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