Mixer Strips

Each track and bus is represented in the mixer window by a mixer strip that contains various controls related to signal flow. There are two places in Ardour in which you can see mixer strips. The mixer window is the obvious one (and the one we deal with here), but you can also view a single mixer strip in the editor window by clicking the editor mixer button.

this image isnt finished yet ;) - there are certain controls that make no sense - you cannot record into a bus, so there is no record enable button, for example.

Strip Width Button

Depending on your default Mixer Strip Width new Mixer Strips are generated narrow or wide. This button switches between these settings. Narrow Mixer strips are most useful if a large number of tracks/buses has to be visible at one glance. If your mix contains many tracks and it is not necessary to see them all at once Mix Groups provide a method to display/hide many Mixer Strips with one click.

Hide Button

Hide the Mixer Strip. This change will be reflected in the  Strip List and can be undone from there.

Track Name Button

Clicking on this Button pops up a menu with several items.

• Save as Template: Save the track/bus configuration to a template. It can be used for new tracks/buses in the Add Track/Bus window.
• Rename: Change the name of the track
• Active: Toggle the track's active status. Inactive tracks are treated as if they would not exist, thus no audio processing takes place for them.
• Invert polarity: reverse the polarity before all redirects.
• Protect against denormals: apply the selected denormal handling model to the track.

• Remote control ID : What does it do?

• Remove: Irreversibly remove the track/bus. This action cannot be undone.

Input Button

Choose the input for the track/bus here.  Depending on the number of input channels for the track/bus the pop-up menu will be filled with useful combinations of the hardware input channels. For more detailed control, such as connecting to other JACK clients, click edit to show the Track/Bus inspector. Disconnect simply disconnects all connected inputs of the track/bus.

Toggle Record Enable Button

This Button is only existant for tracks, because buses cannot be recorded into. If this button is pressed, recording is enabled for the track.

Prefader Redirects

Button-3-click on the Prefader Area to insert sends, plugins and inserts. Button-2-click on any plugin, insert or send activates/deactivates it. If the input configuration allows it, Prefader redirects can be dragged to change there order within the track. Dragging to another track's Redirect Area will copy the Redirect, including all of its settings.

Mute

Mute the track/bus. Button-3-click on the button to select what kind of outputs should be muted.

We need more information on the meaning of the different mute options here.

Solo

Button-1-click the solo button to solo the track/bus. Button-2-click performs a momentary solo: it lasts as long as you hold the mouse button pressed and returns to non-solo as soon as you release the mouse button. Button-3-click toggles Lock Solo, to prevent accidential change of the solo status.
See also the different solo options from the Options menu.

Fader

Adjust the gain for the track here. The exact gain value is displayed in the small rectangular field above the fader and can be changed there as well. Holding Ctrl while dragging the fader allows for finer control. 

Level Meter

The number of level meters depends on the number of audio streams at the metering point. For mono or stereo track configurations it's mostly one or two. The fall-off rate for the meters can be specified in the options menu.
The small rectangular field above the meters shows the peak value. click on it to reset it.

Group Button

Choose the group of the track. You have to add a group in the Group List first.

Metering Point Button

Specify the point in the signal chain where metering takes place by repeatedly clicking the button. This can be directly at the inputs, pre fader or post fader. If the track is record enabled, it switches to input automatically.

Postfader Redirects

Behaves just as the prefader Redirect Area.

Panner

Ardour's panners are well suited for mono and stereo tracks. For multichannel audio, bypass the panner and choose a panning plugin as described in Using Ambisonics as production format.
The default stereo panners can be double-clicked and manually set to value between 0 and 1, or dragged to a position between the right and left side of the panner.

More info on muting/bypassing/linking

Output Button

Similar to the input button, choose one of the default outputs or click edit to open the Track/Bus inspector.

Comments

Clicking on the comments button pops up a small text window, where all kind of comments about this track can be written down. The text is saved immedeately as you type it.