2 <img width="50%" src="/images/connection-manager.png" alt="An example patchbay">
9 The <dfn>patchbay</dfn> is the main way to make connections to, from and
10 within Ardour's mixer.
13 Notable exceptions are internal aux sends and connections to the monitor bus
14 (when using one): these cannot be controlled from a patchbay, and are
15 basically not under manual control at all.
18 The patchbay presents two groups of ports; one set of <dfn>sources</dfn>
19 (which produce data), and one of <dfn>destinations</dfn> (which consume data).
20 Depending on the relative number of each, the sources will be placed on the
21 left or the top of the dialogue, and the destinations on the right or the
22 bottom. Thus, in general, signal flow is from top or left to right or bottom.
25 Both sources and destinations are divided up into groups, with each group
31 <td>These are ports which are connected to a physical piece of hardware
32 (a sound card or MIDI interface).</td></tr>
33 <tr><th>Ardour Misc</th>
34 <td>These are other ports that do not fit into the previous two
35 categories; for example, the ports on which the metronome click
36 is output, and MIDI ports for things like control surfaces and
39 <td>All ports of I/O Pre-Process Plugins.</td></tr>
41 <td>All ports of I/O Post-Process Plugins.</td></tr>
43 <td>All ports belonging to tracks.</td></tr>
45 <td>All ports belonging to busses.</td></tr>
48 If the Jack backend is being used and if there are other JACK clients
49 running, their ports will be found
50 here. If there are no such ports, the tab will not exist (on one or
51 both axes of the grid).</td></tr>
54 The main part of the patchbay is a <dfn>matrix grid</dfn>. Within this grid,
55 green dots represent connections, and any of the squares can be clicked on to
56 make or break connections. Clicking and dragging draws a line of connections,
57 which is sometimes useful for making many connections at once.
60 In the example patchbay shown above we can note various things. We are
61 using the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Tracks</kbd> sources tab, so we see
62 the output ports of the three tracks in our session: Fred, Jim and Foo.
63 Our destinations are from the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> tab,
64 so we have the inputs of a session bus, Sheila, and the inputs of the
65 master bus. Fred and Jim have stereo outputs, so have L and R connections.
66 Foo is a MIDI track, so it only has one connection, and its squares in
67 the grid are coloured light grey to indicate that no connection can be
68 made between Foo (a MIDI output) and our busses (which are all audio-input).
71 The green dots in the example show that both Fred and Jim are connected
72 to the master bus, left to left and right to right.
75 <h2>Variants on the Patchbay</h2>
77 Slightly different versions of the patchbay are available from different
78 places in Ardour. A global view of all audio connections is available, in
79 <kbd class="menu">Window > Audio Connections</kbd>, or by pressing
80 <kbd class="mod2">P</kbd>. A corresponding MIDI Connection Manager can
81 be opened using <kbd class="mod23">P</kbd>.</p>
83 There is also a patchbay available when connecting individual tracks;
84 clicking on the input or output buttons of a mixer strip will open a
85 connection manager which has the corresponding track input or output as
86 the only destination or source, with all other ports available for
90 <h2>Other patchbay features</h2>
92 <kbd class="mouse">right</kbd>-clicking on a port name in the connection manager
93 opens a context menu which provides a few handy options:
96 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Add audio port</kbd><br> and <br><kbd class="menu">Add MIDI port</kbd></th>
98 These options add audio or MIDI ports to the clicked source, if this is
99 possible. In this way, for example, tracks and busses can be extended to have
100 more inputs or outputs.
102 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Remove <em>port_name</em></th>
104 Removes the given port, if possible. <kbd class="mouse mod3">Right</kbd>-clicking
105 a port will do the same.
107 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Disconnect all from <em>port_name</em></kbd></th>
108 <td>Disconnects everything from the given port.</td></tr>
109 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Rescan</kbd></th>
111 If Ardour is using the JACK backend, Ardour will try to keep abreast
112 of any changes to the JACK ports on
113 the system, and reflect them in any connection managers which are open.
114 If for some reason this fails, this can be used to re-scan the list of ports and
117 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Show individual ports</kbd></th>
119 If a session has lots of multi-channel tracks or busses, it may be an
120 unnecessary detail that left has to be connected to left and right to right
121 every time a connection is made. This obviously gets worse with higher
122 channel counts (such as for 5.1 or Ambisonics). To make life easier with
123 such sessions, Show individual ports can be unticked. After that, the
124 channels of tracks and busses will be hidden, and any green dots added in
125 the connection manager will automatically connect each channel of the source
126 to the corresponding channel of the destination (left to left, right to
127 right and so on). In this mode, a half-circle in the connection grid
128 indicates that some (but not all) of the source's ports are connected to the
131 <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Flip</kbd></th>
133 This will flip the visible ports on the vertical axis with those on the
134 horizontal. If, for example, the top of the connection manager is showing
135 <kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> and the right is showing
136 <kbd class="menu">Hardware</kbd>, flip will swap the view to the
137 opposite. Flipping can also be done by pressing <kbd>f</kbd>. Note that if
138 there are no matching tabs on both axes, flipping will be impossible.