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4 <chapter id="ch-using-existing-audio">
5 <title>Using Existing Audio</title>
7 <para>There are two primary ways to bring data into Ardour: recording it
8 within a session from a live sound source or importing pre-existing audio
9 files. This section covers the various ways to import audio into a
12 <section id="importing-and-embedding">
13 <title>Importing and Embedding</title>
15 <para>Importing and embedding are two different methods of using existing
16 audio files on your computer (or network file system) within a session.
17 They differ in one key respect:</para>
21 <term>Importing</term>
24 <para>An existing audio file is copied to the session's sounds
25 folder, and is converted into the session's native format (WAVE or
26 Broadcast WAVE depending on your choice) and sample rate. At this
27 time, no control over the conversion process is offered. If sample
28 rate conversion is required, it will be carried out at the highest
29 quality that Ardour can provide. This means that it can be rather
30 slow (many minutes to import an audio file lasting a few
36 <term>Embedding</term>
39 <para>An existing audio file is used as a the source for a region,
40 but is not copied or modified in any way.</para>
46 <section id="supported-external-audio-file-formats">
47 <title>Supported External Audio File Formats</title>
49 <para>The list of audio file formats that Ardour can import/embed is quite
50 long. It is based on the functionality offered by libsndfile, an excellent
51 and widely used software library by Australian programmer Erik de Castro
52 Lopo. As libsndfile's capabilities expand, so will Ardour's abilities to
53 import (and export) new formats. Ogg/Vorbis (an excellent, unpatented and
54 license free audio compression format similar to MP3) is planned for the
55 near future. Currently, supported formats include:</para>
59 <para>Microsoft WAV</para>
63 <para>SGI/Apple AIFF/AIFC</para>
67 <para>Sun AU/Snd</para>
71 <para>Raw (headerless)</para>
75 <para>Paris Audio File (PAF)</para>
79 <para>Commodore IFF/SVX</para>
83 <para>Sphere/NIST WAV</para>
91 <para>Creative VOC</para>
95 <para>SoundForge W64</para>
99 <para>GNU Octave MAT4.4</para>
103 <para>Portable Voice Format</para>
107 <para>Fasttracker 2 XI</para>
111 <para>HMM Tool Kit HTK</para>
115 <para>Sample encodings supported include:</para>
119 <para>Unsigned and signed 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit PCM</para>
123 <para>IEEE 32 and 64 floating point</para>
135 <para>IMA ADPCM</para>
139 <para>MS ADPCM</para>
143 <para>GSM 6.10</para>
147 <para>G721/723 ADPCM</para>
151 <para>12/16/24 bit DWVW</para>
155 <para>OK Dialogic ADPCM</para>
159 <para>8/16 DPCM</para>
164 <section id="using-audio-files">
165 <title>Using audio files as tracks or regions?</title>
167 <para>When you want to use existing audio files in an Ardour session, the
168 first choice you need to make is whether you want to bring the files in as
169 tracks or as new regions. Consider the two following scenarios:</para>
173 <para>you have an 8 track recording of existing material, with 1 audio
174 file per track</para>
178 <para>you have a sample library containing 500 small audio
183 <para>In the first case, your goal is probably to have 8 tracks (at
184 least), with each track containing a single audio file. In the second
185 case, its a lot more likely that you simply want to be able to use any of
186 the samples easily, but do not want any tracks created as a direct result
187 of the import/embed. It is very important that you understand this
188 distinction: many new users think there should be a "simple" way to import
189 existing audio without understanding that the goal of importing/embedding
190 is not always the same.</para>
192 <para>Ardour provides two different options when importing. You can
193 import/embed audio files as new tracks, or you can import/embed them into
194 the region list, where they will be available as regions to put into new
195 or existing tracks. You can also insert import/embed audio files directly
196 into an existing track.</para>
199 <section id="how-to-import-embed">
200 <title>How to import/embed</title>
202 <para>There are three pathways for importing/embedding an audio file into
203 a session. One is initiated from the File menu, one is initiated from the
204 track context menu, and one is initiated from the region list. These
205 methods are all equivalent: they open the file import dialog. Once the
206 dialog is open, you can choose to add new audio as new tracks, as regions
207 in the region list, or as audio in the selected track. You can change this
208 behavior once the dialog is opened.</para>
211 <para>If you want to import a file directly into an existing track,
212 you must have the track selected in the editor before beginning the
214 </caution>If you use Nautilus as your file manager, you can easily
215 import files into your project by dragging them onto the desired track,
216 then releasing the mouse button. The file will then be <link
217 linkend="gt-embed">embedded</link> into your session.</para>
220 <section id="how-to-embed-a-file">
221 <title>Working with Tags</title>
223 <para>A "tag" is bit of information, or <emphasis>metadata</emphasis>,
224 that is associated with a data file. Specifically, tags are keywords or
225 terms that you feel have some relevance to a particular soundfile. Ardour
226 can store these tags in a seachable database so that you can quickly
227 search for sounds based on the tags that you have assigned to them. For
228 example you can assign the term "120bpm" to a sound, and then when you
229 search for this tag, the file will appear in the search list. Tags are
230 independent of the filename or anything else about the file. Tags, and the
231 file paths that they are associated with, are stored in a file called
232 "sfdb" in your Ardour user folder. </para>
234 <section id="embedding-via-the-region-list">
235 <title>Adding tags to a file</title>
239 <para>Select a file in the import dialog.</para>
243 <para>Enter the tags in the box to the right labeled "Tags".</para>
247 <para>Tags are stored when the input box loses focus, there is no reason
248 to explicitly "save" them.</para>
251 <section id="embedding-from-a-track">
252 <title>Searching for files using tags</title>
256 <para>Select the "Search Tags" tab on the import dialog.</para>
260 <para>Enter the tag(s) to search for and press "Search".</para>
264 <para>Files which have been "tagged" with the input terms will appear in
265 the results window. You can audition these files and apply tags to them
266 from this window.</para>
270 <section id="searching-freesound">
271 <title>Searching Freesound for soundfiles (optional)</title>
273 <para>Freesound (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/) is an online database with
274 thousands of soundfiles which can be freely used in many projects (visit
275 Freesound for the exact licensing terms). Ardour has an option to download
276 files directly from freesound directly from the import dialog. Freesound
277 files are tagged with metadata which you can use to search for relevant
280 <para>To enable the Freesound search engine inside Ardour, you must build
281 Ardour with the option FREESOUND=yes, and you must have the "curl" library
282 installed. This is currently optional but may later become a standard
283 feature of Ardour.</para>
285 <para>To download files from Freesound, you must first register for a
286 username and password on the freesound website. Enter this information
287 into the text entry boxes, enter your tags to search for, and then click
288 "Start Downloading". Ardour will begin downloading files, and the "Start
289 Downloading" button will change to say "Cancel". Clicking the "Cancel"
290 button will wait until the currently downloading file is finished, then
291 the button will switch back to "Start Downloading". The button will also
292 say "Start Downloading" once Ardour has downloaded all of the files that
293 match the given tag. In the future there may be better indication of the
294 file progress and better filtering on the filetypes that are
297 <para>If you later search for the same terms, you will see that the files
298 appear in the list more quickly, because any files in the search set that
299 are already downloaded won't have to be downloaded again.</para>
301 <para>Sounds that are downloaded from Freesound will automatically be
302 given tags in Ardour that match their tags in the Freesound database. This
303 means that once they are downloaded, Ardour can search for the local files
304 very quickly using the "Search Tags" tab.</para>
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