Ardour is a multichannel hard disk recorder (HDR) and digital audio
workstation (DAW). It can be used to control, record, edit and run and
complex audio setups.
Ardour supports pro-audio interfaces
through the ALSA project, which provides high quality, well design
device drivers and API's for audio I/O under Linux. Any interface
supported by ALSA can be used with Ardour. This includes the
all-digital 26 channel RME Hammerfall, the Midiman Delta 1010 and many
others.
Ardour has support for 24 bit samples
using foating point internally, non-linear editing with unlimited undo,
a user-configurable mixer, MTC master/slave capabilities, MIDI hardware
control surface compatibility.
It supports MIDI
Machine Control, and so can be controlled from any MMC controller and
many modern digital mixers.
Ardour contains a
powerful multitrack audio editor/arranger that is completely
non-destructive and capable of all standard non-linear editing
operations (insert, replace, delete, move, trim, select,
cut/copy/paste). The editor has unlimited undo/redo capacity and can
save independent "versions" of a track or entire piece.
Ardour's editor supports the community-developed LADSPA
plugin standard. Arbitrary chains of plugins can be attached to any
portion of a track. Every mixer strip can have any number of inputs
and outputs, not just mono, stereo or 5.1. An N-way panner is
included, with support for various panning models. Pre- and post-fader
sends exist, each with their own gain and pan controls. Every mixer
strip acts as its own bus, and thus the bus count in Ardour is
unlimited. You can submix any number of strips into another
strip.
Ardour's channel capacity is limited only
by the number on your audio interface and the ability of your disk
subsystem to stream the data back and forth.
JACK
(the JACK Audio Connection Kit) is used for all audio I/O, permitting
data to be exchanged in perfect samplesync with other applications
and/or hardware audio interfaces.
Ardour is
sample rate and size neutral - any hardware formats from 8 to 32 bits,
rates from 8kHz to 192kHz. Internal processing in 32/64 bit IEEE
floating point format.
Further information can be
found at <http://ardour.org/>.
