VCA faders

A VCA fader controls the level of a set of strips without passing any audio, as in Logic: the strips keep their own fader positions (and their balance), and the VCA moves them all.

• Create one with Options › Create New VCA in the Mixer’s bar, or New VCA… in a strip’s VCA slot (under Output), which also assigns that strip (or every selected strip, when it is one of them). New VCAs are named “VCA N” and appear after the auxes, before Stereo Out.
• Assign strips in their VCA slot: pick a VCA, or No VCA. Audio, instrument, aux and summing stack strips have a VCA slot; folder stacks and Stereo Out don’t.
• The VCA strip has a fader (-96 to +6 dB, double-click for 0 dB), its level readout, a Mute button that mutes every strip on it, and its name (double-click to rename). The slot at the top says how many strips (and VCAs) it controls.
• What it does: a strip plays at its own fader plus the VCA’s level; a VCA at the bottom silences its strips. The strip’s fader shows an outlined cap where it really plays, and its tooltip gives the offset. Volume automation on a strip still works: the VCA offsets the automated level too.
• Nested VCAs: a VCA strip has a VCA slot of its own. Assign it to another VCA and that VCA’s level and mute reach its strips as well. Loops are refused.
• Right-click a VCA strip for Rename VCA, VCA Color, Create New VCA and Delete VCA (its strips keep their faders and leave the VCA; VCAs nested in it move up to its parent).
• Level, name, colour, assignments and deleting are undoable; the VCA’s Mute, like a track’s, is a switch and not an undo step.
• Bounces, exports with the fader on and Bounce in Place play the VCA’s level. A frozen track is frozen before its fader, so its VCA keeps working after freezing.
• VCA levels can’t be automated yet.