5.3 Grid Options Toolbar

Figure 5-3: The Grid Options Toolbar is located under the clocks at the top of the editor window.

1	Active Mark Location	2	Snap Options
3	Grid Units	4	Edit Point
5	Nudge Controls	6	Nudge Units

5.3.1 Grid

Ardour's editor utilizes a grid to assist in the placement of regions on the timeline, or with editing functions that need to happen on a specific time.  With these buttons you can choose if you want the cursor and various objects to snap to this grid, and how you want the snapping to act.  You can also modify what units the grid measures as well to fit your needs.

With grid mode set to "No Grid", all kind of objects can be moved freely along the timeline. "Grid" will restrict the positions to certain grid units (i.e. beats), "Magnetic" will snap to grid units, but it is still possible to move objects to other places.

Syncing regions to the grid

By default a region's beginning will snap to points along the timeline, but you can change this behaviour by setting a sync point in the region. Select the region(s) and press v . This will set the sync point to your edit point.

The sync point is marked by a thin vertical line at the desired position.

Before setting sync points, set the snap mode to "No Grid", otherwise the position of the sync point will also snap to grid units.

5.3.1.1 Grid Units

The selector next to the grid mode selector defines the size of the grid elements. The most useful settings are "Bars" and "Beats", but you can set your grid to several different units.

Note:   to use Region starts/ends/syncs/bounds as snap choices, you must have either (a) NO tracks selected, which means that Ardour will snap to regions on any track, or (b) several tracks selected, and Ardour will only snap to regions on those selected tracks.   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 the Option "Sync Track Selection to Region Selection" will make the "Region" grid units unusable.  Avoid the use of this option if you are going to use any of the Region grid units.

5.3.1.1.1 CD Frames

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5.3.1.1.2 SMPTE

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5.3.1.1.2.1 SMPTE Frames

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5.3.1.1.2.2 SMPTE Seconds

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5.3.1.1.2.3 SMPTE Minutes

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5.3.1.1.3 Absolute Time

There are two options for snapping to absolute time. You can set your grid to use either seconds or minutes.

5.3.1.1.3.1 Minutes

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5.3.1.1.3.2 Seconds

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5.3.1.1.4 Musical Time

You can set the grid to measure musical time in various increments ranging from 32^nd notes to full bars.  When in this mode the grid will make use of the tempo ruler to determine the appropriate locations for grid lines to match the exact time of the session.

5.3.1.1.4.1 Beats/32

Selecting this option will cause the editor grid to measure in 32^nd notes.

5.3.1.1.4.2 Beats/16

Selecting this option will cause the editor grid to measure in 16^th notes.

5.3.1.1.4.3 Beats/8

Selecting this option will cause the editor grid to measure in 8^th notes.

5.3.1.1.4.4 Beats/4

Selecting this option will cause the editor grid to measure in quarter notes.

5.3.1.1.4.5 Beats/3

Selecting this option will cause the editor grid to measure in triplet beats.

5.3.1.1.4.6 Beats

Selecting this option will cause the editor grid to measure in whole notes.

5.3.1.1.4.7 Bars

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5.3.1.1.5 Marks

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5.3.1.1.6 Regions

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5.3.1.1.6.1 Regions Starts

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5.3.1.1.6.2 Region Ends

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5.3.1.1.6.3 Region Syncs

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5.3.1.1.6.4 Region Bounds

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5.3.1.2 Snap Modes

Ardour supports three different types of snapping to the grid.  Grid snapping, Magnetic snapping, and No Grid.

5.3.1.2.1 No Grid

"No Grid" disables the grid. All objects can be moved freely in this mode.

5.3.1.2.2 Grid

"Grid" activates normal snapping, all positions of objects are restricted to points of the grid. (See Grid Units on how to change these points) If you try to move  an object in "Grid"-mode, it will not change its position until you move the mouse far enough for the object to reach the next grid point. New objects will always be created at grid points, too.

5.3.1.2.3 Magnetic

"Magnetic" is a less strict type of snapping. Objects can still be moved to any position, but positions close to grid points will snap to the grid point. In order to move an object very close to a grid point, it may be necessary to zoom in to prevent snapping to that point.

5.3.2 Edit Point

The edit point is the location where most (all?) editing operations take place. It can be defined as one of the three possibilities:

• the playhead
• the mouse
• the selected marker

There are two keybindings available to cycle through the edit point options; one of them includes "selected marker", one does not. In many editing situations, just the playhead and mouse are all you need. You can also switch the edit point using a new combo-selector just right of the snap unit selector.

The Edit Range

How is the edit range defined?

There are 6 simples rule to define the edit range:

• Edit Point = Playhead
• selected marker exists : range is between Playhead and Marker
• no selected marker : range is between Playhead and Mouse
• Edit Point = Mouse
• selected marker exists : range is between Mouse and Marker
• no selected marker : range is between Playhead and Mouse
• Edit Point = Selected Marker
• selected marker exists : range is between Playhead and Marker
• no selected marker : an error, there is no edit range.

5.3.2.1 Mouse

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5.3.2.2 Playhead

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5.3.2.3 Marker

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5.3.3 Nudge Controls

Sometimes when editing its nice to be able to move objects by predefined amounts rather than just positioning them freely or using snap-to. This kind of motion is called nudging. At the present time, only the playhead, playlists and regions can be nudged.

5.3.3.1 Nudge Clock

You can edit the clock value to alter the distance that regions/playlists will be nudged.  Whatever value is shown here will be the amount of time a selected region is nudged when the nudge forwards, or nudge backwards, buttons are pressed.  Like the primary and secondary clocks, the nudge clock can be changed to show values in timecode, bars:beats, minutes:seconds, samples, or even turned off completely.

5.3.3.2 Nudge Backwards

When this button is clicked, the selected regions will be nudged backwards in time by the amount displayed on the nudge clock.

5.3.3.3 Nudge Forwards

When this button is clicked, the selected regions will be nudged forwards in time by the amount displayed on the nudge clock.