[HN Gopher] Ardour 8.0
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ardour 8.0
        
       Author : 6581
       Score  : 401 points
       Date   : 2023-10-09 08:58 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ardour.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ardour.org)
        
       | tofflos wrote:
       | Thank you for the Arrangement view and the Launchpad support! I
       | don't run Ardour but the Arrangement view in particular makes me
       | want to try it out.
        
       | rednab wrote:
       | Ardour is GPLv2 open-source, but they still do somewhat pointedly
       | attempt to dissuade you from building from source 1).
       | 
       | Now, I fully understand why. And I think charging for pre-built
       | binaries is a totally valid way to attempt to finance an open-
       | source project. The amount they're asking certainly is a pittance
       | compared to the commercial offerings.
       | 
       | But LMMS just feels _friendlier_ to me.
       | 
       | 1) https://ardour.org/building_linux.html
        
         | jacquesm wrote:
         | LMMS is a great little program too but in much the same way
         | that a professional mix table is less 'friendly' than a four
         | track recorder.
         | 
         | Both have their uses. What bugs me about LMMS is that it is
         | hard to use its output in any other way than just to send it to
         | your devices, interop with other software isn't all that good
         | unless it is on the plugin side.
         | 
         | And neither Ardour nor LMMS come close to midieditor for the
         | editing of raw midi files, and that's a shame because
         | midieditor isn't very well supported and a bit fragile (it
         | crashes with alarming regularity).
        
       | iainctduncan wrote:
       | Congratulations Paul. For those who don't know, the creator of
       | Ardour is active here and was (historically) very active and
       | helpful on Linux audio lists. I learnt a lot from dicussions on
       | there on the intracies of audio programming. While my work has
       | shifted from Linux audio to Max/MSP these days (I wrote Scheme
       | for Max), in the mid 2000s linux audio hacking was my gateway to
       | the world of programming, eventually leading to a very productive
       | career in tech. Ardour was always a huge "hacker inspiration" to
       | me, it's a truly shining example of how much one smart and
       | dedicated programmer can do. I'm very glad to see it still going
       | strong.
        
         | jmgrosen wrote:
         | Thank you for the self-promotion, Scheme for Max looks like
         | something I've been wishing for for a long time!
        
       | nirui wrote:
       | Maybe it's a bit off topic, but I think there is something on the
       | website we can all take a note of: that is, on the download page,
       | it says download "Ready-To-Run Program".
       | 
       | Yep, not download "Binary", "Executable", "Package" or any of
       | that non-sense (from user's perspective), just "Ready-To-Run
       | Program", simple and clear, exactly what user wants when they
       | open that page.
        
         | dist-epoch wrote:
         | Have you tried clicking it? It takes you to a 2nd page where
         | you select the OS.
         | 
         | Then for me (Windows) to yet a 3rd page where I can chose the
         | paid/free version.
         | 
         | Clicking here on "Demo Version" takes you to the 4th page where
         | you can finally download the setup binary. Which is an
         | installer, the opposite of "Ready-To-Run"!!!
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | The opposite of Ready-to-run is source code.
        
             | croes wrote:
             | But to get "Just download and run Ardour on your Linux,
             | macOS or Windows computer." I have to click Ready-to-Run
             | Program -> Download Ardour 8.0 for Windows 64 bit ->
             | Download Demo -> Download Ardour 8.0 for Windows 64 bit
             | (Demo)
             | 
             | Each on a separate page, a little bit misleading because
             | the first button already suggests a download
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | When we put it all on one page, too many people failed to
               | understand the process. We can please some of the people
               | all the time, but we can't please all the people all the
               | time.
        
               | croes wrote:
               | My point is that three of four download buttons are links
               | not download buttons.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | davexunit wrote:
       | I've just recently started using Ardour after wanting to do so
       | for years. Once you learn the basics like tracks vs. busses and
       | how to use EQ/compressor/limiter plugins it stops feeling
       | daunting. Unfa's tutorials on YouTube were a lot of help.
        
       | _fat_santa wrote:
       | How does Ardour compare to something like Logic Pro or Ableton?
        
         | javier123454321 wrote:
         | It honestly does most things that these do, but I do find
         | ableton to be a bit more intuitive. The workflow is a bit
         | different, sessions are given more importance in ableton while
         | the timeline feels like the __main__ way of working in ardour.
         | The piano roll is integrated in the timeline which is a nitpick
         | thing that I don't love about ardour. All in all, you can do
         | basically the same things, but for some reason I do feel like
         | it takes just a bit more work in ardour. But I'm an amateur
         | hobbyist, so I prefer the OSS version.
        
       | kuon wrote:
       | I love ardour, I wish only for native Wayland support.
        
         | heftig wrote:
         | I believe most plugins expose their GUI only as an X window
         | that needs to be nested in an application window, so any change
         | here would require reimplementing the GUI of a lot of plugins.
         | 
         | But even if we do want to take this hurdle, is it even possible
         | yet? What interfaces are available to do this on Wayland and
         | embed a plugin-drawn GUI in a GTK 3, GTK 4, Qt 5 and/or Qt 6
         | application?
         | 
         | My guess is we still need a new spec that would probably
         | revolve around OpenGL/EGL or Vulkan/WSI, but I'm not sure, and
         | there's also the question of how input events are delivered.
        
           | jabl wrote:
           | AFAIU Ardour itself is still using GTK 2, which has no
           | Wayland support. You can search around on the Ardour
           | discourse, occasionally somebody asks about the porting
           | effort to a newer GUI toolkit, but IIRC the Ardour devs think
           | it's too much work for little gain.
        
             | kuon wrote:
             | Yes, it is a complicated work, but it will have to be done
             | eventually.
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | When do you believe that X Window API-using applications
               | will cease to function?
        
               | kuon wrote:
               | For large x64 machine we use for music, maybe not very
               | soon. But I work on embedded devices for medical
               | application (basically fancy iPads with other hardware)
               | and it's already wayland only down to the drivers.
               | 
               | I think XWayland will be the way to go for a long time.
               | For ardour itself, native Wayland is desirable for
               | tooltips and other minor (but very annoying) UI things
               | that break under XWayland, but for plugins, XWayland can
               | be the glue.
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | Interestingly, Presonus are now making Studio One available
           | on Linux, and they are "wayland native". They came up with an
           | "interesting" solution for plugins: they just create a
           | rendering surface and have the plugins draw on that. How this
           | deals with event handling is unclear at this time.
        
       | ta8645 wrote:
       | The What's New page says they support the "Novation Launchpad
       | Pro", but the picture beside that paragraph actually is the much
       | more expensive "Novation Launchpad Pro [MK3]". (Ambiguous product
       | names like this are mildly infuriating)
       | 
       | Does anyone know if both the cheaper and more expensive devices
       | are compatible with Ardour 8?
       | 
       | https://novationmusic.com/products/launchpad-pro
       | 
       | https://novationmusic.com/products/launchpad-pro-mk3
        
         | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
         | Your first link is to an older version of the Launchpad Pro
         | that Novation no longer sells or makes. The Mk3 _is_ the
         | current version of the Launchpad Pro.
         | 
         | As our release notes indicate, we hope/plan to announce support
         | for the cheaper Launchpad X and Mini during the 8.x development
         | process.
        
           | 6581 wrote:
           | > Your first link is to an older version of the Launchpad Pro
           | that Novation no longer sells or makes.
           | 
           | Novation still makes and sells it - see the first link.
        
             | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
             | If you click on the "Add to basket" you will find that it
             | is sold out, and if you dig deeper you will find you can
             | only get refurbished units.
        
               | 6581 wrote:
               | Not for me. I guess the website forwards you to a
               | different region's shop.
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | I would not be surprised if the existing LP Pro support
               | in Ardour 8 works with an older version, but they are
               | fundamentally different devices.
               | 
               | I can check on it whenever I get started on the mini and
               | X versions.
        
       | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
       | As usual, the lead developer (c'est moi) is happy to answer any
       | questions.
        
         | junon wrote:
         | I've used Cubase historically, but started and now have
         | transitioned back to FL Studio since I can get my thoughts and
         | ideas out quicker than in Cubase.
         | 
         | I've seen Ardour for a long, long time but haven't ever tried
         | it. What, if anything, would I be missing by switching? I
         | primarily do composition, so lots of VSTs etc.
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | FL Studio is a very, very different sort of DAW than, well,
           | just about every other DAW (including Ardour). If you were
           | moving from Cubase, Logic, Studio One, ProTools, Digital
           | Performer etc., then I'd say you would miss very little by
           | switching to Ardour other than some of the builtin plugins
           | for those DAWs.
           | 
           | But if you have become used to the FL Studio workflow, Ardour
           | (and the list of DAWs above) are likely to feel clunky and
           | unproductive.
        
             | pests wrote:
             | As someone who isn't very well versed in DAWs can someone
             | give a breakdown of how FL Studio is different than others?
             | I see references to "regular linear" below so what makes FL
             | Studio not that? Sorry for the basic questions.
        
             | junon wrote:
             | Good to know, I didn't mind Cubase's workflow per se, it's
             | just that Cubase was 1) super buggy and unstable, and 2)
             | ridiculously expensive, and updates cost a lot. That also
             | factored into leaving.
             | 
             | I'll give Ardour a try, thanks for the response and
             | congrats on the release!
        
               | iainctduncan wrote:
               | FWIW, I would absolutely recommend learning a regular
               | linear DAW in addition to FL Studio. I'm not an FL user,
               | I'm a heavy Ableton Live user (entirely because of Max
               | for Live), and it is also "non-standard". There are a lot
               | of things that are much, much faster in DAWs from the
               | pro-tools oriented lineage and it is well worth the few
               | seconds it takes to copy audio from one to the other at
               | times.
        
         | megaloblasto wrote:
         | I just wanted to say that the lollipop chart is amazing! Thanks
         | for your work!
        
         | chabad360 wrote:
         | What was the main reason for keeping the select-groups from
         | applying to control surfaces? I'm not sure what would be the
         | point of multi-selecting otherwise.
         | 
         | As an aside, is there any way I can add functionality to a
         | control surface (that isn't writing C)? I use a behringer
         | X-Touch (heavily) and moved to Reaper because there were
         | plugins that provided much deeper integration with my X-Touch
         | (which as a result has me working a lot faster in certain
         | areas).
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | We're still debating the control surface decision. There are
           | two reasons for leaving things alone:
           | 
           | 1. hardware surfaces have had different use conventions for a
           | long time (certainly things that look like mixing consoles).
           | They are effectively multitouch devices, and human
           | interaction with them just isn't the same as with a mouse &
           | GUI.
           | 
           | 2. for Mackie Control Protocol devices, we already provide a
           | nifty multi-target action there where you just press and hold
           | one eg. solo button and then press another, to apply it to
           | the range that was pressed.
           | 
           | We do not providing scripting for developing control surface
           | support. I've written extensively about my thoughts on
           | Reaper's scripting [0] and I remain conflicted by the
           | questions it raises. There's nothing that can be done in
           | Reaper via scripting that can't be done in Ardour via C++,
           | and a huge amount that theoretically could be done in Ardour
           | via C++ that cannot be done in Reaper. I know this is not a
           | satisfactory answer for people who do not want to master (a)
           | C++ (b) the build environment.
           | 
           | [0] https://discourse.ardour.org/t/is-open-source-a-
           | diversion-fr...
        
         | runiq wrote:
         | I still feel like track/bus groups, VCAs, and now ad-hoc groups
         | are three different ways of doing roughly the same thing. Are
         | there plans to unify them into a single concept, maybe?
         | 
         | (I know that especially VCAs are different here, but in the
         | end, they are groups of groups if you squint hard enough, are
         | they not?)
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | No, VCAs are quite different from the other two. They
           | represent an external entity (the VCA) that can be used to
           | control other entities, and they are mixer (signal flow)
           | related only (i.e. have no impact on editing).
           | 
           | Persistent and quick groups are definitely related; we've
           | already a few _trenchant_ observations about what we 've done
           | with quick groups, and we will work on taking them into
           | consideration as we refine how this works. But fundamentally,
           | I see persistent groups and quick groups as orthogonal, and
           | their main job is not to interfere (too much) with each
           | other.
        
         | Waterluvian wrote:
         | This looks absolutely amazing. Thank you!
         | 
         | Totally minor feedback in case you value this kind of feedback:
         | the website's layout is freaking out on my iOS Safari. I can
         | scroll sideways like four page widths and then see nothing at
         | all. Same with the front page.
         | 
         | A short video if it helps:
         | https://youtube.com/shorts/2dItDk_FtkI?si=WSsM2fgWR91IR7wU
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | It's an old version of bootstrap. Probably too old.
        
         | WhatIsDukkha wrote:
         | How is the MPE work going?
         | 
         | What about MIDI 2.0?
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | MPE: nothng is required to record and playback MPE, it's just
           | MIDI 1.0. There's no "nice" way to edit MPE at this time. I
           | can't say right now what priority we attach to this.
           | 
           | MIDI 2.0: no plans at this time.
        
             | WhatIsDukkha wrote:
             | The tempo mapping grid tool looks super super cool, I look
             | forward to trying it out.
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | One thing we have discovered/realized since tagging 8.0
               | is that the grid tool will misbehave if you do "wild
               | dragging" with it between existing tempo markers. It is
               | intended to "tweak" the grid in that situation, and is
               | designed around small, "subtle" mouse movement. We may be
               | able to come up with some fixes that make it more robust
               | in the face of users deliberately or accidentally going
               | "wild" with the mouse.
        
       | codedokode wrote:
       | Ardour's UI is complicated compared to, for example, Ableton
       | Live. For example, I have added a MIDI track and it is unclear
       | how to add notes to it. Right clicking on a track doesn't give an
       | option to do that.
       | 
       | Also on Linux it supports only rarely used plugin formats (LV2,
       | Linux VST), for which there are little plugins.
        
         | prokoudine wrote:
         | > Also on Linux it supports only rarely used plugin formats
         | (LV2, Linux VST), for which there are little plugins.
         | 
         | Ardour used to have built-in support for Windows VST via WINE.
         | It was so bad (as in unstable, unpredictable) it was disabled
         | by default and was eventually removed. Yabridge is the usual
         | recommendation to people who really want/need it.
        
         | weavie wrote:
         | If it supports VST, I imagine yabridge would work fine to allow
         | you to use Windows VST.
         | 
         | https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge
        
           | codedokode wrote:
           | Looks like a pain to install (doesn't support Fedora 37,
           | isn't included in standard Fedora repositories, requires to
           | use non-standard Wine version).
        
             | runiq wrote:
             | None of that is Ardour's fault, but the 'fault' of plugin
             | developers not providing Linux binaries in the first place.
        
               | codedokode wrote:
               | If nobody provides Linux binaries then maybe it is better
               | to support Windows binaries out of the box?
        
               | runiq wrote:
               | How? By bundling WINE? No thanks.
        
               | jpc0 wrote:
               | Yes because it's trivial to dynamically link to a windows
               | dll from a linux program
        
             | mhitza wrote:
             | For Fedora use this copr
             | https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/patrickl/yabridge/
        
               | codedokode wrote:
               | The link says that it supports only Fedora 38. Also, the
               | main page for COPR says (in a small font): "NOTE: Copr is
               | not yet officially supported by Fedora Infrastructure.".
               | As I understand, it is the repository for packages
               | uploaded by random anonymous users (not related to the
               | authors of yabridge or Fedora).
        
               | mhitza wrote:
               | > The link says that it supports only Fedora 38
               | 
               | That is correct. I didn't think specifically about Fedora
               | 37; it's been a while since I upgraded to 38. I couldn't
               | find F37 builds, even though that's around the time I
               | tested yabridge. You might consider switching to 38
               | anyway, as 37 is less than two months away from it
               | reaching EOL -- F39 release date (17 October) + 30 days.
               | 
               | > As I understand, it is the repository for packages
               | uploaded by random anonymous users (not related to the
               | authors of yabridge or Fedora).
               | 
               | That is mostly correct. It was not uploaded, but built on
               | the Fedora infrastructure, following the RPM spec you can
               | reach from the builds tab [1], for example the latest
               | change located here [2].
               | 
               | There is an amount of trust you have to give to the copr
               | author, but you can also check the rpm spec file [3].
               | Important quick checks are around the source0 lines.
               | 
               | > Also, the main page for COPR says (in a small font):
               | "NOTE: Copr is not yet officially supported by Fedora
               | Infrastructure."
               | 
               | Getting a package shipped into the Fedora base
               | repositories seems rather bureaucratic and I understand
               | any hacker that doesn't want to use their own time to
               | deal with that.
               | 
               | [1] https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/patrickl/yabr
               | idge/bu...
               | 
               | [2] https://copr-dist-
               | git.fedorainfracloud.org/cgit/patrickl/yab...
               | 
               | [3] https://copr-dist-
               | git.fedorainfracloud.org/cgit/patrickl/yab...
        
             | weavie wrote:
             | Once installed I've found it to work pretty much
             | flawlessly, very few windows plugins don't work with it.
        
         | 6581 wrote:
         | > I have added a MIDI track and it is unclear how to add notes
         | to it. Right clicking on a track doesn't give an option to do
         | that.
         | 
         | https://manual.ardour.org/working-with-midi/create-midi-regi...
         | 
         | https://manual.ardour.org/working-with-midi/add-new-notes/
         | 
         | > Also on Linux it supports only rarely used plugin formats
         | (LV2, Linux VST)
         | 
         | https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge
        
         | frankzander wrote:
         | I many times used Ableton ... tbh it's not less complicated
         | then Ardour. You can use yabridge for Win vsts ... works quite
         | good for the most plugins IMHO but on kx.studio you find a hell
         | lot of Linux native plugins ... don't look as fancy as
         | commercial ones but they do what they should do. Music
         | production in Linux is often a bit more hackyhack but it's ok
         | so far. At least this are all tools ... using them is the real
         | art behind that.
        
         | spacechild1 wrote:
         | > Also on Linux it supports only rarely used plugin formats
         | (LV2, Linux VST), for which there are little plugins.
         | 
         | On Linux, Ardour supports LADSPA, LV2, VST2 and VST3. Those are
         | the most widely used plugin formats. What are you missing
         | exactly?
        
           | codedokode wrote:
           | Those are rarely used formats, most of plugins are either in
           | Windows formats like VST, or in Mac formats.
        
             | spacechild1 wrote:
             | ? VST is a cross-platform plugin format, supported by
             | Ardour. I have no idea what you are looking for...
        
       | diggan wrote:
       | Looks to be a extensive update with lots of new and useful
       | features, thanks as always PaulDavisThe1st :) Especially
       | Arrangement and Quick Groups will be good time savers for me!
       | 
       | > For several years, people downloading Ardour for macOS have had
       | to deal with various kinds of messages (from Apple) saying things
       | like "This program comes from an untrusted source" to "The file
       | is damaged". As of Ardour 8, macOS users downloading Ardour won't
       | see this stuff any more, because we have given up and paid $100
       | to join Apple's pay-to-play scheme. Our builds are all notarized
       | now, and so people on macOS should have the same smooth
       | experience they get from other macOS software downloads.
       | 
       | Hope macOS users live up to the commonly referenced "Apple users
       | are more likely to pay for software" and donate either time or
       | money to Ardour if they use it, as it seems making applications
       | available to them cost developers actual money now.
        
         | ilyt wrote:
         | > Hope macOS users live up to the commonly referenced "Apple
         | users are more likely to pay for software" and donate either
         | time or money to Ardour if they use it, as it seems making
         | applications available to them cost developers actual money
         | now.
         | 
         | Just make it $5 on macos. If Mac users can support this shitty
         | company they can actually pay for other software too.
        
         | auggierose wrote:
         | I don't think macOS users have any more or less responsibility
         | paying for this software than Linux users. $100 compared to the
         | development resources that went into this is nothing, and the
         | developers realised that, too.
        
           | diggan wrote:
           | > I don't think macOS users have any more or less
           | responsibility paying for this software than Linux users
           | 
           | I don't think that either, it's only a hope from my side. A
           | hope that they recognize that the binary they are using cost
           | someone money to generate only because of restrictions put
           | forward by Apple.
        
           | schmorptron wrote:
           | Nah, I think it's perfectly fair to charge more for a mac
           | version of a program, especially if it's a donation funded
           | open-source one. If you can afford a macintosh, you're more
           | likely to also be able to afford a couple of bucks to support
           | it.
        
             | auggierose wrote:
             | Yes, of course it is fair. You can charge whatever you want
             | for your program. But Ardour is free. Accepting donations
             | is not the same as charging for something.
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | Technically speaking, ardour.org charges for a _build
               | service_.
               | 
               | You can get the source code for free from us (either as a
               | tarball or via git). You can get the source code or the
               | binary from somebody else.
               | 
               | But if you want to get the binary from us, we ask you pay
               | at least US$1.
        
               | auggierose wrote:
               | OK, I see, I didn't know that. I was just clicking
               | through to the macos download without actually
               | downloading anything. By the way, there still seems to be
               | a notice before download that macOS will say that the app
               | is damaged, although now it won't complain after
               | notarisation, right?
               | 
               | I actually moved away from Apple/Swift development
               | because of the limitations they place on you even if you
               | pay (I cannot embed an interpreter in my iOS app,
               | really?), and am now coding in TypeScript. So while the
               | $100 are not a big deal, I think, it's a symptom of
               | something that's wrong.
        
             | redserk wrote:
             | I'd be willing to bet the demographics of those on
             | Hackernews aren't exactly in the "I'm using Linux because I
             | cannot afford to use any other OS" crowd.
             | 
             | It is the other way around. Linux users should be more
             | vigilant about donating to the projects they find important
             | if they care for the longevity of the project continuing as
             | desktop Linux is a very tiny market to support and has
             | heavy fragmentation issues within it.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | Seconded. I can afford any OS but I'm using Linux out of
               | principle. It's also - at least for me - the most
               | seamless developer experience out there because I'm
               | running the same OS on servers and my desktop. Whenever I
               | have to work with Windows or a Mac I feel like a fish out
               | of the water.
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | > as desktop Linux is a very tiny market to support and
               | has heavy fragmentation issues within it.
               | 
               | It's also free to use and distribute software on,
               | regardless of the hardware/software you own. _That 's_
               | the big difference. Plus, MacOS also commands a
               | relatively small market share with it's own fragmentation
               | issues (doubly so if you're cross-platform).
               | 
               | If Mac users want perpetual builds of their software,
               | they have to perpetually fund a development environment.
               | Linux doesn't really work the same way.
        
           | master-lincoln wrote:
           | You also need to afford a Mac machine for testing as a dev.
           | That's another few hundred bucks on top. I don't think macOS
           | users have a bigger responsibility for paying, but as a
           | publisher I would always make a paid macOS version just to
           | try to regain those expenses again. Time is not equal to
           | money for many people
        
           | sschueller wrote:
           | 100 USD a year (more in Switzerland because Apple doesn't
           | even pay for the taxes) is not nothing. Why should I pay to
           | place apps that I spend my free time to develop and offer for
           | free? Apple should at least not charge a recurring fee if all
           | apps posted are open source and free.
           | 
           | At least over at Google it is a one time fee.
        
             | auggierose wrote:
             | I'd also prefer if there was no $100 to pay. But it is a
             | fair price, and I find the attitude of programmers that
             | everything should be free quite damaging. If you want to
             | donate your free time, that's really up to you. Don't
             | construe constraints for other people or companies from
             | that.
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | > I find the attitude of programmers that everything
               | should be free quite damaging.
               | 
               | Many dead UNIX vendors agree.
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | I don't want it to be free. I want Apple to not lie that
               | "This application is damaged" when I don't pay them.
        
               | auggierose wrote:
               | I don't recall the exact message, but I don't think they
               | say it is damaged. They will probably say something like
               | it _may_ be damaged. Which is perfectly true, as they
               | have no means of verifying its integrity.
        
               | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
               | https://ardour.org/images/thanksapple.png
        
               | auggierose wrote:
               | Ok, that's bad. I fully agree.
        
           | BlueTemplar wrote:
           | It's more a matter of principle ?
           | 
           | IMHO it should be illegal (for a for-profit corporation) to
           | own both the OS and an application store (at least the kind
           | featuring third-party software) - you cannot expect them to
           | be a fair judge of who gets in there and who doesn't !
        
             | tomduncalf wrote:
             | You can still run the software, but Apple make it harder to
             | do so (you probably have to Google how to do it). You could
             | argue this both ways, I think there's value to the defaults
             | making it harder for your average user to run software
             | which could be unsafe... just think how bad the malware
             | problem used to be on Windows for example.
        
               | BlueTemplar wrote:
               | The malware problem used to be bad on Windows because
               | everything had admin access. And the later "we don't have
               | this program in our database, do you still want to
               | execute it?" dialog wasn't too bad (especially when
               | paired with an integrated blacklist of known malware !).
               | 
               | And why do you assume that other software distributors
               | than OS makers aren't going to do due diligence ?
        
         | dist-epoch wrote:
         | They didn't do that for the Windows version though:
         | 
         | > Because we object to paying Microsoft for the privilege of
         | allowing you to more easily use our work, this application is
         | unsigned (more information here).
        
           | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
           | We will likely start doing Windows notarization during the
           | 8.x series. Our friends at Harrison, who make Mixbus (based
           | on Ardour) already figured it all out a long time ago; it's a
           | bit more complex than the macOS version of the process.
        
         | OliverM wrote:
         | I thought Ardour was a commercial product? If you want to
         | download a binary from their site it's either a demo version
         | with injected silence every 10 minutes, or a paid-for option
         | (either a small monthly sub or a larger one-off payment). You
         | can build it locally yourself for free of course, but I don't
         | know if many non-devs would do that.
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | Ardour is very high quality for FOSS. There are many distros
           | that include a free version of Ardour. Ubuntu Studio[1] for
           | instance, and then there are distributions where installing
           | it is an apt-get[2] or yum[3] or whatever[4] away, and paying
           | for it is optional.
           | 
           | [1] https://ubuntustudio.org/2022/11/ardour-7-1-backports-
           | availa...
           | 
           | [2] https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=ardour
           | 
           | [3] https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/ardour7/ardour7/
           | 
           | [4] https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/ardour/
        
           | jdfellow wrote:
           | There's also a distinct commercial DAW based on Ardour called
           | Harrison Mixbus.
           | 
           | https://harrisonconsoles.com/product/mixbus/
        
           | ninjin wrote:
           | It is not really a commercial product, rather it follows an
           | old, but somewhat rare, tradition of making usage slightly
           | more difficult in order to raise funds. OpenBSD used to do
           | the same and not provide pre-built images to raise funds via
           | CD sales from those that could not be bothered to learn how
           | to build images from the source code. You can certainly
           | object to this, but I do find it reasonable as there are few
           | good ways to fund open source software.
           | 
           | As for Ardour itself, it is clearly completely open source
           | [1].
           | 
           | https://git.ardour.org/ardour/ardour/src/branch/master/COPYI.
           | ..
        
             | OliverM wrote:
             | I don't object to it at all, I think it's a great idea. We
             | need more models of supporting open-source, including
             | financial ones. BTW I also don't see commercial and open-
             | source as intrinsically opposed to each other - projects
             | can be both, and I wish more were.
        
             | ilyt wrote:
             | It's also just packaged in Debian which means any distro
             | based on it likely have it.
        
               | atomicnumber3 wrote:
               | "Give your stuff away for free to devs" is a pretty good
               | idea for both free and nonfree software. (And Linux users
               | are, for now, still likely to be developer type people
               | than not).
        
             | globular-toast wrote:
             | You're talking about orthogonal concepts.
             | 
             | Ardour is free software (and therefore open source). Ardour
             | is not proprietary software.
             | 
             | Ardour is a commercial product. They sell pre-built
             | binaries, updates (perhaps some level of guarantee/support
             | for those binaries?) etc. Ardour is not "freeware",
             | shareware or a hobby project or anything else like that.
        
               | ninjin wrote:
               | I am not sure it is clear cut as you present it. Clearly
               | Ardour the _project_ is not a commercial product and the
               | same should go for the source code. Arguably the _pre-
               | compiled binaries_ are a commercial product as they are
               | presented to a market for a price (although the same of
               | course does not hold for Ardour binaries provided through
               | package managers and elsewhere). To me, the confusion
               | mostly arises from the fact that we use Ardour to refer
               | to all of the above, while clearly they are all different
               | things.
        
               | globular-toast wrote:
               | Ardour certainly looks like a commercial project to me. I
               | think this thinking arises from a couple of
               | misapprehensions, namely:
               | 
               | 1. Commerce is bad and somehow at odds with free software
               | and the GPL,
               | 
               | 2. The only way to do any kind of software trade is
               | proprietary software.
               | 
               | In fact, commerce is beautiful and a cornerstone of
               | economics and our civilisation. Most people in the free
               | software community are not opposed to commerce. What they
               | are opposed to is proprietary software. That is, claiming
               | ownership of software and therefore doing commerce based
               | mostly on rent-seeking and retaining power over said
               | users. Free software and the GPL aims to disable this,
               | but it does not disable, nor does it oppose, commercial
               | software, unless you believe (2), which is evidently
               | false, as you can see with Ardour.
        
               | ninjin wrote:
               | I am not sure how Ardour would feel about being referred
               | to as a commercial project. But I do suspect if you went
               | back in time and sent an e-mail to misc@ ten years ago
               | calling OpenBSD a commercial project because they sold
               | CDs you would be told to take a hike. I will just agree
               | to disagree on this one. You seem to want to make a
               | bigger point about software and commerce and all I see
               | are shades of grey in that commercialisation is not clear
               | cut and neither is what is a project, its outcomes, etc.
        
               | freedomben wrote:
               | I think GP makes a reasonable point about what commercial
               | actually means. If you are selling something, that's
               | commerce. If the Ardour dev or OpenBSD devs don't like
               | it, then they are free to adopt a euphemism that makes
               | them feel better about it, but that appeal to authority
               | doesn't change the meaning of the term. I think that
               | actually further reinforces GP's point about how the term
               | "commercial software" has become a dirty word.
               | 
               | Now that said, I do support avoiding language that is
               | offensive to people even if it doesn't seem to me like it
               | should be (so long as it's still clear what is being
               | communicated. I don't like Orwellian expressions).
        
           | 6581 wrote:
           | > I thought Ardour was a commercial product?
           | 
           | Ardour is licensed under GPLv2.
        
             | master-lincoln wrote:
             | That is unrelated. Things licensed as open source can still
             | be commercial products. Ardour is open source and can be
             | freely build and distributed, but it's also available as a
             | pre-build product to pay for.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | > it's also available as a pre-build product to pay for
               | 
               | Show me where to pay for the pre-built product:
               | 
               | https://community.ardour.org/download?platform=linux&arch
               | ite...
               | 
               | All I see is a direct download link. If you want to pay
               | that's optional.
        
               | rspoerri wrote:
               | Have you pressed that button?
               | 
               | """ Subscribe
               | 
               | $1, $4, $10 or $50 per month ... """
               | 
               | """ Single Payment
               | 
               | If you choose to pay less than US$45 ... """
               | 
               | """ Free/Demo Version
               | 
               | Periodically goes silent after 10 minutes.
               | 
               | No access to nightly (development) builds. """
               | 
               | And, if you wonder, you can't enter 0 for the payment.
        
               | jacquesm wrote:
               | Ah I see, so that's what it looks like when you're not
               | using a linux distro to obtain Ardour. And no, I never
               | pressed the button because I just get it through Ubuntu
               | Studio, and I've been using Ardour for years, for my
               | simple (but frequent, multiple times per day) needs
               | whatever version is in there is plenty.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | JodieBenitez wrote:
       | The screenshot features the excellent Surge synth. Check it out
       | if you don't know it, it's an excellent sounding synth with a
       | gorgeous oscillators section.
        
         | throwaway290 wrote:
         | It's three times the size of the DAW itself, and unlike the DAW
         | it requires using an installer during which it asks for admin
         | password. Wow. Wonder what happened to "just drop this file
         | into that dir" README.txt...
        
           | radiowave wrote:
           | Putting a file into "that dir" also requires elevated
           | permissions.
           | 
           | (e.g. C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins )
        
             | throwaway290 wrote:
             | Of course but the point is I do that myself. Installer just
             | asks for permissions and does who knows what.
        
               | prmoustache wrote:
               | Then the binary does who knows what so in any case you
               | are kind of bound to your trust in the vendor.
        
               | throwaway290 wrote:
               | Plugins themselves never require admin access to run, the
               | installer does.
        
               | prmoustache wrote:
               | Unless you are running your plugins in a sandbox or have
               | different profiles for different usages, this doesn't
               | make any difference as what is more important, your
               | personal data is accessible from your main user.
               | 
               | Anyone producing music from qubesOS?
        
               | throwaway290 wrote:
               | Are you saying it makes no difference whether process
               | runs as root or normal user in whatever OS you're on?
        
               | prmoustache wrote:
               | I am saying it depends of the attack scenario.
               | 
               | Privilege escalation is a big issue for servers and
               | mutualized systems. On a personal computer this is the
               | least of your concerns as your personnal data is more
               | valuable than some binaries in your root filesystem.
               | People are ready to get their precious data pwned or
               | ransomwared but are afraid some process would get root
               | access, this is backwards thinking.
        
           | rovingeye wrote:
           | Users want an installer. You can see what the installers are
           | doing by looking at the scripts in the repo (this is an open
           | source project). Admin permission is necessary to write to
           | the Global VST folder. You can direct your "Wow" at Steinberg
           | if you want. The spec was recently updated to allow for a
           | User install location which has been considered: https://stei
           | nbergmedia.github.io/vst3_dev_portal/pages/Techn...
           | 
           | If you don't want an installer, you can download the
           | pluginsonly bundle on the release page and do it yourself:
           | https://github.com/surge-synthesizer/releases-xt/releases
        
             | throwaway290 wrote:
             | > You can direct your "Wow" at Steinberg if you want.
             | 
             | Plenty of plugins just ship with a README and tell you
             | where to drop em though! Even paid. So especially if it's
             | OSS I don't think it's bad to require a bit of effort from
             | the user especially if it takes unpaid time maintaining the
             | installer wrapper. Thanks for the bundle link!
        
         | smoldesu wrote:
         | Serge is great, but Vital whips the llama's ass:
         | https://vital.audio/
         | 
         | There was a time when Sylenth and Serum-quality synthesizers
         | didn't exist for free. Back then, shit like _Serge_ and _Helm_
         | were really the best you could rely on. Maybe a few free U-HE
         | plugins or your DAW defaults. Today 's producers are downright
         | spoiled with so many excellent free options!
        
           | nomoreusernames wrote:
           | [dead]
        
       | wiz21c wrote:
       | From the what's new page:
       | 
       | "Some people will no doubt laugh at a few of these "new
       | features", given that they've been in some other DAWs for 20
       | years or more. That's OK -- we laugh too when we see other DAWs
       | finally adding things that Ardour could do in 2005."
       | 
       | this made me laugh :-)
        
         | washadjeffmad wrote:
         | I started using Ardour in 2007 and quickly transitioned our
         | studio to it in a big move to Linux for audio production. I'll
         | be excited to reacquaint myself with it later this year on the
         | first analog restoration I've accepted in almost a decade.
         | 
         | The extent of its wonders escapes me now, but I recall with
         | jack+ardour, the new lowlatency/preempt kernel, and some tcp/ip
         | stack fun, we were able to get 40ms network audio latency on
         | commodity hardware, vastly expanding our field processing
         | workflows. Sort of how you can walk out of any venue today and
         | immediately purchase an SD card of the event, we could produce
         | MP3, CDs, and live webcasts of events, ready within minutes of
         | closing with nothing more than a laptop, usb sound card, mics,
         | and the internet.
         | 
         | I also had a little trick for transcription; shorthand with
         | macros! Eventually, I could type them all one handed. Today,
         | you can just pipe through whisper and have subs in every format
         | and language. What an incredible time to be alive.
         | 
         | My lessons learned have been that free, open source software is
         | amazing, and if you don't know something is supposed to be
         | "hard", it can't stop you. Don't let greed or pride make you
         | withhold from yourself.
        
       | enbugger wrote:
       | I really like the UI in the sound production software. It's neat,
       | has good colors and keep being eye candy even given the number of
       | controls and information it provides. Is it some sort of
       | standardized style guide for this kind of UI or everyone just
       | takes inspiration by some industry leader products?
        
         | prokoudine wrote:
         | > Is it some sort of standardized style guide for this kind of
         | UI
         | 
         | Anything goes in this industry really :)
        
         | klaussilveira wrote:
         | https://juce.com
         | 
         | Maybe that's what you want?
        
       | pilaf wrote:
       | I'm not a musician, but I've been happily using Ardour to edit a
       | podcast for many years now (paying for a subscription the whole
       | time too) and I really like the workflow I arrived at with it.
       | 
       | One particular feature I like is the ability to edit while
       | playing the audio at 2x speed, which I use to do a quick first
       | pass where I remove obvious things like dead air, coughs, uhms,
       | etc., before doing a second pass at 1x looking for finer details
       | to fix. However, I've found that this feature has been worsened a
       | bit since v6, so I've been stuck at v5 this whole time despite
       | the many new releases. Every time a new version comes out I try
       | it out immediately, but so far v5 has been the superior one for
       | my particular workflow.
       | 
       | I'm not complaining though, for as long as Ardour 5 still runs on
       | my computer I'll be a happy user, and I'm very grateful for
       | Ardour's existence, but I wonder if anyone else uses it the way I
       | do and if they've had the same issue with newer versions.
        
         | prokoudine wrote:
         | > However, I've found that this feature has been worsened a bit
         | since v6
         | 
         | How exactly?
        
           | pilaf wrote:
           | In Ardour 5 I am able to simply slide the playback speed
           | slider ("shuttle speed control") to start playing at >1x
           | speed, and after releasing the mouse button it keeps on
           | playing at that speed.
           | 
           | In v6+ the sliding part still works, but upon releasing it
           | the slider springs immediately back to 1x, so I can't easily
           | select a playback speed and keep it going. As a workaround
           | there's the varispeed option, but for me it's not as
           | intuitive (it uses semitones instead of "Xs" as its unit),
           | and feels much less flexible. I could probably live with it
           | if I was forced into it, but I much prefer v5's behavior.
        
             | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
             | I'll add a percentage control to the VS dialog.
             | 
             | Then you can upgrade to 8.1 and get the benefit of
             | interview mode ripple editing.
        
               | pilaf wrote:
               | Hey Paul! Thanks so much for Ardour first of all, and
               | double thanks for this awesome generosity.
               | 
               | I didn't know about interview mode, I'll read up on it.
               | Looking forward to 8.1!
        
               | prokoudine wrote:
               | From the manual (https://manual.ardour.org/ardours-
               | interface/the-toolbox/):
               | 
               | "Within this general behavior several variations are
               | available as Ripple edit modes: [...] 3. Interview. This
               | mode works just like the Selected mode with one
               | exception: when you select a range and press Del, this
               | will remove the selected portion of either audio or MIDI
               | without shifting other clips to the left to match the
               | freed space on the timeline. The main use case for this
               | mode is editing interviews where you want the ripple
               | behavior to edit out e.g. periods of silence, while being
               | able to just delete e.g. an out-of-place noise or an
               | exclamation by the interviewer."
        
             | prokoudine wrote:
             | That is a really good point, thanks!
        
               | pilaf wrote:
               | I just realized you're an Ardour developer, so thank you
               | for the awesome piece of free software, and I hope my
               | comment didn't sound too whiny. I love Ardour and still
               | recommend it to other podcasters at every chance I have,
               | especially when I see people using Audacity for that task
               | while Ardour is clearly the better option given its non-
               | destructiveness.
        
               | prokoudine wrote:
               | > I just realized you're an Ardour developer
               | 
               | Nope, I'm a documentation/YT/social media monkey, if you
               | want a real developer, PaulDavisThe1st is here for you :)
        
             | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
             | Percentage field now in ardour/master branch in git.
        
       | klaussilveira wrote:
       | I miss the "Beat Maker" interface from FL Studio. It is like
       | Bread and Butter.
        
         | PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
         | FL Studio is a very, very different DAW from most others. If
         | you get used to it, then most other DAWs are going to feel as
         | if they are lacking something (though they will typically have
         | something that FL Studio doesn't have, too).
        
           | klaussilveira wrote:
           | Yes, it is. It is why I still run FL Studio 10 via Wine.
           | Never managed to replace it with anything else, and 12 just
           | does not feel right.
        
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