164 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
164 lines
6.1 KiB
HTML
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<p>
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In order to fully grasp the terms used in Ardour (and this manual), it is
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necessary to understand what things like sessions, tracks, busses, regions
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and so on—as used in Ardour—are.
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</p>
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<h2>Sessions</h2>
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<p>
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An Ardour <dfn>session</dfn> is a container for an entire project. A session
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may contain an arbitrary number of <dfn>tracks</dfn> and <dfn>busses</dfn>
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consisting of audio and <abbr title="Musical Instrument Digital
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Interface">MIDI</abbr> data, along with information on processing those
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tracks, a mix of levels, and everything else related to the project. A
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session might typically contain a song, an entire album, or a complete live
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recording.
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</p>
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<p>
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Ardour sessions are kept in directories; these directories contain one or
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more <dfn>session files</dfn>, some or all of the audio and MIDI data, and a
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number of other state files that Ardour requires. The session file describes
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the structure of the session, and holds automation data and other details.
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</p>
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<p>
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Ardour's session file is written in <abbr title="eXtensible Markup
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Language">XML</abbr> format, which is advantageous as it is <em>somewhat</em>
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human-readable and human-editable in a crisis. Sound files are stored in one
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of a number of optional formats, and MIDI files as <abbr title="Standard MIDI
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File">SMF</abbr>.
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</p>
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<p>
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It is also possible for Ardour sessions to reference sound and MIDI files
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outside the session directory, to conserve disk space and avoid unnecessary
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copying if the data is available elsewhere on the disk.
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</p>
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<p>
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Ardour has a single current session at all times; if Ardour is started
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without specifying one, it will offer to load or create one.
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</p>
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<p class="note">
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More details can be found in the <a href="@@sessions">Sessions</a> chapter.
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</p>
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<h2>Tracks</h2>
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<p>
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A <dfn>track</dfn> is a concept common to most <abbr title="Digital Audio
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Workstation">DAWs</abbr>, and also used in Ardour. Tracks can record audio or
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MIDI data to disk, and then replay it with processing. They also allow the
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audio or MIDI data to be edited in a variety of different ways.
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</p>
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<p>
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In a typical pop production, one track might be used for the kick drum, another for the snare, more perhaps for the drum overheads and others for bass, guitars and vocals.
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</p>
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<p>
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Ardour can record to any number of tracks at one time, and then play those
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tracks back. On playback, a track's recordings may be processed by any number
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of plugins, panned, and/or its level altered to achieve a suitable mix.
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</p>
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<p>
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A track's type is really only related to the type of data that it stores on
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disk. It is possible, for example, to have a MIDI track with a synthesizer
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plugin which converts MIDI to audio. Even though the track remains MIDI (in
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the sense that its on-disk recordings are MIDI), its output may be
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audio-only.
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</p>
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<p class="note">
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More details can be found in the <a href="@@tracks">Tracks</a> chapter.
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</p>
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<h2 id="busses">Busses</h2>
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<p>
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<dfn>Busses</dfn> are another common concept in both DAWs and hardware
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mixers. They are similar in many ways to tracks; they process audio or MIDI,
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and can run processing plugins. The only difference is that their input is
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obtained from other tracks or busses, rather than from disk.
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</p>
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<p>
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A bus might typically be used to collect together the outputs of related
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tracks. Consider, for example, a three track recording of a drum kit; given
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kick, snare and overhead tracks, it may be helpful to connect the output of
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each to a bus called "drums", so that the drum kit's level can be set as a
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unit, and processing (such as equalization or compression) can be applied to
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the mix of all the tracks. Such busses are also called <dfn>groups</dfn>.
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</p>
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<h2>Regions</h2>
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<p>
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A track may contain many segments of audio or MIDI. Ardour contains these
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segments in things called <dfn>regions</dfn>, which are self-contained
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snippets of audio or MIDI data. Any recording pass, for example, generates a
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region on each track that is enabled for recording. Regions can be subjected
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to many editing operations; they may be moved around, split, trimmed, copied,
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and so on.
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</p>
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<p class="note">
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More details can be found at <a href="@@working-with-regions">Working With
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Regions</a>.
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</p>
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<h2>Playlists</h2>
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<p>
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The details of what exactly each track should play back is described by a
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<dfn>playlist</dfn>. A playlist is simply a list of regions; each track
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always has an active playlist, and can have other playlists which can be
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switched in and out as required.
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</p>
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<p class="note">
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More details can be found in the <a href="@@playlists">Playlists</a> chapter.
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</p>
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<h2>Plugins</h2>
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<p>
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Ardour allows processing audio and MIDI using any number of
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<dfn>plugins</dfn>. These are external pieces of code, commonly seen as VST
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plugins on Windows or AU plugins on Mac OS X. Ardour supports the following
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plugin standards:
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</p>
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<table class="dl">
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<tr><th><abbr title="Linux Audio Developers' Simple Plugin API">LADSPA</abbr></th>
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<td>the first major plugin standard for Linux. Many LADSPA plugins are
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available, mostly free and open-source.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><abbr title="LADSPA Version 2">LV2</abbr></th>
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<td>the successor to LADSPA. Lots of plugins have been ported from LADSPA to
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LV2, and also many new plugins written.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><abbr title="Virtual Studio Technology">VST</abbr></th>
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<td>Ardour supports VST plugins that have been compiled for Linux.</td></tr>
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<tr><th><abbr title="Audio Units">AU</abbr></th>
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<td>Mac OS X versions of Ardour support AudioUnit plugins.</td></tr>
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</table>
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<p>
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Ardour has some support for running Windows VST plugins on Linux, but this is
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rather complicated, extremely difficult for the Ardour developers to debug,
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and generally unreliable, as it requires running a large amount of Windows
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code in an emulated environment. If it is at all possible, it is strongly
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advisable to use native LADSPA, LV2 or Linux VST plugins on Linux, or AU on
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Mac OS X.
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</p>
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<p class="note">
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More details can be found at <a href="@@working-with-plugins">Working With
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Plugins</a>.
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</p>
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