Chapter 11

Mix

Route pads to buses, build effect chains and host plugins.

Written in our own words from the Koala manual’s perform and in-app purchases chapters. The Koala manual

0/5

In this chapter · 5

11.1What the mixer gives you
11.2Send pads to the buses
11.3Set levels, names, mute and solo
11.4Add and arrange effects on a channel
11.5Use third-party plugins as effects

11.1BasicsNeeds Mixer

What the mixer gives you

Live effects work on your whole mix at once. The mixer lets you treat parts of a song separately: send pads to their own channels, balance those channels, and give each one a chain of effects. A master channel then lets you finish the song as a whole.

Open the mixer

Go to PERFORM.
Tap MIXER at the bottom right of the screen.

What’s in it

Four buses, BUS A to BUS D. You send pads to them from the sample editor, as Send pads to the buses explains.
A main channel, MAIN, which is the master section. Up to five effects here make your own mastering chain, and Build a mastering chain shows one way to build it.
Five effect slots on every channel, which you fill and rearrange as described in Add and arrange effects on a channel.
More than 30 built-in effects, from compressors and filters to reverbs, delays, modulation, a vocoder and meters. Control level and punch starts the tour, group by group.
A level and a mute button for each channel, plus a solo button on each bus, so you can set your gain staging carefully and drop channels in and out as your song plays. See Set levels, names, mute and solo.
Third-party plugins in the same slots, though not on Android. See Use third-party plugins as effects.

What else it opens up

The resample option turns into RESAMPLE : MAIN, so you can record MAIN or a single bus with its effects. See Resample Koala itself.
Sequences can be exported as BUSES, with one file per bus, so you can carry on mixing in a DAW. See Choose the format of an export.
If you have Samurai as well, moves of faders and bus effect knobs can be recorded into a sequence. See Record and edit automation.
UNDO reaches mixer settings and effects as well as your notes. See Undo and redo.

From the community

The Best App For Beatmakers (Koala Beginner's Tutorial)
TAETRO
A 32-minute tour with chapters, from mic sampling and editing to sequences, the Perform page, resampling and the Mixer. Sponsored by Synido, and filmed before Koala 2.0.

Koala Mixer Tutorial
elf audio
The developer’s 17-minute guide to the Mixer add-on. It dates from the 2023 launch, when there were 16 effects. There are more now, and plugin hosting came later.

11.2BasicsNeeds Mixer

Send pads to the buses

You decide where each pad goes from the sample editor. Sort your pads by job, say your drums on one bus and a vocal chop on another, and each group gets its own level and effects. It’s also what makes tricks like sidechaining possible, because a bus can then act as a source for another effect.

Route a pad

On SAMPLE, select the pad and tap EDIT to open the sample editor.
Tap the MIX tab. If you can’t see it, switch on Show EQ in the EXTRAS settings first.
Tap the BUS button and choose where this pad should go: BUS A to BUS D, or MAIN.
Go to PERFORM and tap MIXER. Each channel’s volume bar tells you whether any pads are going to it.

Key combinations

Tap BUS: Chooses which bus the pad goes to.In the sample editor’s MIX tab

From the community

High Level Koala Ep. 2: Signal Flow & Mixing Drums in Koala Sampler
John Robinson
Signal flow from pad to bus to master, then a drum bus chain of EQ, compression, drive, bitcooker and limiter, with the reasoning behind each.

11.3BasicsNeeds Mixer

Set levels, names, mute and solo

This is where you balance your song. Each channel has a red level bar with an M button below it, the four buses have an S button as well, and you can rename the buses so you remember what’s on them. Muting and soloing work while your song plays, so they’re a performance move as much as a mixing tool.

Key combinations

Drag the red level bar: Sets the channel’s volume.In the mixer
Tap BUS A–BUS D: Changes that channel’s name.In the mixer
Tap M: Mutes the channel.In the mixer
Tap S: Solos the channel.In the mixer

From the community

11.4BasicsNeeds Mixer

Add and arrange effects on a channel

Each channel has five slots, and each slot holds one effect. Together they form a chain, and as with any effects chain, changing the order can change the sound. So it’s worth knowing how to move, swap and switch off what you’ve added, as well as how to add it.

Add an effect

Go to PERFORM and tap MIXER.
Tap a free slot on the channel you want. The effect chooser opens.
Choose an effect. The chapter starting at Control level and punch goes through them all, and Use third-party plugins as effects covers third-party ones.

To change the order, tap and drag an effect you’ve added to a new position in the chain.

The menu in an open effect

DELETE: Takes the effect out of its slot.
REPLACE: Changes it for another effect in the same slot.
INFO: Explains the effect in a few words.

Next to an effect’s title is a power button, which bypasses the effect: you stop hearing it, but it stays in the slot. That makes it easy to compare your sound with and without it. Touch the controls while it’s bypassed, and Koala offers to turn it back on.

Key combinations

Tap a free slot: Opens the effect chooser.In the mixer
Drag an added effect: Moves it to a new place in the chain.In the mixer
Tap the hamburger menu: Shows DELETE, REPLACE and INFO.With an effect open
Tap the power button: Bypasses the effect without removing it.With an effect open

From the community

My 2026 Koala Sampler Workflow: 3 Features That Changed How I Make Beats
sunwarper
A beat from scratch on the current app, using Chopper, the improved stem splitter, an AUv3 synth, resampled bass, bus effects and arranging. Sponsored by Synido.

Koala Sampler App gains new mix powers.RouteNote Create Blog — A plain summary of the Mixer add-on as it launched, with four buses, a master bus and five slots per channel.

11.5AdvancedNeeds Mixer

Use third-party plugins as effects

A mixer slot doesn’t have to hold one of Koala’s own effects. Where your platform allows it, you can load a third-party effect plugin there instead, so the plugins you already use can sit in the same chains. What you can load depends on where you’re running Koala.

What each platform can host

Platform	Plugin formats	How you get it
iOS	AUv3	Included in the Mixer add-on
macOS	Audio Units, CLAP and VST3	Built in, with nothing to buy or switch on
Windows	CLAP and VST3	Built in, with nothing to buy or switch on
Android	None: Android has no native plugin format	–
Linux	Unclear: Koala’s manual lists no formats for Linux	–

Load a plugin

Open the effect chooser by tapping a free slot.
Koala needs to finish its plugin scan first. Then, above its own effects, you’ll see a folder per format: AUV3, AUDIO UNITS, VST3 or CLAP. You only get the ones your platform supports.
Use SORT if you want the list A-Z or by COMPANY.
Tap a plugin, and it goes into the slot.
To see the plugin’s own window, tap OPEN EDITOR in the slot.

From the community