In SL11, I just do not yet grasp how the Mutes/ Solos work
In my latest job I had 8 groups within a parent group; all children in the 8 children groups are layers.
If Mute of the highest level parent; then, works fine;
BUT try to subsequently solo (or unmute) the highest level parent and various nested children groups and layers also stay muted. I don’t understand why.
I would expect that if a master parent is muted, then all children are muted. If then, solo (or unmute) master parent, all children would return to the state those children were in before the mute…which is not what I am experiencing.
Anyone have any tips? If I make a high level group and nest other groups within that group, I don’t expect to have to review every single layers’ status each time the parent is muted and subsequently unmuted or soloed. I expect it to work like a console bus (in a DAW).
I need a lesson
many thanks!
I find the MUTEs and SOLOs are really cumbersome
Why would any of us want to have to dbl-lft-clk the mutes? It’s a tiresome extra step, frankly
sometimes, when mouse pointer doesn’t exit the LAYERS PANEL, a single click works…but if you don’t start with the mouse pointer in the LAYERS PANEL, 90% of the time it’s a dbl-lft-clk to activate
I’d really appreciate a detailed explanation of how the mutes and solos are designed to work
I don’t understand what you mean - I tried to follow your step by step, but states are as expected here.
Reproducing a simplified version of your structure:
Muting highest: as expected
Unmuting highest: as expected - all nested layers gets unmuted too
Or soloing highest: as expected, all nested layers soloed
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thanks Robin, I’ll do some screen shots 
I just made a screen recording…seriously, I don’t understand whats going on…I’ll edit it down and post
Hi Robin here is a 3 min vid of what I am experiencing
Video has been sped up 25%
-problem with speeding up the playback is you can’t really tell when dbl-lft-clk of mute happens (often)
Screen recording of my experience with SL11 nested groups/layers
I’d love to embed vids…I haven’t figured that out yet…
I’m guessing these forums don’t have a BBcode extension which allows Vimeo embed?..no, I see other Vimeo vids…ugh, my end
OK, so, playing with this a bit at the start of editing today
I see the state of the children folders has an effect on the Mutes/Solos when higher level parent is muted/soloed. It seemed to be as expected when I started, but went awry after a few minutes working. I do think as the day goes on…things go downhill, so I suppose it is something I’m doing incorrectly…
I do find the requirement to double-left-click mutes on layers a bit frustrating which is not really related to the nesting issues I’m experiencing.
ok, I’ve been messing with this a bit…
what I haven’t been doing is (specifically) mute/ unmute
I have been clicking Mute> then Solo to “unmute”
the different actions equal different consequences
pressing Mute, then press Mute again to return to state before the initial mute seems to deliver the functionality…and then I tried it some more and that’s not what happened
Yeah, working with several nested layers and groups can get confusing, if you don’t pay attention and just click wildly.
As far as I understand the logic, the Solo button will not undo the Mute state of a layer, if you have muted a layer manually. It will just temporarily suppress this state, if you specifically solo that layer. To really undo the state, you have to click Mute on that specific layer again.
You can also click on the Global Mute button on the bottom of the Layers Panel to disable the Mute state of ALL layers, and the same works for the Global Solo button.
Maybe just try to use Mute for layers that you don’t need, and use Solo only for layers that you want to concentrate on.
Another tip: You can press and hold [CTRL] while clicking on Mute/Solo of a layer (or group), to EXCLUSIVELY mute/solo that specific layer (or group, including its content).
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thanks for that advice, much appreciated
in my video, I really did not show any specific repeatable of functionality challenge in that screen capture, I was just randomly showing the behaviour I experience. Then I messed with it some more, thought I found some reliable functionality and re-tried and ended up back at confused.
Suffice to say, the mutes and solos in SL do not function like a DAW IME…nor like Inkscape or Adobe progs that I have used in the past (show/hide/lock, etc). That said, a clear explanation for how SL mutes and solos work would be nice 
I tend to work non-destructively, so like to have my unwanteds stay in my jobs
I’d love to see @Phil_Pendlebury or @Rajiv_Mudgal cover this in one of their tutorials
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@ctreitzell
A little off-topic but I would like to know how were you able to post that video (especially at 1080p) here. I don’t understand because the forum maximum limit is 4mb and I had to reduce(downsample) the quality of the videos I uploaded dramatically down to 480 along with cutting frames to 24 frames(from 60) just to get a small clip posted on this forum. How did you embed that video? What properties did you use?
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Ha! Took me a while of trial and error (see the deleted posts) and eventually a mistake to figure it out
that video is an embed from Vimeo, so nothing uploaded
the trick is that you can’t have any other text as tags or code syntax
the BBCode automatically parses hidden code
you’ll know when it works when you see the preview window change to a “film” icon
so, to embed a video; just put the code for the actual target without any html or css…or any other text
a return will allow the BBCode to automatically parse the target link when you have done it correctly
(seems mods have removed my deleted posts
syntax looks something like
this is 1080...doesn't look great
https://player.vimeo.com/progressive_redirect/playback/(vid number ID here)/rendition/1080p/file.mp4?loc=external&log_user=0&signature=(sig number here)
I guess the ellipsis is a return in this BBCode?
ok, I’m starting to get a better grasp of the Solo/Mute workflow in SL…it’s just a bit different from various other programs…
Oh man!!! Is this frustrating
I do not understand how these mute/ solos are supposed to work…I waste more time on this alone than any work I do in SL.
It does not work like setting up a mix bus or show/ hide in a program like photoshop (not that I’ve spent much time in PS).
When I have all children soloed, then solo another layer or group, when press solo again on a parent group; I expect ALL child groups to solo again as was the previous state, but that is not what happens. Inevitably one of the children groups go to mute and if try to solo the muted groups, the other children mute 
so then EVERY CHILD GROUP has to be manually soloed.
It’s an absolute time soak.
I guess I gotta make a specific video…
.
and now I go to make a video…and SL works correctly
I do not get it…all I know is this part of SL is not reliable in my time with it
oh my, the more I use it…hmmmm?
there is something to mute/ unmute and solo/unsolo which governs the rules…I wish it was explained in the manual
oh, man
wellllll, it’s all learning curve
I wasn’t registering whether a layer or group has neither a mute or a solo applied (default state from pressing MASTER solo…much to learn
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yep, this was my problem…working as expected now…that’s a big “d’oh”!
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