<scripttype=text/javascript>varbaseurl="https://prokoudine.github.io/ardour-tutorial/en"</script><scripttype=text/javascriptsrc=/ardour-tutorial/js/search.js?1650147895></script></div><sectionid=homelinks><ul><li><aclass=paddinghref=/ardour-tutorial/en/><iclass="fas fa-home"></i> Home</a></li></ul></section><divclass=highlightable><ulclass=topics><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/title=Introductionclass=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/><b>1. </b>Introduction</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/conventions/title=Conventionsclass=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/conventions/>Conventions</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/what-is-digital-audio/title="What is digital audio?"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/introduction/what-is-digital-audio/>What is digital audio?</a></li></ul></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/title="Getting started"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/><b>2. </b>Getting started</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/starting-ardour-on-ubuntu/title="Starting Ardour"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/starting-ardour-on-ubuntu/>Starting Ardour</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/title="Overview of the Interface"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/>Overview of the Interface</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/editor-window/title="Editor window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/editor-window/>Editor window</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/mixer-window/title="Mixer window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/mixer-window/>Mixer window</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/recorder-window/title="Recorder window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/recorder-window/>Recorder window</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/cue-window/title="Cue window"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/overview-of-the-interface/cue-window/>Cue window</a></li></ul></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/creating-tracks-and-busses/title="Creating tracks and busses"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/creating-tracks-and-busses/>Creating tracks and busses</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/importing-audio/title="Importing audio"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/importing-audio/>Importing audio</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/setting-up-the-timeline/title="Setting up the timeline"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/getting-started/setting-up-the-timeline/>Setting up the timeline</a></li></ul></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/title=Recordingclass=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/><b>3. </b>Recording</a><ul><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/recording-audio/title="Recording audio"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/recording-audio/>Recording audio</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/understanding-routing/title="Understanding routing"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/understanding-routing/>Understanding routing</a></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/routing-between-applications/title="Routing between applications"class=dd-item><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/recording-audio/routing-between-applications/>Routing between applications</a></li></ul></li><lidata-nav-id=/ardour-tutorial/en/editing-sessions/title="Editing sessions"class="dd-item
<spanclass=links><ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/>Home</a> > <ahref=/ardour-tutorial/en/editing-sessions/>Editing sessions</a> > Further region operations</span></div><divclass=progress><divclass=wrapper><navid=TableOfContents><ul><li><ahref=#pitch-shifting>Pitch Shifting</a></li><li><ahref=#normalize>Normalize</a></li><li><ahref=#reverse>Reverse</a></li><li><ahref=#operations-on-two-or-more-selected-ranges>Operations On Two Or More Selected Ranges</a><ul><li><ahref=#combine>Combine</a></li></ul></li><li><ahref=#continuing>Continuing</a></li></ul></nav></div></div></div></div><divid=head-tags></div><divid=body-inner><h1>Further region operations</h1><p>In this section you will learn a few more things you can do with regions.</p><p>Right-clicking a selected region reveals a context menu. The first item
in the menu (labeled with the region’s name) contains a large sub-menu.
accessible from these menus.</p><p><imgsrc=en/ardour7-region-menu.pngalt="Region menu"></p><dl><dt><strong>Play</strong></dt><dd>Play back from the beginning to the end of that region (<strong>H</strong> shortcut).</dd><dt><strong>Tag</strong></dt><dd>Give a region some meaningful tag, e.g. “Good” that helps distinguishing it
from others in the <em>Regions</em> list</dd><dt><strong>Loop</strong></dt><dd>Set the loop range to fit that region’s duration, and start looping it right
away.</dd><dt><strong>Rename</strong></dt><dd>Change a region’s name.</dd><dt><strong>Properties</strong></dt><dd>Lots of information on the region, plus the ability to change its gain.</dd><dt><strong>Position</strong></dt><dd>Among other options, in this sub-menu you will find the <em>Lock</em> toggle box: it
locks the region so that it cannot be moved or trimmed. It can still be split,
however, and the resulting regions will be unlocked.</dd><dt><strong>Edit</strong></dt><dd>This submenu contains useful tools such as <em>Pitch Shift</em> (<strong>Alt+8</strong>) and
<em>Reverse</em> (<strong>Alt+4</strong>). <em>Pitch Shift</em> alters the pitch of a region without
changing its duration. <em>Reverse</em> makes the region play backwards.</dd><dt><strong>Gain</strong></dt><dd>Has useful options such as <em>Mute</em> (<strong>Alt+1</strong>), <em>Normalize</em> (<strong>Alt+3</strong>),
<em>Boost Gain</em> (<strong>Alt+6</strong>), and <em>Cut Gain</em> (<strong>Alt+7</strong>).</dd><dt><strong>Duplicate</strong></dt><dd>Includes <em>Duplicate</em> (shortcut <strong>Alt+D</strong>), <em>Multi-Duplicate</em>, and <em>Fill Track</em>.
These were explained in detail in the
<ahref=../working-with-regions>Working with Regions</a> chapter.</dd><dt><strong>Loudness Analysis</strong></dt><dd>Estimates loudness of a region in LUFS, as well as <em>Peak</em> and <em>True Peak</em>
values.</dd><dt><strong>Spectral Analysis</strong></dt><dd>Window displaying the overall frequency content of the region.</dd></dl><p>Feel free to explore by yourself other submenus not mentioned above. Many of
them are mirrors of the options you find under Ardour’s <em>Region</em> menu. Below we
go into a bit more details on some of the most useful functions.</p><h2id=pitch-shifting>Pitch Shifting</h2><p>The <em>Pitch Shift</em> (<strong>Alt+8</strong>) function alters the pitch of a region without
changing its duration. The function applies a pitch-shifting algorithm to
create a new audio clip based on the source clip.</p><p>The <em>Pitch Shift</em> window allows the user to specify the amount and direction of
transposition desired. The window includes a <em>Preserve Formants</em> option. When
pitch shifting by large amounts, the preserve formants option can give results
that sound slightly more natural, particularly when used on vocal material.</p><p><imgsrc=en/ardour7-pitch-shift-window.pngalt="Pitch Shift"></p><h2id=normalize>Normalize</h2><p>The <em>Normalize</em> function (<strong>Alt+3</strong> shortcut) non-destructively boosts the level
of the selected region so that the <em>peaks</em> are at 0 dB or less. When
normalizing to 0.0, the region will be as loud as possible while avoiding
clipping. Sometimes you may find useful to normalize a region to a value less
than 0, such as -1.0, -3.0, or -6.0 decibels, so it doesn’t become too loud.</p><p><imgsrc=en/ardour7-normalize-window.pngalt=normalize></p><p>Two other useful gain operations for regions are <em>Boost Gain</em> (<strong>Alt+6</strong>) and
<em>Cut Gain</em> (<strong>Alt+7</strong>), both incrementing gain by 1dB upwards or downwards.
Be sure to try them out.</p><h2id=reverse>Reverse</h2><p>The <em>Reverse</em> (<strong>Alt+4</strong>) function reverses the selected region of audio, in
effect causing it to play backwards. Reversing a region creates a new audio
file “behind the scenes”.</p><h2id=operations-on-two-or-more-selected-ranges>Operations On Two Or More Selected Ranges</h2><p>If more than one range is selected, the operation will apply to all of them (for
example, <em>Normalize</em>, <em>Reverse</em>, etc.)</p><h3id=combine>Combine</h3><p>Some operations from the context menu will only become available when two or
more regions are selected. For example, let’s take a look at the <em>Combine</em>
function, under the sub-menu <em>Edit</em>. First we select two adjacent regions:</p><p><imgsrc=en/ardour7-region-combine-1.pngalt=combine></p><p>Then we choose <em>Combine</em> from the right-click context menu, or from Ardour’s
main menu <code>Region > Edit > Combine</code>:</p><p><imgsrc=en/ardour7-region-combine-2.pngalt="combine 2"></p><p>As a result, the selected regions are combined into one. This is particulary
useful when you have found an exact sequence of regions that works just as you
want, and then you would like to copy and/or move the whole sequence as group.</p><p>Notice that the resulting combined region has the word “compound” attached to
its name.</p><p><imgsrc=en/ardour7-region-combine-3.pngalt="combine 3"></p><h2id=continuing>Continuing</h2><p>In the following chapter, we will learn a bit more about the powerful
tools Ardour has available by changing <strong>Edit Modes</strong>.</p><p>Next: <ahref=../changing-edit-modes>CHANGING EDIT MODES</a></p><footerclass=footline></footer></div></div><divid=navigation></div></section><divstyle=left:-1000px;overflow:scroll;position:absolute;top:-1000px;border:none;box-sizing:content-box;height:200px;margin:0;padding:0;width:200px><divstyle=border:none;box-sizing:content-box;height:200px;margin:0;padding:0;width:200px></div></div><scriptsrc=/ardour-tutorial/js/clipboard.min.js?1650147895></script>
