Ardour 3 — a users’ guide 27 / 100
Chapter 5
Tracks and busses The basic building blocks of Ardour’s sessions are tracks and busses. Both are built on the same foundation; a bus’ functionality is a subset of a track’s. Both can pass audio and MIDI data, apply processing and perform various signal routing operations. The difference with a track is that can record and play back data.
5.1 5.1.1
Track and bus basics Types
An Ardour track can be either ‘audio’ or ‘MIDI’. The only real difference between the two is the type of data that the track will record and play back. Either type of track can pass either type of data. Hence, for example, one might have a MIDI track that contains an instrument plugin; such a track would contain MIDI data, but would produce audio, since the instrument would turn the one into the other. In Ardour 3 busses are only used for audio.
5.1.2
Adding and removing tracks
A track or bus can be added to a session in various ways: • Choose Add Track or Bus. . . from the Track menu. • Right-click in an empty part of the track controls area. • Click the + button underneath the list of tracks in the mixer. Any of these actions will open the Add Track or Bus dialogue, as shown in Figure 5.1.