Audio/MIDI Setup

Audio/MIDI Setup {#audiomidi-setup .clear}

The Audio/MIDI Setup Dialog

This window exposes the different audio options to be used by Ardour for the current work session, for hardware and software and is made of:

Audio System

Depending on the operating system, Ardour can possibly use different audio systems, e.g. on Linux, both [ ALSA]{.abbr title=“Advanced Linux Sound Architecture”}, PulseAudio, and [JACK]{.abbr title=“JACK Audio Connection Kit”} are available. On Mac OS X this will typically be [CoreAudio]{.kbd .menu}. Advanced users on all platforms may also use [NetJack]{.kbd .menu} which provides network audio I/O.

Input Device

The selector should show all available interfaces provided by the audio system above and which are capable of capturing audio.

Output Device

The selector should show all available interfaces provided by the audio system above and which are capable of playing audio.

Sample Rate

The selector will allow to select from any sample rate supported by the device selected above it.

Buffer Size

The size of the buffer used by the audio interface can be adjusted to allow for either lower latency, or lower CPU usage and higher latency.

Periods

Number of frames between each hardware interrupt (analog-digital or digital-analog conversion).

Hardware Monitoring

This section allows choosing whether Ardour or auidio hardware should be handling recording monitoring.

Advanced Settings

This section contains several lower-level settings listed below.

MIDI System

This allows choosing a MIDI driver. On macOS, this will be [CoreMIDI]{.kbd .menu}. On Linux, the choice will be between ALSA sequencer and ALSA raw devices. Choosing “None” will disable the connection to the external MIDI backend and prevent Ardour from being exposed to external MIDI ports while allowing to route MIDI events inside the program.

Setup & Calibration

This button runs a semi-automated guided process to obtain precise hardware latency measurements for available MIDI ports.

Hardware Input/Output Latency

Specify the hardware delay in samples for precise latency compensation.

Calibrate Audio

This button runs a semi-automated guided process to obtain precise hardware latency measurements for available audio ports.