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
25 <td>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.</td></tr>
31 <td>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 alongside
40 <tr><th>Audio/MIDI</th>
41 <td>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.</td></tr>
49 <h2 id="trackmodes">Track Modes</h2>
51 Audio tracks in Ardour have a <dfn>mode</dfn> which affects how they behave
56 <td>Tracks in <dfn>normal mode</dfn> will record non-destructively—new
57 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
61 <tr><th>Non-Layered</th>
62 <td>Tracks using <dfn>non-layered mode</dfn> will record
63 non-destructively—new data is written to new files, but when
64 overdubbing, the existing regions are trimmed so that there are no overlaps.
65 This does not affect the previously recorded audio data, and trimmed regions
66 can be expanded again at will. Non-layered mode can be very useful for spoken
67 word material, especially in combination with
68 <a href="@@pushpull-trimming">push/pull trimming</a>.
71 <td><dfn>Tape-mode</dfn> tracks do <strong>destructive</strong> recording:
72 all data is recorded to a single file and if you overdub a section of
73 existing data, the existing data is destroyed irrevocably—there is no
74 undo. Fixed crossfades are added at every punch in and out point. This mode
75 can be useful for certain kinds of re-recording workflows, but it not
79 <img class="right" src="/images/a3_nonlayered_example.png" alt="normal and non-layered overdubbing comparision"
82 The screenshot on the right shows the subtle difference between an overdub
83 in <dfn>normal mode</dfn> (upper track) and one in <dfn>non-layered mode</dfn>
84 (lower track). Both tracks were created using identical audio data. <br>
85 The upper track shows a new region which has been <dfn>layered on
86 top</dfn> of the the existing (longer) region. You can see this if you look
87 carefully at the region name strips.<br>
88 The lower track has split the existing region in two, trimmed each new
89 region to create space for the new overdub, and inserted the overdub region
93 <h2 id="channelconfiguration">Channel Configuration</h2>
95 Ardour tracks can have any number of inputs and any number of outputs, and the
96 number of either can be changed at any time (subject to restrictions caused by
97 any plugins in a track). However it is useful to not have to configure this sort
98 of thing for the most common cases, and so the
99 <a href="@@adding-tracks-busses-and-vcas">Add Tracks</a> dialog allows you to
100 select "Mono", "Stereo" and few other typical multichannel presets<br>
101 The name of the preset describes the number of <dfn>input channels</dfn>
105 If you have configured Ardour to automatically connect new tracks and
106 busses for you, the number of outputs will be determined by the number of
107 inputs of the <dfn>master <a
108 href="/introducing-ardour/understanding-basic-concepts-and-terminology/#busses">bus</a></dfn>,
109 to which the track outputs will be connected.<br>
110 For example, if you have a two-channel master bus, then a Mono track has one
111 input and two outputs; a Stereo track has two inputs and two outputs.
114 If you you set <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Audio
115 > Connection of Tracks and Busses</kbd> to <kbd
116 class="menu">manual</kbd>, then tracks will be left disconnected by default
117 and there will be as many outputs as there are inputs. It is up to you to connect
118 them as you wish. This is not a particularly useful way to work unless you are doing
119 something fairly unusual with signal routing and processing. It is almost always
120 preferable to leave Ardour to make connections automatically, even if you later
121 change some of them manually.