manual/include/creating-music-with-ardour.html

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<p>
Ardour can be used in many different ways, from extremely simple to
extremely complex. Many projects will be handled using the following
kind of <dfn>workflow</dfn>.
</p>
<h2>Stage 1: Creating Your Project</h2>
<p>
The first step is to create a new <dfn>session</dfn>, or open an
existing one. A session consists of a folder containing a session file
that defines all the information about the session. All media files used
by the session can be stored within the session folder.
</p>
<p>
More details on sessions can be found in
<a href="@@sessions">Working With Sessions</a>.
</p>
<h2>Stage 2: Creating and Importing Audio and MIDI data</h2>
<p>
Once you have a session, you will want to add some audio and/or MIDI
material to it, which can be done in one of 3 ways:
</p>
<ul>
<li><dfn>Record</dfn> incoming audio or MIDI data, either via audio or MIDI hardware
connected to your computer, or from other applications.</li>
<li><dfn>Create</dfn> new MIDI data using the mouse and/or various dialogs</li>
<li><dfn>Import</dfn> existing media files into the session</li>
</ul>
<p>
<dfn>MIDI recordings</dfn> consist of performance data ("play note X at
time T") rather than actual sound. As a result, they are more flexible
than actual audio, since the precise sound that they will generate when
played depends on where you send the MIDI to.<br>
Two different synthesizers may produce very different sound in response
to the same incoming MIDI data.
</p>
<p>
<dfn>Audio recordings</dfn> can be made from external instruments with
electrical outputs (keyboards, guitars etc.) or via microphones from
acoustic instruments.
</p>
<p>
Ardour uses the <dfn>JACK Audio Connection Kit</dfn> for all audio and
MIDI I/O, which means that recording audio/MIDI from other applications
is fundamentally identical to recording audio/MIDI from your audio/MIDI
hardware.
</p>
<h2>Stage 3: Editing and Arranging</h2>
<p>
Once you have some material within the session, you can start to arrange
it in time. This is done in one of the two main windows of Ardour, the
<dfn>Editor</dfn> window.
</p>
<p>
Your audio/MIDI data appears in chunks called <dfn>regions</dfn>, which
are arranged into horizontal lanes called <dfn>tracks</dfn>. Tracks are
stacked vertically in the Editor window. You can copy, shorten, move,
and delete regions without changing the actual data stored in the session
at all&mdash;Ardour is a <dfn>non-destructive</dfn> editor. (Almost)
nothing that you do while editing will ever modify the files stored on
disk (except the session file itself).
</p>
<p>
You can also carry out many <dfn>transformations</dfn> to the contents
of regions, again without altering anything on disk. You can alter,
move, and delete MIDI notes, and remove silence from audio regions, for
example.
</p>
<h2>Stage 4: Mixing and Adding Effects</h2>
<p>
Once you have the arrangement of your session mostly complete, you will
typically move on to the <dfn>mixing</dfn> phase. Mixing is a broad term
to cover the way the audio signals that your session generates during
playback and processed and added together into a final result that you
actually hear. It can involve altering the relative levels of various
parts of the session, adding effects that improve or transform certain
elements, and others that bring the sound of the whole session to a new
level.
</p>
<p>
Ardour will allow you to <dfn>automate</dfn> changes to any mixing
parameters (such as volume, panning, and effects controls)&mdash;it will
record the changes you make over time, using a mouse or keyboard or some
external control device, and can play back those changes later. This is
very useful because often the settings you need will vary in one part of
a session compared to another&mdash;rather than using a single setting
for the volume, you may need increases followed by decreases (for example,
to track the changing volume of a singer). Using automation can make all
of this relatively simple.
</p>
<h2>Stage 5: Export</h2>
<p>
Once you are really satisfied with the arrangement and mix of your
session, you will typically want to produce a single audio file that
contains a ready-to-listen to version of the work. Ardour will allow you to
<dfn>export</dfn> audio files in a variety of formats (simultaneously in
some cases). This exported file would typically be used in creating a CD,
or be the basis for digital distribution of the work.
</p>
<p>
Of course sometimes you will want to do export material that isn't finished
yet, for example to give a copy to someone else to try to mix on their own
system. Ardour will allow you to export as much of a session as you want, at
any time, in any supported format.
</p>