+
+ - The patchbay is the main way to make connections to, from and - within Ardour's mixer. + The patchbay is the main way to make connections to, from and + within Ardour's mixer.
- 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 + Notable exceptions are internal aux sends and connections to the monitor bus + (when using one): these cannot be controlled from a patchbay, and are basically not under manual control at all.
-
- The patchbay presents two groups of ports; one set of sources - (which produce data), and one of destinations (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. + The patchbay presents two groups of ports; one set of sources + (which produce data), and one of destinations (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.
- Both sources and destinations are divided up into groups, with each - group being given a tab: + Both sources and destinations are divided up into groups, with each group + being given a tab:
-| Hardware | +These are ports which are connected to a physical piece of hardware + (a sound card or MIDI interface). |
|---|---|
| Ardour Busses | +All ports belonging to busses. |
| Ardour Tracks | +All ports belonging to tracks. |
| Ardour Misc | +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. |
| Other | ++ If the Jack backend is being used and if there are 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). |
- The main part of the patchbay is a matrix grid. 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. + The main part of the patchbay is a matrix grid. Within this grid, + green dots represent connections, and any of the squares can be clicked on to + make or break connections. Clicking and dragging draws a line of connections, + which is sometimes useful for making many connections at once.
- In the example patchbay shown above we can note various things. We are - using the Ardour Tracks sources tab, so we see - the output ports of the three tracks in our session: Fred, Jim and Foo. - Our destinations are from the Ardour Busses 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 + In the example patchbay shown above we can note various things. We are + using the Ardour Tracks sources tab, so we see + the output ports of the three tracks in our session: Fred, Jim and Foo. + Our destinations are from the Ardour Busses 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).
- The green dots in the example show that both Foo and Bar are connected + The green dots in the example show that both Fred and Jim are connected to the master bus, left to left and right to right.
- Slightly different versions of the patchbay are available from different - places in Ardour. For a global view of all JACK audio connections, use - Window > Audio Patchbay, or press - P. A corresponding MIDI Connection Manager can + Slightly different versions of the patchbay are available from different + places in Ardour. A global view of all audio connections is available, in + Window > Audio Connections, or by pressing + P. A corresponding MIDI Connection Manager can be opened using 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 + 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.
- Context-clicking on a port name in the connection manager opens a menu - which provides a few handy options: + right-clicking on a port name in the connection manager + opens a context menu which provides a few handy options:
-| Add audio port and Add MIDI port |
+ + These options add audio or MIDI ports to the clicked source, if this is + possible. In this way, for example, tracks and busses can be extended to have + more inputs or outputs. + |
|---|---|
| Remove port_name | +
+ Removes the given port, if possible. Right-clicking
a port will do the same.
-
- |
| Disconnect all from port_name | +Disconnects everything from the given port. |
| Rescan | +
+ If Ardour is using the JACK backend, Ardour will try to keep abreast
+ of any changes to the JACK ports on
+ the system, and reflect them in any connection managers which are open.
+ If for some reason this fails, this can be used to re-scan the list of ports and
update the manager.
-
- |
| Show individual ports | ++ If a session has lots of multi-channel tracks or busses, it may be an + unnecessary detail that left has to be connected to left and right to right + every time a connection is made. This obviously gets worse with higher + channel counts (such as for 5.1 or Ambisonics). To make life easier with + such sessions, Show individual ports can be unticked. After that, the + channels of tracks and busses will be hidden, and any green dots added 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. + |
| Flip | ++ 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 + Ardour Busses and the right is showing Hardware, flip will swap the view to the - opposite. You can also flip by pressing f. Note that if there are - no matching tabs on both axes, flipping will be impossible. - - - + opposite. Flipping can also be done by pressing f. Note that if + there are no matching tabs on both axes, flipping will be impossible. + |