1 <h2 id="clock-modes">Clock Modes</h2>
4 Every clock in Ardour has multiple different, selectable <dfn>clock
5 modes</dfn>. Each mode displays time using different units.
6 The clock mode can be changed by <kbd class="mouse">Right</kbd>-clicking
7 on the clock and selecting the desired mode from the menu. Some clocks are
8 entirely independent of any other clock's mode; others are linked so that
9 changing one changes all clocks in that group. The different modes are:
15 <td>Time is shown as <dfn><abbr title="Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers">SMPTE</abbr>
16 timecode</dfn> in Hours:Minutes:Seconds:Frames, measured from the
17 timecode zero point on the timeline (which may not correspond to
18 the session start and/or absolute zero on the timeline, depending
19 on configurable timecode offsets). The frames value is dictated
20 by either the Timecode frames-per-second <a
21 href="@@session-properties#properties-timecode">session
22 property</a>, or, if slaved to an external timecode master, the
23 master's setting. Under the transport clocks is an indication of
24 the current timecode source (<samp>INT</samp> means that Ardour
25 is its own timecode source).
30 <td>Time is shown as Bars:Beats:Ticks, indicating <dfn>musical
35 <th>Minutes:Seconds</th>
36 <td>Time is shown as Hours:Minutes:Seconds.Milliseconds.
41 <td>Time is shown as Seconds.Deciseconds.
46 <td>Time is shown as a <dfn>sample count</dfn>. The number of
47 samples per second is given by the current sample rate.
52 <h2>Changing clock values with the keyboard</h2>
55 New values for the clock can be typed in after clicking on the
56 relevant clock. Clicking on the clock will show a thin vertical
57 cursor bar just to the right of the next character to be overwritten.
58 Time should be typed in the same order as the current clock
59 mode—if the clock is in Timecode mode, it should be hours,
60 minutes, seconds, frames. So, to change to a time of 12:15:20:15 one
61 would type <kbd>1</kbd><kbd>2</kbd><kbd>1</kbd><kbd>5</kbd><kbd>2</kbd>
62 <kbd>0</kbd><kbd>1</kbd><kbd>5</kbd>.
63 Freshly typed numbers will appear in a different color, from right to
64 left, overwriting the existing value. Mid-edit, after typing
65 <kbd>3</kbd><kbd>2</kbd><kbd>2</kbd><kbd>2</kbd> the clock might look
70 <img src="/images/clockedit.png" alt="A clock being edited in Ardour">
72 A clock being edited in Ardour
77 Finishing the edit is done by pressing <kbd>ENTER</kbd> or
78 <kbd>Tab</kbd>. The <kbd>ESC</kbd> key allows to exit an edit without
79 changing the clock. If an entry is mis-typed so that the new value
80 would be illegal (for example, resulting in more than 30 frames when
81 Timecode is set to 30 frames per second), the clock will reset at the
82 end of the edit, and move the cursor back to the start to allow for
86 <h2>Avoiding the mouse entirely</h2>
89 There is a shortcut available to edit the transport clocks entirely
90 without the mouse. It can be found in the <a
91 href="@@keyboard-shortcuts">Keyboard Shortcuts</a> window, <kbd
92 class="menu">Global > Transport > Focus On Clock</kbd>. If
93 bound to a key (<kbd>/</kbd> by default), then pressing that key is
94 equivalent to clicking on the primary (left) transport clock, and
95 editing can begin immediately.
98 <h2>Entering Partial Times</h2>
101 One detail of the editing design that is not immediately obvious is that it is
102 possible to enter part of a full time value.
105 As an example, supposing that the clock is in Bars:Beat mode, displaying
106 <samp>024|03|0029</samp>, altering the value to the first beat of the current
107 bar can be done by clicking on the clock and typing
108 <kbd>0</kbd><kbd>1</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd>.
109 Similarly, if it is in Minutes:Seconds mode, displaying
110 <samp>02:03:04.456</samp>, getting to exactly 2 hours can be achieved by
111 clicking on the clock and typing
112 <kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd>
113 to reset the minutes, seconds and milliseconds fields.
116 <h2>Entering Delta Times</h2>
119 Values can also be typed into the clock that are intended as a relative change,
120 rather than a new absolute value, by <em>ending</em> the edit by pressing
121 <kbd>+</kbd> or <kbd>-</kbd> (the ones on any keypad will also work). The plus
122 key will add the entered value to the current value of the clock, minus will
123 subtract it. For example, if the clock is in Samples mode and displays
124 <samp>2917839</samp>, moving it back 2000 samples is done by typing
125 <kbd>2</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd><kbd>0</kbd> and <kbd>-</kbd>, rather than
126 ending with <kbd>Enter</kbd> or <kbd>Tab</kbd>.
129 <h2>Changing clock values with the mouse</h2>
131 <h3>Using a scroll wheel</h3>
134 With the mouse pointer over the clock, moving the scroll wheel changes the
135 clock values. Moving the scroll wheel up (<kbd class="mouse">⇑</kbd>)
136 increases the value shown on the clock, moving it down (<kbd
137 class="mouse">⇓</kbd>) decreases it. The step size is equal to the unit
138 of the field hovered over (seconds, hours, etc.).
141 <h3>Dragging the mouse</h3>
144 With the mouse pointer over the clock, pressing the left mouse button and
145 dragging also affects the clocks: dragging upwards increases the value shown
146 on the clock, dragging downwards decreases it, again with a step size equal to
147 the unit of the field where the drag began on.