[ardour-users] some questions

[Mark Knecht]

Dave,
   I would not call my use of Ardour today very sophisticated so take
this for what it's worth. (Possibly very little...)


On Wed, 10 Nov 2004 11:47:06 -0500, Dave Phillips <dlphilp at bright.net> wrote:
> Greetings:
> 
>   Just a few questions for my fellow Ardouristas:
> 
>     Do you run Jack + Ardour as root ? (It seems to fix some performance
> problems for me).

No, I'm fine running as a normal user using QJC and Ardour. My kernel
is 2.6.9-rc2-mm4-VP-S7-UMP-noAPCI. I have the newer Linux Security
Module stuff installed and have created a reatime group which is
granted privileges. My user account is part of that group. I have 1394
enabled for using external audio drives.

> 
>     When I start writing an automated fade the fader always resets to
> unity before writing. Is there a way to force it to start from the
> fader's current position ?

OK, please take this next part with a grain of salt. I'm approaching
Ardour like it was Pro Tools and just trying to do the same things.
Some things work. Some things don't. That may be by design. I don't
know...

If you really mean 'starting' as in there is no existing automation,
then I'm not sure I see the same thing. First, and this seems to be
the root of my frustrations with Ardour's automation procedures, when
you first start working with the track, is there is no existing
automation line. Pro Tool's throws up an initial line that is at the
existing fader level. If you drag the fader up and down then that line
moves up and down visually. Ardour doesn't display anything for me on
a new track.

When I start automating a new track I sometimes get lines in the
middle of the automation field. I don't get a line extending from time
0 to the first edit. Just a green line at the point where I double
click. This leaves me not knowing what's going to happen up until that
point. It also leaves me unclear what will happen after the
automation.

Personally I'd feel more at home with an edit process that looked like this:

1) Open automation and see an existing line.
2) Double click that line and get a new automation edit point existing
on that line.
3) Single click to grab and move that existing edit point.

I like Ardour's ability to grab an automation segment and drag it up
and down. That's handy.

I am completely missing mute automation. Often I record multiple takes
and then alternately mute and unmute different portions of different
tracks. Ardour doesn't support mute automation (in my beta19 version
anyway) so to do something similar I have to mess with volume
automation.

Overall I feel that if Ardour added this initial automation line and
then allowed me to put edit points on it I'd work faster and more
confidently, but I also realize that this may just be my years of Pro
tools talking.

Oh - BTW - I have two tracks, both have automation. Both say play. One
moves the fader. The other does not. why?

> 
>     Do you have any favorite LADSPA or VST effects you use frequently ?

No VSTs within Ardour since it doesn't support the newest versions of
wine. I'm running Ardour with the --novst option and using a few VST
instruments outside (Battery, Crystal) along with Zyn as a stand alone
synth. I don't tend to use effects much. Reverb and compessors tend to
be the limit for me.

> 
>     Sometimes Alt-n doesn't normalize a region. I don't see any major
> spikes in the region, but the normalization doesn't take. Any
> suggestions other than exporting the region and fixing it in a soundfile
> editor ?
> 
>     I'm using a Delta 66 card. If you're using such a card, what are
> your JACK settings ?
> 
>   I'm writing an article about Ardour for the Linux Journal, I'm sure
> I'll ask more as I learn more...
> 
> Best,
> 
> dp
> 
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