Importing and recording audio in Ardour is arguably the most important part of starting a project. Without any sound, how can you create a dope record?
To start off, let's differentiate straight audio (which we will refer to as a sample) and MIDI audio.
Sample Audio
Sampled audio is a very important part of most records. Drum beats and sound effects are often created from sample audio. Sample audio also encompasses all audio that's been recorded live.
There are a few ways to bring sampled audio into your record. One way is to download it from the internet. There are lots of free audio sharing websites on which you can find samples, both good ones and bad ones. You can also buy sample packs online, if you're willing to fork over the cash. Usually these sample packs come with higher quality samples. If you're a musician, or just a judicious producer, you can also record a musician or yourself playing an instrument with a microphone. This imported audio will be a sample too (if not an extended one).
To import sample audio:
First you must find the audio files you want to import. I've gathered a few samples I like to create a drum beat. Here's what they look like on my desktop...
And here's what a few of them sound like...
Those are just a few of the drum samples I've chosen to create my beat, but even in that subgroup, there's a lot of variety. Now all I have to do is import them. I can do that using import wizard shown below, under Session > Import (or CTRL + I).
Once the wizard opens, CTRL + Click to select the audio files you want to import, in this case I'm importing my samples as .wav files, and choose your settings for import. I've chosen to have Ardour import all my samples onto new tracks it will make for me. To learn more about making tracks yourself, check out the article titled Creating Audio and MIDI Tracks.
Alternatively, if you don't want to use the import wizard (although it is powerful), you can create a suitable track and drag the sample file from a file explorer into the project.
Note: if you're importing a pre-made beat to use in your session, you need to make sure the BPM of the beat matches the BPM of your project, or else things will start to sound very funky, and not in the way you might want!
After my samples have been imported, they'll be placed onto tracks as shown below. The tracks are shown on the left, and the full list of samples I imported and their tracks can be seen in the smaller toolbar on the right. Now that they're in my project, I can further manipulate them and start to build my beat!
To record sample audio, it's a bit of a process. You need to make sure you have a microphone properly connected to your DAW and configured to be an input device on Ardour. Then make sure the track is set to record and the player is set to record, and you're ready to start. However, for beginners, it's safest to stick to samples you find in sample packages or online.
One final, and very important, note on importing audio. Every time you import new files to your Ardour session you must go to Session > Cleanup > Bring All Media Into Session Folder. If you don't do this, your media files won't be stored in your session folder, so the next time you open your project, your tracks might not play! To safe yourself a lot of headache and heartache, make sure you do this every time you import new media.
MIDI Audio
MIDI audio is a bit different from sample audio. Its not pure audio per se, but instead (without getting into too much detail), it is data that is evaluated in conjunction with a software instrument to produce sound. The data consists of a start command, a MIDI note value, which translates to a frequency, and a stop command. Combine these three aspects and you get one MIDI note. MIDI audio is comprised of many of these notes, which, after evaluation, produce sound and, hopefully, music. MIDI audio is recorded directly on the DAW using a MIDI controller or an electric instrument that can interface with the DAW (electric keyboard, guitar, etc.)
MIDI audio is rarely imported. It is most often recorded directly on the DAW.
To record MIDI audio, make sure you have a MIDI controller device hooked up to your DAW and configured to work with Ardour. This can be a tricky thing to maneuver, but if you're using JACK in conjunction with Ardour, make sure your MIDI bridge is turned on in JACK if you don't hear any sound immediately.
But, before we make sound, we need to make a MIDI track! Like with sample tracks, we learned a bit about making MIDI tracks in the article on tracks. If you still don't know how to make one, have a look at the article about making tracks and brush up.
Once you have a track set up, you'll have to choose a MIDI instrument to play on the track. For this track I've chosen Calf Organ, made by the developers who release the Calf plugins. I like all their plugins and software instruments, particularly the Calf Organ, since it always sounds good and is fairly flexible. Here's what the GUI for the Calf Organ looks like. It's overwhelming, I know, but in this case, I just chose a preset sound from the top!
Once that's configured and we're ready to hit some notes on our MIDI controller of choice, we need to make sure our track is ready for MIDI input and ready to record. Your track and play panel should look like this...
Notice the green bars on the "MIDI Melody" track. Those are MIDI notes! Right now, they don't look so hot: they're out of place, maybe even on the wrong note! But don't worry. The beauty of MIDI recordings is that you can manipulate and clean up the notes after the fact!
To make alterations to the MIDI data in your track, go to the utility bar and make sure you have the manipulation tool selected.
To start off, let's differentiate straight audio (which we will refer to as a sample) and MIDI audio.
Sample Audio
Sampled audio is a very important part of most records. Drum beats and sound effects are often created from sample audio. Sample audio also encompasses all audio that's been recorded live.
There are a few ways to bring sampled audio into your record. One way is to download it from the internet. There are lots of free audio sharing websites on which you can find samples, both good ones and bad ones. You can also buy sample packs online, if you're willing to fork over the cash. Usually these sample packs come with higher quality samples. If you're a musician, or just a judicious producer, you can also record a musician or yourself playing an instrument with a microphone. This imported audio will be a sample too (if not an extended one).
To import sample audio:
First you must find the audio files you want to import. I've gathered a few samples I like to create a drum beat. Here's what they look like on my desktop...
And here's what a few of them sound like...
Those are just a few of the drum samples I've chosen to create my beat, but even in that subgroup, there's a lot of variety. Now all I have to do is import them. I can do that using import wizard shown below, under Session > Import (or CTRL + I).
Once the wizard opens, CTRL + Click to select the audio files you want to import, in this case I'm importing my samples as .wav files, and choose your settings for import. I've chosen to have Ardour import all my samples onto new tracks it will make for me. To learn more about making tracks yourself, check out the article titled Creating Audio and MIDI Tracks.
Alternatively, if you don't want to use the import wizard (although it is powerful), you can create a suitable track and drag the sample file from a file explorer into the project.
Note: if you're importing a pre-made beat to use in your session, you need to make sure the BPM of the beat matches the BPM of your project, or else things will start to sound very funky, and not in the way you might want!
After my samples have been imported, they'll be placed onto tracks as shown below. The tracks are shown on the left, and the full list of samples I imported and their tracks can be seen in the smaller toolbar on the right. Now that they're in my project, I can further manipulate them and start to build my beat!
To record sample audio, it's a bit of a process. You need to make sure you have a microphone properly connected to your DAW and configured to be an input device on Ardour. Then make sure the track is set to record and the player is set to record, and you're ready to start. However, for beginners, it's safest to stick to samples you find in sample packages or online.
One final, and very important, note on importing audio. Every time you import new files to your Ardour session you must go to Session > Cleanup > Bring All Media Into Session Folder. If you don't do this, your media files won't be stored in your session folder, so the next time you open your project, your tracks might not play! To safe yourself a lot of headache and heartache, make sure you do this every time you import new media.
MIDI Audio
MIDI audio is a bit different from sample audio. Its not pure audio per se, but instead (without getting into too much detail), it is data that is evaluated in conjunction with a software instrument to produce sound. The data consists of a start command, a MIDI note value, which translates to a frequency, and a stop command. Combine these three aspects and you get one MIDI note. MIDI audio is comprised of many of these notes, which, after evaluation, produce sound and, hopefully, music. MIDI audio is recorded directly on the DAW using a MIDI controller or an electric instrument that can interface with the DAW (electric keyboard, guitar, etc.)
MIDI audio is rarely imported. It is most often recorded directly on the DAW.
To record MIDI audio, make sure you have a MIDI controller device hooked up to your DAW and configured to work with Ardour. This can be a tricky thing to maneuver, but if you're using JACK in conjunction with Ardour, make sure your MIDI bridge is turned on in JACK if you don't hear any sound immediately.
But, before we make sound, we need to make a MIDI track! Like with sample tracks, we learned a bit about making MIDI tracks in the article on tracks. If you still don't know how to make one, have a look at the article about making tracks and brush up.
Once you have a track set up, you'll have to choose a MIDI instrument to play on the track. For this track I've chosen Calf Organ, made by the developers who release the Calf plugins. I like all their plugins and software instruments, particularly the Calf Organ, since it always sounds good and is fairly flexible. Here's what the GUI for the Calf Organ looks like. It's overwhelming, I know, but in this case, I just chose a preset sound from the top!
Once that's configured and we're ready to hit some notes on our MIDI controller of choice, we need to make sure our track is ready for MIDI input and ready to record. Your track and play panel should look like this...
Once you're sure your MIDI input is correct and the MIDI is toggled on for your track, make sure the record button on your track and on the control bar are toggled on. Also make sure your software instrument is routed properly on the track, above the Fader (more on routing in a later article!) Then when you press play, you'll be recording on that track!
After you've finished recording, you'll have something like this...
To make alterations to the MIDI data in your track, go to the utility bar and make sure you have the manipulation tool selected.
Then you can drag, lengthen, and change the MIDI notes to your heart's content! In this case, I'm going to right click on the audio region and Quantize and Legatize the notes so that they start in tempo and last until the next note begins. If you have no idea what those words mean, that's alright! Check out the article on Working with MIDI Data to learn more about it!
Now that you have a MIDI audio region set to your liking on a MIDI track, and you know the difference between importing sample audio and MIDI audio, you're one step closer to producing an amazing record in Ardour!
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