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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