Ardour Digital Audio Workstation Now in Beta

croddy writes "The first beta of the Ardour digital audio workstation has been released. A tarball is available at the Ardour project page on Sourceforge. Packagers are currently preparing binary releases for several major Linux distributions. Ardour is a professional-grade, low-latency, multi-track digital hard disk recording and mixing application designed to replace dedicated HDR systems, and software systems such as ProTools and Samplitude. It supports audio processing plugins via LADSPA. Although it is still a beta, the years of work and dedication by the Ardour development team are very much visible in this release."

Comments

Re:Mmmmm...Free DAW = FREEDOM.

[fingerfarm]

The biggest barrier between musicians and digital recording isn't the cost. It's ease of use. When you're trying to capture a creative idea, the last thing you need is a confusing/non-standard interface holding you back. Pretty soon the idea is gone and you're wishing you spent the money on a commercial product with a UI that's been under development for a few years.

lack of mature hardware drivers

[petsounds]

It would seem the biggest problem here is lack of driver support for a wide range of pro-audio sound cards and interfaces. Looking at the ALSA supported hardware page (which this workstation utilizes), most of the pro hardware hasn't been verified to work well.

I think the other major downside is the lack of VST plug-in support. Most every major digital audio software workstation like ProTools and Nuendo take advantage of the large array of VST plug-ins available for things like effects processing. I don't think you'll see a lot of pro audio guys contemplate switching over until VST support is added (in Ardour's defense, VST support is tricky because a lot of them are platform-specific due to bad design).

However, I salute them for their work and hope that Ardour matures into a great package.

Another blow to the middle-man

[TheTick]

Imagine when high-quality digital recording facilities are available at low cost to those that want to use them. The RIAA will have lost its hammerlock on both side of the music supply chain. Suddenly the arguments that say the RIAA are screwing the artists start to have a lot more validity: the artists will be able to create works and distribute them easily in return for a fair price.

Even if some other proprietary system is the standard, I hope artists sieze this opportunity. (If only so I can see the RIAA swallow their collective tongue.)

To Be Fair

[blackmonday]

Mod down and Flame away, but I'll be brave...

I've been doing audio production work for a couple years using Windows 2000, Nuendo, Amplitube, This incredible $139 gadget, using only this inexpensive audio card. I don't get blue screens of death, my hardware is fully supported, etc. I run a second HD with Red Hat 9 (and incidentally, the awesome Ximian Desktop), and I can't even get my sound card to work. I love Linux, but no serious musician will be using the penguin for audio production for at least a few more years.

Re:Ugh

[2nd Post!]

But he said INTERFACE

A theme is just like applying makeup to an ugly mug.

If the interface is bad, no amount of skinning is going to change the interface.

Replace ProTools?

[TheAwfulTruth]

Are you insane? That's like saying GIMP will replace Photoshop. Neither of them are even close to being in the same leage.

It's hyperbole like that that HURTS Open Source.

Try telling a real professional that this thing is near to replacing ProTools and you will be laughed off the planet.

Get a grip. It (like gimp) might make a nice cheap alternative for the garage band or bedroom recording artist, but it's got about a decade more work to go to approach what ProTools does TODAY.

Advertise it for what it is, don't make completely uninformed comments like this will be a free replacement for ProTools. My ghod.