Channels and Processing (Alt+1)

Pick one channel and set everything for it in one place. This covers every input channel your unit has: its microphones and its line channels (such as Bluetooth, USB, Headset and Chat), plus the SMART pads mix, which has a mute and a solo here but no level and no processing: its level is its own fader, and the unit applies no processing to the pads. The list of channels matches the device you are connected to.

• Channel: Choose which channel you are working on. The controls below change to match it. This one acts straight away and has no Apply: it changes what you are looking at, not what the desk is doing.
• Tabs: Everything under the channel is on a tab strip: Channel settings, Presets, Processing, Equaliser, Dynamics, Tone and pan, and Effects on a mic. Any other channel has five of those, without Presets or Effects. The SMART pads mix has only Channel settings, because the unit applies no processing to it at all. The strip is one tab stop; move along it with the left and right arrow keys, Home and End for the ends, and the panel below follows as you go. Only the tab you are on is on the page, so nothing else is in your tab order or in heading navigation. Where a tab holds more than one thing (Dynamics holds the compressor, the noise gate and the de-esser) each keeps its own heading, so H walks you to it. The tab you leave off on is remembered, on this channel, the next channel and the next time you start the app.
• Channel settings: Mute comes first on every channel: it is the same mute as the button on the unit, so it silences that channel in every mix, including the recording, and pressing the button on the unit changes it here too. Listen (solo) is next to it, with a Clear every solo button beside that. On a mic there is then a third switch, Mute the wireless mic, which is a different thing again and is explained below. Then for mics: gain (how hard the unit drives the signal, too low sounds quiet and too high distorts), 48V phantom power, polarity, and mic type. The line channels, Bluetooth, USB, Headset and Chat, have a level instead.
• Mute and Listen, and the difference: Mute silences that channel for everybody: your headphones, the other outputs, the recording and anything you are streaming. Listen (solo) is the opposite and it is headphone-only: it sends just that channel to your headphones and leaves every mix, the recording and your streams exactly as they were. That makes it the safe way to check a mic mid-show, but the desk gives no clue you have left it on, so while anything is soloed you will not hear the app's announcements either. Clear every solo is the way back, and it is right there so you never have to work out which channel did it.
• Mute the wireless mic, and why it is not the same as Mute: This one is for a RODE wireless microphone paired to the channel, and it mutes the TRANSMITTER rather than the channel. The difference matters when somebody walks off still wearing one: muting the channel leaves an open microphone in the room feeding the desk, while muting the transmitter means nothing arrives at all. It only appears on mic channels, because nothing can be paired to a USB, Bluetooth or Chat channel. If no wireless mic is paired there is nothing for it to reach, so the app tells you the mute was sent rather than claiming the mic went quiet.
• 48V phantom power, in one line: Condenser microphones need power sent up the mic cable to work at all, and that is what 48V is. A dynamic mic (a PodMic, an SM7B, most broadcast mics) does not need it and is not harmed by it. If a condenser is plugged in and silent, this switch is the first thing to check.
• Set gain automatically: Mics only, and it is the accessible version of the one studio job that is normally done by eye: talk, watch a meter, turn the knob. Press it, talk normally for half a minute, and the app measures what arrived and sets the gain to match, telling you what it changed and offering an undo. Speak at the volume you will actually use, not louder.
• Check this channel's level: On every channel except Chat. It speaks the level as it goes, for half a minute unless you have changed the length on the Level warnings tab, and then tells you the loudest it got. The fader position is taken out of the reading, so it answers "is this channel arriving at a sensible level" rather than telling you where you have the fader set. The fader does have to be up far enough for the channel to reach the Chat mix, which is what the check listens on; with it right down there is nothing to hear, and the check says so and tells you to bring it up. Use it on a phone on Bluetooth or a computer on USB as well as on mics, since those arrive at a level nobody chose either.
• Mic type: Which microphone is on that input. The unit uses it to set the preamp up, and choosing one also loads that mic's own default gain, so expect the Level slider to move when you apply it. Nothing happens until you press Apply mic type.
• Processing presets: Mics only. Load a ready-made voicing like Podcast Studio, or save the current settings as your own preset. Choosing in the list changes nothing on the unit until you press Apply this preset, so you can move through the list freely.
• Processing and modules: The studio chain. Switch it on as a whole or module by module: equaliser (tone), compressor (evens out loud and quiet parts), noise gate (cuts hiss between words), de-esser (tames harsh "s" sounds), high-pass filter (removes low rumble), tone shaping and pan. Each of those has its own group of sliders below this one. There is also an Advanced processing switch here: with it off the unit works the modules out from Depth, Sparkle and Punch, so their values move on their own, and its own hint on the page explains what changes.
• Echo and Reverb: Mics only. The two channel effects, each with its own switch and settings.