--- layout: default title: Track Types ---
An Ardour track can be either ‘audio’ or ‘MIDI’. The only real difference between the two is the type of data that the track will record and play back. Either type of track can pass either type of data. Hence, for example, one might have a MIDI track that contains an instrument plugin; such a track would record and playback MIDI data from disk but would produce audio, since the instrument would turn the one into the other.
Nevertheless, when adding tracks to a session, you typically have an idea of what you need to use the new tracks for, and Ardour offers you three choices:
Audio tracks in Ardour can have a "mode" which affects how they behave when recording.
Below is a screenshot that shows the subtly different results of an overdub in normal and non-layered mode. Both tracks were created using identical audio data. The upper track is in normal mode, and the overdub (the middle shorter region) has created a new region which if you look carefully has been layered on top of the the existing (longer) region. The lower track is in non-layered mode, and rather than overlay the overdub region, it split the existing region and inserted the new one in between.
Ardour tracks can have any number of inputs and any number of outputs, and the number of either can be changed at any time (subject to restrictions caused by any plugins in a track). However it is useful to not have to configure this sort of thing for the most common cases, and so the Add Tracks dialog allows you to select "Mono", "Stereo" and few other typical configurations.
Given that tracks have a certain number of inputs and a certain number of outputs and that these numbers may not necessarily be the same, it is not immediately clear what terms like "Mono" or "Stereo" mean. Most people will know that they refer to "1 channel" and "2 channels" in some way, but this leaves room for interpretation. 1 input channel? 2 output channels?
If you are using Ardour's default mode of automatically connecting track (and bus) inputs and outputs, then the designation "Mono" or "Stereo" refers to the input of the track. A Mono track will have a single input and a Stereo track will have two inputs.
The number of outputs for each will be determined by the number of inputs of the master bus, to which the track outputs will be connected. So in the most common case, using a 2 channel master bus, a Mono track has 1 input and 2 outputs that are connected to the master; a Stereo track has 2 inputs and 2 outputs that are connected to the master.
However, if you choose not to have Ardour make connections automatically, then tracks will be left disconnected by default. In this scenario, a Mono track has 1 input and 1 output, and a stereo track has 2 inputs and 2 outputs. It is up to you to connect them as you wish. This is not a particularly useful way to work unless you are doing something fairly unusual with signal routing and processing. It is almost always preferable to leave Ardour to make connections automatically, even if you later change them manually.