Updated the Grid & Snap page.
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Ed Ward
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<h2> What is “Snap” and “Grid”?</h2>
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<figure class="left">
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<img src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Editor toolbar's grid">
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<figure>
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<img src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Snap & Grid">
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<figcaption>
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Editor toolbar's grid.
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Snap & Grid
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>
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“Snap” will cause drags and other mouse-driven operations to jump to
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positions determined by the nearest snap setting. Snap can be set to
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multiple options: markers, region start/ends, and the grid (those
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are all enabled by default. change them in prefs).
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</p>
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<p>
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Grid can be enabled, and it will draw lines at selected intervals;
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which can be musical, like 16th notes, or can be timecode based
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(minutes and seconds). You can leave the Grid enabled, but snap
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disabled, if you just want to see the lines but not snap to them.
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</p>
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<p>
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For example: if the Grid is set to “beats” and Snap-to-grid is
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enabled, then any operations such as split, paste, or range-select
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will happen exactly on a beat, according to the musical timeline and
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tempo.
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</p>
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<p>
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Alternatively, you can leave “Snap” enabled (so your mouse actions
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can snap to Markers, or region edges) but disable the Grid.
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</p>
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<h2>A Warning, of sorts</h2>
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<p class="warning">
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The grid consist of lines running vertically in the edit canvas. If
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you zoom too far out, you might see a coarser grid than you
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expect. Ardour tries not to show “too many” or “too few” grid lines
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depending on the zoom level. You might find that items snap in-between
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the grid lines sometimes. That’s expected behavior. If you can’t see
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or snap to the grid you’d like to use, you may have to zoom in or out.
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</p>
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<h2>About Snapping</h2>
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<h2 id="grid_controls-snap">Snap</h2>
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<p>
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There are two ways to think about aligning material. The first and
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most obvious one is where an object's position is clamped to the
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snap positions. In Ardour, this is called <dfn>absolute snap</dfn>
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and is commonly used when working with sampled material where audio
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begins exactly at the beginning of a file, note or region.
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<dfn>Snap</dfn> will cause region drags and other mouse-driven
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operations to jump to positions determined by the nearest snap
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setting when the mouse is close enough to this snap point. Snapping
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is sometimes (improperly) referred to as magnetism.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Snap options are set in the <a
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href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-snap">Preferences</a>. Those
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include the Snap Threshold which determines how close the mouse has
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to be to a snap anchor to induce a snap, and the snap anchors
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themselves, among:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Markers</li>
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<li>Region Sync points</li>
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<li>Region Starts</li>
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<li>Region Ends</li>
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<li>Grid.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="grid_controls-grid">Grid</h2>
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<p>
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The <em>Grid</em> helps visually placing items in time. It will draw
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lines at selected intervals as chosen in the drop-down selector.
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Musical grid settings (<em>Bar</em> to <em>Sextuplets</em>) obviously
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depend on the <a href="@@tempo-and-meter">tempo and meter</a>, so
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changing the tempo or meter will rescale the grid, while absolute grid
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settings (<em>Timecode</em>, etc…) won't be affected.
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</p>
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<p class="note">
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A word about time signature in this context: a time signature
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consists of 2 numbers. The upper one determines how many beats are in
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a bar, the lower one, what division of a note a beat represents (e.g.
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: <em>4</em> stands for a quarter note). At e.g. 80 <abbr
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title="beats per minute">bpm</abbr>, one beat lasts 1/80th min, so
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0.75 sec. If the time signature is 3/4, there are 3 beats in a bar so
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a bar lasts for 3 × 0.75 = 2.25 sec. Choosing <em>1/8 Note</em>
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as the grid setting will draw grid lines every 0.75 ÷ 1/4
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× 1/8 = 0.375 sec.
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</p>
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<p>
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The second, <dfn>relative snap</dfn>, is used when an object's
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position relative to the snap positions is important. In music, this
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allows to move objects around without changing the "feel" (or
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timing) of a performance.
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</p>
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<p>
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Absolute snap is the default method of snapping in Ardour.
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</p>
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<p>
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While dragging objects, pressing the absolute snap modifier key(s) switches
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from absolute to relative snap.
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</p>
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<p>
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The snap can also be entirely disabled by using the snap modifier (see below).
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</p>
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<p>
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Note that in relative snap mode the reference point is taken to be the distance
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to the nearest grid line.
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</p>
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<p>
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Note also that when an object lies exactly on a grid line, there will be no
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difference between relative and absolute snap modes.
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</p>
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<p>
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The relative snap and snap modifiers (along with other modifier keys) may be set
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in <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > User Interaction</kbd>
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</p>
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<p>
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For common use patterns, it is recommended to assign a unique key for one
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snap modifier and two keys for the other in such a way that they share an
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otherwise unused key. For example, the snap modifier may be chosen to be the
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<kbd class="mod2n"></kbd> key and the relative snap modifier to be the <kbd
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class="mod2n"></kbd> and <kbd class="mod4n"></kbd> keys.
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</p>
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<h2>Snap Modes</h2>
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<p>
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Using the above modifications, Ardour supports three different modes of snapping
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to the grid:
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</p>
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<table class="dl">
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">No Grid</kbd></th>
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<td>disables the grid. All objects move freely in this mode.</br>
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In <kbd class="menu">No Grid</kbd> mode, the grid may be temporarily activated
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by pressing the snap modifier (for absolute snap) or switch to relative snap
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by pressing the relative snap modifier.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Grid</kbd></th>
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<td>activates normal snapping. All positions of objects snap to the grid. (See
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<a href="#gridunits">Grid Units</a> below to change the grid).
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Moving an object in "Grid"-mode, does not change its position until
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the mouse is far enough for the object to reach the next grid line.</br>
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To maintain an objects' position relative to the grid line, the "snap relative"
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modifier can be used. When holding down this
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modifier during a drag, the dragged object will jump while maintaining its
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original distance from the line.</br>
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New objects will always be created at grid
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points.</br>
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Holding down the snap modifier will disable the current grid
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setting and allow moving the object freely.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Magnetic</kbd></th>
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<td>is a less strict type of snapping. Objects can still be moved to any
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position, but positions close to the relative or absolute grid points will snap.
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In order to move an object very close to a snap point, it may be necessary to
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zoom in to prevent snapping to that point, or to use the snap modifier to
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disable snap completely.</br> As with Grid mode, the snap modifier will disable
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snap completely while the absolute snap modifier will move the "notch" of
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Magnetic snap to the grid lines.</td></tr>
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</table>
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<h2>Syncing Regions to the Grid</h2>
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<p>
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By default, a region's beginning will be used as the reference for both types of
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snapping, this behaviour can be changed by setting a <dfn>sync point</dfn>
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in the region, by selecting the region(s) and pressing <kbd>V</kbd>. This will set the
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sync point to the current <a href="@@edit-point-control">edit point</a>.
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</p>
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<h2 id="gridunits">Grid Units</h2>
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<p>
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The selector next to the grid mode selector defines the size of the grid
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elements. The grid can be set to several different units:
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</p>
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<table class="dl">
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">CD Frames</kbd></th>
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<td>A CD Frame is 1/75th of a second. Snapping to CD Frames (using absolute snap) can be used to avoid issues with CD track lengths.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Timecode Frames/Seconds/Minutes</kbd></th>
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<td>The duration of a frame depends on the timecode settings for the session.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Seconds/Minutes</kbd></th>
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<td>These are absolute time units, unaffected by sample rate or timecode settings</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Beats/N</kbd></th>
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<td>Set the grid to units of 1/N beats, where N can be 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Beats</kbd></th>
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<td>Set the grid to whole beats. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Bars</kbd></th>
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<td>Set the grid to whole bars. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Markers</kbd></th>
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<td>The grid lines are the markers.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Starts</kbd></th>
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<td>The grid lines are constructed from region start points (see below).</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Ends</kbd></th>
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<td>The grid lines are constructed from region end points (see below).</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Syncs</kbd></th>
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<td>The grid lines are constructed from region sync points.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Bounds</kbd></th>
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<td>The grid lines are constructed from region start or end points.</td></tr>
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</table>
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<p>
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To use Region starts/ends/syncs/bounds as snap choices, it is necessary to have either:
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The grid density can be either based on musical time:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><em>No</em> tracks selected, which means that Ardour snaps to regions on any
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track, or </li>
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<li>Several tracks selected, which means that Ardour only snaps to regions on
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those selected tracks.</li>
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<li><em>No Grid</em>: hides the Grid</li>
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<li><em>Bar</em>: shows one grid line per bar (e.g, in 4/4 at 120bpm, one line every 2 seconds)</li>
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<li><em>1/4</em>: shows one grid line per quarter bar, or 4 grid lines per bar (e.g, in 4/4 at 120bpm, one line every .5 seconds)</li>
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<li><em>...</em></li>
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<li><em>1/128</em>: shows one grid line per 128<sup>th</sup> bar, or 128 grid lines per bar</li>
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<li><em>Triplets</em>: groups the ternary divisions of time:
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<ul>
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<li><em>1/3 (8th triplet)</em>: shows one grid line per third bar</li>
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<li><em>...</em></li>
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<li><em>1/24 (64th triplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 24<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><em>Quintuplets</em>: groups the 1/5<sup>th</sup> divisions of time:
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<ul>
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<li><em>1/5 (8th quintuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per fifth bar</li>
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<li><em>...</em></li>
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<li><em>1/20 (32th quintuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 20<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><em>Septuplets</em>: groups the 1/7<sup>th</sup> divisions of time:
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<ul>
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<li><em>1/7 (8th septuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per seventh bar</li>
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<li><em>...</em></li>
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<li><em>1/28 (32th septuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 28<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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If items are moved on a track, and only the current track is selected, then
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snapping will only happen with other regions on the same track. This means
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that enabling <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Editor > Link
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Selections of Regions and Tracks</kbd> will make the "Region" grid unit
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unusable. This option should not be used in conjunction with the use any of the
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Region grid units.
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Or absolute time:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li><em>Timecode</em>: shows one grid every <a href="@@on-clock-and-time">frame</a></li>
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<li><em>MinSec</em>: shows one grid line every thousandth of a second</li>
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<li><em>CD Frames</em>: shows one grid line per CD Frame (1/75<sup>th</sup> second)</li>
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</ul>
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<p class="warning">
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The grid consist of lines running vertically in the edit canvas. When
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zooming too far out, the grid can become too coarse. Ardour tries not
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to show “too many” or “too few” grid lines depending on the zoom level,
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based on the <em>Approximate Grid/Ruler granularity (pixels)</em> <a
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href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-snap">Preferences</a> parameter.
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As a consequence, when the Grid is in the Snap anchors, it is possible
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that items snap in-between the grid lines sometimes. That’s expected
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behavior.
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</p>
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<h3>Syncing Regions to the Grid</h2>
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<p>
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By default, a region's beginning will be used as the reference for
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both types of snapping, this behaviour can be changed by setting a
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<dfn>sync point</dfn> in the region, by selecting the region(s) and
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pressing <kbd>V</kbd>. This will set the sync point to the current <a
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href="@@edit-point-control">edit point</a>.
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</p>
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<h3>Keyboard modifiers</h3>
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<p>
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Snapping can be temporarily disabled by using a keyboard modifier while
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editing, <kbd class="mod2n"></kbd> by default.
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</p>
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<p>
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Snapping can also be temporarily set to relative, i.e. snapping will
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occur relative to the current position of the dragged item. E.g. if
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the Grid is in the Snap options, and the grid is set to
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<em>Bars</em>, using this keyboard modifier while dragging will snap
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at every bar relative to the region's beginning (or sync point)
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instead of the absolute musical bars.
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</p>
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<p>
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The keyboard modifiers are defined in the <a
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href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-modifiers">Preferences</a>.
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</p>
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