[Ardour-Dev] [Ardour FLOSS Manual] first inquiry
Derek Holzer
derek at umatic.nl
Sun Nov 8 02:40:48 PST 2009
Hi again,
Adam Hyde of FLOSS Manuals and I had some good off-list discussion with
Thomas Vecchione and Jörn Nettingsmeier about this project, and based on
that we reformatted the project a bit.
The main points were that FLOSS Manuals...
1) ...didn't want to creation confusion with or draw energy away from
the current manual being written.
2) ...didn't want to interfere with the possibility of that manual being
presented in book form to Ardour subscribers only, or any other special
distribution of the final manual that you all agree on.
3) ...also didn't want to engage in such an ambitious, encyclopedic
project as the currently-developing manual!!!!
4) ...did want to create an introductory-level set of tutorials where no
previous knowledge is assumed, rather than explore every option or
feature available.
In the end, we decided for a workshop format, where the participants
"learn by documenting" Ardour--i.e. they are given basic "tasks" to
solve using Ardour, and they will document their solutions to these
tasks as they go along. I will post the press release for this workshop
next.
We would love it if experienced Ardour users and devs wanted to take
some time (particularly towards the end of the week) to look over the
material and suggest corrections if needed. Best thing would be to
create a login on the FLOSS Manual page and just jump in and do it!
http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/Ardour/
And of course you can keep in touch via the chat interface on the
website or irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals
I may periodically jump into the #ardour channel for feedback as well.
Best wishes!
Derek
Thomas Vecchione wrote:
> Derek at al.-
>
> Please get in touch with me off list, there is already an effort
> underway to rewrite the Ardour manual as a technical reference(Has
> been in progress for several months and is coordinated on
> Ardour-User), and is in MUCH better shape than what you probably are
> seeing as an outline already.
>
> Seablade
>
> On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 6:33 AM, Derek Holzer <derek at umatic.nl> wrote:
>> [CC: Walter Langelaar (moddr_lab), Adam Hyde (FLOSS Manuals), please use
>> "reply-all", thx!]
>>
>> Dear Ardour devs,
>>
>> I've been invited by the moddr_lab and WORM in Rotterdam, the Netherlands,
>> who have agreed to host a book sprint for the Ardour FLOSS Manual. This book
>> sprint will take place from Monday 23 November to Friday 27 November. There
>> will be two sessions daily, one from 13:00-17:00 (GMT +1) and one from
>> 18:00-22:00 (GMT +1). Contributors can work at the moddr_lab (Willem
>> Buytewechstraat 188, Rotterdam) during those hours, or remotely online at
>> any time and communicate via the FLOSS Manuals IRC with the rest of us.
>>
>> I wanted to post about it here and check with all of you before I publicize
>> it more widely. The main thing is that FLOSS Manuals makes their books
>> available as print-on-demand from Lulu.com. No profit or markup is planned,
>> they will be sold at printing costs only. So I wanted to be sure this
>> doesn't interfere with anybody else's plans for the Ardour manual before we
>> go ahead. Other feedback on this project is also welcome! As long as there
>> are no objections, I will post information to Ardour-users, the FLOSS
>> Manuals discussion list, and perhaps Linux-Audio-Users and a few others
>> later this week.
>>
>> I see that there is an outline of a manual already in place, and my
>> suggestion would be to start by copying over what is there already to the
>> FLOSS Manuals page (I will try to do this in the coming weeks) and use the
>> sprint to get it up to date. Those interested in contributing should go to
>> the FLOSS Manuals site and create a login for themselves.
>>
>> The URL for the editing interface of the Ardour FLOSS Manual is here:
>> http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/Ardour/
>>
>> As you can see, it is quite empty at this point! ;-)
>>
>> At the end of the week, the completed manual will then appear on the list of
>> published manuals on the main FLOSS Manuals page:
>> http://en.flossmanuals.net/
>>
>> What would be good as a starting point would be for interested persons to
>> pick a section to update, or propose new sections (I would personally love
>> to see a section on mastering with Ardour and Jamin, for example, or an up
>> to date list of keyboard shortcuts!). The Ardour-users list might be a good
>> place for that, so please preserve the [Ardour FLOSS Manual] section of the
>> Subject line so I can find those messages quicker. Devs, please let us know
>> if you would prefer the discussion moved someplace else, such as Ardour-dev.
>> During the sprint itself, the FLOSS Manuals IRC can be used with your
>> favorite client, and it is also embedded directly into the editing
>> interface.
>>
>> You might also look over some of the existing FLOSS Manuals for examples of
>> how they are formatted. A rough outline might go as follows (merging
>> existing manual with FLOSS Manual conventions):
>>
>> # INTRODUCTION
>> 1.1. Formatting Conventions
>> 1.2. Midi Configuration
>> 1.3. Mouse and Keyboard Bindings
>> 1.4. Interface Basics
>> 1.5. What's Different about Ardour
>> 1.6. Why is it called "Ardour" and other questions
>>
>> # INSTALLING
>> LINUX (various types...)
>> OSX
>> (will need to duplicate INSTALLING sections for JACK, QJACKCTL &
>> JAMIN)
>>
>> #GETTING STARTED
>> CONFIGURING
>> STARTING JACK/QJACKCTL
>> STARTING ARDOUR
>> CONNECTING WITH QJACKCTL
>> 2.1. Sessions
>> 2.2. Getting Audio In, Out and Around Your Computer
>>
>> # INTERFACE
>> 2.3. Windows
>> 2.4. The Editor
>> 2.5. The Mixer
>> 2.6. Tracks and Busses
>> 2.7. Clocks
>> 2.8. Other Windows
>> KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
>> etc etc
>>
>> # TUTORIALS
>> 3. Using Existing Audio
>> 3.1. Importing and Embedding
>> 3.2. Supported External Audio File Formats
>> 3.3. Using audio files as tracks or regions?
>> 3.4. How to import/embed
>> 3.5. Working with Tags
>> 3.6. Searching Freesound for soundfiles (optional)
>>
>> 4. Basic Editing
>> 4.1. Editing Concepts
>> 4.2. Working with Playlists
>> 4.3. Working with Ranges
>> 4.4. Working with Regions
>>
>> 5. Advanced Editing
>>
>> 5.1. Working with Crossfades
>> 5.2. Working with layers
>>
>> 6. Exporting
>>
>> 6.1. Exporting to CD
>>
>> 7. Mixing
>> 7.1. Automation
>> 7.2. Using Plugins
>> 7.3. Using VST Plugins
>>
>> 8. Recording
>>
>> 8.1. Basic Recording
>> 8.2. Monitoring
>> 8.3. Setting Up To Record
>>
>> 9. Synchronization
>>
>> 9.1. Synchronization Concepts
>> 9.2. Video Synchronization via MTC
>>
>> 10. Using Control Surfaces
>>
>> 10.1. Behringer DDX3216
>> 10.2. Using a BCF2000
>> 10.3. Using a Frontier Design Tranzport
>> 10.4. Using a Generic MIDI control surface
>> 10.5. Configuring USB device access (Linux only)
>> 10.6. Using the Mackie driver for MCU and BCF2000
>>
>> MASTERING WITH JAMIN
>> etc etc
>>
>> # APPENDICES
>> 1. Problems, Bugs and Known Issues
>> GLOSSARY (many terms can be borrowed from existing manuals)
>> ADDITIONAL HELP (irc, forums, mailing lists)
>> CREDITS
>>
>> I will also set up the chapters before the sprint with the necessary
>> sections, using the existing Ardour manual as a guide as above. Input on
>> this topic would be great.
>>
>> A few questions you might have:
>>
>> ---What is FLOSS Manuals?
>>
>> http://en.flossmanuals.net/
>>
>> FLOSS Manuals is a collection of manuals about free and open source
>> software together with the tools used to create them and the community that
>> uses those tools. They include authors, editors, artists, software
>> developers, activists, and many others. There are manuals that explain how
>> to install and use a range of free and open source softwares, about how to
>> do things (like design) with open source software, and manuals about free
>> culture services that use or support free software and formats.
>>
>> Anyone can contribute to a manual – to fix a spelling mistake, to add a more
>> detailed explanation, to write a new chapter, or to start a whole new manual
>> on a topic.
>>
>> ---What is a Book Sprint?
>>
>> Book Sprints are an innovative format based on Code Sprints but with the
>> focus on producing documentation instead of code. A sprint brings together a
>> group of writers, editors, and perhaps an artist and production specialist,
>> to go from outline to published book in five days.
>>
>> Writing a book in a week is an incredible and demanding feat. It was enabled
>> by the FLOSS Manuals platform which has turned the corner from wiki to
>> collaborative publishing platform. The platform enables fluent collaboration
>> with local and remote writers, a low technical threshold and an automated
>> print source generator that produces beautiful book formatted PDF. Upload
>> this to a print on demand service and you have a fast moving process able to
>> produce books at the same rate programmers change the software.
>>
>> I look forward to hearing from you all about this!
>> Best,
>> Derek
>>
>> --
>> ::: derek holzer ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista :::
>> http://www.vimeo.com/macumbista :::
>> ---Oblique Strategy # 7:
>> "Accept advice"
>> _______________________________________________
>> ardour-dev mailing list
>> ardour-dev at lists.ardour.org
>> http://lists.ardour.org/listinfo.cgi/ardour-dev-ardour.org
>>
>
--
::: derek holzer ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista :::
http://www.vimeo.com/macumbista :::
---Oblique Strategy # 75:
"Ghost echoes"
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