manual/include/transport-bar.html

<h2>The transport controls</h2>

<p>
  The <dfn>Transport Bar</dfn> groups all the actions regarding the control of
  playback and recording.
</p>

<figure>
  <img src="/images/transport.png" alt="The transport controls">
  <figcaption>
    The transport controls
  </figcaption>
</figure>

<h3 id="transport_action_buttons">Transport action buttons</h3>
<p>
  The upper row contains transport actions, that are all bound to keyboard
  shortcuts, which allows for speedier use and more focused work:
</p>

<table class="dl">
	<tr><th>Midi Panic</th><td>Immediately stops all midi output.</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Enable/disable Audio Click</th><td>Toggles (on/off) a click track (metronome)
    along the <a href="@@tempo-and-meter">tempo</a>. Right clicking brings up the
    <kbd class="menu">Click</kbd> submenu from the Preferences. Scrolling with
    the mouse wheel adjusts the gain of the click.</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Go to Start of the Session</th><td>Jumps back at the beginning of the session,
    as defined by the <a href="@@working-with-markers">start marker</a>.</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Go to End of the Session</th><td>Jumps forward to the end of the session,
    as defined by the <a href="@@working-with-markers">end marker</a>.</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Play Loop Range</th><td>Repeats the defined <a href="@@controlling-playback">loop</a>
     as defined by the <a href="@@the-loop-range">Loop range</a>, until the "Stop
     playback" button is pressed. Clicking the "Play loop Range" button while
     already active switches to normal Play mode, which exits the loop without
     stopping and restarting playback.</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Play Range/Selection</th><td>If a range has been defined using the Range
    Mode button, plays the range, of if an audio or MIDI region is selected,
    plays this region. In both cases, the playback stops at the end of the range
    or selected region.</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Play from playhead</th><td>Starts the playback and optionally record (more
    below).</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Stop</th><td>Whatever the playing mode (loop, range, &hellip;) stops all
    playback. Depending on other settings, some effects (like chorus or reverb)
    might still be audible for a while.</td></tr>
	<tr><th>Toggle Record</th><td>Global switch button to activate/deactivate recording.
    While active, the button blinks red. The button doesn't start recording by
    itself: if one or more tracks are marked as record-enabled, pressing the
    "Play from Playhead" starts recording on those tracks.</td></tr>
</table>

<p class="note">
  If Ardour is synchronized with other devices then some or all of these control
  methods may be unavailable&mdash;depending on the synchronization protocol,
  Ardour may respond only to commands sent from its master device(s).
</p>

<h3 id="transport_modifiers">The Transport modifiers</h3>
<h4 id="transport_shuttle">The Shuttle Speed Control</h4>
<p>
  Under these buttons is the <dfn>Shuttle Speed Control</dfn> that
  allows to <em>temporarily</em> scrub through the audio quickly. The slider
  decides the playback speed: the further from the center it is set,
  the faster the playback will scrub in both directions. The range of
  this acceleration can be set by <kbd class="mouse">right</kbd>
  clicking the control and setting the multiplier, between 1.5
  (&plusmn; 150%) and 8 (&plusmn; 800%).
</p>

<h4 id="transport_varispeed">VariSpeed</h4>
<p>
  The <kbd class="menu">VS</kbd> (for <em>V</em>ari<em>S</em>peed)
  button sets a <em>constant</em> playback/record speed. It can be set
  in semitones (1 semitone = &times; 2 <sup>1&frasl;12</sup> &asymp;
  105,9%), or cents of semitones, and is armed/disarmed by clicking the
  button. The <kbd class="menu">VS</kbd> button will blink when VariSpeed
  is enabled. Whether or not this VariSpeed is persistent when
  stopping/restarting transport depends on the <kbd class="option">Reset
  default speed on stop</kbd> parameter in the <a
  href="@@preferences#preferences-transport">Preferences</a>.
</p>

<h4 id="transport_sync">Transport Sync</h4>
<p>
  On the left of the slider is the positional sync button (which might show <dfn>Internal</dfn>,
  or <dfn>MTC</dfn> or several other values), than can be used to control whether or not the
  transport position and start is controlled by Ardour, or by an external positional
  synchronization source, such as MIDI Time Code (MTC), Linear Time Code (LTC) or JACK
  (see <a href="@@timecode-generators-and-slaves">Timecode Generators and Slaves</a>).
</p>

<h4 id="transport_status">Transport Status</h4>
<p>
  The current playback status (Stop, Play, or speed %) is shown on the right of
  the speed slider.
</p>


<h2>Using Key Bindings</h2>
<p>
  Ardour has many available commands for playback control that can be bound
  to keys. Many of them have default bindings, some do not, so the list below
  shows both the default bindings and internal command names for some of them.
</p>

<table class="dl">
  <tr><th><kbd>Space</kbd></th><td>Switch between playback and stop.</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd>Home</kbd></th><td>Move playhead to session start marker</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd>End</kbd></th><td>Move playhead to session end marker</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd>&rarr;</kbd></th><td>Playhead to next region boundary</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd>&larr;</kbd></th><td>Playhead to previous region boundary</td></tr>
  <tr><th><kbd>0</kbd></th><td>Move playhead to start of the timeline</td></tr>
</table>

<p>
  The <kbd class="menu">Transport</kbd> and <kbd class="menu">Transport &gt;
  Playhead</kbd> menus contain a lot more transport actions and their key bindings.
</p>