fix lack of return value in tell_about_jack_death(), and fixed up indentation for...

[ardour.git] / manual / xml / setting_up_to_record.xml

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<section id="sn-setting-up-to-record">
  <title>Setting Up To Record</title>
  <para>
    This page needs massive work
  </para>

  <para>
    It is very important that you check your system is connected and
    configured correctly before attempting to record. See Hardware
    Installation for more information on this topic.
  </para>

  <section id="setup-connections">
    <title>Connections</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-levels">
    <title>Levels</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-clipping">
    <title>Clipping</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="record-enabling-tracks">
    <title>Record Enabling Tracks</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-monitoring">
    <title>Monitoring</title>
    <para>
      While monitoring is a broad term, here we use it to refer to the
      signal a track delivers to its channel for further processing. There
      are two available monitoring states. These are 'input' (the signal
      being delivered to a track for potential recording), and 'off-disk'
      (material you have already recorded, or silence in the absence of a
      region).
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-hardware-monitoring">
    <title>Hardware Monitoring</title>
    <para>
      Some multichannel audio interfaces have the ability to route an input
      signal directly to an output with very low or no latency. This is
      useful if your computer hardware is connected to the tape sends and
      returns of a mixing console. Whenever monitoring is set to input on a
      track, the track's input port is connected to its output in hardware
      (as would happen on a multitrack tape recorder). Hardware monitoring
      provides the best quality assurance for an engineer, as the signal
      path is exactly the same for input and off-disk monitoring. Level
      differences can be heard immediately, as can other gremlins that may
      ruin your recording. The hardware monitoring setting is only useful
      for interfaces supporting this feature.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-software-monitoring">
    <title>Software Monitoring</title>
    <para>
      Software monitoring uses software to perform input monitoring. When
      set to monitor input, a tracks input signal is passed to its channel
      as if it were coming from disk, allowing plugins to be heard while
      recording. This introduces an inevitable processing delay, or latency,
      to the input signal. The size of the delay depends on the current JACK
      configuration, which should be set to as short as possible while
      recording.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-latency">
    <title>Latency</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-external-monitoring">
    <title>External Monitoring</title>
    <para>
      External Monitoring will silence the output of a track whenever the
      track is set to monitor input. It is useful if you are listening to
      the input signal using a path outside your computer (eg a mixing
      console).
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="tape-machine-mode">
    <title>Tape Machine Mode</title>
    <para>
      Nearly all traditional tape recorders use the same monitoring model.
      Normally only tracks that are record-enabled will monitor input with
      the transport stopped. Tape machine mode emulates this behaviour. Some
      simpler machines (like a famous product by Alesis) switch all tracks
      to input on stop when auto-input is enabled, regardless of
      record-enable state. Disabling Tape Machine Mode switches to a
      behaviour that mimics this type of recorder. Be warned that if you
      disable Tape Machine Mode, many tracks sharing the same input (in
      software monitoring mode) will sum that input through the master buss
      (potentially including several plugins) whenever the transport is
      stopped. Since setting up a sound usually involves listening to the
      input with the transport stopped, you might not be hearing the sound
      you are about to record! Disabling this mode can also lead to
      surprising acoustic feedback. Tape Machine Mode is off by default.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-auto-input">
    <title>Auto-Input</title>
    <para>
      When a track is record-enabled, it is set to monitor input regardless
      of the transport state. Auto input switches to off-disk monitoring
      when play is engaged. When Ardour is actually recording, the track
      will be set to monitor input again. Auto-Input is useful for
      performing punch-ins. Disable auto-input when performing 'dry runs' of
      an overdub to allow a performer to hear themselves while the transport
      is rolling.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-track-naming">
    <title>Track Naming</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-default-names">
    <title>Default names</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="disk-allocation">
    <title> Disk Allocation </title>
    <para>
      It is of course possible to use Ardour on a single-disk system, but
      you are more likely to have performance problems this way.
    </para>

    <para>
      If you have more than one disk available, we highly recommend using
      one "system" disk and one or more "audio" disks.
    </para>

    <section id="using-the-system-disk">
      <title>Using the system disk </title>
      <para>
        The "system" disk is the main disk on which your operating system
        and (usually) all your installed software reside.
      </para>

      <para>
        If you have any other disks available, it is usually
        <emphasis>not</emphasis> advisable to put your Ardour session and
        all its soundfiles on the main system disk. The reason is that this
        disk may be used at any time by the OS or other programs and, if
        Ardour is trying to play a large amount of disk data at that moment,
        in the worst case this can cause Ardour's playback to stop
        completely. (insert screenshot of error dialog here)
      </para>

      <para>
        Even so, if you have only two disks (the system disk and your audio
        disk), it is possible that a large session will reach the
        performance limits of a single dedicated audio disk. In this case,
        it may be better to put some audio data on the system disk as
        described in the Soft RAID section below.
      </para>
    </section>

    <section id="using-multiple-disks">
      <title> Using Multiple Disks </title>
      <section id="hardware-raid">
        <title>Hardware RAID</title>
        <para>
          You can of course use a normal RAID disk array to spread data
          across multiple disks. This is beyond the scope of this manual.
        </para>
      </section>

      <section id="soft-raid-path">
        <title>Ardour's "Soft" RAID Path</title>
        <para>
          It is possible to spread the resources for your Ardour session
          across multiple disks. This can increase the number of tracks or
          regions you can work with at once.
        </para>

        <para>
          There is no reason to do this if your computer has only one disk.
        </para>

        <para>
          To use the "soft RAID" feature, manually create a new directory on
          another disk. Open the Options Editor window. Click on the
          Paths/Files tab. In the "session RAID path" text box, you will see
          that the default value is the path to the directory where your
          current session lives. But this Session RAID Path can actually be
          a colon-separated list of directories. To add your new directory
          to this list, type a single colon after the existing Session RAID
          Path, followed by the full path to the new directory. Ardour will
          now record new tracks to either directory. (question: how does
          ardour decide which files go where?)
        </para>

        <para>
          You can squeeze some more disk performance out of an existing
          session by following the above procedure, then manually moving
          some files from the
          <code>sounds/</code>
          subdirectory of the existing session into a
          <code>sounds/</code>
          subdirectory of your new directory. Be very careful when doing
          this! If you accidentally delete these sound files, Ardour cannot
          magically fix it for you.
        </para>

        <note>
          <para>
            If you use the "soft" RAID feature described above, take care to
            remember this when making and restoring session backups! You
            will not be happy if you forget to back up one of your data
            directories; and restoring a backup won't work if you don't make
            sure that the "Session RAID Path" setting corresponds to the
            directories where you actually put the restored files.
          </para>
        </note>
      </section>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="recording-modes">
    <title> Recording modes </title>
    <section id="destructive-recording">
      <title> destructive recording </title>
      <para>
        When creating tracks, there are 2 different options: Normal tracks
        and Tape tracks. Tape tracks implement a "destructive" style of
        recording that is useful when you will be making multiple recordings
        to the same track, and you don't want to keep a separate "region" on
        disk for each take. There is no undo function (yet) and there is no
        way to edit a tape track (yet). So what is this good for? Well,
        consider the case where you are doing a final mixdown of a project.
        You could record-enable two Tape tracks, and send the master bus
        output to these tracks. Every time you play through a section of the
        project, the resulting mix will be recorded onto the continuous tape
        track. Once you reach the end of the project, you can send the
        resultant wav file directly to the next production step. There is no
        "rendering" step required. The utility of this increases when you
        are using an outboard, automated mixer. This type of recording is
        very common on a film dubbing stage.
      </para>
    </section>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-loop-recording">
    <title>loop recording</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-punch-recording">
    <title>Punch Recording</title>
    <para>
      Once you have recorded material onto a track, the simplest way to
      punch in (or drop in as it is known elsewhere) is to roll the
      transport and press the master record button at the desired in point.
      Assuming the desired track is record enabled, its monitoring state
      will be switched and recording will begin. Pressing it again
      disengages record. If repeatable punch-ins are required, you may use
      auto punch.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="setup-auto-punch">
    <title>Auto Punch</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="recording-with-a-click-track">
    <title>Recording with a Click track</title>
    <para></para>
  </section>

  <section id="the-click-track">
    <title>The Click Track</title>
    <para>
      Enabling the click Routing the click Specifying click sounds Default
      Meter Default Tempo
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="tempo">
    <title>Tempo</title>
    <para>
      manual tempo tap tempo
    </para>
  </section>
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