Discover Ardour – Blancer.com Tutorials and projects

Ardour is an excellent open-source digital audio workstation available for Linux and Mac OSX suitable for professional use. Although it can be obtained free of charge, it’s a great idea to support the author and ensure the ongoing development of software you depend on.

This article was previously published on the AudioJungle blog. We’ll be bringing you an article from the archives from time to time.

This is our nineteenth (and final) article in the series “Exploring Digital Audio Workstations”. If you’ve missed the earlier articles, you can find them here:

About Ardour

Ardour is a professional multi-track digital audio workstation with a strong emphasis on audio, and so far little support for MIDI. It supports LADSPA and VST plug-ins.

Here are some of Ardour’s features:

Unlimited audio tracks and buses
Non-destructive, non-linear editing with unlimited undo
Anything-to-anywhere signal routing
Unlimited pre- and post-fader plugins
32 bit floating point audio path
Automatic track delay compensation
Sample accurate automation
Standard file formats (BWF, WAV, WAV64, AIFF, CAF & more …)
Full AudioUnit plugin support on OS X
More than 200 LADSPA & LV2 plugins freely available
Support for Windows VST plugins available
MIDI CC control with 1 click
Level 2 MIDI Machine Control
MIDI Timecode (MTC) Master or Slave
Full integration with all JACK applications
Video-synced playback, pull up/pull down
No copy-protection
Distributed, world-wide development
Released under the GPL
Source code for everyone
Open XML session file format
On OS X, works with any CoreAudio supported audio hardware
On Linux, works with any ALSA/FFADO-supported audio hardware
Network audio (full fidelity over local network or long haul with CELT) via NetJack

Ardour relies on JACK, and audio connection kit that allows you to plug the output of one audio application (like the Hydrogen drum machine) into another (like Ardour) – like ReWire on steroids. On Mac OSX you’ll also have to install X11 from your installation DVD. So far I have only used Ardour on Linux – setting it up on Mac OSX will be one of my jobs over the holiday season.

9 Ardour Tutorials

1. Ardour Tutorial

“First attempt to explain Ardour with a midi keyboard set-up. Turn on Jack,then Qsynth and Ardour.Connect them up and make some music. I use the one control keyboard for three tracks. Play this video a few times then experiment with the software which is free!”

2. Ardour – Music Editing in Linux – Part #1

“Record and Mix Instrument tracks for FREE in Linux with Open-Source Ardour.”

3. Ardour – Music Editing in Linux – Part #2

“Record and Mix Instrument tracks for FREE in Linux with Open-Source Ardour.”

4. Ardour – Music Editing in Linux – Part #3

“Record and Mix Instrument tracks for FREE in Linux with Open-Source Ardour.”

5. Ardour extra tutorial

6. Ardour Wiimote Support

“This video shows you the current wiimote functions in Ardour (http://www.ardour.org). No commands bound to the accelerometer yet.”

7. Ubuntu Linux Home Recording Studio Setup (Part 1)

“Here is how how I’ve connected the microkorgxl with the kp3 and kaossilator through the oland microcube into my acer travelmate 6292 laptop running ubuntu linux. in part 2 i will show you how to record using audacity and ardour (ardour2) with a simple line in 1/8 th inch jack cable interface. no need for an external firewire or usb sound card audio interface.”

8. Ubuntu Linux Home Recording Studio Setup (Part 2)

“here i show you how to record something in audacity and ardour2 played using the korg microkorg xl, the korg kaoss pad kp3 and a kaossilator. one vital difference between audacity and ardour is that when you use ardour to record you need to turn down the Recording Capture volume in Ubuntu’s Volume Control window by about 20% otherwise the audio in will be garbled and faint. this is not a problem in audacity, it can be at 100% and the recording will be completely fine, other than the fact that it will be faint (low, quiet volume), so you need to turn up the Gain slider on the track to somewhere between +20 dB and +30 dB.”

9. Latin Groove

Song played using my Yamaha S-90 keyboard and recorded using Linux software. Drumming is Hydrogen drum-machine for Linux, exported in a MIDI track into Rosegarden MIDI sequencer. Sounds come from S-90. Recorded with Ardour for Linux, equalization and “boost” with wonderful toy “Jamin” for linux (mastering software) Enjoy!