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]>
<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>
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