Whip out the "regions" part of the panel on the right-hand side of the interface
Right-click anywhere in the box
Select "Import to Region List"
The "Add existing audio" window will be opeend
You can use three different tabs to select an audio file to add:
"Browse Files" (does this) (covered here)
"Search Tags" (does this)
"Search Freesound" (does this)
Using "Browse Files," navigate to a sound that you want to add. Although certain other file formats are supported (like FLAC), it is probably best to add WAV or AIFF files.
Certain information about the audio file will be displayed on the right-hand side of the window. This portion of the window also allows you to "audition" the file before importing it (that is, you can hear it by using the "Play" and "Stop" buttons in the window, without affecting your current project.
If the file that you selected has a sample-rate that is not the same as that of the current project, then the sample-rate will be highlighted in red. You can choose to import it anyway, in which case Ardour warns you again. If you import a file in a different sample rate than that of the current project, it will be played back in the project's sample rate. This will result in incorrect speed and pitch.
There are a number of other options, displayed along the bottom of the window.
You can choose to add files:
"as new tracks," which puts each file in its own track, set to normal mode, then adds it to the region list
"as new tape tracks," which puts each file in its own track, set to tape mode, then adds it to the region list
"to region list," which puts each file in the region list, but does not automatically put it in any tracks.
Note that when you choose to automatically create new tracks, Ardour adds the region to the new track, with the region starting at the current location of the transport.
The other options in this list are self-explanatory. It is usually best to convert using the best quality, since quality can always be reduced later (which saves space).
If you chose not to automatically create tracks, then you will need to add the imported regions into a track before they will be played in your session. You can do this easily by selecting the region from the "Regions" box on the right, and dragging it to a track.
