3 title: Ardour's Interface
7 In Ardour, you work in two main windows: the <dfn>Editor</dfn> and the
10 <img class="right" src="/ardour/manual/html/diagrams/editor-summary.png"
11 alt="Ardour's editor window" />
13 The <dfn>Editor</dfn> window includes the editor track <dfn>canvas</dfn>
14 where you can arrange audio and MIDI data along a timeline. This is the
15 window you will be in while editing and arranging a project. The window
16 has a general "horizontal" sense to it: the timeline flows from left to
17 right, the playhead showing the current position in the session moves
18 from left to right — the window really represents <dfn>time</dfn>
19 in a fairly literal way.
21 <img class="right" src="/ardour/manual/html/diagrams/mixer-summary.png"
22 alt="ardour's mixer window" />
24 The <dfn>Mixer</dfn> window on the other hand represents signal flow and
25 is the window you will probably be using most when mixing a session. It
26 includes <dfn>channel strips</dfn> for each track and bus in your session.
27 It has a general "vertical" sense to it: signals flow from the top of each
28 channel strip through the processing elements in the strip to reach the
29 output listed at the bottom.
32 It is possible to show a single channel strip in the editor window, and
33 some people find this enough to work on mixing without actually opening
34 the mixer window. Most of the time though, you will want both of these
35 windows at various stages of a session's lifetime — sometimes
36 you'll be focused on editing, sometimes on mixing and possibly some of