118 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
118 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
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title = "Non-destructive editing"
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description = "What is non-destructive editing and how does it work in Ardour?"
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chapter = false
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weight = 1
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In one of the previous chapters we already discussed that Ardour operates on
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sessions that encompass all material you have: audio clips, MIDI clips, all
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effects applied to tracks and busses etc. Before we get to actual editing, let's
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talk about basics of non-destructive editing, how it's implemented in Ardour,
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and why it should give you peace of mind when you do some heavy editing.
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## What does non-destructive editing actually mean?
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In a nutshell, a non-destructive approach to editing means this: whatever you
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do, your source material always stays intact. Instead of writing to original
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files, a program would rather describe changes you applied, store them in a
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project file, and then "replay" them when loading that project.
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## How does it work in Ardour?
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Here is a quick example. Let's record a short audio clip, cut it in half and
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then drag the right half to the right creating a gap:
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{{< figure src="en/non-destructive-editing-cut-move-example.gif"
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alt="Cutting and moving a audio region" >}}
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Here is what actually happens here. Ardour creates a region that references the
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original audio file and uses all of its data, from the first to the last sample.
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When you split the file in two, Ardour creates two regions, and they both
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reference the original file. But now the project file says: the left region
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starts at this point in time, begins with the first sample of the original file
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and stops at that sample in the middle, and the second region starts at a
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different point in time with that sample in the middle of the original file, and
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then it stops at the last sample of the original file.
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You can cut an audio region into as many smaller clips as you like, move them
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around tracks, change their start/end points, stretch or contract them etc. The
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original audio file will never change on the disk.
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When you save a project, all that information is preserved in the session file.
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When you reopen the session, Ardour reads all these references, loads original
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files and recreates all edited audio regions from original audio files. That's
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what "replaying changes" really means.
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If you don't like the way you edited an original take and you are way too far
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into editing to undo the changes, you can start all over again without recording
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a new take. For that, you can open the right sidebar by pressing **Shift+L**, go
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to the _Sources_ tab, grab the name of the original audio file of the take, drop
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it on any track and then move it around, cut etc.
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{{< figure src="en/non-destructive-editing-redo-all-over-again.gif"
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alt="Redo the editing all over again" >}}
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Moreover, any effects you apply to a track are also non-destructive. Ardour will
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apply them to original audio stream and play the result on-the-fly.
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In case of MIDI clips played through a synthesizer, Ardour will use the
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synthesizer to render a stream of audio data while the playhead is rolling,
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capture that audio stream, apply effects to it, and then play the resulting
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audio stream as you go.
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## Differences between audio and MIDI regions
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As you already know, audio files are always intact. But MIDI regions are
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different: you can actually edit their contents, and the changes are saved to
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MIDI files on the disk.
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One case where this matters is when you want to combine multiple regions into
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one. You can do that with audio regions by selecting the ones you want to merge
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and them use `Region > Edit > Combine`. This will create a kind of a meta-region
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that references N audio files on the disk.
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However you cannot do the same with MIDI regions primarily because they are
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editable on disk, and thus combining something that can physically change can
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wreak havoc on data continuity.
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## Where does Ardour store source material?
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Consider this generic project. You have here several audio tracks representing
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drums, two audio tracks for bass and solo guitar, and a MIDI track for electric
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piano.
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{{< figure src="en/session-example.png" alt="Session example" >}}
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If you go to the session folder, you'll find there a number of subfolders,
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including these two:
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- 'interchange', this is where source audio and MIDI files are stored;
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- 'plugins', here Ardour saves the state of every instance of every plugin
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used in the project.
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When you record one instrument, every take you do is represented by one physical
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audio file per channel. So if you did three takes in a stereo track, you'll have
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6 audio files.
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## Does Ardour ever change audio data on disk?
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The only time Ardour does anything to actual audio files on the disk is when you
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explicitely tell you to remove audio files that aren't used anywhere in the
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project. Typically this is done when you did dozens of takes, you made your
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choice and you don't want these files on the disk anymore because they take
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space.
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Even then, you do it in two steps. First you go to `Session > Clean-up >
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Clean-up Unused Sources` to put unused original files into a trash bin, then you
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separately go to `Session > Clean-up > Flush Wastebasket` to actually tell
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Ardour to remove unused files physically.
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## Continuing
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Now that you are familiar with basics of non-destructive editing, let's do some
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actual arranging and editing.
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Next: [ARRANGING TRACKS](../arranging-tracks)
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