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