Basic Recording
Recording audio is theoretically a very simple process. You have to make
essentially 2 decisions: what are you going to record, and how many
channels will you be recording, then press a couple of buttons and
you're recording.
Unfortunately, most recording also requires monitoring—providing
some way to hear what you are recording as you record it, possibly with
existing recorded material as well. Monitoring in Ardour is very
flexible, but with flexibility comes complexity. If you want to try to
skip ahead and record without reading about monitoring, you are welcome
to do so. Ardour attempts to use reasonable defaults for monitoring, but
the variety of hardware setups make it impossible to pick one default
that will work for everyone.
For this reason, you are strongly recommended to spend a few minutes
understanding , because otherwise you're
going to get very confused and possibly irritated.
Recording a single audio track
These steps can all be taken directly within the Editor window,
although most of them can also be done via Mixer window if you prefer.
Setting up a new track for recording
Choose Session Add
Track/Bus . This will popup a dialog
allowing you to choose how many tracks to add, and what basic I/O
configuration the track will have (mono, stereo, etc.). You can
change I/O configurations for tracks at any time.
Make the editor's dedicated mixer strip visible by clicking on the
Editor Mixer button located at the left end
of the transport bar.
In Ardour2, there is no Editor Mixer
button, but you can make the mixer strip visible by selecting
View Show Editor
Mixer , or by pressing
ShiftE
on the keyboard.
Selecting the source to record
Check the input configuration for the new track. Click on its
control area. A mixer strip appears in the editor for this
track. Click on the Input button near the
top of the strip, and select Edit
from the menu. The standard I/O dialog pops up to let you
connect the track to whichever JACK port you want to record
from.
Rename the track. This is an important step in helping you make
sense of your session, because track names are used when naming
newly created regions.
Click on the track's record-enable button to record enable the
track. You can use the r button in the
track control area or the record button
of the mixer strip. The button will turn pink.
Adjust the output level of the sound source to the a level where
the loudest input drives the meter in the mixer strip close to,
but not over, 0dB. The mixer strip will show the incoming signal
level, along with peak indicators
If you are using software monitoring, adjust the output volume
and possibly panning if desired. These settings do not affect
the recorded material.
Check the output configuration for the new track. Click on the
Output button near the bottom of the strip,
and select Edit from the menu. Make sure
the track's output is connected as you intend.
by default (and when not using a session template that works
otherwise) mono tracks have mono outputs, meaning that you cannot
pan them.
To record to the new audio track
If necessary, setup the session's default meter and tempo by on
the initial meter and tempo markers.
If desired, enable the click track in the transport bar.
Click on the Record button of the
transport window, which will start to flash.
When you are ready to record, click the
Play button in the transport window.
When you have finished recording, click the
Stop button in the transport window.
If desired, click the track's record-enable button to disengage
record-enable for this track.
The audio you recorded will be written to a new audio file stored on
one of your disks. In the editor, a new region will appear in the
track display area and also in the region list display.
To play back the new audio track
Press the Home key (or
CtrlA) to
return the playhead to the start of the track
In the transport bar click on the Play
button, or press the spacebar.
Adjust the track's volume as necessary, using either the mixer
strip in the editor, or the corresponding strip in the mixer
window.
Recording multiple tracks
Multiple tracks can easily be recorded simultaneously by
record-enabling each track you would like to record.
Recording additional takes
Recording into a new playlist
There is a p button in the track controls. If
you press it and select new playlist, the
contents will be cleared, allowing you to construct a new arrangement
of recordings. You can recall your playlist later by using the same
button and selecting select.... This will
open a window displaying all the playlists you have recorded on that
track. Select the one you want and proceed. Playlists from other
tracks can also be selected.. in fact you can have the same playlist
on two different tracks if you feel it necessary.
Punch Recording
You can automate the portion of a track to be recorded using the punch
functions. This is most often implemented when a portion of a
particular take is problematic but an adjacent portion is good. In
order to punch record, the punch range must be set.
Setting Punch/Loop Points