Priority and Ducking

Every key has a priority: Low, Standard or High. When someone with a higher priority is actually speaking to you, everything of lower priority in your ear drops by about 12 dB, so you hear them over the rest. When they stop, the rest comes back up within a second or so. This is called ducking.

Only real speech ducks. A key that is pressed or latched while nobody is speaking into it changes nothing. With every key at Standard, nothing ducks and you hear everyone as before.

Your administrator sets the priorities in your profile. A director’s talk key might be High, so they cut through a busy party line; a programme feed might be Low, so it drops under anyone talking to you.

Change a Priority for Yourself

You can change two priorities in your own mix, and only in your own mix. Long-press a key, or right-click it on a computer, to open its settings.

• Listen priority, on user, party line and feed keys: how much weight you give what you listen to through that key. Set a feed to Low to have it duck under anyone who talks to you.
• Incoming direct-talk priority, on user keys: the priority of that person’s voice when they talk to you directly, through a group, or with Talk All. It replaces the priority they talk with. While they’re not talking to you, the dialog says so.

The dialog shows whether a value comes from your profile or is your own choice. Choosing Standard is a choice too: it stays Standard even if your profile changes. Use profile default and Follow source priority go back to what your profile, or the person talking, says.

Your choices follow you to every device you sign in on. They go away if the key is removed from your profile.

Understand Who Is Ducked

The priority of a voice in your ear is the highest of the ways it reaches you. If someone talks to you on a High key and you also listen to them at Low, they are High. If you hear them on a party line, the higher of their talk priority and your listen priority on that line counts.

A voice is never ducked by someone at the same priority, and a Low feed playing on its own is never ducked by itself.