[Ardour-Users] Ardour 3 - export bugs

[Joe Hartley]

On Thu, 03 Jul 2014 10:42:41 +0200
Thorsten Wilms <t_w_ at freenet.de> wrote:

> On 03.07.2014 00:02, Kim Cascone wrote:
> > - when I clicked on export I fumbled through a hella-confusing export
> > panel which kept duplicating tabs as I tried to create a new one
> 
> Grown in experience since then, I both see why it is that way and 
> several potential stumbling blocks for first-time users. How to reduce 
> them is not clear, though.

I had a lot of fits when first using the A3 export dialog below (still do,
but for entirely different reasons!).  My Firewire mixer/audio interface
runs at 48k and won't do 44.1.  Fine for recording, less good for writing
exported tracks to CD.

I'd started by going through the process of trying to create a 44.1k tab
and getting it wrong like Kim (not realizing I could just choose a format
from the dropdown menu), then getting it right, then realizing that
it dramatically affected the time it took to export a track.  It's worked
out much better for me to export at the native speed, then use sox to
convert the file to 44.1k.  It's much faster in the long run.

So what still gives me fits about the export?  These days the bulk of what 
I am doing is taking multi-hour recordings with multiple bands which I
mix and then export as individuial tracks by making begin/end markers for 
each song, selecting the range and exporting the selections individually.(*)  

A3 only retains the fact that I exported a selection once, so for song 1 
I have to open the dropdown and choose selection rather than session and export.
At song 2, it remembers and exports a selection, but at song 3 it reverts back
to session and I have to go through the dropdown and choose selection again.
I have to remember to change this for every other export. (Actually, I'd 
really like to see the return of "Export Selection to Audio File(s)" to 
the File->Export menu.)  Having to open the Time Span section, deselect
session and choose selection so many times in the course of exporting a
show gets old fast.

These two choices are NOT mutually exclusive, which also drives me nuts; if
in my haste I don't quite hit the target to deselect session and start the export, I have to stop the export and start it again, and delete the session
file that started to get written.  I believe exporting both the session and
selection simultaneously is an edge case, and that the two choices should be
mudually exclusive.  

I also detest with the fury of a thousand white-hot suns the forced inclusion
of either "_session" or "_Selection" to the exported file name.  Since I 
discovered the rename command(**) that fury's diminished to about a dozen suns,
but it galls me that I don't have full control of the exported filename in the dialog.  

(*) By the way, one thing that's GREAT is Ardour's snapshot methodology.
I open a session, mix band 1 and when I'm done, save a snapshot as band 2.
Then I'll close the session and open the band 2 snapshot and mix it, which
will often use rather different levels and plugins depending on the music.
When I'm done, I export then save, and then take a snapshot named band 3,
which I can then open and modify without losing what I've done for band 2.
That way if a month later band 6 decides they want to do something more 
with their tracks, I just open the band 6 snap and can modify their stuff.

With my last gig covering 14 sets over 8 hours, it's fantastic to have a
workflow that lets me use the same source files and have vastly different 
mixes without affecting previous of future work.

(**) Rename, unlike mv, allows you to rename files based on pattern 
matching, so to remove the loathed string "_Selection" from all my exported
files, I just need a single command:  rename _Selection "" *_Selection.wav
Sure beats having to do a little scripting to do the same thing!  I have no
idea how long this command has existed without my knowing about it but I'm
sure glad it exists now.

-- 
======================================================================
       Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh at brainiac.com
 Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa