Aligning regions (sometimes called "spotting") means moving one or more regions based on a defined location, which in Ardour is always the edit point. An alignment operation moves the region(s) so that some part of the region is positioned at the edit point. Available alignment commands include:

Align Region starts a

Selected region(s) are moved so that their start is located at the current edit point

Align Region ends a

Selected region(s) are moved so that the end is located at the current edit point

Align Region sync points Shift-a

Selected region(s) are moved so that their sync point is located at the current edit point

Align Region starts relative a

Selected region(s) are moved so that the start of the earliest region is located at the current edit point, and all others maintain their relative position relative to that region