Sound editing in Ardour

Getting Stuff Done How do I .... ?
#1

Hello,

Is it possible to edit sound in Ardour in a destructive mode just like in usual sound editing program? I know Ardour is mostly a composition program but I would like to get rid of sound editing program and do everything in Ardour if it is possible. If not, please suggest a sound editing application? Audacity or something else? It must support JACK I think.

Thanks.

#2

As an alternative is there a way to apply an effect to a piece of a track? This is similar to a video editing programs - all of them can apply a set of effects to every clip separately. I wonder, is there a possibility to split a track into many individual pieces and apply different effects to them? Thanks.

#3

There is not a way to apply an effect to only a piece of a track, that is just not how Ardour works. Your best bet for this would be to utilize automation so an effect is only really doing anything to that piece of the track.

Ardour isn’t really a destructive editor, for that you can use Audacity, ReZound, Peak, Audition, or any number of editors depending on your platform and I would suggest keeping them in your toolbox. I still teach my students Audacity before going into Ardour so they have familiarity with destructive file editors as they are useful in any toolbox even though at least 95% of the owrk I do now is all in Ardour and I barely ever touch my destructive editors.

  Seablade
#4

There is not a way to apply an effect to only a piece of a track

Wait a minute!

What about drawing a range over the processed region/s and right-klick - bounce range to region-list with processing?

This will make a new region with all the fx and edits in the chosen range and this region can be exported easily as a new(processed) wave-file. Just as in any given destructive editor like Audacity.

#5

Correct, but you are not applying processing to just that section of track. You are still applying processing to the entire track, and only exporting just that section. The track itself and the audiofiles involved remain untouched, so if you were to say, embed instead of import an audio file, that embedded audiofile would never change, which is one of the reasons you might use a destructive editor.

It is just the same as if you applied my comments above, just a different way of doing it. What people are looking for often when they ask questions like this is a way to apply an effect to just a single region without applying it to an entire track, something that is currently not possible in Ardour.

    Seablade
#6

Correct, but you are not applying processing to just that section of track. You are still applying processing to the entire track

Draw a range, Rightklick/Consolidate with Processing applies the Plugins in the mixer-strip to that very range only, all other regions in the same track are not affected.

At least this is the result I get: a new region as long as the range with all the plugins processed into the material.

Of course these plugins would affect the complete track, if you play it. But you can easily disable the plugins or change their settings or even delete them after applying them to a fraction of the track.

That is, in fact, not exactly the same as destructive editing but apart from harddrive-usage, internal file-names and names of regions it is quite near to the things one may do in Audacity.

Thinking some harder about it, it may be somewhat different from a users-perspective also. If one wants to apply a effect to only but a fraction of a second, it will not be as convenient as in Audacity. Bounce/Consolidate will always write a new file and present a new region so if you want to incorporate that fraction in the complete track, you will need to draw a region over the complete track with the processed fraction and consolidate this range without processing.

This can be done in the end of the process though and that little inconvenience brings a lot of data-security: if you start to dislike the processing in the fraction some 2 weeks later, you can just delete the consolidated region and replace it with the (still untouched) original.

#7
Of course these plugins would affect the complete track, if you play it. But you can easily disable the plugins or change their settings or even delete them after applying them to a fraction of the tracK

This was my point;) It isn’t quite the same as using a destructive editor as any active plugins always effect the entire track, and if you delete the plugins you risk losing your ability to recreate the same sound if you want to tweak it later. Again, not the same as using a destructive editor, and thus my comments above.

 Seablade
#8

This was my point;) It isn’t quite the same as using a destructive editor as any active plugins always effect the entire track

I see. Yes indeed the workflow is quite different.

Still I use to recommend Ardour for tasks, one would normally prefer a real destructive editor. At least whenever more than simple normalizing and fadein/out is reqiured in the effects-domain. Realtime-capabilities are a most important feature for working with effects I guess and the only destructive Linux-editor that could compete in that would be Snd.

Plus:
I think, that “Ardour-has-an-unbearable-steep-learning-curve-thing” is a myth. Sure, it offers many things, a beginner will find hard to understand in his/her first few dozen houres working with it. But it can be used in a more basic way for starters. So steeper than Audacity or MHW: yes but unbearable steep: no

#9

Guys, thanks for the information!

I don’t like Audacity because it doesn’t support LV2 plugins but only LADSPA, VAMP and Nyquist. It also crashes quite often. I don’t like its compressor at all - it gives unexpected effect, there are no normal presets in effects, to use pencil tool you need to zoom which is not convenient, etc… In other, words if you have ever worked with Sony Soundforge you will not be able to use Audacity :slight_smile:

I like Ardour as a composition program.

Can you suggest something more professional than Audacity? I mean destructive editor? Looks like the only sound editor from your list that works with JACK is ReZound, right?

Thanks much.

#10

It all depends on your needs of course, but give ReZound a try. I haven’t used it in many years so I don’t know the state it is in, but I did prefer to use it over Audacity for many things the last I used it.

   Seablade
#11

Thanks much!

#12

You might also have a look at mhWaveEdit.

#13

@zettberlin

Draw a range, Rightklick/Consolidate with Processing applies the Plugins in the mixer-strip to that very range only, all other regions in the same track are not affected.

THANK YOU!!! I am coming from Cubase since about 3 days ago, and I found most everything I need from my old workflow

  1. audio+midi track for vst/au synth (or record audio of performance etc)
  2. export audio, import (is there a quick way to solo, export audio, and import?)
  3. cut up, manipulate, process individual regions (reverse, reverb, process in the way YOU DESCRIBE ABOVE! re-reverse…)

It’s very important to have 3 things for me:

  1. key commands (bindings) - even for snap units etc.
  2. audio per region/clip gain envelope, pitch, visual fade correlation, the feeling of a precise audio editor
  3. offline processing of some kind (at least your technique gives a way to fake it without the old Logic trick of separate tracks with different plugins on them for each little region with different effects (ups the track count too much))

Thank you!

#14

There is also ocenaudio: https://www.ocenaudio.com/
It is multiplatform, has a nice GUI, and if free. But not open source.