Hi!
I use Ardour since V.1 or 2… 
I never really needed monitor features. Now I’m recording in a room, I have two speakers, a headphone, and mics.
I never want the mics input going to speakers (master bus)
I need these inputs going to monitor instead (control out)
I can use ‘input’ on the tracks, AFL, or any configuration, signal always goes to both master and control out.
Any idea?
Just create another stereo-bus, let’s call it “monitor”, and select your monitor-output (you need to figure out which output-numbers correspond to your headphones I presume) as the output of that (bottom of the channel-strip). Then change the output of your tracks from master to monitor. If you want the tracks to go to your speakers again you can just switch the output of your monitor-bus to the master-in.
Alternatively, just mute the master while recording and insert aux-sends to the monitor-bus on the tracks you want to record.
Of course you could just turn off the speakers while recording, though I can see how that could be a hassle depending on your setup…
Conceptually the signal flow is
input (mic) -> track -> master [-> monitor] -> output (speakers)
“master” is exported. and “monitor” allows for custom gain-staging or plugins that are not to be printed during export.
The key here is “track”. A track can either forward incoming audio, or play back data from disk (or mix both). In your case you only want tracks to record the input, but always monitor disk.
In Preferences > Signal Flow set Record Monitoring handled by audio hardware.
See also https://manual.ardour.org/appendix/monitor-modes/.
Now to monitor input directly, there are various options, the best is likely to add a Monitor Section (Menu > Session > Monitor Section) and then on the Recorder Page **PFL ** (pre-fader listen) each input.
Another option is what @marx described. Just create a custom bus, connect all inputs to it, disconnect its output from master, and connect its output directly to the speaker(s). Solo Isolate the bus.
Other options would be to use busses for each input and then a foldback bus (one for headphones, one for speakers)…
Thank you guys,
I tried things yesterday, and finally used “cue” or “monitor” tracks (I don’t know the name used in english, I use Ardour in french, it’s called “bus de retour”).
But again, signal going there always goes to master, I have to un-arm tracks and enable loudspeakers to switch.
Yes, I use monitor section for myself (performers have their own mixers with each tracks).
that solves the “output to speakers” issue, but then I can’t send the disk signals.
Anyway, It was a good idea to dig into monitoring science, maybe there is no ideal solution, but I realize Ardour provides a lot of features.
Use a different bus for the live input from the mic, and set the track that you record onto to just play back recorded material (Disk monitoring only). Route appropriately.
SeabladeSure, that’s it!! Thank you!
This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.