[HN Gopher] Ardour -Audacity Alternative to Record, Edit, and Mi...
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       Ardour -Audacity Alternative to Record, Edit, and Mix on Linux, OS
       X and Windows
        
       Author : noyesno
       Score  : 122 points
       Date   : 2021-07-05 19:04 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ardour.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ardour.org)
        
       | gebt wrote:
       | Stay safe, stay free.
        
       | theproffesor wrote:
       | imo ardour is a bit heavy as an audacity replacement, and I am a
       | huge fan of ardour. I have been using ocenaudio with very good
       | success and do think that it is a much closer "replacement"...
       | with that said ardor is the best linux DAW!
        
       | underseacables wrote:
       | Alas, Audacity is free.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | rcakebread wrote:
       | AudioMass is very similar to Audacity, is open source[1] and
       | browser based. Check out the online version[2].
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/pkalogiros/audiomass [2]
       | https://audiomass.co/
        
       | defensem3ch wrote:
       | Ardour isn't free. You need to pay for it, unless you build it
       | yourself, or you only want a demo version
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | It's Free Software. You can download builds from anybody else
         | if you don't want to pay the project for theirs.
        
           | trasz wrote:
           | Or just use a system which provides packages for it, like
           | FreeBSD.
        
             | detaro wrote:
             | I would count that as "download somebody elses build".
             | Although I'm sure some Gentoo user is going to correct me
             | on that.
        
               | mrlonglong wrote:
               | Yes, it's available!
        
             | rvz wrote:
             | Excuse me? You want those music producers to move from
             | their whole OS (Windows or Mac) to something even less
             | familiar than Linux? I don't think that is going to happen,
             | and it's highly unlikely.
             | 
             | I think they'll won't care to move and continue with
             | Audacity or just pay for the binary for either Windows or
             | Mac and that's that.
        
         | ttctciyf wrote:
         | Ardour is Free (source code available under GPL).
         | 
         | Also, to get an executable version most users will just do:
         | "apt install ardour" (or equivalent) which is pretty much beer-
         | type free, in practice.
        
       | _joel wrote:
       | Ardour is a different tool to Audacity, it's meant to be used as
       | a full on DAW, rather than just recording/editing audio.
        
         | arthurcolle wrote:
         | What does DAW mean?
         | 
         | EDIT: Digital Audio Workstation?
        
           | phaer wrote:
           | Yes, Digital Audio Workstation
        
         | tialaramex wrote:
         | Right, this is a right-tool-for-the-job thing. Ardour is a
         | chainsaw, and Audacity is a penknife. Can you cut down a tree
         | with a penknife? Maybe, but that's clearly a terrible idea and
         | will take ages. Can you remove the tape sealing closed your
         | Amazon shipment with a chainsaw? Maybe, but you'd better be
         | amazingly skilled with that chainsaw or it'll be very
         | frustrating.
         | 
         | Tools like Ardour are intended to have users who are mostly
         | experts. It's OK if this is slightly harder to understand so
         | long as it's also just better once you do understand. In
         | contrast Audacity has a _lot_ of users who 've no intention
         | (for now) of using it after today, they just want to fix one
         | small thing about an audio file and they heard Audacity can do
         | that.
         | 
         | Once upon a time, a _lot_ of tools in the space Audacity
         | occupies had significant technical misunderstandings baked into
         | them. So by exposure to those tools, people learn things that
         | aren 't true about digital audio, and that causes ongoing pain.
         | But Audacity is _much_ better about this, and so today I don 't
         | think you're more likely to actually understand what's going on
         | with digital audio in Ardour than in Audacity.
         | 
         | As with the penknife, if your experience with Audacity is "this
         | wasn't powerful enough, I'll be here all week" then it is time
         | to try a DAW (such as Ardour) but unlike the old days I don't
         | think you'll spend the first week unlearning myths about
         | digital audio that your editor taught you and the DAW now has
         | to dispell.
        
           | carlhjerpe wrote:
           | There is a guy on YouTube that reviews the durability of
           | tools, he usually opens the boxes in some convoluted way,
           | like with an electric chainsaw.
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/ztpWsuUItrA
        
           | Rodeoclash wrote:
           | Funnily enough the musician Burial used a "pen knife" to
           | craft entire albums:
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial_(musician)#Style_and_co.
           | ..
        
           | mike_hock wrote:
           | > Ardour is a chainsaw, and Audacity is a penknife. Can you
           | cut down a tree with a penknife? Maybe, but that's clearly a
           | terrible idea and will take ages.
           | 
           | Does "DAW vs. sound editor" really require an analogy?
        
           | bbarnett wrote:
           | _Can you remove the tape sealing closed your Amazon shipment
           | with a chainsaw? Maybe, but you 'd better be amazingly
           | skilled with that chainsaw or it'll be very frustrating._
           | 
           | Youtube video coming soon...
        
       | ttctciyf wrote:
       | Looks like they released 6.8 a couple of days ago[1] with some
       | significant fixes[2]!
       | 
       | I wouldn't really call it an audacity alternative, though - you'd
       | be dealing with a bunch of additional complexity to simply
       | accomplish what most folks use audacity for I think.
       | 
       | 1: https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-8-released/106136
       | 
       | 2: https://ardour.org/whatsnew.html
        
       | IndySun wrote:
       | This is useful. Not technically multitrack or an exact
       | replacement for Audacity. It gives great info on the audio,
       | records, and its interface is super slick.
       | 
       | https://www.ocenaudio.com/download
        
       | mortenjorck wrote:
       | Ardour is an alternative to Audacity like Xcode is an alternative
       | to TextEdit.
        
         | drdavid wrote:
         | A closer alternative is 'ocenaudio'.
         | 
         | https://www.ocenaudio.com/en/
        
           | gebt wrote:
           | It's not even open source.
        
       | jessaustin wrote:
       | I've been using SoX [0] to edit my ringtones and other simple
       | audio files. CLI FTW! Not only can you start, stop, and splice at
       | precisely the right time, but you can adjust tempo, compress and
       | expand dynamic range, all sorts of other things that don't create
       | audio but make it sound better.
       | 
       | [0] http://sox.sourceforge.net/
        
         | mike_hock wrote:
         | Sounds like that really blew your sox off.
        
       | noobermin wrote:
       | Does anyone use Ardour for their audio work? Always heard great
       | things about it.
        
       | rvz wrote:
       | So after looking around to see if it is stable on M1 Macs and
       | there is some information about that [0]. It seems to be still
       | 'experimental'.
       | 
       | It's only 'free' as a demo version for now:
       | 
       | > There's a free/demo version (with our usual free/demo
       | limitation of going silent after 10 minutes, with the ability to
       | ask for more time)
       | 
       | As for the paid subscribers:
       | 
       | > The full build is available to Ardour subscribers (including
       | those who have already paid US$45 or more for version 6.x).
       | 
       | To Downvoters:
       | 
       | So there is NO native M1 version then? Just because you can try
       | _' run it in Rosetta'_ doesn't mean it's going to be 'stable'. If
       | it is not native, There is no guarantee on that. Not even Apple
       | can guarantee it.
       | 
       | Don't be so quick to shoot the messenger. I'm trying to give you
       | information before you try it. While the smart ones stay on
       | Intel, all I'll say to the M1 folks is to use with caution.
       | 
       | [0] https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-6-for-
       | apple-m1-syste...
        
       | mrlinx wrote:
       | I wish there was a similar alternative to virtualdub.
        
         | squarefoot wrote:
         | Avidemux?
         | 
         | Not restricted to .avi and multiplatform (Linux/Win/Mac/BSD)
         | 
         | http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
        
       | zxzax wrote:
       | I'm saddened that it's necessary to bother posting this, but
       | Ardour also has a similar privacy policy, which you should read
       | if you intend to use their services:
       | https://ardour.org/privacy.html
       | 
       | Ardour also has a compile time optional "phone home" feature
       | which checks for update announcements, so you should disable that
       | when building if you care about this sort of thing:
       | https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/13f5fb3dee640f0bfb1d66...
       | 
       | Personal note: I do not consider these things to be issues with
       | Ardour, or with Audacity. I commend PaulDavisThe1st and x42 and
       | the rest of the Ardour contributors, as well as the Audacity
       | developers, for their respective work on these two excellent
       | projects.
        
         | ianlevesque wrote:
         | I just read the entire privacy policy and not only is the
         | entirety completely reasonable and barely worth mentioning, the
         | "phone home" section is just this: " If you download and use a
         | ready-to-run version of Ardour from ardour.org, the program
         | will attempt to contact ardour.org at startup to determine if
         | you should be notified about a new release of the software. If
         | the computer where you use Ardour is connected to the internet,
         | this process will store the computer's internet address and an
         | identifier for its operating system." So it's barely an http
         | access log for whatever endpoint that is. The privacy policy
         | hysteria has gone wayyyyyy too far.
        
           | anotherevan wrote:
           | > the program will attempt to contact ardour.org at startup
           | to determine if you should be notified about a new release of
           | the software
           | 
           | I remember one developer who actually used a DNS TXT record
           | to store the latest version, which I always thought was an
           | interesting idea.
        
           | noobermin wrote:
           | The thing is at least from what I can gather, the Audacity
           | issue is literally on the same level of this. The only added
           | difference is optional bug reporting.
        
             | danudey wrote:
             | Optional, opt-in error reporting and telemetry, yes. This
             | entire issue is a bunch of people freaking out over nothing
             | and making baseless assertions about things that aren't
             | happening.
        
       | ratww wrote:
       | As someone that worked in this area, IMO, the difference between
       | DAWs and modern audio editors (especially a complete one like
       | Audacity) is massively overstated.
       | 
       | DAWs make fine audio editors for 99% of cases. The non-
       | destructive workflow might even be simpler to most people.
       | 
       | For recording a DAW is IMO a better option, since it's battle
       | tested in critical environments where super-low latency and rock
       | solid stability is non negotiable.
       | 
       | On the other hand, modern audio editors like Audacity already
       | have lots of complex features: complete multitrack recording,
       | plugins, automation, so it's not as if the complexity difference
       | is that big. Honestly, someone used to edit Audio on a DAW would
       | also have a hard time picking up Audacity too, since it's complex
       | on its own as well.
       | 
       | If it were SoundForge vs ProTools 15 or 20 years ago I'd
       | definitely agree that one is not an alternative to the other, but
       | Audacity vs any DAW today? Yeah you can replace it without much
       | difficulty.
        
         | noobermin wrote:
         | What are you thoughts on Ardour? Is it a good tool? Have been
         | wanted to dabble in music making for a while.
        
       | mat0 wrote:
       | Why would anyone replace Audacity? Just because they are trying
       | to get some data? Audacity is fine
        
         | neolog wrote:
         | I contribute to open source software but I don't use it to spy
         | on people. I don't want software to spy on me either.
        
         | drewolbrich wrote:
         | This article explains the missing context of this post:
         | https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audac...
        
         | swiley wrote:
         | Even if it's fine now, using telemetry to make decisions is a
         | pretty strong way to say "no power users or people with unique
         | problems wanted."
        
           | stilisstuk wrote:
           | Fedora uses telemetry. audacity sounds bad, but not all
           | telemetry is
        
             | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
             | > Fedora uses telemetry
             | 
             | Any chance you have details? All I can find after a few
             | minutes of searching is [0] which was a proposal for
             | counting installs.
             | 
             | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18913955
        
         | rbanffy wrote:
         | We don't need to. We can fork it, remove the spyware parts, and
         | fix the license compliance issues (the newer terms of use are
         | incompatible with the license).
        
         | speed_spread wrote:
         | Try realtime mixing and recording of 32 tracks with added
         | software effects and MIDI sync. Ardour is industrial studio
         | console software. Nothing to do with Audacity.
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-05 23:01 UTC)