Clicking Solo button too fast causes problems

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

What I did…

  1. Set up multiple tracks for a piece of music.
  2. Shift-click ‘Solo’ button on several instrument tracks that I want to be in the song
  3. Begin listening to the music
  4. I had a very quiet track containing the reverb for a trombone and wanted to see whether it sounded best with or without the reverb
  5. So I repeatedly shift-clicked Solo, to compare the music with and without that track
  6. I clicked twice in short succession and ALL the tracks became unmuted (including all my loud work-in-progress tracks), deafening me!

What seems to happen is that if you shift-click Solo too quickly then it quits ‘multiple solo mode’.
If the track you clicked was already off, ALL the tracks in the document are unmuted
If the track you clicked was already on, all the tracks in the document are muted apart from that one

To be honest, I’m not entirely sure if this is a bug or some kind of deliberate tool to allow ‘double clicking’ Solo to have a different purpose. But whatever it is, it sucks.

When you’re making music, in order to hear the difference with and without a track, you need to be able to quickly and repeatedly mute/unmute (ie bypass) it. The idea that clicking the button vigorously will suddenly unmute all your channels is incredibly stressful!

Audacity 2.4.2
OS: Windows 7 x64
GPU: Sapphire ATI Radeon 4670 HD 750Mhz

2

In “Edit menu > Preferences > Tracks Behaviors”
What is our setting for “Solo Button”?

If it is “Multi-Track”, then “Shift + Click” twice on a track solo button will first solo that one track, then unsolo, leaving all tracks unsoloed.
That sounds like what you are describing, and is the correct behavior.
(see: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tracks_behaviors_preferences.html)
Perhaps your current task would be easier with Solo button behavior set to “Simple”.