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Add insert effects and balance a mix

Task: open the mixer, add an effect to a track, and set levels so nothing clips. Assumes you have a few tracks playing.

Open the mixer

Click Mixer in the toolbar (or press Tab to cycle to it). Each track has a strip: a name, a vertical fader, a horizontal pan, M (mute), S (solo), a stereo peak meter, and an FX button.

Balance levels

  1. Press Play and watch the meters. If a strip's clip LED lights, that strip is peaking — pull its fader down (click the LED to reset it).
  2. Set relative levels with the faders; place instruments left/right with pan.
  3. Use S to solo a track and hear it alone, M to mute it.

Leave headroom

Aim for peaks a few dB below the top of the meter. Summing many tracks at full level clips the master — bring individual faders down rather than pushing them all up.

Add an insert effect

  1. Click the strip's FX button → Add effect and pick a built-in (Reverb, Delay, EQ, Compressor, Limiter, and more), or Add plugin to host a VST3/LV2.
  2. The bottom of the mixer shows the selected effect's knobs, plus Bypass, Remove, and (for plugins) Plugin UI.
  3. Add several — they process in order, top to bottom, forming the strip's chain.

You can also edit a track's chain from the editor's DEVICES tab (bottom panel) without opening the full mixer, and Open device window (strip name menu) pops the chain into a floating window so several are visible at once.

Tame a peaky master

Gloopy doesn't limit by default. If the master meter clips even after balancing, add a Limiter as the last effect on the master strip (the leftmost, index 0) — it's a normal insert, not automatic.

See also