-<img class="left" src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Editor toolbar's grid">
-<p>
- Ardour's editor utilizes a <dfn>grid</dfn> to assist in the placement of regions on the timeline, or with editing functions that need to happen at a specific point in time. You can choose if you want the cursor and various objects to snap to this grid, and how you want the snapping to behave. You can modify the grid units to fit your needs.
-</p>
-
-<h2>About Snapping</h2>
+<figure>
+ <img src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Snap & Grid">
+ <figcaption>
+ Snap & Grid
+ </figcaption>
+</figure>
-<p>
- There are two ways to think about aligning material to a grid. The first and most obvious one is where an object's position is clamped to grid lines. In Ardour, this is called <dfn>absolute snap</dfn> and is commonly used when working with sampled material where audio begins exactly at the beginning of a file, note or region.
-</p>
+<h2 id="grid_controls-snap">Snap</h2>
<p>
- The second, <dfn>relative snap</dfn>, is used when an object's position relative to the grid lines is important. In music, this allows you to move objects around without changing the "feel" (or timing) of a performance.
+ <dfn>Snap</dfn> will cause region drags and other mouse-driven
+ operations to jump to positions determined by the nearest snap
+ setting when the mouse is close enough to this snap point. Snapping
+ is sometimes (improperly) referred to as magnetism.
</p>
-
<p>
- Absolute snap is the default method of snapping in Ardour.
+ The Snap options are set in the <a
+ href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-snap">Preferences</a>. Those
+ include the Snap Threshold which determines how close the mouse has
+ to be to a snap anchor to induce a snap, and the snap anchors
+ themselves, among:
</p>
+<ul>
+ <li>Markers</li>
+ <li>Region Sync points</li>
+ <li>Region Starts</li>
+ <li>Region Ends</li>
+ <li>Grid.</li>
+</ul>
+<h2 id="grid_controls-grid">Grid</h2>
<p>
- While dragging objects you may switch from absolute to relative snap by pressing the absolute snap modifier key(s).
+ The <em>Grid</em> helps visually placing items in time. It will draw
+ lines at selected intervals as chosen in the drop-down selector.
+ Musical grid settings (<em>Bar</em> to <em>Sextuplets</em>) obviously
+ depend on the <a href="@@tempo-and-meter">tempo and meter</a>, so
+ changing the tempo or meter will rescale the grid, while absolute grid
+ settings (<em>Timecode</em>, etc…) won't be affected.
</p>
-<p>
- You may also disable snap entirely by using the snap modifier (see below).
+<p class="note">
+ A word about time signature in this context: a time signature
+ consists of 2 numbers. The upper one determines how many beats are in
+ a bar, the lower one, what division of a note a beat represents (e.g.
+ : <em>4</em> stands for a quarter note). At e.g. 80 <abbr
+ title="beats per minute">bpm</abbr>, one beat lasts 1/80th min, so
+ 0.75 sec. If the time signature is 3/4, there are 3 beats in a bar so
+ a bar lasts for 3 × 0.75 = 2.25 sec. Choosing <em>1/8 Note</em>
+ as the grid setting will draw grid lines every 0.75 ÷ 1/4
+ × 1/8 = 0.375 sec.
</p>
<p>
- Note that in relative snap mode the reference point is taken to be the distance to the nearest grid line.
+ The grid density can be either based on musical time:
</p>
-<p>
- Note also that when an object lies exactly on a grid line, there will be no difference between relative and absolute snap modes.
-</p>
+<ul>
+ <li><em>No Grid</em>: hides the Grid</li>
+ <li><em>Bar</em>: shows one grid line per bar (e.g, in 4/4 at 120bpm, one line every 2 seconds)</li>
+ <li><em>1/4</em>: shows one grid line per quarter bar, or 4 grid lines per bar (e.g, in 4/4 at 120bpm, one line every .5 seconds)</li>
+ <li><em>...</em></li>
+ <li><em>1/128</em>: shows one grid line per 128<sup>th</sup> bar, or 128 grid lines per bar</li>
+ <li><em>Triplets</em>: groups the ternary divisions of time:
+ <ul>
+ <li><em>1/3 (8th triplet)</em>: shows one grid line per third bar</li>
+ <li><em>...</em></li>
+ <li><em>1/24 (64th triplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 24<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ <li><em>Quintuplets</em>: groups the 1/5<sup>th</sup> divisions of time:
+ <ul>
+ <li><em>1/5 (8th quintuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per fifth bar</li>
+ <li><em>...</em></li>
+ <li><em>1/20 (32th quintuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 20<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+ <li><em>Septuplets</em>: groups the 1/7<sup>th</sup> divisions of time:
+ <ul>
+ <li><em>1/7 (8th septuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per seventh bar</li>
+ <li><em>...</em></li>
+ <li><em>1/28 (32th septuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 28<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
+</ul>
<p>
- The realtive snap and snap modifiers (along with other modifier keys) may be set in <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > User Interaction</kbd>
+ Or absolute time:
</p>
-<p>
- For common use patterns, it is recommended that you assign a unique key for one snap modifier and two keys for the other in such a way that they share an otherwise unused key. For example, you may choose the snap modifier to be the <kbd class="mod2"> </kbd> key and the relative snap modifier to be the <kbd class="mod2"> </kbd> and <kbd class="mod4"> </kbd> keys.
-</p>.
-
-<h2>Snap Modes</h2>
+<ul>
+ <li><em>Timecode</em>: shows one grid every <a href="@@on-clock-and-time">frame</a></li>
+ <li><em>MinSec</em>: shows one grid line every thousandth of a second</li>
+ <li><em>CD Frames</em>: shows one grid line per CD Frame (1/75<sup>th</sup> second)</li>
+</ul>
-<p>
- Using the above modifications, Ardour supports three different modes of snapping to the grid:
+<p class="warning">
+The grid consist of lines running vertically in the edit canvas. When
+zooming too far out, the grid can become too coarse. Ardour tries not
+to show “too many” or “too few” grid lines depending on the zoom level,
+based on the <em>Approximate Grid/Ruler granularity (pixels)</em> <a
+href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-snap">Preferences</a> parameter.
+As a consequence, when the Grid is in the Snap anchors, it is possible
+that items snap in-between the grid lines sometimes. That’s expected
+behavior.
</p>
-<dl class="wide-table">
- <dt><kbd class="menu">No Grid</kbd></dt>
- <dd>disables the grid. All objects move freely in this mode.</br>
- In <kbd class="menu">No Grid</kbd> mode, you may temporarily activate the grid by pressing the snap modifier (for absolute snap) or switch to relative snap by pressing the relative snap modifier.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Grid</kbd></dt>
- <dd>activates normal snapping. All positions of objects snap to the grid. (See <a href="#gridunits">Grid Units</a> below to change the grid). If you try to move an object in "Grid"-mode, it does not change its position until you move the mouse far enough for the object to reach the next grid line.</br>
- Sometimes you may wish to maintain an objects' position relative to the grid line. In order to do this, use the "snap relative" modifier. When holding down this modifier during a drag, the dragged object will jump while maintaining its original distance from the line.</br>
- New objects will always be created at grid points.</br>
- Holding down the snap modifier will disable the current grid setting and allow you to move the object freely.</br>
- </dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Magnetic</kbd></dt>
- <dd>is a less strict type of snapping. Objects can still be moved to any position, but positions close to the relative or absolute grid points will snap. In order to move an object very close to a snap point, it may be necessary to zoom in to prevent snapping to that point, or to use the snap modifier to disable snap completely.</br>
- As with Grid mode, the snap modifier will disable snap completely while the absolute snap modifier will move the "notch" of Magnetic snap to the grid lines.</dd>
-</dl>
-
-<h2>Syncing Regions to the Grid</h2>
+<h3>Syncing Regions to the Grid</h2>
<p>
- By default, a region's beginning will be used as the reference for both types of snapping, but you can change this behaviour by setting a <dfn>sync point</dfn> in the region. Select the region(s) and press <kbd>V</kbd>. This will set the sync point to your edit point.
+ By default, a region's beginning will be used as the reference for
+ both types of snapping, this behaviour can be changed by setting a
+ <dfn>sync point</dfn> in the region, by selecting the region(s) and
+ pressing <kbd>V</kbd>. This will set the sync point to the current <a
+ href="@@edit-point-control">edit point</a>.
</p>
-<h2 id="gridunits">Grid Units</h2>
+<h3>Keyboard modifiers</h3>
<p>
- The selector next to the grid mode selector defines the size of the grid elements. You can set your grid to several different units:
+ Snapping can be temporarily disabled by using a keyboard modifier while
+ editing, <kbd class="mod2n"></kbd> by default.
</p>
-
-<dl class="wide-table">
- <dt><kbd class="menu">CD Frames</kbd></dt>
- <dd>A CD Frame is 1/75th of a second. Snapping to CD Frames (using absolute snap) can be used to avoid issues with CD track lengths.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Timecode Frames/Seconds/Minutes</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The duration of a frame depends on the timecode settings for the session.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Seconds/Minutes</kbd></dt>
- <dd>These are absolute time units, unaffected by sample rate or timecode settings</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Beats/N</kbd></dt>
- <dd>Set the grid to units of 1/N beats, where N can be 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Beats</kbd></dt>
- <dd>Set the grid to whole beats. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Bars</kbd></dt>
- <dd>Set the grid to whole bars. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Markers</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are the markers.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Starts</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region start points (see below).</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Ends</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region end points (see below).</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Syncs</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region sync points.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Bounds</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region start or end points.</dd>
-</dl>
-
<p>
- To use Region starts/ends/syncs/bounds as snap choices, you must have either
+ Snapping can also be temporarily set to relative, i.e. snapping will
+ occur relative to the current position of the dragged item. E.g. if
+ the Grid is in the Snap options, and the grid is set to
+ <em>Bars</em>, using this keyboard modifier while dragging will snap
+ at every bar relative to the region's beginning (or sync point)
+ instead of the absolute musical bars.
</p>
-
-<ul>
- <li><em>No</em> tracks selected, which means that Ardour snaps to regions on any track, or </li>
- <li>Several tracks selected, which means that Ardour only snaps to regions on those selected tracks.</li>
-</ul>
-
<p>
- If you are moving items on a track, and only the current track is selected, then you will only be able to snap to other regions on the same track. This means that enabling <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > Editor > Link Selections of Regions and Tracks</kbd> will make the "Region" grid unit unusable. Avoid the use of this option if you are going to use any of the Region grid units.
+ The keyboard modifiers are defined in the <a
+ href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-modifiers">Preferences</a>.
</p>
projects / ardour-manual / blobdiff