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7 <section id="sn-setting-up-to-record">
8 <title>Setting Up To Record</title>
10 This page needs massive work
14 It is very important that you check your system is connected and
15 configured correctly before attempting to record. See Hardware
16 Installation for more information on this topic.
19 <section id="setup-connections">
20 <title>Connections</title>
24 <section id="setup-levels">
29 <section id="setup-clipping">
30 <title>Clipping</title>
34 <section id="record-enabling-tracks">
35 <title>Record Enabling Tracks</title>
39 <section id="setup-monitoring">
40 <title>Monitoring</title>
42 While monitoring is a broad term, here we use it to refer to the
43 signal a track delivers to its channel for further processing.
44 There are two available monitoring states.
46 'input' (the signal being delivered to a track for potential recording), and
47 'off-disk' (material you have already recorded, or silence in the absence of a region).
51 <section id="setup-hardware-monitoring">
52 <title>Hardware Monitoring</title>
54 Some multichannel audio interfaces have the ability to route an input signal
55 directly to an output with very low or no latency. This is useful if your computer hardware
56 is connected to the tape sends and returns of a mixing console.
57 Whenever monitoring is set to input on a track, the track's input port is connected to its
58 output in hardware (as would happen on a multitrack tape recorder).
59 Hardware monitoring provides the best quality assurance for an engineer, as the signal path
60 is exactly the same for input and off-disk monitoring.
61 Level differences can be heard immediately, as can other gremlins that may ruin your recording.
62 The hardware monitoring setting is only useful for interfaces supporting this feature.
66 <section id="setup-software-monitoring">
67 <title>Software Monitoring</title>
69 Software monitoring uses software to perform input monitoring.
70 When set to monitor input, a tracks input signal is passed to its channel
71 as if it were coming from disk, allowing plugins to be heard while recording.
72 This introduces an inevitable processing delay, or latency, to the input signal.
73 The size of the delay depends on the current JACK configuration, which should
74 be set to as short as possible while recording.
78 <section id="setup-latency">
79 <title>Latency</title>
83 <section id="setup-external-monitoring">
84 <title>External Monitoring</title>
86 External Monitoring will silence the output of a track whenever the track is set
87 to monitor input. It is useful if you are listening to the input signal
88 using a path outside your computer (eg a mixing console).
92 <section id="setup-external-monitoring">
93 <title>Tape Machine Mode</title>
95 Nearly all traditional tape recorders use the same monitoring model.
96 Normally only tracks that are record-enabled will monitor input with the
98 Tape machine mode emulates this behaviour.
99 Some simpler machines (like a famous product by Alesis) switch all tracks to
100 input on stop when auto-input is enabled, regardless of record-enable state.
101 Disabling Tape Machine Mode switches to a behaviour that mimics this type of recorder.
102 Be warned that if you disable Tape Machine Mode, many tracks sharing the same input
103 (in software monitoring mode) will sum that input through the master buss
104 (potentially including several plugins) whenever the transport is stopped.
105 Since setting up a sound usually involves listening to the input with the transport
106 stopped, you might not be hearing the sound you are about to record!
107 Disabling this mode can also lead to surprising acoustic feedback.
108 Tape Machine Mode is off by default.
112 <section id="setup-auto-input">
113 <title>Auto-Input</title>
115 When a track is record-enabled, it is set to monitor input
116 regardless of the transport state. Auto input switches to off-disk monitoring
117 when play is engaged. When Ardour is actually recording, the track will be set to
119 Auto-Input is useful for performing punch-ins. Disable auto-input when performing
120 'dry runs' of an overdub to allow a performer to hear themselves while the transport is rolling.
124 <section id="setup-track-naming">
125 <title>Track Naming</title>
129 <section id="setup-default-names">
130 <title>Default names</title>
134 <section id="disk-allocation">
135 <title> Disk Allocation </title>
137 It is of course possible to use Ardour on a single-disk system, but
138 you are more likely to have performance problems this way.
142 If you have more than one disk available, we highly recommend using
143 one "system" disk and one or more "audio" disks.
146 <section id="using-the-system-disk">
147 <title>Using the system disk </title>
149 The "system" disk is the main disk on which your operating system
150 and (usually) all your installed software reside.
154 If you have any other disks available, it is usually
155 <emphasis>not</emphasis> advisable to put your Ardour session and
156 all its soundfiles on the main system disk. The reason is that this
157 disk may be used at any time by the OS or other programs and, if
158 Ardour is trying to play a large amount of disk data at that moment,
159 in the worst case this can cause Ardour's playback to stop
160 completely. (insert screenshot of error dialog here)
164 Even so, if you have only two disks (the system disk and your audio
165 disk), it is possible that a large session will reach the
166 performance limits of a single dedicated audio disk. In this case,
167 it may be better to put some audio data on the system disk as
168 described in the Soft RAID section below.
172 <section id="using-multiple-disks">
173 <title> Using Multiple Disks </title>
174 <section id="hardware-raid">
175 <title>Hardware RAID</title>
177 You can of course use a normal RAID disk array to spread data
178 across multiple disks. This is beyond the scope of this manual.
182 <section id="soft-raid-path">
183 <title>Ardour's "Soft" RAID Path</title>
185 It is possible to spread the resources for your Ardour session
186 across multiple disks. This can increase the number of tracks or
187 regions you can work with at once.
191 There is no reason to do this if your computer has only one disk.
195 To use the "soft RAID" feature, manually create a new directory on
196 another disk. Open the Options Editor window. Click on the
197 Paths/Files tab. In the "session RAID path" text box, you will see
198 that the default value is the path to the directory where your
199 current session lives. But this Session RAID Path can actually be
200 a colon-separated list of directories. To add your new directory
201 to this list, type a single colon after the existing Session RAID
202 Path, followed by the full path to the new directory. Ardour will
203 now record new tracks to either directory. (question: how does
204 ardour decide which files go where?)
208 You can squeeze some more disk performance out of an existing
209 session by following the above procedure, then manually moving
212 subdirectory of the existing session into a
214 subdirectory of your new directory. Be very careful when doing
215 this! If you accidentally delete these sound files, Ardour cannot
216 magically fix it for you.
221 If you use the "soft" RAID feature described above, take care to
222 remember this when making and restoring session backups! You
223 will not be happy if you forget to back up one of your data
224 directories; and restoring a backup won't work if you don't make
225 sure that the "Session RAID Path" setting corresponds to the
226 directories where you actually put the restored files.
233 <section id="recording-modes">
234 <title> Recording modes </title>
235 <section id="destructive-recording">
236 <title> destructive recording </title>
238 When creating tracks, there are 2 different options: Normal tracks
239 and Tape tracks. Tape tracks implement a "destructive" style of
240 recording that is useful when you will be making multiple recordings
241 to the same track, and you don't want to keep a separate "region" on
242 disk for each take. There is no undo function (yet) and there is no
243 way to edit a tape track (yet). So what is this good for? Well,
244 consider the case where you are doing a final mixdown of a project.
245 You could record-enable two Tape tracks, and send the master bus
246 output to these tracks. Every time you play through a section of the
247 project, the resulting mix will be recorded onto the continuous tape
248 track. Once you reach the end of the project, you can send the
249 resultant wav file directly to the next production step. There is no
250 "rendering" step required. The utility of this increases when you
251 are using an outboard, automated mixer. This type of recording is
252 very common on a film dubbing stage.
257 <section id="setup-loop-recording">
258 <title>loop recording</title>
262 <section id="setup-punch-recording">
263 <title>Punch Recording</title>
265 Once you have recorded material onto a track, the simplest way to punch in
266 (or drop in as it is known elsewhere) is to roll the transport and press the
267 master record button at the desired in point. Assuming the desired track is
268 record enabled, its monitoring state will be switched and recording will begin.
269 Pressing it again disengages record.
270 If repeatable punch-ins are required, you may use auto punch.
274 <section id="setup-auto-punch">
275 <title>Auto Punch</title>
279 <section id="recording-with-a-click-track">
280 <title>Recording with a Click track</title>
284 <section id="the-click-track">
285 <title>The Click Track</title>
287 Enabling the click Routing the click Specifying click sounds Default
295 manual tempo tap tempo
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