtab %}

{% tab title="String instruments" %}

• acoustic guitar, acoustic gtr = acoustic guitar
• electric bass, bass, bs = electric bass guitar
• electric guitar, guitar, gtr = (standard) electric guitar
• string, violin, cello = generic stringed instrument

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Percussion" %}

• clap = handclaps
• drums, dr = drum kit
• kick = kick drum
• perc = percussion
• snare = snare drum
• tambourine, tambo = tambourine {% endtab %} {% endtabs %}

Rendering the mix

Once you have your changes to mixing, panning and other real-time effects final and want to apply them onto the waveform itself, you can render the mix using Tracks > Mix > Mix and Render. This replaces all selected tracks with the mix. If you have used many tracks and real time effects, this may considerably improve performance.

{% hint style="warning" %} Caution: When rendering, all tracks are added onto each other, which may cause clipping. If this happens, undo the mix and lower the volume for all of your tracks. {% endhint %}

{% hint style="success" %} Best Practice: If you have a several stereo tracks, but don't need a stereo-effect for them (ie. any left/right panning), consider mixing down to mono using Tracks > Mix > Mix Stereo Down to Mono. Exporting a mono track to a lossy format (like MP3) will let you have a higher quality at the same bitrate, or let you use a lower bitrate (and thus lower file size) at the same bitrate. {% endhint %}