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Ardour Reviews & Product Details

Ardour Overview

What is Ardour?

Ardour is an open source, collaborative effort of a worldwide team including musicians, programmers, and professional recording engineers.

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Product Description

Ardour is an open source, collaborative effort of a worldwide team including musicians, programmers, and professional recording engineers.


Seller Details
Seller
Ardour
Year Founded
2021
HQ Location
Maharashtra
Twitter
@ardourdaw
3,755 Twitter followers
LinkedIn® Page
www.linkedin.com
5 employees on LinkedIn®

Recent Ardour Reviews

Verified User
U
Verified UserSmall-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
3.0 out of 5
"Tricky But It Works"
First, it's donationware. So you'll need to pay something, but it could be as low as $1 to get all updates for one version (or ~$40 for lifetime up...
MH
Marissa H.Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
4.0 out of 5
"Ardour is great"
It's great for mixing audio files and multitrack recording different music genres. I use this software on my MacBook Pro.
Verified User
U
Verified UserMid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
4.5 out of 5
"Easy Recording and Sound editing with Ardour"
It is a user-friendly program that enables one to record and edit a soundtrack with ease. It is easy to learn compared to other programs like Adobe...
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11 Ardour Reviews

4.1 out of 5
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11 Ardour Reviews
4.1 out of 5
11 Ardour Reviews
4.1 out of 5
G2 reviews are authentic and verified.
Verified User in Entertainment
UE
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
(Original )Information
What do you like best about Ardour?

First, it's donationware. So you'll need to pay something, but it could be as low as $1 to get all updates for one version (or ~$40 for lifetime updates). And there's a lot of power and upgrade potential here with all these add-ons. Plus, it's a multitrack audio editor. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

There are TOOOOO many options for plug-ins. It feels like there's thousands, and I feel like I can barely wrap my head around most of them. Luckily, I can get by with just some basics, but still - it's difficult to not feel intimidated. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ardour:

You'll need to find a tutorial or someone to teach you how to use it. I'm basically just using Audacity primarily until I finish looking for and taking a tutorial. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

I'm helping a group I joined get up to date with their backlog of podcasts that they'll be releasing starting next year. And this makes it easy to balance the levels of each participant, add in goofy audio track jokes, and export it as a high resolution wav file. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

MH
Sound Designer
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

It's great for mixing audio files and multitrack recording different music genres. I use this software on my MacBook Pro. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

To be honest I have no dislikes about this program/applications. There's no glitches and works fine for me. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

I'm able to upload, record, and edit audio clips faster with Ardour. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Alondra J.
AJ
Software Quality Assurance Analyst
Enterprise(> 1000 emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

It helps in recording, editing and mixing by using macOS, Windows and Linux operating systems. With its record feature, we can record easily by simply plugging in a keyboard or a microphone with it. It helps in importing audio from your hard drive. Its editing feature helps in cutting, trimming, stretching, moving, dragging, dropping, transposing, zooming, renaming, aligning and deleting audio easily through it easily. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

If you want to use this program you must have to buy any recording device for it which will be expensive and increase your cost. Most of its features are not understandable for a new user or for those who are not having knowledge of audio editing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ardour:

It allows you to extract any soundtrack by importing videos in it. Professional, programmers, musicians, composers all can work collaboratively on it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

Its mixing feature includes various helpful options such as fader, mute, solo, sync, post-fader, pre-fader, isolate, monitor and many more. It is providing a natural and fast environment for creating and editing soundtracks for video or film projects. It can help in editing multi-track MIDI and designing the composition of electro-acoustic through it. It has thousands of file formats. It allows you to extract any soundtrack by importing videos in it. Professional, programmers, musicians, composers all can work collaboratively on it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Marketing and Advertising
UM
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

It is a user-friendly program that enables one to record and edit a soundtrack with ease. It is easy to learn compared to other programs like Adobe Audition.

It has other simple features which make editing easy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

It will take you more time to learn if you are green in audio editing knowledge. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use this program more during my free time in the studio, trying to compose and record customers and consumers view on our product. It is simpy the best Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Media Production
UM
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

This is the smoothest my multi track editing experience has gone. What took me a year to learn for Adobe Audition, I learned in two weeks. And the cost! Either a single version purchase for $1 or more, or you can get every update for life for $45.

Upon booting up, you’ll see a drop down that says “Slide”. This is my favorite tool: it changes how the tracks respond to your edits: Ripple allows you to have trimmed content move forward automatically when you delete or move material in the same track, Slide lets you move pieces of a track without affecting the rest of the material on the track, and Lock? Best one of all: it will keep all material in place, and prevent it from moving around when you delete or change anything. That single thing by itself sped up my editing my a ton, especially since I don’t have to worry about messing up as much. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

The program is split into two portions of the same window: Editor and Mixer. Editor is what I’ve been praising endlessly. Mixer is harder to work with. Mixer lets you add effects like EQ balancing and leveling, compressing and normalizing. And there are lots of options.

But most of them aren’t free - and there are WAY too many options. This is going to take me a while to get used to as a result. But it’s not all bad: I tend to use Audacity to normalize and level tracks, but use Ardour for the stability and ease of the rest of the editing.

So not too bad, honestly! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ardour:

Give yourself time to get used to the layout of the software. It isn’t hard to get used to, and most of the options are laid out on your keyboard as simple one-key shortcuts (with the first letter of the tool’s name being the shortcut). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

I tend to record audio tracks with others who don’t have good recording environments, and we often get distracted by silly side conversation. Being able to simply edit all of these problems out and do so cleanly and easily is what makes it all worth it.

Further still, the way the tracks lay out, you can prepare editing templates to simplify it even more. I have multiple series lined up, and I have a template set up for each of them.

Plus, if I bring on more editors: a $1 license is way easier to stomach than a $50 a month license for Adobe Audition. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Higher Education
UH
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: Seller invite
What do you like best about Ardour?

I like how some of the simpler features of recording are easy to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

I dislike how that even though the software has great potential for many uses, it can be difficult to navigate and use those added applications. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ardour:

I would recommend researching the exact purpose of use and seeing if this software is recommended for that specific application. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

The major problem I am having with using Ardour is that it requires a lot of third-party download in order to utilize built in effects and other instrumentations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Matias H.
MH
Dr Matias Homar
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

It's a powerful DAW open coded. It's versatile and has plenty of plugin options. Under Linux distros it's a free option and as I said powerful. It uses Jack Control for audio and with the live performance kernels it's a perfect match. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

The Interface could be tweak a little bit. There are a few things about the inserts and sends that can be improved. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ardour:

It's a great tool to work with. While using it under Linux I did have plenty of plugins to choose from. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

I have done many musical productions. Mix and recorded for different projects Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Photography
UP
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
More Options
Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

Deep feature set that allows mixing and editing audio tracks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

Complicated interface for a beginner like me. Needs a program like JackPilot to be running to function on a Mac. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

Editing and mixing sound tracks for slide shows. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

AS
Owner
Information Technology and Services
Small-Business(50 or fewer emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

As one who has only slightly dabbled in audio recording, mixing, and production, I found it geared toward professionals--and fully featured, as a consequence. Now, this is exactly what I expected and wanted. Ardour was fun to learn, and the user interface is relatively pleasant to work with, especially for more technical software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

In the past I've had some platform incompatibilities that prevented me from using certain features of Ardour, but I'm surprised I didn't see more issues considering how often I have changed (and sometimes made unstable) the systems on which I run it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ardour:

If you're new to professional audio software, it might be a good idea to set aside a couple hours to dive in, in order take advantage of what Ardour has to offer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

I've aspired to record some music of my own and learn elements of audio engineering, Ardour has helped me do those things. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Heten D.
HD
CG Lead
Mid-Market(51-1000 emp.)
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Validated Reviewer
Verified Current User
Review source: G2 invite
Incentivized Review
What do you like best about Ardour?

Ardour is a very competant DAW in the open source world, and free. The fact that it can handle a wide number of commercially available VST, Ladspa and lv2 plugins is a big plus and its ability to connect to the jack server, OSC and midi controllers to stay synced with other applications and hardware is a big big plus however it can be run without the need of jack server, It allows for very complex mixer routings with multiple send effects and bus tracks, its ability to create and play virtual midi instruments is great. It's a complete daw with no bits and pieces missing, and at an absolutely rock bottom price. The companion Ardroid App on android seves as a good remote control app with OSC standard. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Ardour?

Lack of a virtual Midi Keyboard built into the application, the alternative note editor doesn't quite compensate for it. The installation comes with no Demo Songs, or pre-installed samples or virtual synths or effects of any kind and is quite bare bone as a standalone application without external plugins. It's windows port is unsupported. It's free as in free speech, however the free as in free beer version lacks the ability to save plugin presets while saving project files, to gain that functionality a one time payment has to be made. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Ardour:

If you're coming from FLStudio or other commercial DAW be prepared to work on a DAW which is absolute barebone without any Samples, Synths, Presets, Loops or Arpeggios installed however this can be accomplished with a plethora of external options and if you already have a bank of the above. on the Plus side it could could down your cost dramatically to purchase a DAW. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Ardour solving and how is that benefiting you?

Ardour is the only arguably complete Open Source DAW solution for Linux, and that in itself is a huge problem solver, since it supports a lot of the functions available in commercial DAW at a fraction of the cost. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.