Anatomy of the Window

Documentation / Contents - Audio Panel

• Overview of the Audio Panel
  • What It Controls, and What It Does Not
  • Two Faces
  • If There Is No Sound Card
• Anatomy of the Window
  • The Device Area
  • A Strip, Top to Bottom
  • The Control Rows
  • The Message Line
  • Selecting a Strip
• Setting Levels
  • The Faders
  • Group Sliders
  • Mute
  • Monitor
  • Meter
  • Sample Rate
  • What Is Not Persisted
• Meters, Peaks, and Clipping
  • Turning Them On
  • The dB Ladder
  • How They Move
  • When There Is No Signal
• Devices and Backends
  • Backends
  • The Default Input and Output
  • Choosing What Is Shown
  • Pinning a Device
  • Input Source and Output Destination
• The Menus
  • File
  • Selected
  • View
  • Options
  • Default
  • Help
  • The Button 3 Menu
• Dialogs
  • Open and Save As
  • Device Preferences
  • About
• Keys and the Command Line
  • Keys
  • The Headless Command Line
  • Diagnostics
    • Finding the Right Mixer Stage
• Settings and Files
  • The Configuration File
  • What Is Deliberately Not Saved
  • Environment Variables
• The Canonical Face
  • What Is Different
  • What Works
  • What Is Inert
  • Honest About Its Own Evidence
• The Audio Panel and Desktop Sounds
  • The Difference
  • Which One Do I Want

Other cards

• Copyright Information

Anatomy of the Window

Three bands fill the window, top to bottom: the menu bar, the device area, and a one-line message line.

The Device Area

The advanced face builds one STRIP per audio device. Inputs are banked on the left, outputs on the right. If there are more strips than fit, the area scrolls; see Show Scrollbar in The Menus.

Only devices you have chosen to view are shown. By default that means the default input and the default output. See Devices and Backends.

A Strip, Top to Bottom

In-Use LED and device name    the title band
interface                     the device node this strip drives
the controls                  faders, meters, and the rulers
sample rate                   for example 48 kHz
sync source                   Internal; shown only in Professional Mode
the check row                 Meter and Monitor, or Mute

The title band is tinted differently for a default device, and the selected strip carries a heavier frame and a highlight border.

The device name is shortened with two trailing dots when it will not fit.

The In-Use LED is meant to light when another program holds the device. Nothing reports device ownership yet, so it never lights.

The Control Rows

The two directions are laid out as mirror images, so the meters sit toward the middle of the window:

INPUT    L fader | L meter | dB ladder | R meter | R fader | ruler
OUTPUT   ruler | L fader | R fader

Only inputs carry meters and the dB ladder. Outputs carry faders and a Mute.

The plain ruler beside the faders is the 0 to 10 decade, eleven ticks with the long ones at 0, 5 and 10, and numerals only at the ends. It is the fader scale. The dB ladder between the two input meters is the METER scale and is a different thing; see Meters, Peaks, and Clipping.

The Message Line

The bottom line is Quick Help. Roll the pointer over a control and its one line explanation appears there. With nothing under the pointer it names the selected device:

The name of the audio device  [Built-in Audio Analog Stereo]

Ctrl+H, or Options > Show Quick Help, turns it off, which hides the line altogether. Errors re-show it anyway.

Selecting a Strip

Click anywhere on a strip to select it: the frame, the title band, the name, or the body. The Selected menu and the Preferences dialog act on the selected strip. Button 3 selects the strip and posts a short menu; see The Menus.

Next

• Setting Levels
• Meters, Peaks, and Clipping