According to the manual, Ardour “will draw lines at selected intervals as chosen in the drop-down selector.” The manual also mentions that “Ardour tries not to show “too many” or “too few” grid lines depending on the zoom level.” However I could find no reference to grid lines only appearing after snap is turned on.
This is what happened:
- I was zoomed in quite closely as I was simulating “diamonds” (arpeggiated guitar chords).
- I had “Snap” turned off for the same reason.
- I had been working at 1/8th note grid resolution, but decided I wanted to place a diamond 1/16 before the beat. I did not want the notes snapped to that 1/16th - just needed to grid-line to help me place the arpeggio.
- So I changed the grid scale in the drop-down box to 16th notes, but nothing happened.
- I read the relevant section in the manual, but could find no reason that the extra lines were not appearing - especially since I was zoomed in so close.
- Just by chance I happened to notice the grid-lines appear after turning on “Snap” and changing the resolution again. Problem solved, but mostly due to good luck.
I don’t know whether this behaviour is intentional or not - I can’t think of a good use case for it but that’s just me. Also, now I know how to change the resolution, it’s really not so inconvenient. However, at least it would be good to mention this in the manual. I think there must be others that need a visual reference without the actual notes being quantised.