The mute button on instrument tracks keep turning off

[grigorax]

On an instrument track, if I Mute the track before playing, when I do Play the mute turns off.

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Pro Tools 23.6.0.110
Macbook M1 Pro
- 16GB
- Apple SSD 1TB APFS
MacOS 13.5.2
Steinberg UR22C

[Darryl Ramm]

Thanks for deleteing/reposting with system info. Try quoting this post here are reply to all questions you can.

Does the mute button turning off occur at the same location in the timeline each time? Or at the same time difference after you start playing or does it look random?

I am pretty sure I know you have looked at the mute automation lane and confirmed there is no automation there turning off mute. But can you just confirm that. Check carefully as automation is a super-common cause of folks seeing this behavior.

And you are talking about that track's track mute not its MIDI mute right? And you are looking at the correct automation lane.

The keyboard shortcut for Mute/Unmute is Shift-M. even though this seems like it's only happening on instrument track(s) is it possible you have that track selected and your computer keyboard is accidentally sending Shift-M? Type Shift-M and toggle mute and see if the behavior changes. Stranger things have happened and were traced back to faulty keyboards or folks with keyboard macro software installed. Try making sure a different track is in focus/selected than the instrument track(s) giving you problems and see if the issue follows that track focus.

Does it happen in only one session or multiple session? Can you reproduce it if you start with an new empty session?

Does it happen with any VI inserted on the track?

You don't see this with audio tracks right?

Do you have any automation/scripting software installed? Like SoundFlow?

It is a good idea to always start troubleshooting by just trashing prefs, nothing here leaps out as a problems but still a good idea. Use the free PT Prefs Tools https://petegates.com/pgptprefs.html

I would try physically removing any external MIDI keyboard, MIDI controller, HUI control surface etc. in case one of them is sending a MIDI sequence that is interpenetrated as say a HUI unmute.

[grigorax]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Thanks for deleteing/reposting with system info. Try quoting this post here are reply to all questions you can.

Does the mute button turning off occur at the same location in the timeline each time? Or at the same time difference after you start playing or does it look random?

* The mute button turns off immediately I press Play (i.e., SPACE).

I am pretty sure I know you have looked at the mute automation lane and confirmed there is no automation there turning off mute. But can you just confirm that. Check carefully as automation is a super-common cause of folks seeing this behaviour.

* Yes I had tried displaying mute automation, but not in enough detail, it turns out!

* So I displayed mute automation on all tracks in question, both MIDI-mute and Audio-mute. I can see the 'Audio Mute' automation go up and down in response to pressing the button, while the MIDI-Mute automation stays on 'Not muted'. HOWEVER, now I see that, even if Audio Mute automation is a straight line, if there is any *Key-frame* sitting on it, Pro Tools treats this as in effect 'automation activated', and the button is turned off, and the automation stays where it is, which is logical I guess.

* [I suggest that 'Audio-Mute' has special behaviour, compared to all other automation. This may be confusing people ...]

* So, Darryl, your hunch was correct 😆 Thanks!

* PS. I don't know how my Audio-Mute automation tracks got key-frames on them!! —This is the first time I have even had them displayed.

And you are talking about that track's track mute not its MIDI mute right? And you are looking at the correct automation lane.

The keyboard shortcut for Mute/Unmute is Shift-M. even though this seems like it's only happening on instrument track(s) is it possible you have that track selected and your computer keyboard is accidentally sending Shift-M? Type Shift-M and toggle mute and see if the behavior changes. Stranger things have happened and were traced back to faulty keyboards or folks with keyboard macro software installed. Try making sure a different track is in focus/selected than the instrument track(s) giving you problems and see if the issue follows that track focus.

* Yes, Shift-M is working as it is supposed to. I have checked in PT Keyboard Shortcuts window and searched for "mute" and there is nothing there that could cause a problem.

Does it happen in only one session or multiple session? Can you reproduce it if you start with an new empty session?

Does it happen with any VI inserted on the track?

You don't see this with audio tracks right?

* Correct. The ol' blue line just goes up and down ...

Do you have any automation/scripting software installed? Like SoundFlow?

It is a good idea to always start troubleshooting by just trashing prefs, nothing here leaps out as a problems but still a good idea. Use the free PT Prefs Tools https://petegates.com/pgptprefs.html

I would try physically removing any external MIDI keyboard, MIDI controller, HUI control surface etc. in case one of them is sending a MIDI sequence that is interpenetrated as say a HUI unmute.

* CONCLUSION. I believe my problem is solved. Thanks for that Darryl.

[Darryl Ramm]

Hey grigorax

I wanted to see if you are still having this problem and needed any more help. I know you had a rough time posting on DUC initially, if you are really stuck feel free to private message me and we'll find some way to sort this out.

[Top Jimmy]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Hey grigorax

I wanted to see if you are still having this problem and needed any more help. I know you had a rough time posting on DUC initially, if you are really stuck feel free to private message me and we'll find some way to sort this out.

Darryl, his reply was waiting to be approved. I did so and you can see it above.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Darryl Ramm]

Thanks Jimmy.

Grigorax - great you got this fixed, and thanks for persisting with the posting stuff.

I'm not sure I totally follow the comments about frames... but one guess here, and a not-unusual problem with automation is maybe there was MIDI copy and pasted into the start of the track and that carried along the tail end part of the mute automation. If you are not watching the automation lanes when you cut and paste stuff you might include some unintended automation.

If that's not it and it comes up again as a problem post a screenshot showing this on a file or photo sharing site and post a link to that on DUC.

(and I'm reminding myself that a better first debug suggestion for cases like this is to just suggest users test by disabling all automation, just a quicker simpler test.).

[grigorax]

Thanks Darryl, it's under control now! I like that trick of disabling the audio-mute automation on selected tracks.

Alternatively, I verified that one can *delete* the audio-mute automation on selected tracks by:
1. Display audio-mute automation for the tracks, using OPT.
2. Select any range in the audio-mute automation of one of the tracks.
3. With SH button pressed, do click on the other audio-mute automation tracks.
–The same range selection will appear for each track.
4. Do CMD-A to select all the automations. Then do DEL to delete any keyframes.

Or alternatively
1. Display audio-mute automation for the tracks, using OPT.
2. Do OPT-A to zoom out to make the whole project visible.
3. Check by observation for any of those rogue keyframes ��