7 Ardour offers three <dfn>track types</dfn> depending on the type of
8 data they contain, and differentiates between three <dfn>track modes</dfn>,
9 depending on their recording behaviour.
14 An Ardour track can be of type <dfn>audio</dfn> or <dfn>MIDI</dfn>,
15 depending on the <dfn>data</dfn> that the track will primarily record
16 and play back. <em>However, either type of track can pass either
17 type of data.</em> Hence, for example, one might have a MIDI track that
18 contains an instrument plugin; such a track would record and play back
19 MIDI data from disk but would produce audio, since the instrument plugin
20 would turn MIDI data into audio data.
23 Nevertheless, when adding tracks to a session, you typically have an idea
24 of what you need to use the new tracks for, and Ardour offers you three
27 <dl class="narrower-table">
29 <dd>An <dfn>Audio Track</dfn> is created with a user-specified number of
30 inputs. The number of outputs is defined by the master bus channel count
31 (for details see <a href="#channelconfiguration">Channel Configuration</a>
32 below). This is the type of track to use when planning to work with
33 existing or newly recorded audio.</dd>
35 <dd>A <dfn>MIDI track</dfn> is created with a single MIDI input, and a
36 single MIDI output. This is the type of track to use when planning to
37 record and play back MIDI. There are several methods to enable playback
38 of a MIDI track: add an instrument plugin to the track, connect the
39 track to a software synthesizer, or connect it to external MIDI hardware.
41 If you add an instrument plugin, the MIDI track outputs audio instead
45 <dd>There are a few notable plugins that can usefully accept both <dfn>Audio
46 and MIDI</dfn> data (Reaktor is one, and various "auto-tune" like plugins
47 are another). It can be tricky to configure this type of track manually,
48 so Ardour allows you to select this type specifically for use with such
49 plugins. It is <em>not</em> generally the right choice when working normal
50 MIDI tracks, and a dialog will warn you of this.</dd>
53 <h2 id="trackmodes">Track Modes</h2>
55 Audio tracks in Ardour have a <dfn>mode</dfn> which affects how they behave
58 <dl class="narrower-table">
60 <dd>Tracks in <dfn>normal mode</dfn> will record non-destructively —
61 new data is written to new files, and when overdubbing, new regions will be
62 layered on top of existing ones. This is the recommended mode for most workflows.
65 <dd>Tracks using <dfn>non-layered mode</dfn> will record non-destructively
66 — new data is written to new files, but when overdubbing, the existing
67 regions are trimmed so that there are no overlaps. This does not affect
68 the previously recorded audio data, and trimmed regions can be expanded
69 again at will. Non-layered mode can be very useful for spoken word material,
70 especially in combination with <a href="/missing">push/pull trimming</a>.
73 <dd><dfn>Tape-mode</dfn> tracks do <strong>destructive</strong> recording:
74 all data is recorded to a single file and if you overdub a section of existing
75 data, the existing data is destroyed irrevocably — there is no undo.
76 Fixed crossfades are added at every punch in and out point. This mode can be
77 useful for certain kinds of re-recording workflows, but it not suggested for normal
80 <img class="right" src="/files/a3/a3_nonlayered_example.png" alt="normal and non-layered overdubbing comparision"
83 The screenshot on the right shows the subtle difference between an overdub
84 in <dfn>normal mode</dfn> (upper track) and one in <dfn>non-layered mode</dfn>
85 (lower track). Both tracks were created using identical audio data. <br />
86 The upper track shows a new region which has been <dfn>layered on
87 top</dfn> of the the existing (longer) region. You can see this if you look
88 carefully at the region name strips.<br />
89 The lower track has split the existing region in two, trimmed each new
90 region to create space for the new overdub, and inserted the overdub region
94 <h2 id="channelconfiguration">Channel Configuration</h2>
96 Ardour tracks can have any number of inputs and any number of outputs, and the
97 number of either can be changed at any time (subject to restrictions caused by
98 any plugins in a track). However it is useful to not have to configure this sort
99 of thing for the most common cases, and so the
100 <a href="/working-with-tracks/adding-tracks">Add Tracks</a> dialog allows you to
101 select "Mono", "Stereo" and few other typical multichannel presets<br />
102 The name of the preset describes the number of <dfn>input channels</dfn>
106 If you have configured Ardour to automatically connect new tracks and
107 busses for you, the number of outputs will be determined by the number of
108 inputs of the <dfn>master <a
109 href="/introducing-ardour/understanding-basic-concepts-and-terminology/#busses">bus</a></dfn>,
110 to which the track outputs will be connected.<br />
111 For example, if you have a two-channel master bus, then a Mono track has one
112 input and two outputs; a Stereo track has two inputs and two outputs.
115 If you you set <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Audio
116 > Connection of Tracks and Busses</kbd> to <kbd
117 class="menu">manual</kbd>, then tracks will be left disconnected by default
118 and there will be as many outputs as there are inputs. It is up to you to connect
119 them as you wish. This is not a particularly useful way to work unless you are doing
120 something fairly unusual with signal routing and processing. It is almost always
121 preferable to leave Ardour to make connections automatically, even if you later
122 change some of them manually.