+<figure>
+ <img src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Snap & Grid">
+ <figcaption>
+ Snap & Grid
+ </figcaption>
+</figure>
-<img class="left" src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Editor toolbar's grid">
-
-
+<h2 id="grid_controls-snap">Snap</h2>
<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.
-
+ <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>
-
-
-
-<h2>About Snapping</h2>
-
-
-
-<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.</br>
-
- 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.</br>
-
- Absolute snap is the default method of snapping in Ardour.</br>
-
- While dragging objects you may switch from absolute to relative snap by
-
- pressing the absolute snap modifier key(s).</br>
-
- You may also disable snap entirely by using the snap modifier (see below).</br>
-
- Note that in relative snap mode the reference point is taken to be the distance
-
- to the nearest grid line.</br>
-
- Note also that when an object lies exactly on a grid line, there will be no difference
-
- between relative and absolute snap modes.</br>
-
- The realtive snap and snap modifiers (along with other modifier keys) may be set in
-
- <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > User Interaction</kbd></br>
-
- 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>
-
<p>
-
- Using the above modifications, Ardour supports three different modes of snapping to the grid:
-
+ 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>
-
-
-<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>
-
+<h2 id="grid_controls-grid">Grid</h2>
<p>
+ 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>
- 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.</p>
-
-
-
-<h2 id="gridunits">Grid Units</h2>
+<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>
-
- The selector next to the grid mode selector defines the size of the grid
-
- elements. You can set your grid to several different units:
-
+ The grid density can be either based on musical time:
</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>
-
-
+<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>
-
- To use Region starts/ends/syncs/bounds as snap choices, you must have
-
-either
-
+ Or absolute time:
</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>
-
+ <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 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>
+<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, 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>
- 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.
+<h3>Keyboard modifiers</h3>
+<p>
+ Snapping can be temporarily disabled by using a keyboard modifier while
+ editing, <kbd class="mod2n"></kbd> by default.
+</p>
+<p>
+ 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>
+<p>
+ The keyboard modifiers are defined in the <a
+ href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-modifiers">Preferences</a>.
</p>
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