7a4c28bd86
This includes rewriting out all of the "you" language that was peppered throughout, fixing inconsistencies in layout, and removing <br>s wherever they were misused and unnecessary (which was quite a lot).
98 lines
4.0 KiB
HTML
98 lines
4.0 KiB
HTML
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<p>
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An Ardour session is stored in a single folder on the computer's filesystem.
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This makes <dfn>backup</dfn> very easy: any tool capable of backing up a
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folder can be used to backup a session. The location of a session is picked when
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it is created —by default it will be in the default session location,
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which can be altered via <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > General >
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Session</kbd>.
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</p>
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<p>
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The single folder approach also makes sharing a project easy. Simply copy the
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session folder (onto a storage device, or across a network) and another Ardour
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user (on any platform) will be able to use it.
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</p>
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<p>
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There is one complication in both cases: a session may reference media files that are stored
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outside of the session folder, if the user has opted not to select
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<kbd class="optoff">Session > Import > Copy to Session</kbd> during import.
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Backing up a session with embedded files will not create a copy of the session
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containing those files. To bring those external files to the session folder,
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the <a href="@@cleaning-up-sessions"><kbd class="menu">Session > Clean-up >
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Bring all media into session folder</kbd> menu</a> can be used.
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</p>
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<h2>Using the dedicated Zip/Archive Current Session tool</h2>
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<figure>
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<img src="/images/archive-session.png" alt="The Zip/Archive Current Session window">
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<figcaption>
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The Zip/Archive Current Session window
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>
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The <kbd class="menu">Zip/Archive Current Session</kbd> tool is located in the
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<kbd class="menu"> File > Archive…</kbd> menu.
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</p>
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<p>
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It allows to create a single file containing everything usefull in the session,
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to share it or back it up, conveniently compressed to a session-archive which
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is a zip-file (tar.xz to be specific) containing all the audio, MIDI,
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plugin-settings,... and the currently active session. Ardour can also extract
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those bundles (<kbd class="menu">Session > Open…</kbd>).
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</p>
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<p>
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As opposed to zipping the entire session-folder manually,
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</p>
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<ol>
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<li>the session-archive only contains the current session-snapshot and only
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files which are used</li>
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<li>externally referenced files are included in the archive.</li>
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</ol>
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</p>
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<p>
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The window shows the following options:
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</p>
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<dl>
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<dt><dfn>Archive Name</dfn></dt><dd>The name of the archive file, defaulting to
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the name of the session followed by the date and time</dd>
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<dt>a dropdown extension selector</dt><dd>allowing to choose between different kind or
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compressed archive file types</dd>
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<dt><dfn>Target directory/folder</dfn></dt><dd>defining where in the filesystem
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the archive file will be generated</dd>
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<dt><dfn>Audio Compression</dfn></dt><dd>a dropdown menu allowing to compress
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the audio files themselves by using an audio-tailored compression format, more
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on that bellow</dd>
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<dt><dfn>Exclude unused audio sources</dfn></dt><dd>a checkbox to drop every
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audio that is in the session, but not actually used in the editor</dd>
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</dl>
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<p>
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The <kbd class="menu">Audio Compression</kbd> selection accepts any of:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>None</li>
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<li>FLAC 16bit</li>
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<li>FLAC 24bit</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Encoding the audio sources to <abbr title="Free Lossless Audio Codec">FLAC</abbr> allows for a good size reduction of the session.
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It should be noted though that FLAC is a fixed-point format, meaning that if the
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audio in the session is in a floating-point format, this conversion will loose
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some information on the samples values that are rounded, though usually, this
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lost information cannot be perceived. Choosing "<em>None</em>" for Audio
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Compression does not compress the audio to FLAC, hence preserving the floating-point
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data at the cost of a bigger file size. Notice also that converting to FLAC
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automatically normalizes the audio.
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</p>
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<p>
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Using the <kbd class="option">Exclude unused audio sources</kbd> option allows
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to only keep the files actually used in the session, which can be useful to leave
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any unused take or reference material out of the backup, reducing the archive's
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global file size.
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</p>
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