The Channel Strip

Every input, every VCA group and every output bus is drawn as a strip — the vertical module that mixing consoles have used for half a century. Learn one strip and you've learned the whole mixer surface.

Anatomy, top to bottom

SELECT + M / S

• SELECT opens this strip in the config screen — all its tabs, processors and settings. The button stays lit on the selected strip; the strip's colour also marks the top edge.
• M (mute) and S (solo) — see Mute, Solo and Select.

Name & icon

The strip's display name and icon, with a colour tag on the island's top edge. All three are yours to change on the strip's SETUP tab, or from the Channel Manager's detail panel — name strips by what they do (Mic, Game, Stream), not by device model, and future-you will be grateful. The icon can be a built-in glyph, an image you upload yourself, or — for an app-loopback channel — left on auto-detect, which keeps it in sync with whatever program it's currently capturing.

A 🔒 Premium badge here means the strip is locked by your plan (more channels than the Free tier allows) — it keeps its place but won't pass audio until you free a slot or upgrade. See Accounts & Premium.

Type badge + shortcuts

• The badge states what the strip is: PHYS / LOOP / APP (plus PLAYER, GEN and PADS) for inputs, PHYS / APP / REC for buses, VCA for groups.
• Next to it, EQ / FX / SP are three small switches for the channel's Equalizer, Effects rack (bypasses every insert at once; nothing happens until you've added one) and Spatial processing. Lit = on; click to switch the whole block on or off without opening anything. To edit one, SELECT the strip and use the matching tab in the config screen. (Output buses show EQ / LIM / DLY instead — Equalizer, Limiter and Delay.)

Fader, scale, meter

The working area:

• Fader — the strip's level. Audio follows your drag instantly and smoothly; the value is stored when you release.
• dB scale — from −∞ to +10 dB, with 0 dB (unity — "neither louder nor quieter") about three-quarters up.
• VU meter — live level after this strip's processing. Channels in 5.1/7.1 mode show one bar per speaker channel instead of the stereo pair.
• Reference-level mark — a thin horizontal tick across the meter marking your target "0 VU" level. It's a visual aim point, not a control: keep your loudest sustained signal sitting around it and you've got healthy headroom above. Pick the standard per channel under SETUP → Calibration → Reference level — −18 dBFS (EBU R68), −20 dBFS (SMPTE), −14 dBFS (Streaming) or −23 LUFS (EBU R128). It changes the marker only, never the sound.
• dB readout — the fader's exact position, e.g. -3.2 dB.

Fader gestures

Wheel and double-click-to-reset are app-wide conventions: knobs, send faders and panel sliders all behave the same. On knobs and panel sliders you can also click the numeric readout to type an exact value (Enter confirms, Esc cancels) — channel faders are gesture-only.

Reading levels — a 60-second primer

• dB (decibel) is a relative scale. 0 dB on a fader means "pass the signal unchanged"; negative values attenuate, positive amplify (up to +10 dB).
• Mixing is mostly subtraction: start everything at 0 dB and pull down what's too loud, rather than pushing faders up. Boosting past 0 invites clipping at the bus.
• A healthy strip peaks comfortably below the meter's top — aim for the reference-level mark if you've set one. If the CLIP counter on the HOME tab is climbing, the signal hit the ceiling — back off the fader, or the GAIN knob if the input itself is too hot.

One strip, three flavours