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<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE section PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
]>
<section id="sn-what-is-different-about-ardour">
<title>What's Different about Ardour</title>
<para>
If you are someone who has used other audio software, particularly
software generally referred to as a Digital Audio Workstation (or
"DAW"), then there will be a number of things about Ardour that may
puzzle you on your initial and early encounters with the program.
</para>
<section id="no-default-session">
<title>No default session</title>
<para>
You must explicitly create a
<glossterm linkend="gt-session">Session</glossterm> before you can do
anything else, and if you choose not to use one of the provided
<glossterm linkend="gt-session-template">session templates</glossterm>
, you will also have to create
<glossterm linkend="gt-track">tracks</glossterm> and
<glossterm linkend="gt-bus">busses</glossterm> in order to record
and/or edit existing audio material.
</para>
</section>
<section id="where-do-plugins-and-sends-go">
<title>Where do plugins and sends go?</title>
<para>
Ardour doesn't have any fixed number of "slots" for
<glossterm linkend="gt-plugin">plugins</glossterm>, or
<glossterm linkend="gt-send">sends</glossterm>, or
<glossterm linkend="gt-insert">inserts</glossterm> : you can have as
many per-track as your system has the horsepower handle. The two black
boxes above and below the mixer strip's gain fader are
<glossterm linkend="gt-redirect">redirect</glossterm> lists where you
can add, reorder, remove and generally control plugins, sends, and
inserts, both pre- and post-fader.
</para>
</section>
<section id="no-builtin-eq">
<title>No builtin EQ</title>
<para>
Most people don't think much of the EQ's built into other DAWs.
Moreover, you cannot meaningfully do equalization with 3 knobs marked
"Lo", "Mid" and "Hi". Since good-quality EQ plugins are available for
no-cost on Linux, Ardour prefers to allow you to choose one which you
prefer. Of course, you can save your session configurations as
templates, so if you have a particular EQ that you prefer, you only
need do this once.
</para>
</section>
<section id="no-visible-send-controls">
<title>No visible send controls</title>
<para>
Although Ardour supports sends, there is no way to control them
directly from the mixer interface - you don't get a dedicated knob on
the mixer strip. However, if you bring up the send's own editor (for
example, by double-clicking on its name in the redirect list), you
will find a richer set of functionality than most other DAWs offer for
controlling the behaviour of a send.
</para>
</section>
<section id="a-smaller-set-of-tools">
<title>A smaller set of tools</title>
<para>
Most DAWs have evolved towards providing the so-called "smart tool"
which allows you to use the mouse for several different kinds of
operations without changing to a different tool. Ardour has taken this
approach from the beginning, so that the "Object" tool actually allows
you to carry out many different operations depending on how and where
the mouse is used. Ardour does not provide a destructive "pencil" tool
as some other DAWs do, for some fairly deep technical reasons. Needing
to use a "pencil" tool for waveform repair nearly always indicates a
problem with the setup of your session and/or recording hardware. The
different tools that ardour does offer include the "Object" tool which
has many different uses including region trimming/moving/copying,
automation editing, and more; a "Range" tool for defining ranges of
time; a "TimeFX" tool for timestretching; a "Gain" tool used
exclusively for editing region gain envelopes; and a "Zoom" tool to
manipulate temporal zoom. Many other operations are accessible via
context menus or <link linkend="sn-key-bindings">keyboard
bindings</link>
<!--
a href="/manual/intro/mouse_and_keyboard">keyboard bindings/a
-->
.
</para>
</section>
<section id="no-restrictions-on-track-io-configuration">
<title>No restrictions on track I/O configuration</title>
<para>
Tracks and busses in ardour do not come in pre-determined
configurations. You can create a mono track, and convert it to a
stereo track at any time. You can convert it to a track with 3 inputs
and 7 outputs if you want, because Ardour also doesn't restrict track
I/O configurations to a fixed set of mono/stereo/5.1/7.1 etc. In
addition, because of Ardour's use of
<link linkend="sn-configuring-jack">JACK</link> , a track with one
input can actually receive data from many different locations. You can
also connect any track to any number of other tracks and busses. In
Ardour, the only difference between a track and a bus is that a track
plays back pre-recorded material from your disk drives and can record
to them. Both tracks and busses can have plugins, sends, inserts,
automation data and more.
</para>
</section>
<section id="your-audio-hardware-is-not-the-only-io-option">
<title>Your audio hardware is not the only I/O option</title>
<para>
Because Ardour uses <glossterm linkend="gt-jack">JACK</glossterm> ,
your session isn't limited to receiving and sending audio to and from
your audio interface. It can freely send and receive audio signals to
any other JACK application, in some cases even JACK applications
running on other computers. On the one hand, this makes understanding
the I/O options for a track or bus a little more complex than in a
conventional program, but it also adds incredible power to Ardour, as
you will see later.
</para>
</section>
<!--
<xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
href="Some_Subsection.xml" />
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</section>
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