Ardour is a complete digital audio workstation. You can use it to record and edit your audio to preference. It also allows multi-track recording and mixdown, giving you the power to produce your own music.

Since two heads are better than one, Ardour makes your work easy to share, giving you the ability to collaborate with other Ardour users.

Ardour capabilities include:

• Multi-channel recording.
• Non-linear, non-destructive region based editing with unlimited undo/redo.
• Full automation support.
• A mixer whose capabilities rival high end hardware consoles.
• Lots of plugins to warp, shift and shape your music.
• Controllable from hardware control surfaces at the same time as it syncs to timecode.

Related Recording Equipment:
USB Audio Recording Adapters

New in v3.3

• 7 new meter types: DIN, EBU, Nordic, BBC, VU, K14 and K20 (total meter types now stands at 9)
• Optional master bus meter now available in transport bar
• MIDI data is now forwarded "around" plugins with no MIDI output/input
• Added CAF to support audio file formats for export
• Various other bugfixes and improvements.

New in v3.3

• Improved metering visuals
• New Meterbridge window
• Improved interaction with Freesound sound samples
• Other GUI changes
• Various bugfixes

New in v3.2

• Now supports video
• Chain together LV2 plugins that accept and output MIDI data
• OSC access to send gain parameters
• Overhauled window management (layering and related issues) to work better on both platforms and with more window managers
• horizontal scrolling of the timeline is now done with shift-wheel and track height adjustment is done using alt-wheel (matches OS X conventions)
• German and French translations improved
• Allow a pre-existing selection to override region grouping if the clicked-on region is part of that selection
• Plugin editing improved

New in v3.1.10

• Bugfix for missing translations

New in v3

• MIDI recording, playback and editing
• LV2, VST and AU instrument plug-ins support
• Choose the number of processors for DSP operations and other operations in the DAW
• Matrix for routing/patching ; menus are still available for setting the I/O
• Multichannel and multi-format file export
• New Monitor section
• Track/bus groups extended
• Enhanced send control
• Phase inversion buttons visible for every channel
• Enhanced Solo Operation with Solo Isolate and AFL/PFL modes
• Improved audio edition (regions, automation, non-overlapping recording...)
• New GUI with session overview, extended region and track/bus lists, etc.
• Improved Mackie Control support
• Ability to dynamically change the disk buffer size

New in v3 Beta5

• New Functionality and Changes
• Some changes on the interface behavior
• MIDI bugfixes
• Supports Generic MIDI control surface
• Supports Mackie Control
• MIDNAM, Plugin preset & Program Changes
• Various build and coding bugfixes
• Updated Russian and Spanish translations.

New in v3 Beta3

• Linux "native" VST support
• Give route groups their own colors
• Allow route groups to color their tracks
• Add option to insert time on all a track's playlists
• Option to glue new markers to bars and beats
• Implement invert selection for MIDI notes
• Add Selection-by-note-range for MIDI notes
• Add session option "MIDI-region-copy-is-fork". If set, all MIDI region copies will be independent from each other; settable via Session->Properties->Misc
• Offer explicit monitoring choices, so that tracks can be forced to monitor their inputs (and more)
• Auto-connect new track/bus inputs to physical ports is now the default
• Auto-connect new track/bus outputs to the master bus is now the default
• Experimental, incomplete reimplementation of Freesound browser
• Add option to have track/bus selection linked between the editor and mixer windows
• GUI improvements
• Bugfixes

New in v2.8.12

• Linux binary packages (for all versions of Linux on x86 or x86_64 processors)
• Alignment correction of recorded audio
• Open session files directly through Ardour
• Merge mono files
• Some changes to automation data recording
• Remove unnecessary control points in automation data as it is recorded
• Allow timecode to skip forwards or backwards or even loop while recording automation
• New route groups are turned "on" at creation
• F4 is now bound to the real action, not the separate sub-menu (ergnomic bindings)
• Removed unimplemented rhythm ferret options in A2
• Common operations in the range menu are now easily accessible.
• Bugfixes and crash fixes