New version of Ardour DAW

The Ardour developers have released version 2.8 of their Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). New features include track and bus templates, which allow specific recording configuration settings to be saved and reused, as well as the improved support of audio plug-ins that comply with the Steinberg VST standard. The release also includes a number of bug fixes. More details about the release can be found in the release notes.

Until now, VST plug-ins needed translation using Steinberg's VST SDK to be used with Ardour. While the SDK is offered free of charge, it is released under it's own licensing agreement and therefore Linux distributors would usually distribute Ardour without VST support. Users had to perform the translations themselves if they wanted to use VST plug-ins.

Ardour track display and control interface. Original only available for Linux, Ardour was then sponsored by the SAE Institute to develop a Mac OS X version. Although, due to the recent economic changes, in February SAE withdrew its sponsorship, Ardour's chief developer Paul Davis is commited to continuing development and has asked for public donations to support the project. Version 2.8 is now in feature freeze in preparation for the upcoming version 3.0 which will feature MIDI support.

Ardour 2.8 is available to download for Linux and Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.

See also:

• Ardour DAW loses funding, a report from The H.

(crve)