manual/_manual/08_working-with-regions/02_region-selection-equivalence.html

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layout: default
title: Equivalent Region Selection
---                        
  
<p>
  <a href="/working-with-tracks/track-and-bus-groups/">Track Groups</a> have
  a property titled <kbd class="option">Select</kbd> which, if enabled, cause 
  Ardour to propagate a region selection in one track of a group to the
  <dfn>equivalent regions</dfn> of the other tracks in that group.
 </p>
<p>
  For example, let's assume you have used multiple microphones to record a 
  drum kit to multiple tracks. You have created a track group, added all the 
  drum tracks, enabled the group and enabled the Select property for the group. 
  When you select a region in one of the drum tracks, Ardour will select the
  corresponding region in every other drum track, which in turn means that a 
  subsequent edit operation will affect all the drum tracks together. 
</p>

<h2>How Ardour Decides Which Regions are "Equivalent"</h2>
<p>
  Regions in different tracks are considered to be equivalent for the purposes 
  of sharing <dfn>selection</dfn> if they satisfy <em>all</em> the following criteria:
</p>
<ol>
  <li>Each region starts at the <dfn>same offset</dfn> within its source file,</li>
  <li>each region is located at the <dfn>same position</dfn> on the timeline, and</li>
  <li>each region has the <dfn>same length</dfn>.</li>
</ol>

<h2>Overlap Equivalence</h2>
<p>
  Sometimes, the rules outlined above are too strict to get Ardour to do what you 
  want. Regions may have been trimmed to slightly different lengths, or positioned 
  slightly differently, and this will cause Ardour to not select regions in other 
  grouped tracks.</p>
<p>
  In this case, enable 
  <kbd class="option">Edit &gt; Preferences &gt; Editor &gt; Use overlap equivalency for
  regions</kbd>. With this option enabled, regions in different tracks will be 
  considered equivalent for the purposes of selection if they
  <dfn>overlap</dfn>. This is much more flexible and will cover almost all of the 
  cases that the fixed rules above might make cumbersome.
</p>