Add the ardour manual converted to docbook format with only a few minor

additions.

Add dbhelper.vim key stroke mappings I use for working with docbook source.

There are no xsl or css files for customizing the html output so it will 
look really boring...this will only be temporary.

Support for content localization and generation of pdf's is planned.



git-svn-id: svn://localhost/ardour2/trunk@1405 d708f5d6-7413-0410-9779-e7cbd77b26cf

1 files changed, 129 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/manual/xml/what_is_different_about_ardour.xml b/manual/xml/what_is_different_about_ardour.xml
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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" />
+	-->
+</section>