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7 <section id="sn-what-is-different-about-ardour">
8 <title>What's Different about Ardour</title>
10 If you are someone who has used other audio software, particularly software
11 generally referred to as a Digital Audio Workstation (or "DAW"), then there
12 will be a number of things about Ardour that may puzzle you on your initial
13 and early encounters with the program.
16 <section id="no-default-session">
17 <title>No default session</title>
19 You must explicitly create a
20 <glossterm linkend="gt-session">Session</glossterm> before you can do
21 anything else, and if you choose not to use one of the provided
22 <glossterm linkend="gt-session-template">session templates</glossterm> ,
23 you will also have to create
24 <glossterm linkend="gt-track">tracks</glossterm> and
25 <glossterm linkend="gt-bus">busses</glossterm> in order to record and/or
26 edit existing audio material.
30 <section id="where-do-plugins-and-sends-go">
31 <title>Where do plugins and sends go?</title>
33 Ardour doesn't have any fixed number of "slots" for
34 <glossterm linkend="gt-plugin">plugins</glossterm>, or
35 <glossterm linkend="gt-send">sends</glossterm>, or
36 <glossterm linkend="gt-insert">inserts</glossterm> : you can have as many
37 per-track as your system has the horsepower handle. The two black boxes
38 above and below the mixer strip's gain fader are
39 <glossterm linkend="gt-redirect">redirect</glossterm> lists where you can
40 add, reorder, remove and generally control plugins, sends, and inserts,
41 both pre- and post-fader.
45 <section id="no-builtin-eq">
46 <title>No builtin EQ</title>
48 Most people don't think much of the EQ's built into other DAWs. Moreover,
49 you cannot meaningfully do equalization with 3 knobs marked "Lo", "Mid" and
50 "Hi". Since good-quality EQ plugins are available for no-cost on Linux,
51 Ardour prefers to allow you to choose one which you prefer. Of course, you
52 can save your session configurations as templates, so if you have a
53 particular EQ that you prefer, you only need do this once.
57 <section id="no-visible-send-controls">
58 <title>No visible send controls</title>
60 Although Ardour supports sends, there is no way to control them directly
61 from the mixer interface - you don't get a dedicated knob on the mixer
62 strip. However, if you bring up the send's own editor (for example, by
63 double-clicking on its name in the redirect list), you will find a richer
64 set of functionality than most other DAWs offer for controlling the
69 <section id="a-smaller-set-of-tools">
70 <title>A smaller set of tools</title>
72 Most DAWs have evolved towards providing the so-called "smart tool" which
73 allows you to use the mouse for several different kinds of operations
74 without changing to a different tool. Ardour has taken this approach from
75 the beginning, so that the "Object" tool actually allows you to carry out
76 many different operations depending on how and where the mouse is used.
77 Ardour does not provide a destructive "pencil" tool as some other DAWs do,
78 for some fairly deep technical reasons. Needing to use a "pencil" tool for
79 waveform repair nearly always indicates a problem with the setup of your
80 session and/or recording hardware. The different tools that ardour does
81 offer include the "Object" tool which has many different uses including
82 region trimming/moving/copying, automation editing, and more; a "Range"
83 tool for defining ranges of time; a "TimeFX" tool for timestretching; a
84 "Gain" tool used exclusively for editing region gain envelopes; and a
85 "Zoom" tool to manipulate temporal zoom. Many other operations are
86 accessible via context menus or <link linkend="sn-key-bindings">keyboard
89 a href="/manual/intro/mouse_and_keyboard">keyboard bindings/a
95 <section id="no-restrictions-on-track-io-configuration">
96 <title>No restrictions on track I/O configuration</title>
98 Tracks and busses in ardour do not come in pre-determined configurations.
99 You can create a mono track, and convert it to a stereo track at any time.
100 You can convert it to a track with 3 inputs and 7 outputs if you want,
101 because Ardour also doesn't restrict track I/O configurations to a fixed
102 set of mono/stereo/5.1/7.1 etc. In addition, because of Ardour's use of
103 <link linkend="sn-configuring-jack">JACK</link> , a track with one input
104 can actually receive data from many different locations. You can also
105 connect any track to any number of other tracks and busses. In Ardour, the
106 only difference between a track and a bus is that a track plays back
107 pre-recorded material from your disk drives and can record to them. Both
108 tracks and busses can have plugins, sends, inserts, automation data and
113 <section id="your-audio-hardware-is-not-the-only-io-option">
114 <title>Your audio hardware is not the only I/O option</title>
116 Because Ardour uses <glossterm linkend="gt-jack">JACK</glossterm> , your
117 session isn't limited to receiving and sending audio to and from your audio
118 interface. It can freely send and receive audio signals to any other JACK
119 application, in some cases even JACK applications running on other
120 computers. On the one hand, this makes understanding the I/O options for a
121 track or bus a little more complex than in a conventional program, but it
122 also adds incredible power to Ardour, as you will see later.
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