93 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
93 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown
+++
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title = "Creating a track or a bus"
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chapter = false
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weight = 3
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#pre = "<b>1. </b>"
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+++
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What is an Audio Track?
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--------------------------
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An **Audio** **Track** is a place where you can drag a **Region**
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from your **Region List** and where you can record sounds coming from an
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outside source.
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A Region represents an audio clip, i.e., one of your
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sound files or just a portion of a sound file. In the image below, the
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horizontal strip areas marked "*MyTrack*" and "*short-drone-mono*" are Tracks.
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The rectangles containing audio information are called Regions (for example, the Region "*wheels-mono.1*" is contained within *MyTrack*).
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What is a Bus?
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----------------
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A **Bus** is similar to a track except that it does not contain its own
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regions. You cannot record directly into a bus or drag regions into it.
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The area marked "*Master*" in your session is an example of a Bus. Typically every
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session has a **Master Bus**. All the audio to be **Exported** from
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your Session will be sent to the Master Bus.
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How are Tracks and Busses Used?
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---------------------------------
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Audio-processing **Plugins** and **Automation** can be applied to both
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Tracks and Busses.
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Audio tracks can be routed to Busses. In fact, many Tracks can be
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simultaneously routed to one Bus. Busses are traditionally used as a
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convenient way to apply any kind of signal processing to many Tracks at
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once. For instance, you might find it useful to route all Tracks that
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contain drum sounds to a single Bus that you would call '*drum bus*'.
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Then, if you decide that all your drum Tracks are too loud, you can
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quickly adjust the level of the '*drum bus*' rather than adjusting each
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separate Track that feeds into it.
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Another use of a Bus would be to have a common **Reverberation** Plugin,
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so that any audio Track which requires the Reverb effect could be routed
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to a single Bus.
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Adding Tracks and Busses
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------------------------
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Right-Click in the empty area beneath any existing Tracks and Busses.
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Alternatively, click on the menu *Track > Add Track, Bus, or VCA...* (shortcut
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"*Ctrl*" + "*Shift*" + "*N*"). The following window will appear:
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**Add** lets you specify how many Tracks (or Busses) you would to like
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to create.
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Choose **Audio Tracks** or **Audio Busses** to specify whether you want to
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create Tracks or Busses. There are also other options such as **MIDI Track** and more. Ardour offers different track types depending on the type of data they contain. This tutorial will only
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cover Audio Tracks and Busses. (see the [Ardour
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Manual](http://manual.ardour.org/working-with-tracks/track-types/) for
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details on all track types)
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You can optionally give a **Name** to the Track or Bus being created.
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The **Configuration** drop-down menu allows you to specify how many
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channels of audio you'd like the new Track or Bus to handle. For
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example, if you will be recording your voice on this track using a
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single microphone, choose **Mono**. If you plan to import a clip from an
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existing song and place it on this Track, choose **Stereo**. The choice
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made here will also affect which Plugins you can use on the track (Mono
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tracks cannot use Stereo Plugins and vice versa).
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The **Position** menu lets you choose where you want the new track or bus to be placed: first, last, before or after the selection.
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You can safely ignore the other options for now. To learn more about each of them, please check [this page of the complete Ardour
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Manual](http://manual.ardour.org/working-with-tracks/adding-tracks-and-busses/).
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Click the **Add and Close** button to create the Tracks or Busses you
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have just configured, and automatically close the Add Track window. The tracks you just created will appear as new rows in the **Main Canvas**. If you still wanted to add more tracks after this step, you could alternatively have chosen **Add selected items (and leave dialog open)** instead.
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Continuing
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----------
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Once you've added one or more Tracks, you will want to put some audio
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material into them to work with. Continue on to the **Importing Audio**
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and **Recording Audio** chapters to learn how to do this.
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Next: [IMPORTING AUDIO](../importing-audio)
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