Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Ardour

Record, edit, and mix on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

3.0
(1 review)
Pricing:
  • Open Source

Ardour Reviews and details

Screenshots and images

  • Ardour Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-13

Features & Specs

  1. Open Source

    Ardour is an open-source digital audio workstation, which means it's free to use and its source code is publicly available for modification and enhancement.

  2. Cross-Platform

    It is compatible with Linux, macOS, and Windows, making it accessible for users on different operating systems.

  3. Extensive Plugin Support

    Ardour supports a wide range of plugins including LADSPA, LV2, VST, and AU, providing versatility in sound processing and effects.

  4. Professional Audio and MIDI Features

    Offers comprehensive tools for recording, editing, and mixing audio and MIDI, suitable for professional audio production environments.

  5. Flexible Audio Routing

    Provides advanced and flexible routing options, including the ability to route any track to any other track, bus, or output.

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What is Ardour?

Ardour Review ENDED

Ardour Tutorial - Digital Audio Workstation for Linux

Reviews

  1. User avatar
    Guto Santana
    · Director at LAS Cons Art EIRELI ·
     
    Great for the poor man. Still needs A LOT of improvements, specially on midi editing.

    Copy Yes, you can start a project from scratch and end up with a great sounding track using Ardour. Specially if you use mostly audio. For those like me who use both audio and midi editing, it may easily drive you to a real nightmare. The DAW doesn't behave as you would expect. The "share regions" will get you good as you edit one region and it "magically" ruins the original one. Oh, just use copy instead of share, like they say right? Nope. It still bugs you to the bone. So you have to go manually "unlinking" every single region. Some regions may be a single note, for example, and you can miss that. Oh, so I will consolidate all regions before unlinking! Nope, there is not such thing here. Another example: You want to keep only a certain midi note on your midi track, the C3 that is you Drum Kick. You cannot do it, unless if you go deleting every single other note, one by one! Terrible isn't it? No, you cannot copy a single note through the entire track. Sometimes I managed to select a note through the track and delete it. So I took note how I did it and... Next time it's a negative! With so many different selections of tools, smart, playhead, etc, it appears the DAW confuses itself and do not respond appropriately. So... my advice to you is not to fall for what I did, which is believing Ardour can do everything it says it does, cause it doesn't. Keep simple with audio recording and editing. Do your midi stuff elsewhere and run from the nightmare I got myself into. Nevertheless, it is great cost/benefit DAW. Worthy a try. Yes, you can start a project from scratch and end up with a great sounding track using Ardour. Specially if you use mostly audio. For those like me who use both audio and MIDI editing, it may easily drive you into a real nightmare. The DAW doesn't behave as you would expect. The "share regions" will get you good as you edit one region and it "magically" ruins the original one. Oh, just use copy instead of share, like they say right? Nope. It still bugs you to the bone. So you have to go manually "unlinking" every single region. Some regions may be a single note, for example, and you can miss that. Oh, so I will consolidate all regions before unlinking! Nope, there is not such thing here. Another example: You want to keep only a certain midi note on your midi track, the C3 that is you Drum Kick. You cannot do it, unless if you go deleting every single other note, one by one! Terrible isn't it? No, you cannot copy a single note through the entire track. Sometimes I managed to select a note through the track and delete it. So I took note how I did it and... Next time it's a negative! With so many different selections of tools, smart, playhead, etc, it appears the DAW confuses itself and do not respond appropriately. So... my advice to you is not to fall for what I did, which is believing Ardour can do everything it says it does, cause it doesn't. Keep simple with audio recording and editing. Do your midi stuff elsewhere and run from the nightmare I got myself into. Nevertheless, it is great cost/benefit DAW. Worthy a try.

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Social recommendations and mentions

We have tracked the following product recommendations or mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you see what people think about Ardour and what they use it for.
  • Ask HN: Is There a Blender for Music?
    Effects you can hear. [0] https://ardour.org/ [1[ https://cybershow.uk/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • What Is the Future of the DAW?
    I'm the lead author of Ardour [0], and I'd very much like to hear more about your frustrations, since over the next 1-2 years, paying attention to non-European musical culture is one of the things I hope to focus on during development. You can reach me via the email address in my profile, or maybe use our forums at discourse.ardour.org. Thanks. [0] https://ardour.org/ <= a cross-platform open source DAW that has... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Red Blob Games: Interactive visual explanations of math and algorithms
    One extra detail, something I've learned from 20 years of working on dragging all kinds of objects around the GUI of Ardour [0]: handle ALL button press and release events as drag events where there is no movement. [0] https://ardour.org/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Absolute beginner seeking advice
    I am aware of the 'Real Tone Cable' however I am curious if this is what I should be buying if I also intend on recording my playing in a software such as 'Ardour'. Source: about 1 year ago
  • How to map multiple samples with linux-sampler?
    I just loaded an instance of samplv https://samplv1.sourceforge.io/ into the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), Ardour https://ardour.org/ . Source: over 1 year ago
  • Is it possible to create professional music on Linux?
    If you produce music using a DAW, my preferred is Linux's Ardour: Http://ardour.org. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Thought was worth sharing ❤️
    Ardour is a free DAW that recently added a clip launcher. I've never tried it. Source: over 1 year ago
  • What the hell do I even do with sfizz?
    If you installed a Sfizz lv2 plugin you need an lv2 host to execute Sfizz. Ardour https://ardour.org/ and Carla are https://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Applications:Carla are lv2 plugin hosts. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Fueling Innovation and Collaborative Storytelling
    Music and sound provide depth and development to science fiction worlds. Open source music production software like Ardour and LMMS provide aspiring composers and sound designers with professional-grade tools to create atmospheric and futuristic soundscapes. The TV show The Expanse uses open source soundscaping tools to create realistic soundscapes of space travel. The soundscape helps to immerse the viewer in the... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Get Started Making Music
    Ardour (http://ardour.org/) is probably the most fleshed out one, but it's still pretty bad compared to popular commercial options. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • How many people here (living in Santa Fe) are software engineers?
    Self-employed. Responsible for the cross-platform DAW Ardour (https://ardour.org/) ... Work from home in Galisteo. Actually looking for a part time person, but the skills are challenging (realtime C++ plus GUI plus multithreading plus audio plus ...). Source: over 1 year ago
  • I have the Alesis Recital Pro. It has an output for MIDI for connecting to my laptop and I'm trying to see if I can save a recorded song in the internal memory to my laptop.
    I personally use Ardour which is totally free but it took some time to learn how to configure and use it, and it doesn’t have any good built-in piano sounds so I had to download and configure those separately. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Making flute parts from vocals for songs I like
    BTW: If you want to make your own multi-track recordings, check out Ardour. This is a low cost alternative to more expensive DAW software such as Cubase (which I now use). Source: over 1 year ago
  • Switching to Audacity
    I use Ardour, it's free and open-source just like Audacity, but has much better features for editing a podcast IMO. Just to name a few:. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Musicians that use Linux?
    [Ardour](https://ardour.org] works great for me. Source: over 1 year ago
  • My "drum kit" for the past couple weeks
    I haven't tried EZ Drummer yet, but I might. I'm a computer nerd, so I've put together a laptop with Ubuntu Studio, and I'm in the process of getting Jack configured to reduce the Midi latency. I want to have ultimate control over everything, and may eventually write some custom plug-ins once I have it all set up to work with something like Ardour or Hydrogen. (Open-source FTW.). Source: over 1 year ago
  • Any Free/Open source music creation software that lets you pick the Key, Time Signature, Bpm and Instruments/Audio Elements/Audio Tracks?
    You are looking for a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Google is your friend. There are a few soft like ardour fully open source You will be able to import samples, write music and apply effects. They are not really good at score editing but the produced audio can be orefessiinnal grade...if you know how to use all the effect and do the mastering. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Possible to update MBP 17 early 2011?
    More or less, but the ecosystem would be quite different for someone into music production. For example there is Ardour but it's definitely not the same as Logic. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Best Studio Recorder software
    I'd add in a vote for Ardour. To my mind, it's the best free software DAW bar none, and great for multi-track recording: https://ardour.org/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • KDE and GNOME Join Hands To Add Payments To Turn Flathub Into a Store for the Linux Desktop
    There are open source apps that are paid , for example Ardour you can compile it yourself but you need to pay for binaries and support. Source: over 1 year ago
  • reaper in Ubuntu through wine?
    I use, and recommend, Ardour https://ardour.org/ as a DAW. Source: over 1 year ago

External sources with reviews and comparisons of Ardour

Top 18 Free Music Making Software for Beginners [2023]
Ardour is an open-source DAW designed to help music-makers make pro-level music by offering robust tools for recording, editing, and mixing songs on Windows, macOS, or Linux PCs.
5 PRO TOOLS ALTERNATIVES FOR RECORDING AND MIXING AUDIO
Ardour is a free and open-source DAW with capabilities similar to Pro Tools. It was designed for audio professionals, but it can be used by any musician or producer who wants to create professional-quality recordings. Ardour has a traditional track recorder layout with timecode and multi-track editing. It also includes a powerful mixer, effects processors, and recording tools.
10 Best Audacity Alternatives for Audio Recording and Editing
It offers a feature to see your recording wave while letting you adjust and monitor the input gains for clear and clean recordings. Ardour presents a huge editing platform with editing tools like trim, cut, swing and transpose, etc. so that you can easily mix your tracks with the tools like a fader, mute and automate, etc.
Top 10 LMMS Alternatives and Similar Software
Ardour is a very capable alternative for LMMS. Ardour is a bit complicated to use. That’s why it’s recommended only for those who have prior professional experience of editing and mixing music. If you’re an audio engineer, you’ll love Ardour for recording a piece of music and then editing and mixing it. It comes with some recently added features-
Best LMMS Alternatives 2017
This LMMS alternative is a hard disk recorder as well as digital audio workplace application. It turns on GNU/Linux and Mac OS X. Ardour’s purpose is to provide digital audio workplace software suitable for proficient use. Ardour source code is freely accessible but pre-built binaries are profitable free-libre software.

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