livetrax/manual/xml/what_is_different_about_ardour.xml

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<section id="sn-what-is-different-about-ardour">
  <title>What's Different about Ardour</title>
  <para>
    If you are someone who has used other audio software, particularly
    software generally referred to as a Digital Audio Workstation (or
    "DAW"), then there will be a number of things about Ardour that may
    puzzle you on your initial and early encounters with the program.
  </para>

  <section id="no-default-session">
    <title>No default session</title>
    <para>
      You must explicitly create a
      <glossterm linkend="gt-session">Session</glossterm> before you can do
      anything else, and if you choose not to use one of the provided
      <glossterm linkend="gt-session-template">session templates</glossterm>
      , you will also have to create
      <glossterm linkend="gt-track">tracks</glossterm> and
      <glossterm linkend="gt-bus">busses</glossterm> in order to record
      and/or edit existing audio material.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="where-do-plugins-and-sends-go">
    <title>Where do plugins and sends go?</title>
    <para>
      Ardour doesn't have any fixed number of "slots" for
      <glossterm linkend="gt-plugin">plugins</glossterm>, or
      <glossterm linkend="gt-send">sends</glossterm>, or
      <glossterm linkend="gt-insert">inserts</glossterm> : you can have as
      many per-track as your system has the horsepower handle. The two black
      boxes above and below the mixer strip's gain fader are
      <glossterm linkend="gt-redirect">redirect</glossterm> lists where you
      can add, reorder, remove and generally control plugins, sends, and
      inserts, both pre- and post-fader.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="no-builtin-eq">
    <title>No builtin EQ</title>
    <para>
      Most people don't think much of the EQ's built into other DAWs.
      Moreover, you cannot meaningfully do equalization with 3 knobs marked
      "Lo", "Mid" and "Hi". Since good-quality EQ plugins are available for
      no-cost on Linux, Ardour prefers to allow you to choose one which you
      prefer. Of course, you can save your session configurations as
      templates, so if you have a particular EQ that you prefer, you only
      need do this once.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="no-visible-send-controls">
    <title>No visible send controls</title>
    <para>
      Although Ardour supports sends, there is no way to control them
      directly from the mixer interface - you don't get a dedicated knob on
      the mixer strip. However, if you bring up the send's own editor (for
      example, by double-clicking on its name in the redirect list), you
      will find a richer set of functionality than most other DAWs offer for
      controlling the behaviour of a send.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="a-smaller-set-of-tools">
    <title>A smaller set of tools</title>
    <para>
      Most DAWs have evolved towards providing the so-called "smart tool"
      which allows you to use the mouse for several different kinds of
      operations without changing to a different tool. Ardour has taken this
      approach from the beginning, so that the "Object" tool actually allows
      you to carry out many different operations depending on how and where
      the mouse is used. Ardour does not provide a destructive "pencil" tool
      as some other DAWs do, for some fairly deep technical reasons. Needing
      to use a "pencil" tool for waveform repair nearly always indicates a
      problem with the setup of your session and/or recording hardware. The
      different tools that ardour does offer include the "Object" tool which
      has many different uses including region trimming/moving/copying,
      automation editing, and more; a "Range" tool for defining ranges of
      time; a "TimeFX" tool for timestretching; a "Gain" tool used
      exclusively for editing region gain envelopes; and a "Zoom" tool to
      manipulate temporal zoom. Many other operations are accessible via
      context menus or <link linkend="sn-key-bindings">keyboard
      bindings</link>
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      .
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="no-restrictions-on-track-io-configuration">
    <title>No restrictions on track I/O configuration</title>
    <para>
      Tracks and busses in ardour do not come in pre-determined
      configurations. You can create a mono track, and convert it to a
      stereo track at any time. You can convert it to a track with 3 inputs
      and 7 outputs if you want, because Ardour also doesn't restrict track
      I/O configurations to a fixed set of mono/stereo/5.1/7.1 etc. In
      addition, because of Ardour's use of
      <link linkend="sn-configuring-jack">JACK</link> , a track with one
      input can actually receive data from many different locations. You can
      also connect any track to any number of other tracks and busses. In
      Ardour, the only difference between a track and a bus is that a track
      plays back pre-recorded material from your disk drives and can record
      to them. Both tracks and busses can have plugins, sends, inserts,
      automation data and more.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="your-audio-hardware-is-not-the-only-io-option">
    <title>Your audio hardware is not the only I/O option</title>
    <para>
      Because Ardour uses <glossterm linkend="gt-jack">JACK</glossterm> ,
      your session isn't limited to receiving and sending audio to and from
      your audio interface. It can freely send and receive audio signals to
      any other JACK application, in some cases even JACK applications
      running on other computers. On the one hand, this makes understanding
      the I/O options for a track or bus a little more complex than in a
      conventional program, but it also adds incredible power to Ardour, as
      you will see later.
    </para>
  </section>
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