manual/include/monitor-setup-in-ardour.html

<p>Ardour has three main settings which affect how
  monitoring is performed. The first is 
  <kbd class="menu">Edit &gt; Preferences &gt; Audio &gt; 
  Record monitoring handled by</kbd>.  There are two or three
  options here, depending on the capabilities of your hardware.
</p>
<p> The other two settings are more complex.  One is 
  <kbd class="menu">Tape machine mode</kbd>, found in the
  same dialog, and the other is the
  <kbd class="option">Session &gt; Properties &gt; Monitoring
  automatically follows transport state</kbd> setting.
</p> 
<p>
  Monitoring also depends on the state of the track's record-enable button,
the session record-enable button, and on whether or not the transport is
rolling.
</p>

<h3>Software or Hardware Monitoring Modes</h3> 
<p>
If Ardour is set to <dfn>external monitoring</dfn>, the explanation of 
Ardour's monitoring behaviour is simple: it does not do any. 
</p>

<h2>Monitoring in Non-Tape-Machine Mode</h2>
<p>
  When <dfn>Tape-Machine mode is off</dfn>, and a track is armed,
  Ardour <em>always</em> monitors the live input, except in one case: 
  the transport is rolling, the session is not recording, and
  <dfn>auto-input</dfn> 
  is active. In this case only, you will hear playback from an armed track.
</p> 
<p>
  Unarmed tracks will play back their contents from disc, unless the
  transport is stopped <em>and</em> <dfn>auto-input</dfn> is enabled.
  In this case, the track monitors its live input.
</p>

<h2>Monitoring in Tape-Machine Mode</h2>

<p>
  In <dfn>Tape-Machine mode</dfn>, things are slightly simpler: when a 
  track is armed, its behaviour is the same as in non-tape-machine mode.
</p> 
<p>
  Unarmed tracks however will always just play back their contents from 
  disk; the live input will never be monitored. 
</p>