[Ardour-Users] How do I select and copy a time aligned region?

[peter schmitt]

Hi, all.
I know the manual seems to cover this topic, but for the life of me, I 
cannot figure out how to:
1) select a snippet of sound from one track while leaving the rest of 
the track unmolested (I end up with a trimmed track that I can't get 
back to its original state)
2) copy that snippet in a time-aligned fashion to a new fresh track, so 
I can apply an effect to it independently of the original, and have it 
sync up with the original.
I spent over an hour futzing and reading the 'manual' to get one 
instance of this task done, but it's just not sinking in.
I'm not getting the behavior I would expect from ardour, and it all 
feels very counterintuitive.
I'll need to do a LOT of this sort of thing to punch up some drum tracks 
(new york compression) so any insight on the topic (and 
selection/copying in general) would be hugely welcome.

Thanks
Pete.