path: root/manual/xml/using_existing_audio.xml

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<chapter id="ch-using-existing-audio">
  <title>Using Existing Audio</title>

  <para>There are two primary ways to bring data into Ardour: recording it
  within a session from a live sound source or importing pre-existing audio
  files. This section covers the various ways to import audio into a
  session.</para>

  <section id="importing-and-embedding">
    <title>Importing and Embedding</title>

    <para>Importing and embedding are two different methods of using existing
    audio files on your computer (or network file system) within a session.
    They differ in one key respect:</para>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term>Importing</term>

        <listitem>
          <para>An existing audio file is copied to the session's sounds
          folder, and is converted into the session's native format (WAVE or
          Broadcast WAVE depending on your choice) and sample rate. At this
          time, no control over the conversion process is offered. If sample
          rate conversion is required, it will be carried out at the highest
          quality that Ardour can provide. This means that it can be rather
          slow (many minutes to import an audio file lasting a few
          minutes).</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term>Embedding</term>

        <listitem>
          <para>An existing audio file is used as a the source for a region,
          but is not copied or modified in any way.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist>
  </section>

  <section id="supported-external-audio-file-formats">
    <title>Supported External Audio File Formats</title>

    <para>The list of audio file formats that Ardour can import/embed is quite
    long. It is based on the functionality offered by libsndfile, an excellent
    and widely used software library by Australian programmer Erik de Castro
    Lopo. As libsndfile's capabilities expand, so will Ardour's abilities to
    import (and export) new formats. Ogg/Vorbis (an excellent, unpatented and
    license free audio compression format similar to MP3) is planned for the
    near future. Currently, supported formats include:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Microsoft WAV</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>SGI/Apple AIFF/AIFC</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Sun AU/Snd</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Raw (headerless)</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Paris Audio File (PAF)</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Commodore IFF/SVX</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Sphere/NIST WAV</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>IRCAM SF</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Creative VOC</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>SoundForge W64</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>GNU Octave MAT4.4</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Portable Voice Format</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Fasttracker 2 XI</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>HMM Tool Kit HTK</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>Sample encodings supported include:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Unsigned and signed 8, 16, 24 and 32 bit PCM</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>IEEE 32 and 64 floating point</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>U-LAW</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>A-LAW</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>IMA ADPCM</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>MS ADPCM</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>GSM 6.10</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>G721/723 ADPCM</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>12/16/24 bit DWVW</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>OK Dialogic ADPCM</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>8/16 DPCM</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </section>

  <section id="using-audio-files">
    <title>Using audio files as tracks or regions?</title>

    <para>When you want to use existing audio files in an Ardour session, the
    first choice you need to make is whether you want to bring the files in as
    tracks or as new regions. Consider the two following scenarios:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>you have an 8 track recording of existing material, with 1 audio
        file per track</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>you have a sample library containing 500 small audio
        files</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>In the first case, your goal is probably to have 8 tracks (at
    least), with each track containing a single audio file. In the second
    case, its a lot more likely that you simply want to be able to use any of
    the samples easily, but do not want any tracks created as a direct result
    of the import/embed. It is very important that you understand this
    distinction: many new users think there should be a "simple" way to import
    existing audio without understanding that the goal of importing/embedding
    is not always the same.</para>

    <para>Ardour provides two different options when importing. You can
    import/embed audio files as new tracks, or you can import/embed them into
    the region list, where they will be available as regions to put into new
    or existing tracks. You can also insert import/embed audio files directly
    into an existing track.</para>
  </section>

  <section id="how-to-import-embed">
    <title>How to import/embed</title>

    <para>There are three pathways for importing/embedding an audio file into
    a session. One is initiated from the File menu, one is initiated from the
    track context menu, and one is initiated from the region list. These
    methods are all equivalent: they open the file import dialog. Once the
    dialog is open, you can choose to add new audio as new tracks, as regions
    in the region list, or as audio in the selected track. You can change this
    behavior once the dialog is opened.</para>

    <para><caution>
        <para>If you want to import a file directly into an existing track,
        you must have the track selected in the editor before beginning the
        import. </para>
      </caution>If you use Nautilus as your file manager, you can easily
    import files into your project by dragging them onto the desired track,
    then releasing the mouse button. The file will then be <link
    linkend="gt-embed">embedded</link> into your session.</para>
  </section>

  <section id="how-to-embed-a-file">
    <title>Working with Tags</title>

    <para>A "tag" is bit of information, or <emphasis>metadata</emphasis>,
    that is associated with a data file. Specifically, tags are keywords or
    terms that you feel have some relevance to a particular soundfile. Ardour
    can store these tags in a seachable database so that you can quickly
    search for sounds based on the tags that you have assigned to them. For
    example you can assign the term "120bpm" to a sound, and then when you
    search for this tag, the file will appear in the search list. Tags are
    independent of the filename or anything else about the file. Tags, and the
    file paths that they are associated with, are stored in a file called
    "sfdb" in your Ardour user folder. </para>

    <section id="embedding-via-the-region-list">
      <title>Adding tags to a file</title>

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>Select a file in the import dialog.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Enter the tags in the box to the right labeled "Tags".</para>
        </listitem>
      </orderedlist>

      <para>Tags are stored when the input box loses focus, there is no reason
      to explicitly "save" them.</para>
    </section>

    <section id="embedding-from-a-track">
      <title>Searching for files using tags</title>

      <orderedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>Select the "Search Tags" tab on the import dialog.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para>Enter the tag(s) to search for and press "Search".</para>
        </listitem>
      </orderedlist>

      <para>Files which have been "tagged" with the input terms will appear in
      the results window. You can audition these files and apply tags to them
      from this window.</para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="how-to-embed-a-file">
    <title>Searching Freesound for soundfiles (optional)</title>

    <para>Freesound (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/) is an online database with
    thousands of soundfiles which can be freely used in many projects (visit
    Freesound for the exact licensing terms). Ardour has an option to download
    files directly from freesound directly from the import dialog. Freesound
    files are tagged with metadata which you can use to search for relevant
    sounds.</para>

    <para>To enable the Freesound search engine inside Ardour, you must build
    Ardour with the option FREESOUND=yes, and you must have the "curl" library
    installed. This is currently optional but may later become a standard
    feature of Ardour.</para>

    <para>To download files from Freesound, you must first register for a
    username and password on the freesound website. Enter this information
    into the text entry boxes, enter your tags to search for, and then click
    "Start Downloading". Ardour will begin downloading files, and the "Start
    Downloading" button will change to say "Cancel". Clicking the "Cancel"
    button will wait until the currently downloading file is finished, then
    the button will switch back to "Start Downloading". The button will also
    say "Start Downloading" once Ardour has downloaded all of the files that
    match the given tag. In the future there may be better indication of the
    file progress and better filtering on the filetypes that are
    downloaded.</para>

    <para>If you later search for the same terms, you will see that the files
    appear in the list more quickly, because any files in the search set that
    are already downloaded won't have to be downloaded again.</para>

    <para>Sounds that are downloaded from Freesound will automatically be
    given tags in Ardour that match their tags in the Freesound database. This
    means that once they are downloaded, Ardour can search for the local files
    very quickly using the "Search Tags" tab.</para>
  </section>

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