View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0008281ardourfeaturespublic2022-03-27 19:26
Reporterjeythekey Assigned To 
PrioritynormalSeverityminorReproducibilityalways
Status newResolutionopen 
PlatformArchOSLinuxOS Version(any)
Product Version6.0 
Summary0008281: Polyphonic (and stereo) import #1: Import to selected tracks
DescriptionCurrently, the option to import to selected tracks is only available for (several) mono-files. It appears as soon as the number of selected files matches the number of currently selected tracks.

Suggestion: Make this option also available for polyphonic (stereo or more) files, as soon as the number of channels in a file matches the number of selected tracks.
As an additional (independent) suggestion: Leave the option to import to selected tracks selected as long as the import window stays open (as it is the case with all other options); at least it should become selected again once the number of selected tracks matches (again) the number of selected files/channels in a selected file.

Reason: Currently, importing polyphonic files (e.g. from a mobile/field recorder) creates new tracks on every import. Importing e.g. multiple takes of a recording session therefore is tedious and requires several manual steps (moving up the regions and deleting the created tracks for every imported file/take).

There are two further workarounds, but one does not gain much in convenience:
A) Polyphonic files can first be split to mono-files, either using sox on the command line or by first importing to regions. But having many (6, 16, or even 32) mono files for every take is very prone to errors when manually selecting the files belonging to a take to import.
B) Polyphonic files can be added to (existing) polyphonic takes. However, polyphonic takes can currently not be converted to mono tracks. (It only creates mono-regions/sources in the list view, that later could be imported one by one from the sources list and then aligned.)

As discussed here: https://discourse.ardour.org/t/import-multiple-takes/103997/24?u=jeythekey
Tags6.0, Import, polyphonic, stereo

Activities

jeythekey

2022-03-27 19:26

reporter   ~0026363

Is there anything done in this regard already? I still think being able to seamlessly import several files/takes at once as a sequence to several (selected) mono tracks, or one after another to selected tracks (i.e. without creating new tracks for every file/import) is utterly important whenever you record on an external recorder and not directly into Ardour.
See also: https://tracker.ardour.org/view.php?id=8283

Also, one addendum: I just noted, that, unlike stated in the original report, the option to import to selected tracks also appears when selecting several files in the import window and selecting "as sequence" also for stereo-files and irrespective of how many tracks are selected. However, it always only imports one (the left?) track per file, to the track selected first, which is totally unexpected behavior and therefore likely a BUG. (I.e. this option should not occur under these circumstances until properly supporting the feature to import polyphonic/stereo files to selected tracks, IMO.)

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2020-07-03 16:22 jeythekey New Issue
2020-07-03 16:22 jeythekey Tag Attached: 6.0
2020-07-03 16:22 jeythekey Tag Attached: Import
2020-07-03 16:22 jeythekey Tag Attached: polyphonic
2020-07-03 16:22 jeythekey Tag Attached: stereo
2022-03-27 19:26 jeythekey Note Added: 0026363