Selecting edit from the input drop-down menu on a mixer strip will open this window, as will selecting edit from the output button. The Input/Output connections editor is one of the strangest interfaces known to man. After a small amount of use, however, you will find it quite natural to use. Because these two windows are identical except for 'input' being transposed with 'output', we will cover the Input Connections Editor here and leave it up to your imaginative self to work out what it all means in the output window.

When the window opens, you will be see that it is divided into two main areas marked Inputs and Available Connections . A third area contains buttons marked rescan, OK and Cancel.

The Inputs area has two buttons marked add input and clear connections. The add input button adds an audio stream to the mixer strip.

In other words, if you currently have a two input channel, pressing add input will make it a three input channel. If you subsequently record on the corresponding track, each region will comprise of three channels of audio taken from the inputs you have set in the area below.

Pressing clear connections will remove all connections you have assigned in the area below.

Speaking of "the area below", if you've used a template to create your new session with, the input fields will aready be filled in with default values that are determined by the number of channels your hardware supports. It should be noted that by default, inputs are initially set to hardware ports, as presumably you will be recording from a hardware device initially. This doesn't indicate a preference on Ardour's part, as software inputs are just as valid to Ardour as hardware ones.

Anyway, in "the area below", notice that one input (probably labelled in 1) is a lighter colour than the other. If you only have one input at the moment, press add input just to see the difference. You can remove an input by holding the control key while right-clicking on the input name.

The lighter coloured input is the one that will be added to when an output in the Available connections area is clicked. If the wrong input is highlighted, you can highlight the correct one by left-clicking the text of the input name you desire.

Note that you can "mux" as many inputs together as you like when doing this, they just pile up on top of the last one. Be warned, though, that they are all summed at unity gain. You can reach some fairly astonishing levels by doing this a lot.

If you click an output from the Available connections area, the connection is added to that input's list, the connection is made active, and the next input is made a lighter colour, indicating that it is ready to accept your selection. This makes it a simple matter to assign many connections rapidly. The transport does not have to be stopped to change inputs or outputs (or anything, really) in Ardour.

Removing assignments is achieved by left-clicking the relevant output in the inputs area. As with most objects in Ardour, you can also remove an assignment by holding the shift key while right-clicking it.

The Available connections area lists all available connections, sorted into tabs which represent their associated hardware or software ports. The front tab is always alsa_pcm. this represents the physical ports on your computer. It should contain as many ports as hour hardware has inputs.

The next tab is Ardour. This tab lists all the connections that Ardour has available, including inserts and sends. If you have some other Jack aware programs running, they will be given tabs in this area which will correspond to their Jack output ports.

The rescan button searches for any new available outputs. It may be necessary to use it if you have started a Jack application after you open the window.

The Cancel button closes the window XXX what really happens? , as does the OK button.

This window opens when you double-left-click or control right-click a plugin on a mixer strip. It allows you to adjust, store and automate the controls presented by any LADSPA plugin. Because LADSPA plugins do not contain graphical interface information, this window adapts itself to suit the various controls presented by the plugin. The advantage of this system is that each plugin appears consistently within Ardour. The disadvantage is that with a few plugins, the controls seem to be laid out in a haphazard fashion. This is not usually the case, however.

Each plugin window will have a bypass switch in the top left. Whenever you add a plugin, it's initial state will be bypass. The button will be red and appear depressed. To activate the plugin, press the bypass button. you should immediately hear the plugin inserted in the signal path. All plugins that report their latency are automatically time compensated sample-accurately.

To the left of the bypass switch you will see the name of the plugin, the author and the number of inputs and outputs that the plugin makes use of. To the right will be a text entry area, a list selector and a Save button. To save a combination of settings, press the Save button. A window will appear asking for the name of the preset. Enter a name, press OK, and your new preset will appear on the list of saved settings.

To restore a saved preset, select it from the list. The settings should immediately be restored as you release the mouse button.

The rest of the window consists of sliders and buttons which represent the various controls available for the plugin. To move a slider, left click it and slide the mouse horizontally over the range of the control. You can see the numeric value and the bar change as you move the mouse. You can also press the control key while moving for finer adjustments.

Next to each control is an automation mode button. The default state is off. To write automation information, press the button and select write from the drop-down list. After engaging the transport, movement of the control will be recorded for playback when the play automation mode is selected. Touch mode automatically switches from play to write as the control is first selected with the mouse button and released, respectively. The automation data is accessible from the editor window, along with the other automation data for the track.

The export window appears when either export session to audiofile or export range to audiofile have been selected from the session menu. This window enables an audio file to be rendered from either the master bus or individual tracks in freewheel mode. A large range of audio file formats are supported, as is the ability to export a CUE or TOC file representing any CD index or track markers you may have in the session. Bit depth reduction can be performed with three types of dither, or no dither.

The crossfade editor will appear whenever you select crossfade → edit from any active or inactive crossfade in the editor window. This window allows you to customise the default crossfade that is automatically applied when two regions overlap. Provision is made for auditioning different elements of the crossfade, or the crossfade as a whole.

The locations window provides a means to locate to and define points and ranges in your session. Points and ranges may also be 'promoted' to be CD Index or CD Track markers, respectively. Once promoted, they may be exported to a standard T.O.C. or CUE file along with the exported audio using the export window. The locations window will appear when windows → locations is selected from the editor window.