manual/include/patchbay.html

<p>
  The <dfn>patchbay</dfn> is the main way to make connections to, from and
  within Ardour's mixer.
</p>
<p class="note">
  Notable exceptions are internal aux sends and connections to the monitor bus (if
  you are using one): these cannot be controlled from a patchbay, and are
  basically not under manual control at all.
</p>
<img class="right" src="/images/connection-manager.png" alt="an example patchbay" />
<p>
  The patchbay presents two groups of ports; one set of <dfn>sources</dfn>
  (which produce data), and one of <dfn>destinations</dfn> (which consume
  data). Depending
  on the relative number of each, the sources will be placed on the left
  or the top of the dialogue, and the destinations on the right or the
  bottom. Thus, in general, signal flow is from top or left to right or
  bottom.
</p>
<p>
  Both sources and destinations are divided up into groups, with each
  group being given a tab:
</p>
<dl class="narrower-table">
  <dt>Hardware</dt>
  <dd>
    These are ports which are connected to a physical piece of hardware
    (a sound card or MIDI interface).</dd>
  <dt>Ardour Busses</dt>
  <dd>All ports belonging to busses.</dd>
  <dt>Ardour Tracks</dt>
  <dd>All ports belonging to tracks.</dd>
  <dt>Ardour Misc</dt>
  <dd>
    These are other ports that do not fit into the previous two
    categories; for example, the ports on which the metronome click
    is output, and MIDI ports for things like control surfaces and
    timecode.
  </dd>
  <dt>Other</dt>
  <dd>
    If you have other JACK clients running, their ports will be found
    here. If there are no such ports, the tab will not exist (on one or
    both axes of the grid).</dd>
</dl>
<p>
  The main part of the patchbay is a <dfn>matrix grid</dfn>. Within this
  grid, green dots represent connections, and you can click in any of the
  squares to make or break connections. You can also click and drag to
  draw a line of connections, which is sometimes useful for making many
  connections at once.
</p>
<p>
  In the example patchbay shown above we can note various things. We are
  using the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Tracks</kbd> sources tab, so we see
  the output ports of the three tracks in our session: Fred, Jim and Foo.
  Our destinations are from the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> tab,
  so we have the inputs of a session bus, Sheila, and the inputs of the
  master bus. Fred and Jim have stereo outputs, so have L and R connections.
  Foo is a MIDI track, so it only has one connection, and its squares in
  the grid are coloured light grey to indicate that no connection can be
  made between Foo (a MIDI output) and our busses (which are all audio-input).
</p>
<p>
  The green dots in the example show that both Foo and Bar are connected
  to the master bus, left to left and right to right.
</p>

<h2>Variants on the Patchbay</h2>
<p>
  Slightly different versions of the patchbay are available from different
  places in Ardour. For a global view of all JACK audio connections, use
  <kbd class="menu">Window &gt Audio Patchbay</kbd>, or press
  <kbd class="mod2">P</kbd>. A corresponding MIDI Connection Manager can
  be opened using <kbd class="mod23">P</kbd>.</p>
<p>
  There is also a patchbay available when connecting individual tracks;
  clicking on the input or output buttons of a mixer strip will open a
  connection manager which has the corresponding track input or output as
  the only destination or source, with all other ports available for
  connection to it.
</p>

<h2>Other patchbay features</h2>
<p>
  Context-clicking on a port name in the connection manager opens a menu
  which provides a few handy options:
</p>
<dl class="wide-table">
  <dt><kbd class="menu">Add audio port</kbd> and <kbd class="menu">Add MIDI port</kbd></dt>
  <dd>
    These options add audio or MIDI ports to the thing that you opened
    the menu over, if this is possible. In this way, for example, tracks
    and busses can be extended to have more inputs or outputs.
  </dd>
  <dt><kbd class="menu">Remove</dt>
  <dd>
    Removes the given port, if possible. <kbd class="mouse mod3">Right</kbd>-clicking
    a port will do the same.
  </dd>
  <dt><kbd class="menu">Disconnect all from…</kbd></dt>
  <dd>Disconnects everything from the given port.</dd>
  <dt><kbd class="menu">Rescan</kbd></dt>
  <dd>
    Ardour will try to keep abreast of any changes to the JACK ports on
    your system, and reflect them in any connection managers which are open.
    If for some reason this fails, use this to re-scan the list of ports and
    update the manager.
  </dd>
  <dt><kbd class="menu">Show individual ports</kbd></dt>
  <dd>
    If you have a session which has lots of multi-channel tracks or busses,
    it may be an unnecessary detail that you have to connect left to left and
    right to right every time you make a connection. This obviously gets worse
    with higher channel counts (such as for 5.1 or Ambisonics). To make life
    easier with such sessions, you can untick Show individual ports. After that,
    the channels of tracks and busses will be hidden, and any green dots you add
    in the connection manager will automatically connect each channel of the source
    to the corresponding channel of the destination (left to left, right to right
    and so on). In this mode, a half-circle in the connection grid indicates that
    some (but not all) of the source's ports are connected to the destination.
  </dd>
  <dt><kbd class="menu">Flip</kbd></dt>
  <dd>
    This will flip the visible ports on the vertical axis with those on the
    horizontal. If, for example, the top of the connection manager is showing
    <kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> and the right is showing
    <kbd class="menu">Hardware</kbd>, flip will swap the view to the
    opposite. You can also flip by pressing <kbd>f</kbd>. Note that if there are
    no matching tabs on both axes, flipping will be impossible.
  </dd>
</dl>