+++ /dev/null
----
-layout: default
-title: Patchbay
----
-
-<p>
- The <dfn>patchbay</dfn> is the main way to make connections to, from and
- within Ardour's mixer.
-</p>
-<p class="note">
- Notable exceptions are internal aux sends and connections to the monitor bus (if
- you are using one): these cannot be controlled from a patchbay, and are
- basically not under manual control at all.
-</p>
-<img class="right" src="/images/connection-manager.png" alt="an example patchbay" />
-<p>
- The patchbay presents two groups of ports; one set of <dfn>sources</dfn>
- (which produce data), and one of <dfn>destinations</dfn> (which consume
- data). Depending
- on the relative number of each, the sources will be placed on the left
- or the top of the dialogue, and the destinations on the right or the
- bottom. Thus, in general, signal flow is from top or left to right or
- bottom.
-</p>
-<p>
- Both sources and destinations are divided up into groups, with each
- group being given a tab:
-</p>
-<dl class="narrower-table">
- <dt>Hardware</dt>
- <dd>
- These are ports which are connected to a physical piece of hardware
- (a sound card or MIDI interface).</dd>
- <dt>Ardour Busses</dt>
- <dd>All ports belonging to busses.</dd>
- <dt>Ardour Tracks</dt>
- <dd>All ports belonging to tracks.</dd>
- <dt>Ardour Misc</dt>
- <dd>
- These are other ports that do not fit into the previous two
- categories; for example, the ports on which the metronome click
- is output, and MIDI ports for things like control surfaces and
- timecode.
- </dd>
- <dt>Other</dt>
- <dd>
- If you have other JACK clients running, their ports will be found
- here. If there are no such ports, the tab will not exist (on one or
- both axes of the grid).</dd>
-</dl>
-<p>
- The main part of the patchbay is a <dfn>matrix grid</dfn>. Within this
- grid, green dots represent connections, and you can click in any of the
- squares to make or break connections. You can also click and drag to
- draw a line of connections, which is sometimes useful for making many
- connections at once.
-</p>
-<p>
- In the example patchbay shown above we can note various things. We are
- using the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Tracks</kbd> sources tab, so we see
- the output ports of the three tracks in our session: Fred, Jim and Foo.
- Our destinations are from the <kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> tab,
- so we have the inputs of a session bus, Sheila, and the inputs of the
- master bus. Fred and Jim have stereo outputs, so have L and R connections.
- Foo is a MIDI track, so it only has one connection, and its squares in
- the grid are coloured light grey to indicate that no connection can be
- made between Foo (a MIDI output) and our busses (which are all audio-input).
-</p>
-<p>
- The green dots in the example show that both Foo and Bar are connected
- to the master bus, left to left and right to right.
-</p>
-
-<h2>Variants on the Patchbay</h2>
-<p>
- Slightly different versions of the patchbay are available from different
- places in Ardour. For a global view of all JACK audio connections, use
- <kbd class="menu">Window > Audio Patchbay</kbd>, or press
- <kbd class="mod2">P</kbd>. A corresponding MIDI Connection Manager can
- be opened using <kbd class="mod23">P</kbd>.</p>
-<p>
- There is also a patchbay available when connecting individual tracks;
- clicking on the input or output buttons of a mixer strip will open a
- connection manager which has the corresponding track input or output as
- the only destination or source, with all other ports available for
- connection to it.
-</p>
-
-<h2>Other patchbay features</h2>
-<p>
- Context-clicking on a port name in the connection manager opens a menu
- which provides a few handy options:
-</p>
-<dl class="wide-table">
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Add audio port</kbd> and <kbd class="menu">Add MIDI port</kbd></dt>
- <dd>
- These options add audio or MIDI ports to the thing that you opened
- the menu over, if this is possible. In this way, for example, tracks
- and busses can be extended to have more inputs or outputs.
- </dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Remove</dt>
- <dd>
- Removes the given port, if possible. <kbd class="mouse mod3">Right</kbd>-clicking
- a port will do the same.
- </dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Disconnect all from…</kbd></dt>
- <dd>Disconnects everything from the given port.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Rescan</kbd></dt>
- <dd>
- Ardour will try to keep abreast of any changes to the JACK ports on
- your system, and reflect them in any connection managers which are open.
- If for some reason this fails, use this to re-scan the list of ports and
- update the manager.
- </dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Show individual ports</kbd></dt>
- <dd>
- If you have a session which has lots of multi-channel tracks or busses,
- it may be an unnecessary detail that you have to connect left to left and
- right to right every time you make a connection. This obviously gets worse
- with higher channel counts (such as for 5.1 or Ambisonics). To make life
- easier with such sessions, you can untick Show individual ports. After that,
- the channels of tracks and busses will be hidden, and any green dots you add
- in the connection manager will automatically connect each channel of the source
- to the corresponding channel of the destination (left to left, right to right
- and so on). In this mode, a half-circle in the connection grid indicates that
- some (but not all) of the source's ports are connected to the destination.
- </dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Flip</kbd></dt>
- <dd>
- This will flip the visible ports on the vertical axis with those on the
- horizontal. If, for example, the top of the connection manager is showing
- <kbd class="menu">Ardour Busses</kbd> and the right is showing
- <kbd class="menu">Hardware</kbd>, flip will swap the view to the
- opposite. You can also flip by pressing <kbd>f</kbd>. Note that if there are
- no matching tabs on both axes, flipping will be impossible.
- </dd>
-</dl>
projects / ardour-manual-diverged / blobdiff