11 ms·

Ardour -Audacity Alternative to Record, Edit, and Mix on Linux, OS X and Windows

131 points by noyesno 5y ago

theproffesor 5y ago
imo ardour is a bit heavy as an audacity replacement, and I am a huge fan of ardour. I have been using ocenaudio with very good success and do think that it is a much closer "replacement"... with that said ardor is the best linux DAW!
defensem3ch 5y ago
Ardour isn't free. You need to pay for it, unless you build it yourself, or you only want a demo version
- detaro 5y ago
  It's Free Software. You can download builds from anybody else if you don't want to pay the project for theirs.
  - trasz 5y ago
    Or just use a system which provides packages for it, like FreeBSD.
    - detaro 5y ago
      I would count that as "download somebody elses build". Although I'm sure some Gentoo user is going to correct me on that.
      - mrlonglong 5y ago
        Yes, it's available!
    - rvz 5y ago
      Excuse me? You want those music producers to move from their whole OS (Windows or Mac) to something even less familiar than Linux? I don't think that is going to happen, and it's highly unlikely. I think they'll won't care to move and continue with Audacity or just pay for the Ardour binary for either Windows or Mac and that's that. To Downvoters: Why the quick downvotes? No need to deny the fact of the matter and reality here. If you go here [0] to see the list of the best DAW software of 2021, out of all of the listed software only ONE 'stable' DAW software is available for Linux and NONE for FreeBSD. (Excluding Reaper since it is experimental and not stable for production use or recommendation) Everything else listed there is for Windows or Mac or only both [0] Source: [0] [0] https://www.musicianonamission.com/best-daw-2016/ https://www.musicianonamission.com/best-daw-2016/
- ttctciyf 5y ago
  Ardour is Free (source code available under GPL). Also, to get an executable version most users will just do: "apt install ardour" (or equivalent) which is pretty much beer-type free, in practice.
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    Yep. Ardour is completely Free and open source. On Gentoo installing it as easy as typing: "emerge ardour" and your system will download, compile, and install ardour from source.
_joel 5y ago
Ardour is a different tool to Audacity, it's meant to be used as a full on DAW, rather than just recording/editing audio.
- tialaramex 5y ago
  Right, this is a right-tool-for-the-job thing. Ardour is a chainsaw, and Audacity is a penknife. Can you cut down a tree with a penknife? Maybe, but that's clearly a terrible idea and will take ages. Can you remove the tape sealing closed your Amazon shipment with a chainsaw? Maybe, but you'd better be amazingly skilled with that chainsaw or it'll be very frustrating. Tools like Ardour are intended to have users who are mostly experts. It's OK if this is slightly harder to understand so long as it's also just better once you do understand. In contrast Audacity has a lot of users who've no intention (for now) of using it after today, they just want to fix one small thing about an audio file and they heard Audacity can do that. Once upon a time, a lot of tools in the space Audacity occupies had significant technical misunderstandings baked into them. So by exposure to those tools, people learn things that aren't true about digital audio, and that causes ongoing pain. But Audacity is much better about this, and so today I don't think you're more likely to actually understand what's going on with digital audio in Ardour than in Audacity. As with the penknife, if your experience with Audacity is "this wasn't powerful enough, I'll be here all week" then it is time to try a DAW (such as Ardour) but unlike the old days I don't think you'll spend the first week unlearning myths about digital audio that your editor taught you and the DAW now has to dispell.
  - bbarnett 5y ago
    Can you remove the tape sealing closed your Amazon shipment with a chainsaw? Maybe, but you'd better be amazingly skilled with that chainsaw or it'll be very frustrating. Youtube video coming soon...
  - carlhjerpe 5y ago
    There is a guy on YouTube that reviews the durability of tools, he usually opens the boxes in some convoluted way, like with an electric chainsaw. https://youtu.be/ztpWsuUItrA https://youtu.be/ztpWsuUItrA
mat0 5y ago
Why would anyone replace Audacity? Just because they are trying to get some data? Audacity is fine
- neolog 5y ago
  I contribute to open source software but I don't use it to spy on people. I don't want software to spy on me either.
- drewolbrich 5y ago
  This article explains the missing context of this post: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audacity-deemed-spyware-over-data-collection-changes https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audac...
- swiley 5y ago
  Even if it's fine now, using telemetry to make decisions is a pretty strong way to say "no power users or people with unique problems wanted."
  - stilisstuk 5y ago
    Fedora uses telemetry. audacity sounds bad, but not all telemetry is
    - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
      > Fedora uses telemetry Any chance you have details? All I can find after a few minutes of searching is [0] which was a proposal for counting installs. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18913955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18913955
    - jfisjifjsidf 5y ago
      > Fedora uses telemetry Which is why I don't use Fedora and am moving away from Ubuntu: telemetry is fine as long as there is 100% transparency about every single byte of data transmitted from my PC to a remote server, and I have full control to review all information sent and when it is sent without having to go through hoops to research arcane commands and read fine print.
underseacables 5y ago
Alas, Audacity is free.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ttctciyf 5y ago
Looks like they released 6.8 a couple of days ago[1] with some significant fixes[2]! I wouldn't really call it an audacity alternative, though - you'd be dealing with a bunch of additional complexity to simply accomplish what most folks use audacity for I think. 1: https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-8-released/106136 https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-8-released/106136 2: https://ardour.org/whatsnew.html https://ardour.org/whatsnew.html
IndySun 5y ago
This is useful. Not technically multitrack or an exact replacement for Audacity. It gives great info on the audio, records, and its interface is super slick. https://www.ocenaudio.com/download https://www.ocenaudio.com/download
mortenjorck 5y ago
Ardour is an alternative to Audacity like Xcode is an alternative to TextEdit.
- drdavid 5y ago
  A closer alternative is 'ocenaudio'. https://www.ocenaudio.com/en/ https://www.ocenaudio.com/en/
  - gebt 5y ago
    It's not even open source.
jessaustin 5y ago
I've been using SoX [0] to edit my ringtones and other simple audio files. CLI FTW! Not only can you start, stop, and splice at precisely the right time, but you can adjust tempo, compress and expand dynamic range, all sorts of other things that don't create audio but make it sound better. [0] http://sox.sourceforge.net/ http://sox.sourceforge.net/
- mike_hock 5y ago
  Sounds like that really blew your sox off.
noobermin 5y ago
Does anyone use Ardour for their audio work? Always heard great things about it.
rvz 5y ago
So after looking around to see if it is stable on M1 Macs and there is some information about that [0]. It seems to be still 'experimental'. It's only 'free' as a demo version for now: > There’s a free/demo version (with our usual free/demo limitation of going silent after 10 minutes, with the ability to ask for more time) As for the paid subscribers: > The full build is available to Ardour subscribers (including those who have already paid US$45 or more for version 6.x). To Downvoters: So there is NO native M1 version then? Just because you can try 'run it in Rosetta' doesn't mean it's going to be 'stable'. If it is not native, There is no guarantee on that. Not even Apple can guarantee it. Don't be so quick to shoot the messenger. I'm trying to give you information before you try it. While the smart ones stay on Intel, all I'll say to the M1 folks is to use with caution. [0] https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-6-for-apple-m1-systems-available-experimental/105522 https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-6-for-apple-m1-syste...
mrlinx 5y ago
I wish there was a similar alternative to virtualdub.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  Avidemux? Not restricted to .avi and multiplatform (Linux/Win/Mac/BSD) http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
zxzax 5y ago
I'm saddened that it's necessary to bother posting this, but Ardour also has a similar privacy policy, which you should read if you intend to use their services: https://ardour.org/privacy.html https://ardour.org/privacy.html Ardour also has a compile time optional "phone home" feature which checks for update announcements, so you should disable that when building if you care about this sort of thing: https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/13f5fb3dee640f0bfb1d669183b36c54146c6918/wscript#L862 https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/13f5fb3dee640f0bfb1d66... Personal note: I do not consider these things to be issues with Ardour, or with Audacity. I commend PaulDavisThe1st and x42 and the rest of the Ardour contributors, as well as the Audacity developers, for their respective work on these two excellent projects.
- ianlevesque 5y ago
  I just read the entire privacy policy and not only is the entirety completely reasonable and barely worth mentioning, the “phone home” section is just this: “ If you download and use a ready-to-run version of Ardour from ardour.org, the program will attempt to contact ardour.org at startup to determine if you should be notified about a new release of the software. If the computer where you use Ardour is connected to the internet, this process will store the computer's internet address and an identifier for its operating system.” So it’s barely an http access log for whatever endpoint that is. The privacy policy hysteria has gone wayyyyyy too far.
  - noobermin 5y ago
    The thing is at least from what I can gather, the Audacity issue is literally on the same level of this. The only added difference is optional bug reporting.
    - danudey 5y ago
      Optional, opt-in error reporting and telemetry, yes. This entire issue is a bunch of people freaking out over nothing and making baseless assertions about things that aren't happening.
  - 5y ago
ratww 5y ago
As someone that worked in this area, IMO, the difference between DAWs and modern audio editors (especially a complete one like Audacity) is massively overstated. DAWs make fine audio editors for 99% of cases. The non-destructive workflow might even be simpler to most people. For recording a DAW is IMO a better option, since it's battle tested in critical environments where super-low latency and rock solid stability is non negotiable. On the other hand, modern audio editors like Audacity already have lots of complex features: complete multitrack recording, plugins, automation, so it's not as if the complexity difference is that big. Honestly, someone used to edit Audio on a DAW would also have a hard time picking up Audacity too, since it's complex on its own as well. If it were SoundForge vs ProTools 15 or 20 years ago I'd definitely agree that one is not an alternative to the other, but Audacity vs any DAW today? Yeah you can replace it without much difficulty.
- noobermin 5y ago
  What are you thoughts on Ardour? Is it a good tool? Have been wanted to dabble in music making for a while.
  - michaelpb 5y ago
    Not OP, but I like it! The piano roll interface is it's biggest weakness, but everything else is great IMO. My favorite feature is the mixer panel and effects stack interface. The mixer panel is a happy medium between powerful ("I want to experiment with some ridiculous side-chaining setup") and the simple / immediate ("I just want to soften up the sound with some reverb"), and can do both well in my opinion. If you're thinking of using it on Linux, I'd recommend using something like KXStudio. (Sadly the distro version of that is no longer maintained, otherwise I'd recommend that.)
  - ratww 5y ago
    I like it! I find that editing has some things that to me are more intuitive than my own DAW of choice (Logic Pro X). The routing is also more powerful than lots of pricy DAWs, which lets you create some interesting effects. It's powerful but also easy to use (honestly, it's easier than some popular DAWs, purely because you don't have to fight the software to route).
rcakebread 5y ago
AudioMass is very similar to Audacity, is open source[1] and browser based. Check out the online version[2]. [1] https://github.com/pkalogiros/audiomass https://github.com/pkalogiros/audiomass [2] https://audiomass.co/ https://audiomass.co/
- robotbikes 5y ago
  This looks very cool, I'll be able to consider using it more if it when a free software license is selected for it - https://github.com/pkalogiros/AudioMass/issues/1 https://github.com/pkalogiros/AudioMass/issues/1
gebt 5y ago
Stay safe, stay free.

131 points by noyesno 5y ago

imo ardour is a bit heavy as an audacity replacement, and I am a huge fan of ardour. I have been using ocenaudio with very good success and do think that it is a much closer "replacement"... with that said ardor is the best linux DAW!

defensem3ch 5y ago

Ardour isn't free. You need to pay for it, unless you build it yourself, or you only want a demo version

detaro 5y ago
It's Free Software. You can download builds from anybody else if you don't want to pay the project for theirs.
- trasz 5y ago
  Or just use a system which provides packages for it, like FreeBSD.
  - detaro 5y ago
    I would count that as "download somebody elses build". Although I'm sure some Gentoo user is going to correct me on that.
    - mrlonglong 5y ago
      Yes, it's available!
  - rvz 5y ago
    Excuse me? You want those music producers to move from their whole OS (Windows or Mac) to something even less familiar than Linux? I don't think that is going to happen, and it's highly unlikely. I think they'll won't care to move and continue with Audacity or just pay for the Ardour binary for either Windows or Mac and that's that. To Downvoters: Why the quick downvotes? No need to deny the fact of the matter and reality here. If you go here [0] to see the list of the best DAW software of 2021, out of all of the listed software only ONE 'stable' DAW software is available for Linux and NONE for FreeBSD. (Excluding Reaper since it is experimental and not stable for production use or recommendation) Everything else listed there is for Windows or Mac or only both [0] Source: [0] [0] https://www.musicianonamission.com/best-daw-2016/ https://www.musicianonamission.com/best-daw-2016/
ttctciyf 5y ago
Ardour is Free (source code available under GPL). Also, to get an executable version most users will just do: "apt install ardour" (or equivalent) which is pretty much beer-type free, in practice.
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  Yep. Ardour is completely Free and open source. On Gentoo installing it as easy as typing: "emerge ardour" and your system will download, compile, and install ardour from source.

_joel 5y ago

Ardour is a different tool to Audacity, it's meant to be used as a full on DAW, rather than just recording/editing audio.

tialaramex 5y ago
Right, this is a right-tool-for-the-job thing. Ardour is a chainsaw, and Audacity is a penknife. Can you cut down a tree with a penknife? Maybe, but that's clearly a terrible idea and will take ages. Can you remove the tape sealing closed your Amazon shipment with a chainsaw? Maybe, but you'd better be amazingly skilled with that chainsaw or it'll be very frustrating. Tools like Ardour are intended to have users who are mostly experts. It's OK if this is slightly harder to understand so long as it's also just better once you do understand. In contrast Audacity has a lot of users who've no intention (for now) of using it after today, they just want to fix one small thing about an audio file and they heard Audacity can do that. Once upon a time, a lot of tools in the space Audacity occupies had significant technical misunderstandings baked into them. So by exposure to those tools, people learn things that aren't true about digital audio, and that causes ongoing pain. But Audacity is much better about this, and so today I don't think you're more likely to actually understand what's going on with digital audio in Ardour than in Audacity. As with the penknife, if your experience with Audacity is "this wasn't powerful enough, I'll be here all week" then it is time to try a DAW (such as Ardour) but unlike the old days I don't think you'll spend the first week unlearning myths about digital audio that your editor taught you and the DAW now has to dispell.
- bbarnett 5y ago
  Can you remove the tape sealing closed your Amazon shipment with a chainsaw? Maybe, but you'd better be amazingly skilled with that chainsaw or it'll be very frustrating. Youtube video coming soon...
- carlhjerpe 5y ago
  There is a guy on YouTube that reviews the durability of tools, he usually opens the boxes in some convoluted way, like with an electric chainsaw. https://youtu.be/ztpWsuUItrA https://youtu.be/ztpWsuUItrA

mat0 5y ago

Why would anyone replace Audacity? Just because they are trying to get some data? Audacity is fine

neolog 5y ago
I contribute to open source software but I don't use it to spy on people. I don't want software to spy on me either.
drewolbrich 5y ago
This article explains the missing context of this post: https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audacity-deemed-spyware-over-data-collection-changes https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/07/04/open-source-audac...
swiley 5y ago
Even if it's fine now, using telemetry to make decisions is a pretty strong way to say "no power users or people with unique problems wanted."
- stilisstuk 5y ago
  Fedora uses telemetry. audacity sounds bad, but not all telemetry is
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    > Fedora uses telemetry Any chance you have details? All I can find after a few minutes of searching is [0] which was a proposal for counting installs. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18913955 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18913955
  - jfisjifjsidf 5y ago
    > Fedora uses telemetry Which is why I don't use Fedora and am moving away from Ubuntu: telemetry is fine as long as there is 100% transparency about every single byte of data transmitted from my PC to a remote server, and I have full control to review all information sent and when it is sent without having to go through hoops to research arcane commands and read fine print.

underseacables 5y ago

Alas, Audacity is free.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

ttctciyf 5y ago

Looks like they released 6.8 a couple of days ago[1] with some significant fixes[2]! I wouldn't really call it an audacity alternative, though - you'd be dealing with a bunch of additional complexity to simply accomplish what most folks use audacity for I think. 1: https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-8-released/106136 https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-8-released/106136 2: https://ardour.org/whatsnew.html https://ardour.org/whatsnew.html

IndySun 5y ago

This is useful. Not technically multitrack or an exact replacement for Audacity. It gives great info on the audio, records, and its interface is super slick. https://www.ocenaudio.com/download https://www.ocenaudio.com/download

mortenjorck 5y ago

Ardour is an alternative to Audacity like Xcode is an alternative to TextEdit.

drdavid 5y ago
A closer alternative is 'ocenaudio'. https://www.ocenaudio.com/en/ https://www.ocenaudio.com/en/
- gebt 5y ago
  It's not even open source.

jessaustin 5y ago

I've been using SoX [0] to edit my ringtones and other simple audio files. CLI FTW! Not only can you start, stop, and splice at precisely the right time, but you can adjust tempo, compress and expand dynamic range, all sorts of other things that don't create audio but make it sound better. [0] http://sox.sourceforge.net/ http://sox.sourceforge.net/

mike_hock 5y ago
Sounds like that really blew your sox off.

noobermin 5y ago

Does anyone use Ardour for their audio work? Always heard great things about it.

rvz 5y ago

So after looking around to see if it is stable on M1 Macs and there is some information about that [0]. It seems to be still 'experimental'. It's only 'free' as a demo version for now: > There’s a free/demo version (with our usual free/demo limitation of going silent after 10 minutes, with the ability to ask for more time) As for the paid subscribers: > The full build is available to Ardour subscribers (including those who have already paid US$45 or more for version 6.x). To Downvoters: So there is NO native M1 version then? Just because you can try 'run it in Rosetta' doesn't mean it's going to be 'stable'. If it is not native, There is no guarantee on that. Not even Apple can guarantee it. Don't be so quick to shoot the messenger. I'm trying to give you information before you try it. While the smart ones stay on Intel, all I'll say to the M1 folks is to use with caution. [0] https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-6-for-apple-m1-systems-available-experimental/105522 https://discourse.ardour.org/t/ardour-6-6-for-apple-m1-syste...

mrlinx 5y ago

I wish there was a similar alternative to virtualdub.

squarefoot 5y ago
Avidemux? Not restricted to .avi and multiplatform (Linux/Win/Mac/BSD) http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/ http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/

zxzax 5y ago

I'm saddened that it's necessary to bother posting this, but Ardour also has a similar privacy policy, which you should read if you intend to use their services: https://ardour.org/privacy.html https://ardour.org/privacy.html Ardour also has a compile time optional "phone home" feature which checks for update announcements, so you should disable that when building if you care about this sort of thing: https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/13f5fb3dee640f0bfb1d669183b36c54146c6918/wscript#L862 https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/blob/13f5fb3dee640f0bfb1d66... Personal note: I do not consider these things to be issues with Ardour, or with Audacity. I commend PaulDavisThe1st and x42 and the rest of the Ardour contributors, as well as the Audacity developers, for their respective work on these two excellent projects.

ianlevesque 5y ago
I just read the entire privacy policy and not only is the entirety completely reasonable and barely worth mentioning, the “phone home” section is just this: “ If you download and use a ready-to-run version of Ardour from ardour.org, the program will attempt to contact ardour.org at startup to determine if you should be notified about a new release of the software. If the computer where you use Ardour is connected to the internet, this process will store the computer's internet address and an identifier for its operating system.” So it’s barely an http access log for whatever endpoint that is. The privacy policy hysteria has gone wayyyyyy too far.
- noobermin 5y ago
  The thing is at least from what I can gather, the Audacity issue is literally on the same level of this. The only added difference is optional bug reporting.
  - danudey 5y ago
    Optional, opt-in error reporting and telemetry, yes. This entire issue is a bunch of people freaking out over nothing and making baseless assertions about things that aren't happening.
- 5y ago

ratww 5y ago

As someone that worked in this area, IMO, the difference between DAWs and modern audio editors (especially a complete one like Audacity) is massively overstated. DAWs make fine audio editors for 99% of cases. The non-destructive workflow might even be simpler to most people. For recording a DAW is IMO a better option, since it's battle tested in critical environments where super-low latency and rock solid stability is non negotiable. On the other hand, modern audio editors like Audacity already have lots of complex features: complete multitrack recording, plugins, automation, so it's not as if the complexity difference is that big. Honestly, someone used to edit Audio on a DAW would also have a hard time picking up Audacity too, since it's complex on its own as well. If it were SoundForge vs ProTools 15 or 20 years ago I'd definitely agree that one is not an alternative to the other, but Audacity vs any DAW today? Yeah you can replace it without much difficulty.

noobermin 5y ago
What are you thoughts on Ardour? Is it a good tool? Have been wanted to dabble in music making for a while.
- michaelpb 5y ago
  Not OP, but I like it! The piano roll interface is it's biggest weakness, but everything else is great IMO. My favorite feature is the mixer panel and effects stack interface. The mixer panel is a happy medium between powerful ("I want to experiment with some ridiculous side-chaining setup") and the simple / immediate ("I just want to soften up the sound with some reverb"), and can do both well in my opinion. If you're thinking of using it on Linux, I'd recommend using something like KXStudio. (Sadly the distro version of that is no longer maintained, otherwise I'd recommend that.)
- ratww 5y ago
  I like it! I find that editing has some things that to me are more intuitive than my own DAW of choice (Logic Pro X). The routing is also more powerful than lots of pricy DAWs, which lets you create some interesting effects. It's powerful but also easy to use (honestly, it's easier than some popular DAWs, purely because you don't have to fight the software to route).

rcakebread 5y ago

AudioMass is very similar to Audacity, is open source[1] and browser based. Check out the online version[2]. [1] https://github.com/pkalogiros/audiomass https://github.com/pkalogiros/audiomass [2] https://audiomass.co/ https://audiomass.co/

robotbikes 5y ago
This looks very cool, I'll be able to consider using it more if it when a free software license is selected for it - https://github.com/pkalogiros/AudioMass/issues/1 https://github.com/pkalogiros/AudioMass/issues/1

gebt 5y ago

Stay safe, stay free.