Ardour - Linux based DAW!

tubetapexfmr · Post by **tubetapexfmr** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 7:32 pm

So, who out there is rocking Ardour? I have been following its development for years but just recently has it seemed worthy of putting to serious use. I understand there is even a way to compile it yourself with VST support! Who is using it? Let me know your experiences.
Here is a link for those of you who are like, huh?
http://ardour.org/

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 5:44 am

I've used it a fair bit in the past, though not much recently. I should try it again, though... the precompiled Mac OS X binary was pretty decent. The only thing I don't like is the stock plugins. The user interface on the stock plugins is terrible.

CraigS63 · Post by **CraigS63** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:16 pm

An easier way to check out Ardour may be to get one of the audio-oriented Linux distros, like Ubuntu Studio or 64 Studio. I'm still in the 'experimentation' stage with 64 Studio, one of these days I'd like to make the switch...

http://ubuntustudio.org/

http://64studio.com/

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 8:52 am

Just spent a little time fooling around with Ardour (probably about a year old version) on my MacBook with my recently-acquired Mackie Satellite. Works fine, and nice to be back into Ardour again since I'd done a few odd projects in it a few years ago. The X11 way of doing things on a Mac is a bit kludgy, though, hotkeys don't tend to work and such. I think I'll go see if there's a more recent and better integrated version.

The plugins are still hard to use - there are plenty of them and they don't sound bad, but they have a very primitive user interface where the usable range is often about 5% of the slider, no visual metering on the compressors, etc.

tubetapexfmr · Post by **tubetapexfmr** » Sat Oct 18, 2008 10:48 am

The plugins are still hard to use

This is what turned me off to it when I first tried it over a year ago. They are supposed to have a version you compile yourself that has VST support. You have to sign up as a VST developer or something with Steinberg in order to do this legally it seems, so I don't think there are any turn-key packages with VST as of yet because of licensing fees. It seems like a promising project, I like the idea of a proper linux DAW and proper plug-in functionality is essential to that.

kweis7 · Post by **kweis7** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:02 am

I would really like to ditch Windoze and don't really want to pay for a Mac. So for those of you who have used Ardour, the basic tracking and editing are fairly comparable to other DAW's? I think I'm gonna buy a cheap PC and load Ubuntu to give this a whirl in the next month or two.

I have intermediate Linux chops but don't want to be mucking around at the command line much when I go to record.

(Don't get me wrong, I like the command line, but not when I want to record.)

CraigS63 · Post by **CraigS63** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:48 am

I think you'll still want to use an audio- or multimedia oriented distro, rather than the regular Ubuntu or whatever. They will typically have the kernel optimized for real-time (something like that, not up on my buzzwords as much as I should). In other words, Ardour or other audio programs would get a bigger chunk of CPU vs. the less critical things running on the system.

;ivlunsdystf · Post by **;ivlunsdystf** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:23 am

kweis7 wrote:I would really like to ditch Windoze and don't really want to pay for a Mac. So for those of you who have used Ardour, the basic tracking and editing are fairly comparable to other DAW's? I think I'm gonna buy a cheap PC and load Ubuntu to give this a whirl in the next month or two.

I have intermediate Linux chops but don't want to be mucking around at the command line much when I go to record.

(Don't get me wrong, I like the command line, but not when I want to record.)

Ahem: tinyxp version 2 (cough)

I am going to load Ubuntu 8.x (released yesterday) this afternoon and see what I think. Last time I tried it was tarball hell to get a signal to my interface. That was with Ubuntu 7. I really want to ditch xp for good myself. Will report back.

kweis7 · Post by **kweis7** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:28 am

I think you'll still want to use an audio- or multimedia oriented distro, rather than the regular Ubuntu or whatever. They will typically have the kernel optimized for real-time (something like that, not up on my buzzwords as much as I should). In other words, Ardour or other audio programs would get a bigger chunk of CPU vs. the less critical things running on the system.

This is why I mentioned Ubuntu:

http://www.ubuntustudio.org/

Is there a more audio oriented Linux available?

kweis7 · Post by **kweis7** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:45 am

Tatertot wrote:

I am going to load Ubuntu 8.x (released yesterday) this afternoon and see what I think. Last time I tried it was tarball hell to get a signal to my interface. That was with Ubuntu 7. I really want to ditch xp for good myself. Will report back.

Sweet! I'll look forward to hearing how it goes.

Man, it would be awesome if a Linux DAW could pass the threshold of usability and really gain some steam in terms of a user base. I wonder why a maker of DAW interfaces has not championed a version of Linux for DAW? It would be a great way to sell hardware. Perhaps the market is just too small and the numbers don't work?

FBH · Post by **FBH** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:51 am

Not that this will advance the ball much here, but I've discovered that a Pentium III laptop with 256M Ram will run Ubuntu studio, but just barely. So much for my portable tracking DAW made out of an old computer otherwise left collecting dust in the closet. If anyone was thinking of trying something similar, I hope this saves you some time.[/b]

mrufino1 · Post by **mrufino1** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 12:41 am

I am going to load Ubuntu 8.x (released yesterday) this afternoon and see what I think. Last time I tried it was tarball hell to get a signal to my interface. That was with Ubuntu 7. I really want to ditch xp for good myself. Will report back.[/quote]

Just a note- I "upgraded" to ubuntu 8.10 last week and I may go back to 8.04, some funny things are happening regarding shutdown, hibernate, mounting my rockboxed ipod, etc., all which were working well on 8.04.

I am learning ardour right now and have it working well with my built in soundcard on my ibm t41. One thing I found out today though- ardour 2.5 is available from the ubuntu package manager but there seems to be a weird bug with ubuntu 8.10 that won't allow the import file dialog to work. I found 2.6 here:

http://darkstar.ist.utl.pt/getdeb/ubunt ... 1_i386.deb

which fixed this issue. I have gotten very used to reaper so this is a bit of a stretch to learn ardour but I eventually want to have no microsoft running on my machine, so I am working towards it! I know you can run reaper under wine but I want to give ardour a shot first since it is native.

fedexnman · Post by **fedexnman** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 6:40 pm

i cant figure out how to get my firewire audio device to work, seems complicated from what i ve been reading, im no computer programer.. they need to figure something out wih the firewire driver stuff imho ..

mrufino1 · Post by **mrufino1** » Sat Nov 29, 2008 12:14 pm

www.ffado.org
I compiled the ffado driver then the new version of jack, and I am not a computer expert any any stretch of the word. I did get some help from a friend when getting ffado and jack together. ACtually, ffado is now in the ubuntu repositories so you may not need to compile that, but you will have to recompile jack after installing ffado because it requires the newest version of jack (not in the repositories yet) to work. Th effado website has instructions though. I did discover a lot of help though on the ardour irc chat for getting the new ardour to compile correctly and I am now beginning to understand how to do this stuff. I feel it will be worth the pain though because eventually I will have a nice, lean recording PC that will do what I want, and no company telling me I "Must" upgrade to a new OS. Anyway, hope you get it to work for you- some firewire devices are easier than others to get working. My firepod works great, my phonic mixer was a struggle to get working but now does.

fedexnman · Post by **fedexnman** » Sun Nov 30, 2008 12:17 pm

yeah.. i finally got the presonus firebox kinda working.. using the 64studio live distro... gonna download the real version now... im having problems hearing the audio on playback in ardour.. i dont think its the latest version of ardour... i got ardour working real well on my entry level macbook using os x..
this is pretty cool stuff ( linux ) if i get things running good on pc desktop, i might just jump ship all together.. i like the free software concept. macs are expensive an pc 3rd party stuff can get pricey.. an audio distro of linux is a good idea. i think i might get a linux for dummies book real soon. great thread guys

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Ardour - Linux based DAW!

Ardour - Linux based DAW!

So other than VST plugins, Ardour works easily in Ubuntu?

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