How to Manage Connections in Ardour

[@GiuseppeGavazzaAmbient]

This is incredibly helpful, thank you so much.. I was kind of lost and didn't understand connections before too much.. the fact that Ardour has this capability moves it up head and shoulders above Ableton imho much more professional amount of control in Ardour.

[@heavy6161]

It's incredible that so few people have watched this video! You are a master class teacher! Thank you very much for your effort! Your knowledge deserve more than 336 views!

[@unfa00]

Thanks! To me it seems like this video has around 10 000 views :)

[@GertBoers]

Very informative. Thanks! Last week I've build myself a new PC, with an AMD CPU. I now have that same Starship/Matisse HD Audio thingy. It's not only for the HDMI, but it's the onboard sound chip on the motherboard.

[@unfa00]

Ah, I see! I've went on and disabeld the extra devices I don't use now to clean things up a bit :)

[@christiantreldal1585]

Thanks for another excellent video. I am waiting for a continuation with all the secrets about busses and other cool stuff. It became a cliffhanger;-)

[@unfa00]

I hear you :)

[@heathdumler6462]

You quit right where I was ready to learn about Sends!😄

[@fretinit603]

Thank you for your time and effort with these videos. They are very helpful, great stuff!

[@unfa00]

Thank you!

[@merseyviking]

Definitely a continuation of buses would be great.

[@unfa00]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm gonna keep this in mind!

[@bumpty9830]

Thanks for these tutorials! Before I found these I was banging my head against a semi-functional free version of Tracktion Waveform with PulseAudio. I've now upgraded to Ardour (which I love!) and JACK, which is also super cool.

[@mux2000]

Thank you, this was quite enlightening and will most definitely come in useful (especially right-clicking for the routing grid and ctrl-clicking for stereo pair connections), but I was really hoping you'd touch on routing signals through plugins (e.g. control Midi for vocoder, LFO into filters etc.). That's a topic I'm having real trouble with.

[@Filipe-lf7zy]

I will become a big fan of your content!

[@mattclark5116]

Did you make a bus routing video? We are trying to set up monitors with the buses to send to our IEM's.

[@chicopm]

Great tutorial! A;though I have been using Ardour for a while now, this clarified some things for me, thanks.

[@unfa00]

Awesome! Thanks :)

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Hey Unfa! It's not "Testing, one, two, three four" but "Testies, one two"! 😜 Thanks for discomfreakulating these confusing topics! 🙂😎😃

[@gentooch3870]

Great, thanks for such a useful information.

[@madmartigan9720]

Thanks for the video. Was just wondering how to output and listen through my headphones a bass guitar.

[@reginod2249]

Very informative and helpful. Thanks!

[@peyiitotatto1366]

Gracias amigo , como siempre salvando

[@TheRealFaceyNeck]

Thank you so very much for putting this together. I was asking about precisely this topic in the Ardour IRC last week. There were some key concepts I didn't understand that I do now. :-) EDIT: There is a bug with Ardour flashing that "No Align," depending on how inputs are changed. I'm still not entirely sure how to reproduce it yet, but it happens often. (Ardour 6.9)

[@unfa00]

Great! Yeah, that No Align thing is strange, I wonder if it's related to using PipeWire...

[@utahprepper8925]

@@unfa00 It indicates ambiguous latency issues.

[@rcheesley]

Really helpful, thank you!

[@danielfontes6629]

The video was very informative. Thank you. Maybe you can help with another question I have on Ardour. I'm trying to use Hexeter in it and cannot find any information online about how to. Thanks in advance!

[@anechoicmedia]

would love to see a tutorial in how to set up parallel compression :)

[@unfa00]

The easiest way is to use a plugin that has the option built-in like LSP Compressor (separate dry and wet level controls).

[@gogensart]

Great vid, THANKS A LOR! Incredible help for newbee :)

[@AlphaEchoes]

fantastic video!! thanks man! I have a question that I can't find an answer to, do you know why jack server eats up so much processing power while running in the background? Is there a fix for that? Thanks

[@tuliofalcao]

Thank you, man! I would like a brief explanation on how to make dub music in ardour. Send and return fx, feedback loop, etc. For a live mixing in a performance! Is it possible?

[@natireson4140]

some clarification Thank you !

[@dasenase]

I feel like a full windows vst tutorial would be super useful. There's multiple tools like yabridge and linvst but it can be confusing and often times the vst can have issues.

[@Swawm]

Indeed, that would be great!

[@dottokuya]

It's a bit of mixed bag, since yabridge itself is FOSS, but its target are likely not. Knowing unfa, he'd probably not doing that, though he joined yabridge' Discord server to gather info and help people over his community. Also yabride' readme is pretty detailed on its own

[@julioperez3936]

Very good video I am still frustrated with ardour . I can not make it to function in Ubuntu 22.10 which use pipewire. I can not get any signal from the microphones internal or externalexternal Any suggestion

[@jaylow759]

In 6.9.0 there is no "monitor" in master track by default. In top menu, go to Session > Monitor Section > Use Monitor Section. Both the right panel and Monitor output will show up.

[@streamsandgalaxies]

Hello unfa! Thankyou for your helpful videos! Up to recently we always record live instruments including a controller (for Zynsubaddfx, amsynth) into ardour. I am using Kxstudio with Ubuntu Studio 18.04 as base and that version of Carla seems to only allow continuous rack mode or patchbay but no single or multiclient mode. I would like to try sequencing and to use some of the synth plugins from within Carla but no sounds are heard when I use my external controller If I use the virtual keyboard from within carla, I hear sounds. I have the alsa midi bridge on and have connected the midi through port to carla-git and audio output to ardour. Do you have a video perchance that demonstrates how to make such connections?

[@giuliosant9016]

I have a Jack standalone plugin from Audio Assault: any tip on how to connect it into an Ardour channel?

[@unfa00]

A piece of software can either be JACK standalone, or a plugin. I guess you mean a plug-in? If it's a Windows VST, you'll need something like yabridge to load it in Ardour. If it's a Linux VST you need to put it in a directory that Ardour searches (you can check and change these in Preferences) and then scan plugins in n Ardour (also in preferences) to detect it.

[@giuliosant9016]

@@unfa00 Sorry I mean a standalone software even if it's...a plugin! 😂😂 Take their saturator for example. It comes both as a vst plugin and as a Jack standalone application. I'm asking about the latter because it's the only one that works in my system but I'm no expert about routing.

[@unfa00]

@@giuliosant9016 Do they supply Linux -specific versions of their software? I guess so, if there's a JACK-enabled standalone program. In such a case the plug-in they supply should also work with Ardour and be the preffered solution.

[@giuliosant9016]

@@unfa00 Long story, there's an issue with libraries, while the standalone loads just fine. But as I said I've never hooked up an external plugin so to speak.

[@AnneBonny-e6y]

amazing! thank you so much

[@bmuxbeats]

Thanks for the short introduction in routing connections in Ardour 👍🏻. You haven't talked about the MIDI routing in this video. But, it works in a comparable way. 🤓 Btw: You worked with Ardour 7 in this video. In Ardour 5.9 theres no Monitor Bus. It was a little bit confusing, 'cause I've searched for it and didn't find any. 😖After all I remembered that I still use Ardour 5.9.0...

[@sorensorensen2843]

quick Q.. what to do if Ardour only shows two options for output ("Monitor in" and "Out 1+2") and none of them routes the output to my headphones. Ubuntu recognises the headphones and Ardour can output to the built-in speakers without problems. How do I get Ardour to list my headphones as an option in the routing grid? Cheers.

[@unfa00]

Hey, this is probably an issue with how your audio back-end is set up. I'd recommend joining my community chat and asking in the #help channel. Giving support via YT comments is really hard :D chat.unfa.xyz

[@BrunoVernay]

"Show individual ports" is great, but not for hardware inputs: it hides all the names and just keep "in 1+2", "in 3+4" ... they could have keep a tooltip with full name at least. I was wondering if there are Ardour session "examples", like a "good" mix that could be studied and messed with (compression, equalization, reverb, ... ) ??

[@Code63]

Thanks unfa ! I'd like to have a tutorial to have a nice sound on streaming, recording with OBS or in Internet calls using firefox for example, all with a simple microphone. Did you recommend to use a jack, carla, pulseaudio ? How to acheve this from zero ? What racks ? Noise gates, compressor, noise repelent,... How to monitor the output ? I read many tutos but its confusing and partial for a beginner in sound management. Nice tips could be a great bonus. Sure it can help a lot of beginners in the Linux world.

[@unfa00]

If I understand correctly: you'd like to create a processing chain for your microphone that you can apply to everything? I use Carla for this kind of thing. I have made some videos where I show how to process speech. Have you seen these? Also - I have a tutorial coming up about basics of processing your voice for online calls etc. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n5yzg2SYbtWVp7M kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYaxf5lopZuimtk

[@unfa00]

For a full tutorial I would probably just have to explain my livestreaming/recording setup. If you'd joint my community chat, I can send you the Carla project for you to take a look at.

[@Code63]

@@unfa00 Thanks unfa ! Yes I'd like to have some settings I'd could use for recording or for online calls too. I'm going to see these 2 vids. Waiting your next tutorial about voice online calls! 🙂👍

[@EstebanCarvallo]

How about creating and using midnam files? To easily select patches on synths. Tutorial

[@unfa00]

Aren't these files for describing drumkit parts mapped to MIDI notes rather?

[@EstebanCarvallo]

@@unfa00 instead of having to scroll through everything, I am able to to select the patch I want on my motif rack from the midi track and it is nicely categorized. Ardour has some midman already available in it but not many. I was able to get some from the Roland website for pro tools and works perfectly in Ardour for my other boards.

[@michaelknauth4408]

What drives me crazy with jack or pipewire is this auto connection thing. Every time I open an application with sound output or input, jack or pipewire tries to be "smart" and makes connections which I do not want. I turned this off by configuration options "jack.self-connect-mode = ignore-all". But with this ardour is not able to do connections any more, and I have to use Catia/Claudia/Carla/etc. . How do you manage this situation, especially with your whole different audio setups like streaming, creating music, recording, etc.? How do you manage your audio sessions?

[@oscarcarrillo2016]

I had the same problem. I create my own script to make exactly all the connections I want and even disconnect ones that are made that I don’t want. jack_lsp to list the connections and then put the ones u want into a script. Have to copy jack_connect to jack_disconnect for windows.

[@unfa00]

Hmm. What happens on my system is programs can next to the selected adios I/F's output sink to play back and input sources to capture. Is that what troubles you, or is it something else?

[@oscarcarrillo2016]

@@unfa00 I’m not the original poster but the problems are more oriented around midi connections for me, which can easily be much more numerous than audio. BTW, pipewire appears to me to abstract the audio card so that it can route more easily. The problem I always had with jack is that it locks the audio card so you can’t switch btwn cards easily and if anything else tries to access the card, you will likely get a crash. But I find jack works really well if you pair it with Synchronous Audio Router which abstracts the audio card and allows re-routing on the fly due to that. I don’t get crashes anymore and get flexibility like pipewire. This is on win10 tho.

[@L1717-x4h]

Why I dont hear my bluetooth speakers in Ardour?

[@unfa00]

To play audio through Bluetooth devices in Ardour you will need one of two things: 1. select PulseAudio audio back-end in Ardour and select the BT speaker in PulseAudio control panel 2. replace JACK with PipeWire in your system, tell Ardour to use JACK (which will now use PipeWire) and select the BT speaker in PipeWire control panel (the same as PulseAudio, it usually just works). Note that with option 1 you can't record anything into Ardour, not even MIDI. That's a limitation that Ardour developers have made for the PulseAudio back-end.

[@necuz]

​@@unfa00 "Note that with option 1 you can't record anything into Ardour, not even MIDI. That's a limitation that Ardour developers have made for the PulseAudio back-end." This should be shown in red text if you select that option. I thought "I have pipewire-pulse, so the PulseAudio option should be fine" and ended up wasting way too much time trying a bunch of other stuff before switching to JACK.

[@rpsproject5349]

Thanks, I'm one step closer to actually being able to use Ardour. Until not I have succeeded in recording nothing and getting nothing out lets hope I've understood what you are saying.

[@dieutoutpuissant8909]

Thank you :) I try routing with Kontakt but i don't understand exactly process, maybe somebody know this ? :)

[@Helllllllsing]

Can you share your pipewire config?

[@unfa00]

That's a good idea. I should write down why I changed things and make a video. This is what I used to learn how to do it: gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/Config-JACK#controlling-latency-of-jack-applications

[@justinmarcus1049]

@@unfa00 -Yeah an updated Pipewire video showing install and tweaks would be good. I guess this also crosses over into the territory of preparing Manjaro for audio production...

[@MarkConstable]

Excellent info, thanks. Is Ardour crashing because of Pipewire or does it always just crash like that?

[@unfa00]

No, usually it's pretty stable. It's PipeWire altering the buffer size under the hood, and Ardour is not prepared to handle that. I've locked it down using config files and it's no longer happening. I've been doing lots of work in Ardour lately and it's been fine.

[@AndersHellquist]

I think he said he is using Ardour 7 which is still in heavy development so it is not stable. Ardour usually don't crash but since I changed to pipewire it has been a huge improvement when it comes to user-friendlyness and convince but at least on my system Ardour crashes whenever my Masterkeyboard goes to sleep and it's usb midi port disappear. I don't know if pipewire or Ardour is to blame. (Ardour 6.9)

[@wimtaymans7133]

@@AndersHellquist there was a bug where removing a midi port could crash ardour. Fixed in Master/next PipeWire.

[@AndersHellquist]

@@wimtaymans7133 Great news. Now I only need to understand how to map Firefox output ports to the correct destinations on my soundcard. Pipewire seems to do mappings automatically in a way that doesn't necessarily match the users need.. But except from that, pipewire really rocks. Thanks for your hard work 👍

[@_Stin_]

AVLinux was the only real recording platform for Linux and it's now discontinuing the RT/LL kernel... What's the point?

[@Satscape]

Thanks for doing Ardour tutorials. You explain things so well even with the *Horizontal thing 😁 If you could do one on "pins" (If you haven't done one yet). I have a cheat-sheet to wire up a vocoder, but I don't really understand what I'm doing 😕

[@unfa00]

Thanks! I think I've covered pin connections in my tutorial about sidechain compression in Ardour. Have you seen that one?

[@Satscape]

Think I must have missed that one, I shall go looking for it, thank you!

[@jimle22]

I'm sorry dude but I am in Ardour 8 and nothing looks like this. Cannot configure mine the same way. Don't have "monitor" in Master out at the bottom.

[@unfa00]

Come to chat.unfa.xyz and ask in #ardour . It'll be a lot easier to figure it out over there :)

[@guilhermehubner1991]

Why is your ardour crashing a lot even in an empty project?

[@unfa00]

PipeWire was changing the buffer size and Ardour can't handle that.

[@guilhermehubner1991]

@@unfa00 geez. I just got pipewire installed here. Did you manage to fix that? If so can you share how?

[@unfa00]

@@guilhermehubner1991 Yes, I have managed to resolve that problem - the solution is to configure static latency/buffer size (it's called "quant" in PipeWire) for JACK applications. It's done using config files. Here's some thread about it: gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/wikis/Config-JACK#controlling-latency-of-jack-applications

[@_Stin_]

@@unfa00 'quant' - They can't even agree on terminology used, can they.... Ardour is such a sad waste of time for them.

[@Auridian]

I'd like a tutorial learn how to use ardour with/alongside firefox, sometimes I try to replicate something from you videos but I don't know how to deal with jack.

[@unfa00]

You need to install the JACK module for pulse-audio. This will make PA cooperate with JACK and let you use both Ardour and Firefox at the same time.

[@byllgrim6045]

I love how Ardour has "Add audio port" but I can't find the fucking "Remove audio port". My mono bass track now has 8 outputs :)

[@byllgrim6045]

Aha. "Routing grid" -> find your track -> right click a port -> "Remove".

[@_Stin_]

@byllgrim6045 You can't beat Ardour's (and many Linux software's) asymmetrical interface lol Another example of why I hate this kind of broken and pedantic interface design. Why they can't put two related options in the same place is beyond me. Too many self-proclaimed 'devs' have now spent far too long irrationally confounding users with inadequate and generally ridiculous and impractical interface designs. They could've spent that time actually improving stability and functionality - and listening to the bug reports instead of ignoring them or fire-fighting by lying to users reporting bugs; or coming up with the most pathetic workarounds. FYI: I learned not to bother trying to install a Linux recording system from scratch, I just install AVLinux and have done with it. I cannot be arsed with all this messing about with reconfiguring, hacking and depressing forum surfing to get a patently unviable Linux distro to just work consistently. I just wish all the separate, tribalistic Linux 'devs' would all stop pulling in different directions and openly communicate with each other. Zero chance of that, though. We're always going to have years of wasted man hours being put into 5000+ differently, yet equally laughable, Linux distros that are each uniquely broken and unusable in some small but infuriating way. There's so much chaff software out there that finding the wheat has become impossible. Modern, open source software development, where every person fresh out of nappies and his pack of rabid dogs thinks they can code, it's just a really annoying joke, now.

[@andx4024]

I gave up using new versions of Ardoura. Midi looks like 0.668 alpha and it will always be like that because the developers do not do what is necessary but what is unnecessary. they do not correct the most important bugs but make new ones. I stay with Ardour 5.12

[@jackeppington6488]

Please consider a more basic version of this, without discussing every esoteric feature and sonic possibility. People just need to know how to hook up tracks without feedback, and how the interface works.

[@unfa00]

I'm sorry, but I don't think I can justify making a second video on the exact same topic... Maybe you could contribute timestamps to make things easier to find the meaningful parts for others and yourself in the future? Would that work?