3 title: Track and Bus Groups
7 Tracks and busses can be put into <dfn>groups</dfn>. Members of a group
8 can share various settings — useful for managing tracks that are closely
9 related to each other. Examples might include tracks that contain
10 multiple-microphone recordings of a single source (an acoustic guitar,
11 perhaps, or a drum-kit).
14 You can group tracks and busses in various ways. In the editor window,
15 a track's controls might look like these:
17 <img class="left" src="/ardour/manual/html/screenshots/track-in-group.png" alt="track headers for a group" />
19 The green tab to the left of the track header indicates that this track
20 is in a group called <samp>Fred</samp>. You can drag these tabs to add
21 adjacent tracks to a group.
24 <h2>Create New Groups</h2>
26 There are several ways to <dfn>create groups</dfn> for tracks and bussess:
29 <li>Context-click on the group tab and use one of the <kbd
30 class="menu">Create...</kbd> options there. You can create a group with
31 no members, or one that starts with the currently selected tracks, or
32 record-enabled tracks, or soloed tracks.</li>
33 <li>Alternatively, click the ‘g’ button on a track header to open the
34 Group menu. The menu lists the available groups. Selecting one of these
35 groups will add the track or bus to that group. The menu also lets you
36 create a new group.</li>
37 <li>Finally, the Groups tab of the
38 <a href="/ardours-interface/introducing-the-editor-window/editor-lists">Editor Lists</a>
39 or the Mixer Window has a <kbd class="menu">plus (+)</kbd> button at the
40 bottom of the list. Click on the plus sign to create a new group.</li>
43 <h2>Remove Groups</h2>
45 Context-click on a <dfn>group tab</dfn> and select <kbd class="menu">Remove
46 Group</kbd> from the menu. Removing a group does <em>not</em> remove
47 the members of a group.
50 You can also remove groups by selecting them in the Groups tab of the
51 <a href="/ardours-interface/introducing-the-editor-window/editor-lists">Editor Lists</a>
52 or Mixer Window and then pressing the <kbd class="menu">minus (-)</kbd>
53 button at the bottom of the list.
56 <h2>Add/Remove Tracks and Busses From a Group</h2>
58 Click the <kbd class="menu">g</kbd> button to display a menu with a list
59 of the available groups. Select one of these groups to add the track or bus
60 to that group. Select <kbd class="menu">No Group</kbd> to remove it.
63 Alternatively, you can also drag a group tab to add or remove tracks from
67 <h2>Activate/Deactivate Groups via the Group Tab</h2>
69 Clicking on a group tab toggles the group between being active and inactive.
70 An inactive group has no effect when editing its members. An active group
71 will share its configured properties across its members. Tabs for disabled
72 groups are coloured grey.</p>
74 <h2>Modify Group Properties</h2>
76 To edit the properties of a group, context-click on its tab and choose
77 <kbd class="menu">Edit Group…</kbd>. This opens the track/bus group dialog,
78 which is also used when creating new groups:
81 <img class="right" src="/ardour/manual/html/screenshots/route-group-dialogue.png" alt="the track/bus group dialog" />
85 Click on the color selector button to change a group's colour. This affects
86 the colour of the group's tab in the editor and mixer windows. The color does
87 <em>not</em> affect the color of the group members unless you also enable the
88 shared <kbd class="menu">Color</kbd> property.
91 <h3>Shared Properties</h3>
93 <kbd class="option">Gain</kbd> means that the track faders will be synced to
94 always have the same value; <kbd class="option">Relative</kbd> means that the
95 gain changes are applied relative to each member's current value. If, for
96 example, there are two tracks in a group with relative gain sharing, and their
97 faders are set to -3 dB and -1 dB, a change of the first track to a
98 gain of -6 dB will result in the second track having a gain of
99 -4 dB (the <em>difference</em> of the gains remains the same).
102 <a href="/working-with-tracks/bus-controls/#mute"><kbd class="option">Muting</kbd></a>,
103 <a href="/working-with-tracks/bus-controls/#solo"><kbd class="option">Soloing</kbd></a>,
104 <a href="/working-with-tracks/audio-track-controls/#record"><kbd class="option">record enable</kbd></a>,
105 <a href="/ardours-interface/introducing-the-editor-window/editor-lists/tracks--busses-list/#active"><kbd class="option">active state</kbd></a>,
106 <a href="/working-with-tracks/controlling-track-appearance/track-coloring/"><kbd class="option">colour</kbd></a> and
107 <a href="/recording/monitoring/"><kbd class="option">monitoring</kbd></a>
108 are all straightforward. They simply mean that all member tracks or busses will
109 share the same settings in these respects.
112 <kbd class="option">Selection</kbd> means that if a region is selected or
113 deselected on one member track, <a
114 href="/working-with-regions/corresponding-region-selection/">corresponding
115 regions</a> on other member tracks
116 will be similarly selected. Since region editing operations are applied to all
117 currently selected regions, this is the way to make edits apply across all tracks
121 <h3>Group Tab Context Menu</h3>
122 <p>Context-clicking on the group tab offers a further menu of group-related actions. </p>
123 <dl class="wide-table">
124 <dt>Create a New Group</dt>
125 <dd>create a new group</dd>
126 <dt>Create New Group from...</dt>
127 <dd> create a new group and automatically add ...
128 <dl class="narrower-table">
130 <dd>all currently selected tracks and busses</dd>
132 <dd>all currently record-enabled tracks</dd>
134 <dd>all currently soloed tracks and busses</dd>
137 <dt>Collect Group</dt>
138 <dd>moves all the member tracks so that they are together in the editor window</dd>
139 <dt>Remove Group</dt>
140 <dd>removes the group (and only the group, not its members).</dd>
141 <dt>Add New Subgroup Bus</dt>
142 <dd> creates a bus (giving it the name of the group) and connects the output of each member to the new bus.
144 <dt>Add New Aux Bus</dt>
145 <dd>adds a bus and gives each member a send to that bus. There are two options for this, specifying whether the sends should be placed pre- or post-fader.</dd>
146 <dt>Fit to Window</dt>
147 <dd> will zoom the member tracks so that they fill the editor window.</dd>
148 <dt>Enable All Groups</dt>
149 <dd>makes all group active, including any hidden groups.</dd>
150 <dt>Disable All Groups</dt>
151 <dd>makes all groups inactive, including any hidden groups.</dd>