[Ardour-Dev] Export to "Master" track

Patrick Shirkey pshirkey at boosthardware.com
Sun Nov 30 19:26:05 PST 2008


Hi,

Just to make sure before I start on this. No one sees any immediate 
issues with the following:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Complete export logic. Single click. Button = "Print session"

1: Disable transport
2: Freewheel and export the Master track to disk,
3: Import the resulting wavefile as a region into "Master" Track
4: Create the peakfile and display the waveform in the "Master" Track

While playing logic.

1:  The Master bus outputs  -> Master Track inputs.
2: Master Track = Tape mode
3: Record while playing.

Re-export logic.

1: Select an area of the "master" track
2: Click "Print session" button
3: Export selected area to disk in tape mode therefore overwriting the 
previous data for the selected area.
4: Re Import and display waveform

Waveform display.

1: Preference = "Enable Master Track"
2: Master Track is bound to the Master Bus so that they both move around 
together

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++



- Can anyone put a guesstimate on how long this would take to code?  I'm 
guessing about 2 weeks (80 hours) of programming for someone who knows 
the code and maybe two months of twiddling for someone who doesn't?





Cheers.





Patrick Shirkey wrote:
> Hi,
>
> At the risk of starting off another round of wacky thread discussion I 
> would like to dig a bit deeper into what would be needed to enable 
> exporting a session or part of a session to a "Master" Track.
>
> Do we really need a second engine to do this?
>
> Is it really necessary to run a non gui "background" process? Sounds 
> like a useful addition to Ardour but may be a seperate feature 
> altogether.
>
> I don't have a problem with disabling playback/record while export is 
> in process. What I would like to see is the exported track 
> automatically imported into the "Master" track once the wavefile is 
> written. The resulting region would be completely seperate from the 
> file that is created when manually exporting. Just compare the time it 
> takes to record a two hour session to exporting a two hour session and 
> it should be obvious the potential benefits from this method.
>
> IIUC it should be possible to disable transport/export to disk, 
> freewheel and export the Master track to disk, import the resulting 
> wavefile as a region, create the peakfile and display the waveform in 
> the "Master" Track from a single button press.  The "Master" track 
> would have to be a special track that Ardour handled internally.
>
> What I'm not sure about is if it is possible to do this in "Tape" 
> mode. If it is possible that would be very good. If it is not then the 
> current method of recording a complete track and rerecording the 
> altered sections may be less time consuming once the initial wavefile 
> has been saved.
>
> However it now occurs to me that a combination of both methods could 
> be integrated to achieve the final result of being able to quickly see 
> the entire waveform for a long session. Hence, if the user chooses to 
> export the session the entire session is exported. If the user chooses 
> to play the session the master track is automatically put into Tape 
> mode. That would really be the best of both worlds and afaict 
> everything is in place to make it possible. By default the master 
> track could be in tape mode and there could be an export button which 
> exports the whole session.
>
> An extension to this would be exporting part of the session to the 
> master track while in tape mode. i.e overwriting the specific part of 
> the wavefile while in freewheeling mode. I'm guessing  this will be a 
> little more difficult to put in place.
>
> Another extension would be to generate the peakfile as soon as the 
> wavefile is exported. It appears that code is already inplace to do 
> this too as it would effectively be the same as the record code but in 
> freewheeling mode.
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheers.
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd.






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