Ardour 5.0 released

[jens]

Tell me how I can simplify it while retaining the "you name the price" feature and avoiding licensing schemes. .

I don't think there's a need for simplification. There's applications where it's easy to get lost in a labyrith of different versions, upgrade options and update fees - Ardour isn't one of them.

[mr.ardour]

Ardour was originally only for Linux right?

Did the additional Windows and OSX versions, lead to more income, or more work?

We did most of the work for both before releasing them (Google helped fund the Windows work, then Waves and Harrison). In general, I like doing multi-platform stuff because the different errors from compilers and different details of the runtime environment highlight both coding bugs and design errors that you'd never notice from working on just one platform. So to whatever extent we ended with more work, all platforms end up benefitting from it.

For plugins this has been a LOT of extra work - nobody really follows the AU specification, even Logic (which is what most plugin developers seem to use for testing), and VST2 is such steaming pile of crap that its just awful to have to deal with. But in general, most things we do just work on every platform, and where they don't, changing is normally for the better.

More income: a little. Nothing dramatic. We'll see about Windows.

[ssj71]

In a way I am happy that it costs some money, because it seems too good to just give away.

me too. Thats why I donate even though I build from source. "Libre, not gratis," as they say.

[glokraw]

Using the nightly build, rev 5.0-23-gf77d1e0
Intel 64-bit in Mint 17, 64 bit,
with linux Zebra2 as the plugin, maudio 24/96 pci soundcard,
none of the connections options apparent in Ardour
worked to get sound, so I opened qtractor, and reaper,
for doublechecks, and had sound right away.
For Ardour, I had to command

a2jmidid -j default

and then in qjackctl MIDI connection tab,
connect MIDI/midi_in 1 to
Midi Through...voila...

The a2jmidid connection points failed to appear in ardour's
midi connect i/o panels. Perhaps there is a config option
to autostart a2jmidid, that could be saved as a default?

And speeking of sessions, after basic setup,
I'd prefer being able to just start using ardour,
without prompts for defining or loading a session.
Is a sensible auto-loading default session possible,
to avoid extra steps, when the muse is chirping?

As for ease of plugin loading, in reaper,
I right-click an open area, a menu pops up,
to choose 'insert plugin on new track', and then
it opens the plugin selector on my behalf.
Hit record button, and off you go.

If you match that in ardour, you'll have a sale.

Which brings up another point. Bitwig, U-he,
discoDSP, and almost Reaper, are all 3X cross platform
and useable, with just one license fee for the three platforms.
If that's not the industry norm, it appears close to it,
when linux is added to the mac/win selections.

To be honest, Zebra sounded better out of the box
in Ardour than I remember when using it elsewhere.
If that is technically possible, and not just my relief
at having had some success, then

(I realize you're aiming for a higher tech customer base,
than I'll ever be, so may the $$$force$$$ be with you! )
Cheers

[glokraw]

Bwahahahaaa! You think we have marketing folk? Ardour is roughly a 2-1/2 person project. There are no marketing folk, no website developers. There's me and x42 as the only 2 paid developers.

I've been around since Caldera was stocked at Borders
and Barnes&Noble. I'm well aware of your project,
and the community surrounding it.

"folk(s)" = you and the other guy, just for the record.
Subtle humour is allowed here. You'll be
right at home in a week or so.
Just ask Peter in the effects forum...

[mr.ardour]

For Ardour, I had to command

a2jmidid -j default

No, you didn't. Just don't use JACK. Use Ardour's ALSA backend and it will do all the MIDI stuff without any extra work on your part If you want to use JACK. use JACK1, which also has inter-routing with ALSA MIDI built-in and not needing anymore commands. Ardour does NOT require JACK and has not since 4.0.

Qtractor doesn't use JACK MIDI, it uses ALSA MIDI, which is why you will always see the "system MIDI" stuff show up there. Ardour's ALSA backend does the same thing. Your choice - because Ardour's all about giving you several ways to shoot yourself in the foot.

And speeking of sessions, after basic setup,
I'd prefer being able to just start using ardour,
without prompts for defining or loading a session.
Is a sensible auto-loading default session possible,
to avoid extra steps, when the muse is chirping?

The vast majority of users just use the default session setup. There is no reason to have to change it unless you I/O requirements are particularly unusual. You do need to have a session (new or existing, loaded). We made this decision long ago, because a session can potentially contain huge amounts of data and we don't want to start recording that to the wrong disk or partition. Ardour is not like (old) Cubase where all recorded audio for all sessions sits in some central user-defined location. Session audio (and MIDI) lives with the session. So, yes, you have to load a session, which in its fast form consists of clicking on "New session", typing a name, pressing return. At which point, you're good to go.

As for ease of plugin loading, in reaper,
I right-click an open area, a menu pops up,

Glad you could find an open area ...

to choose 'insert plugin on new track', and then
it opens the plugin selector on my behalf.

In ardour, we generally differentiate between a largely timeline-centric set of operations (done in the editor) and largely signal flow and processing operations (done in the mixer). Plugins are part of the latter group. So you just right click on the processor box, choose "Add plugin" and then "it opens the plugin selector on your behalf".

But you don't need to be in the mixer window. Just press Shift-e or otherwise ensure that the editor's own mixer strip is visible. Select the desired track, then carry out the same right click operation there. It is arguably one more click (to select the track), but you get other benefits from that - the track's mixer strip is now visible, which makes many other operations single-click.

The mixer window has other benefits though, including the "Plugin Favorites" pane, from which you can simply drag plugins (or plugin presets) into a track with no right clicks or menus at all.

Once, we had "Add plugin" in the editor's own track context menu: too many users complained that it just got lost amidst all the other stuff in that menu.

Which brings up another point. Bitwig, U-he,
discoDSP, and almost Reaper, are all 3X cross platform
and useable, with just one license fee for the three platforms.

Ardour is no different. Technically, there's no license at all: you're paying for the build service we provide. But anyway .... pay for Windows, then go back and choose OS X, re-enter your Invoice ID, and you're good on two platforms. Repeat for Linux.

U-he's beta ports to Linux are simultaneously awesome but also horrendous (what has been done with the GUI is almost unforgivable from a technical perspective).

[bungle]

U-he's beta ports to Linux are simultaneously awesome but also horrendous (what has been done with the GUI is almost unforgivable from a technical perspective).

Woaaaaaah, you do realise this is KVR right ?
Most of the posters round here have "I want Urs baby" tattooed on their forehead !!

[mr.ardour]

Woaaaaaah, you do realise this is KVR right ?
Most of the posters round here have "I want Urs baby" tattooed on their forehead !!

Urs didn't do the port to Linux I love his synths, madly. The technical internals of how they've been ported to Linux are a different story. I'm just glad to have them available, sort of, on my platform of preference.

[classic]

Hello.

Did anybody of you found out, how to record a second vst instrument without playing the vst instrument you recorded bevore?
To record the first on is no problem, but while playing the second one on a new track the first one also recives midi datas.

[Numanoid]

U-he's beta ports to Linux are simultaneously awesome but also horrendous (what has been done with the GUI is almost unforgivable from a technical perspective).

What do you mean?

I remember checking out Beatzille in Bitwig on Ubuntu, and looked more or less like the Windows version to me

[ssj71]

Hello.

Did anybody of you found out, how to record a second vst instrument without playing the vst instrument you recorded bevore?
To record the first on is no problem, but while playing the second one on a new track the first one also recives midi datas.

there's a green midi DIN button that you can click to disable midi in. Thats the easiest. You could also disconnect it or set the track in the mixer to use "DISK" which plays the track from the timeline and ignores input.

[ssj71]

U-he's beta ports to Linux are simultaneously awesome but also horrendous (what has been done with the GUI is almost unforgivable from a technical perspective).

What do you mean?

I remember checking out Beatzille in Bitwig on Ubuntu, and looked more or less like the Windows version to me

Its pretty much exclusively on a technical level. For a user there's nothing much to notice unless it causes a crash. For example IIUC when you right click it basically runs a whole new program to show the context menu. There's just lots of ways that can go wrong for any vst host dealing with such a plugin. I say, if it works for you, don't worry about the details, just enjoy the synths!

[glokraw]

For Ardour, I had to command

a2jmidid -j default

No, you didn't. Just don't use JACK..

Interesting logic...

Anyway, thankyou for the many many technical explanations
and how-to infos. And the multi-platform pricing info.

I use the old jackd 2 connections setup,
to blend wine standalone apps, a daw or two,
linux standalone apps, and a few plugins,
mainly routed to timemachine for recording.

But it is easy, and will be worthwhile, to set up a jackd1 linux
just for Ardour. I think Bodhi linux comes without any jackd version,
which will minimize haggling over dependencies. Used Bodhi
to test some early Bitwig releases. I saved your reply,
your documentation folk(s) have a deep app to write about.
Cheers

[glokraw]

Today I got an Ardour 5 session going, using the default alsa,
and the linux versions of Zebra2, Helm, discoDSP's Discovery Pro
and Bliss sampler, and U-he's free TyrellN6 and Podolski.
That's a lot of sound power. Seemed very snappy, no gui issues,
and Ardour itself has always been very easy on the eyes.
Cheers

[LawrenceF]

Here's a couple of A5 "starter scripts" for online mix snapshots if anyone wants to build on them. Currently they only store and recall fader settings, I haven't added anything else (vca's , pans, mutes, plugs, maybe automation at some point) yet. If you want more than one pair of store and recall slots, duplicate them and change the file names being written to mix2.txt, mix3.txt, etc.

Big thanks to the Ardour team for helping me figure out some of it.

Store: http://theaudiocave.com/scripts/store_mix_settings.lua

Recall: http://theaudiocave.com/scripts/recall_mix_settings.lua