138 lines
5.9 KiB
HTML
138 lines
5.9 KiB
HTML
---
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layout: default
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title: Patchbay
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---
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<p>
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The <dfn>patchbay</dfn> is the main way to make connections to, from and
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within Ardour's mixer.
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</p>
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<p class="note">
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Notable exceptions are internal aux sends and connections to the monitor bus (if
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you are using one): these cannot be controlled from a patchbay, and are
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basically not under manual control at all.
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</p>
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<img class="right" src="/images/connection-manager.png" alt="an example patchbay" />
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<p>
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The patchbay presents two groups of ports; one set of <dfn>sources</dfn>
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(which produce data), and one of <dfn>destinations</dfn> (which consume
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data). Depending
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on the relative number of each, the sources will be placed on the left
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or the top of the dialogue, and the destinations on the right or the
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bottom. Thus, in general, signal flow is from top or left to right or
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bottom.
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</p>
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<p>
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Both sources and destinations are divided up into groups, with each
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group being given a tab:
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</p>
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<dl class="narrower-table">
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<dt>Hardware</dt>
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<dd>
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These are ports which are connected to a physical piece of hardware
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(a sound card or MIDI interface).</dd>
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<dt>Ardour Busses</dt>
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<dd>All ports belonging to busses.</dd>
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<dt>Ardour Tracks</dt>
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<dd>All ports belonging to tracks.</dd>
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<dt>Ardour Misc</dt>
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<dd>
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These are other ports that do not fit into the previous two
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categories; for example, the ports on which the metronome click
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is output, and MIDI ports for things like control surfaces and
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timecode.
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</dd>
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<dt>Other</dt>
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<dd>
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If you have other JACK clients running, their ports will be found
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here. If there are no such ports, the tab will not exist (on one or
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both axes of the grid).</dd>
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</dl>
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<p>
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The main part of the patchbay is a <dfn>matrix grid</dfn>. Within this
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grid, green dots represent connections, and you can click in any of the
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squares to make or break connections. You can also click and drag to
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draw a line of connections, which is sometimes useful for making many
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connections at once.
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</p>
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<p>
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In the example patchbay shown above we can note various things. We are
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using the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Tracks</kbd> sources tab, so we see
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the output ports of the three tracks in our session: Fred, Jim and Foo.
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Our destinations are from the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> tab,
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so we have the inputs of a session bus, Sheila, and the inputs of the
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master bus. Fred and Jim have stereo outputs, so have L and R connections.
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Foo is a MIDI track, so it only has one connection, and its squares in
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the grid are coloured light grey to indicate that no connection can be
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made between Foo (a MIDI output) and our busses (which are all audio-input).
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</p>
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<p>
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The green dots in the example show that both Foo and Bar are connected
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to the master bus, left to left and right to right.
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</p>
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<h2>Variants on the Patchbay</h2>
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<p>
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Slightly different versions of the patchbay are available from different
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places in Ardour. For a global view of all JACK audio connections, use
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<kbd class="menu">Window > Audio Patchbay</kbd>, or press
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<kbd class="mod2">P</kbd>. A corresponding MIDI Connection Manager can
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be opened using <kbd class="mod23">P</kbd>.</p>
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<p>
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There is also a patchbay available when connecting individual tracks;
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clicking on the input or output buttons of a mixer strip will open a
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connection manager which has the corresponding track input or output as
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the only destination or source, with all other ports available for
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connection to it.
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</p>
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<h2>Other patchbay features</h2>
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<p>
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Context-clicking on a port name in the connection manager opens a menu
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which provides a few handy options:
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</p>
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<dl class="wide-table">
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<dt><kbd class="menu">Add audio port</kbd> and <kbd class="menu">Add MIDI port</kbd></dt>
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<dd>
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These options add audio or MIDI ports to the thing that you opened
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the menu over, if this is possible. In this way, for example, tracks
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and busses can be extended to have more inputs or outputs.
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</dd>
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<dt><kbd class="menu">Remove</dt>
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<dd>
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Removes the given port, if possible. <kbd class="mouse mod3">Right</kbd>-clicking
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a port will do the same.
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</dd>
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<dt><kbd class="menu">Disconnect all from…</kbd></dt>
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<dd>Disconnects everything from the given port.</dd>
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<dt><kbd class="menu">Rescan</kbd></dt>
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<dd>
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Ardour will try to keep abreast of any changes to the JACK ports on
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your system, and reflect them in any connection managers which are open.
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If for some reason this fails, use this to re-scan the list of ports and
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update the manager.
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</dd>
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<dt><kbd class="menu">Show individual ports</kbd></dt>
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<dd>
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If you have a session which has lots of multi-channel tracks or busses,
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it may be an unnecessary detail that you have to connect left to left and
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right to right every time you make a connection. This obviously gets worse
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with higher channel counts (such as for 5.1 or Ambisonics). To make life
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easier with such sessions, you can untick Show individual ports. After that,
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the channels of tracks and busses will be hidden, and any green dots you add
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in the connection manager will automatically connect each channel of the source
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to the corresponding channel of the destination (left to left, right to right
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and so on). In this mode, a half-circle in the connection grid indicates that
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some (but not all) of the source's ports are connected to the destination.
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</dd>
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<dt><kbd class="menu">Flip</kbd></dt>
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<dd>
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This will flip the visible ports on the vertical axis with those on the
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horizontal. If, for example, the top of the connection manager is showing
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<kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> and the right is showing
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<kbd class="menu">Hardware</kbd>, flip will swap the view to the
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opposite. You can also flip by pressing <kbd>f</kbd>. Note that if there are
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no matching tabs on both axes, flipping will be impossible.
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</dd>
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</dl>
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