This chapter covers basic management of tracks. Tracks are probably the most important objects in Ardour. They represent the fundamental way to playback and record audio, MIDI, and image data.
To add a new Track or Bus activate the New Track Dialog
Choose →
Choose whether you wish to add a new Track or a new Bus.
Enter the number of new tracks/busses you want to add.
Choose the channel configuration for the Tracks or Busses you are adding.
If you are creating a Track choose whether to create a normal track or a Tape Track.
Note
If you choose Manual Setup for the channel
configuration then the tracks will be created with no inputs and you
will have to configure the I/O configuration of the track using the
I/O Connections
Editor
Tracks can be renamed from within the or the .
To change the name of a track in the Editor Window click within the track name field in the , enter the new track name and press the Enter key to confirm the change.
If you decide not to rename a track after already changing the content of the track name field but before confirming the change pressing the ESC key will restore the original track name.
Tip
Several tracks can be renamed quickly in sequence by using the Tab key to move the focus between the track name fields.
To change the name of a track in Mixer Window click on the track name button and choose from the pop-up menu.
A dialog will then appear allowing you to rename the track, input the new name and press Enter or click to confirm the name change.
A track can be removed from within the by right-clicking in the empty space in the to bring up the track context menu and choosing .
Alternatively a track can also be removed from within the by clicking on the track name button and choosing .
Warning
Removing a track is a permanent operation that cannot be undone. If there are no other tracks using the that is in use by the track being removed then the playlist will also be removed from the session and will no longer be accessible.
The track list on the left edge of the Editor and Mixer can be used to hide or show specific tracks in either or both of those two windows. To hide a track, click to on the tracks name in the relevant track list. To show a track, click on its name in the track list. Visible tracks have their names shown in cyan, hidden ones in orange.
You can also hide any track by clicking its hide button (images/hidebutton.ps).
Hiding a track in the Editor has no effect on its visibility in the Mixer, and vice versa. Hiding a track in one or both windows does not affect the playback of that track's material.
Click on the titlebar of the track list of the Editor or Mixer. From the menu that appears, select "Show All"
Click on the titlebar of the track list of the Editor or Mixer. From the menu that appears, select "Hiding All".
Click on the titlebar of the track list of the Editor or Mixer. From the menu that appears, select "Show All Audio Tracks", or "Show all Busses" as appropriate.
Click on the titlebar of the track list of the Editor or Mixer. From the menu that appears, select "Hide All Audio Tracks", or "Hide all Busses" as appropriate.
A track can be muted by clicking on the button in the or the button in a tracks . Muting a track will silence its output, right-clicking on a mute button will bring up a pop-up menu that will allow you to choose what will be affected when muting.
Note
Muting an Audio Track may slightly reduce the amount of DSP resources required for the session but the audio data referenced by the tracks will still be read from disk.
"Soloing" a track refers to changing some aspect of the signal flow through Ardour that makes it possible to listen to one (or just a few) tracks at a time. It is often done during mixing and mastering to help an audio engineer listen carefully to parts of the mix.
Tracks may be soloed at any time. When one or more tracks are soloed, all non-soloedntracks will no longer be audible.
Soloing tracks does not affect the solo status of busses, nor vice versa. That is, soloing a track leaves all busses audible and soloing a track leaves all tracks "audible". You may not actually be able to hear the "audible" material if it is routed through a non-soloed bus.
This design is intended to allow FX busses and master outs to be useful even when soloing. Soloing is made significantly more complex by the presence of control outs (see control_outs_soloing for more details on soloing with control outs).
Whenever one or more tracks are soloed, the "rude solo light" in the transport window will flash. You can cancel any current solos by clicking on the "rude solo light".
Ardour has two solo modes.
- solo latch
soloing a track adds it to the set of soloed tracks, so you may have any number of soloed tracks.
- solo unlatch
soloing a track unsolos any other soloed track, so you can have only one soloed track at a time.
To change the solo mode, goto the Options editor (options_editor) and view the Misc tab.
To toggle the solo state of a track, click on the solo button in either the mixer strip for the track or the track controls section in the editor.
To toggle the solo state of all tracks in an edit or mix group, use Ctrl1 on the solo button of a track in the group. If you do this in the Editor, the edit group will be used; in the Mixer, the mix group will be used.
To toggle the solo state of all tracks, use Ctrl+Shift+ on a track solo button.
To protect a track's current solo status, use Shift1 on that track's solo button. The color of the button will change to a pale blue to indicate "solo safe" status. No changes to the solo state for that track are possible until "solo safe" has been unset for the track.
A track can be deactivated from the track context menu which is accessed by clicking on the empty space in the and choosing the menu item. A track can also be made inactive from the track name button in a .
The and of inactive tracks have a different background color to differentiate them from active tracks.
Deactivating a track will silence it and reduce the amount of system resources required to operate the session. An inactive Audio Track will not read audio data from disk, unlike when a track is muted.
The height of a track in the can be resized by right-clicking in the empty space in the to bring up the track context menu and choosing a size from the submenu.
It can also be modified by clicking on the
button in the when the size of the track is
Normal or above.
Tip
Holding the pointer over a track and pressing Shift while scrolling with the mouse wheel will increase or decrease its height.
When a track is added to the session it is given a default name based on
the Track type. For example, the first audio track that is added to the
session will be given the name Audio 1 and the first
bus will be called Bus 1 and any subsequently added
tracks will be consecutively numbered.
Track names determine the names of the files created when recording to a track so it is suggested that meaningful names are given to tracks, see Section 2.6.3, “Renaming Tracks”