ardour/manual/xml/creating_a_new_session.xml

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<section id="sn-creating-a-new-session">
  <title>Creating a new Session</title>
  <para>
    The first step in starting a new project with Ardour is to create a new
    session. When you do this, Ardour creates a new folder named after your
    session, and stores differents kinds of files and subfolders within it.
    The two most important subfolders are <filename>sounds</filename> which
    contains all the audio recorded or imported for the session and
    <filename>automation</filename> which contains automation data for
    various parts of the session.
  </para>

  <para>
    When you start ardour without specifying an existing session, it
    automatically brings up the new session dialog. If you want to create a
    new session at other times, choose <menuchoice>
    <guimenu>Session</guimenu> <guisubmenu>New Session</guisubmenu>
    </menuchoice>.
  </para>
  <mediaobject>
    <imageobject>
      <imagedata fileref="images/session_control.png"/>
    </imageobject>
  </mediaobject>
  <para>
    Enter a name for the new session. You can use any characters you like as
    part of the name, but you should know that more or less anything other
    than alphabetic and numeric characters will be converted to underscores
    to form the name of the session folder.
  </para>

  <para>
    Next, choose where you want to store the new session folder. If its not
    in your current working folder, click on the browse button to expand the
    file selector, and then navigate to your desired location.
  </para>
  <mediaobject>
    <imageobject>
      <imagedata fileref="images/new_session_select_directory.png"/>
    </imageobject>
  </mediaobject>
  <section id="new-session-io">
    <title>Input and Output Configuration</title>
    <para>
      Next, configure the basic IO setup for the session. You have several
      choices here, and doing nothing is one of them. This will give you a
      session that includes:
    </para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          a stereo master bus with its outputs connected to the first two
          outputs of your audio interface
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          all new track will have their outputs sent to the master bus
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          all new track inputs will be connected to Ardour’s best guess at
          the relevant input of your audio interface.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>
      However, if you want more control over this, click on the expander
      next to <guilabel>Advanced options</guilabel> label to show the full
      set of options:
    </para>
    <mediaobject>
      <imageobject>
        <imagedata fileref="images/new_session_advanced_tab.png"/>
      </imageobject>
    </mediaobject>
    <para>
      There are two options available for track input configuration:
      autoconnect or manual. If you select autoconnect (the default) then
      new tracks will be connected to an input of your audio interface. If
      you select manual, it will be up to you to configure the input for
      each track.
    </para>

    <para>
      For output, the first two choices are whether to have control and
      master outs. Most DAWs assume the presence of master outs, and few (if
      any) offer control outs.
    </para>

    <section id="new-session-master-outs">
      <title>Master Outputs</title>
      <para>
        A Master out is a bus to which all (or most) tracks and other busses
        send their output. It provides a convenient single point of control
        for the output of ardour, and is a typical location for global
        effects. Because of this, using master outs is enabled by default,
        and the master out bus is setup to be stereo (2 inputs, 2 outputs).
        However, if you are feeding Ardour’s output through a hardware
        mixing console, you may not want master outs. In such cases, disable
        them by clicking on the radio button next to “Use master outs”.
        Alternatively, you may want some other channel configuration for the
        master output (for example, 8 channel surround sound). Select this
        by using the clickbox (see clickboxes) next to the radio button.
      </para>
    </section>

    <section id="new-session-control-outs">
      <title>Control Outputs</title>
      <para>
        Control outs are unusual for DAWs, but because Ardour is designed to
        be as flexible as possible, and in particular is intended to be
        useful as a live mixer, they are included here. Using control outs
        provides you with a dedicated bus to which all tracks have an
        additional output connection. As well as feeding their regular
        outputs, they send data to the control outs as well. In an
        unadjusted session, this means that the control outs carry the same
        signal as the master outs. However, once you start soloing tracks,
        the control outs will carry only soloed tracks while the master outs
        continue to carry the entire mix. A typical use of control outs is
        when doing live stage work. The mix engineer will be listening to
        the control outs, and can therefore solo tracks without affecting
        the signal being sent to the master outs (the main speakers).
      </para>
    </section>
  </section>
</section>