Comment Re:Perhaps a better solution... (Score 5, Interesting) 248
That's a pretty good description of ducking. Although since the OP wanted to entirely mute the audio, s/he'd be better off using a limiter or a gate.
A limiter is a compressor with more than 20:1 reduction. A gate is (sort of) a compressor with an infinity:1 ratio.
And, if you didn't want to pay for a compressor/limiter/gate, you could probably figure out a way to get Ardour to do it.
But muting the speakers is probably the easiest way.