2 <h2>Working With Regions</h2>
4 <dfn>Regions</dfn> are the basic elements of editing and composing in
5 Ardour. In most cases, a region represents a single contiguous section
6 of one or more media files. Regions are defined by a fixed set of attributes:
10 <abbr title="Musical Instrument Digital Interface">MIDI</abbr>
11 <dfn>source file(s)</dfn> they represent,</li>
12 <li>an <dfn>offset</dfn> (the "start point") in the audio or MIDI file(s), and</li>
13 <li>a <dfn>length</dfn>.</li>
16 When placed into a playlist, they gain additional attributes:
19 <li>a <dfn>position</dfn> along the timeline, and</li>
20 <li>a <dfn>layer</dfn>.</li>
23 There are other attributes as well, but they do not <em>define</em> the
24 region. Things you should know about regions:
27 <h3>Regions Are Cheap</h3>
29 By themselves, regions consume very little of your computer's resources.
30 Each region requires a small amount of memory, and represents a rather
31 small amount of CPU work if placed into an active track. So, don't worry
32 about creating regions whenever you need to.
35 <h3>Regions Are Not Files</h3>
37 Although a region can represent an entire audio file, they are never
38 equivalent to an audio file. Most regions represent just parts of an audio
39 file(s) on disk, and removing a region from a track has nothing to do with
40 removing the audio file(s) from the disk (the <kbd
41 class="menu">Destroy</kbd> operation, one of Ardour's few destructive
42 operations, can affect this). Changing the length of a region has no effect
43 on the audio file(s) on disk. Splitting and copying regions does not alter
44 the audio file in anyway, nor does it create new audio files (only
46 and the <kbd class="menu">Export</kbd>, <kbd class="menu">Bounce</kbd> and
47 <kbd class="menu">Reverse</kbd> operations create new audio files).</p>