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