{"slug": "ardour", "name": "Ardour", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Open-source digital audio workstation for recording, editing and mixing audio and MIDI.", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 7, "warners": 0, "score": 5.599, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-12-02", "latest": "2026-09-22", "why": "Commenters call it top-tier DAW software they use daily, like its paid open-source model and new Cue Recording for live looping, and name it as a replacement for Logic Pro.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": ["Overall quality", "Daily use"], "caveat": "Linux audio latency", "short_quote": "I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community.", "icon": true, "domain": "ardour.org", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://ardour.org", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Ardour"], "verdict": [{"text": "Commenters call it top-tier DAW software they use daily,", "cites": [{"id": 750533136, "item_id": 46908321, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46908321", "by": "_cart", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is top tier software.", "excerpt": "Ardour is top tier software. I've been _so_ excited for the \"Cue Recording\" feature. Until now I've had to resort to other software for live looping. Can't wait to give it a shot / use Ardour for \"everything\"!", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording and live looping", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 750482576, "item_id": 46905161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46905161", "by": "tarball", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community.", "excerpt": "Ardour is very good and needs more attentions. My respects to the developers, I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community. I also like the paying / open source model, and I wouldn\u2019t change it for a proprietary DAW 99% of the musicians use.", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 737949104, "item_id": 46121819, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46121819", "by": "xrd", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is great.", "excerpt": "Reading this article makes me want to point out the difference between commercial music software and open source software. What stands out here was that Eno used very simple sounds and looped them. This was not a complicated rube-goldberg machine he built to finally get to these masterpieces. It was simple recordings of voices, looped. Reggie Watts makes incredible, and non-traditional, electronic house music, basica", "context": "command line guy, Linux user", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Brian Eno Created Ambient 1: Music for Airports (2019)"}, {"id": 780304080, "item_id": 48769005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769005", "by": "speak_on", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love and use your software.", "excerpt": "Ha! OK I take that back. Firstly, it's an amazing experience to randomly interact with people like you - I love and use your software. Hats off and thanks for what you offered to the industry! But secondly, your statement makes even less sense to me: obviously artifacts do add up. Yes, not linearly, like any complex audio in general. But the more tracks with artifacts I have, the more artifacts I have overall. It's n", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording", "switched_from": "", "story": "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense"}]}, {"text": " like its paid open-source model and new Cue Recording for live looping,", "cites": [{"id": 750482576, "item_id": 46905161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46905161", "by": "tarball", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community.", "excerpt": "Ardour is very good and needs more attentions. My respects to the developers, I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community. I also like the paying / open source model, and I wouldn\u2019t change it for a proprietary DAW 99% of the musicians use.", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 750533136, "item_id": 46908321, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46908321", "by": "_cart", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is top tier software.", "excerpt": "Ardour is top tier software. I've been _so_ excited for the \"Cue Recording\" feature. Until now I've had to resort to other software for live looping. Can't wait to give it a shot / use Ardour for \"everything\"!", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording and live looping", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}]}, {"text": " and name it as a replacement for Logic Pro.", "cites": [{"id": 796846722, "item_id": 49802920, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802920", "by": "davidee", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour and Bitwig will suffice", "excerpt": "It's not just iOS. Final Cut Pro on MacOS now regularly advertises iPadOS Final Cut Pro (which is a paid SaaS tool). Professional applications (arguments about Final Cut Pro X not being all that professional notwithstanding) that advertise like that are almost non-existent in the pro audio and video industry; an Apple pro app advertising, would have been heresy a few years ago. And yeah, it drives me crazy. It's one ", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording", "switched_from": "Logic Pro", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}]}, {"text": " The main caveat is Linux audio setup: low latency for live recording needs raw ALSA, which blocks other apps' sound,", "cites": [{"id": 792408272, "item_id": 49525517, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525517", "by": "el_memorioso", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to", "excerpt": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to and what is terrible is that to get acceptable latency and jitter I have to use the sound system at the ALSA level. This kills sound for any other app I happen to be running. Pipewire introduces too much latency for recording good live performances and getting jackd to run properly with Ardour is something I haven't had success with yet, though to be fair I want to record music an", "context": "musician recording live performances", "use_case": "recording music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}]}, {"text": " while PipeWire adds too much latency and JACK is hard to get working.", "cites": [{"id": 792408272, "item_id": 49525517, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525517", "by": "el_memorioso", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to", "excerpt": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to and what is terrible is that to get acceptable latency and jitter I have to use the sound system at the ALSA level. This kills sound for any other app I happen to be running. Pipewire introduces too much latency for recording good live performances and getting jackd to run properly with Ardour is something I haven't had success with yet, though to be fair I want to record music an", "context": "musician recording live performances", "use_case": "recording music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Overall quality", "summary": "Commenters call it top-tier software and say they love and use it.", "quotes": [{"id": 750533136, "item_id": 46908321, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46908321", "by": "_cart", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is top tier software.", "excerpt": "Ardour is top tier software. I've been _so_ excited for the \"Cue Recording\" feature. Until now I've had to resort to other software for live looping. Can't wait to give it a shot / use Ardour for \"everything\"!", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording and live looping", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 737949104, "item_id": 46121819, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46121819", "by": "xrd", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is great.", "excerpt": "Reading this article makes me want to point out the difference between commercial music software and open source software. What stands out here was that Eno used very simple sounds and looped them. This was not a complicated rube-goldberg machine he built to finally get to these masterpieces. It was simple recordings of voices, looped. Reggie Watts makes incredible, and non-traditional, electronic house music, basica", "context": "command line guy, Linux user", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Brian Eno Created Ambient 1: Music for Airports (2019)"}, {"id": 780304080, "item_id": 48769005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769005", "by": "speak_on", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love and use your software.", "excerpt": "Ha! OK I take that back. Firstly, it's an amazing experience to randomly interact with people like you - I love and use your software. Hats off and thanks for what you offered to the industry! But secondly, your statement makes even less sense to me: obviously artifacts do add up. Yes, not linearly, like any complex audio in general. But the more tracks with artifacts I have, the more artifacts I have overall. It's n", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording", "switched_from": "", "story": "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense"}]}, {"label": "Daily use", "summary": "One commenter uses it every day and is very happy with it and its community.", "quotes": [{"id": 750482576, "item_id": 46905161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46905161", "by": "tarball", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community.", "excerpt": "Ardour is very good and needs more attentions. My respects to the developers, I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community. I also like the paying / open source model, and I wouldn\u2019t change it for a proprietary DAW 99% of the musicians use.", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}]}, {"label": "Open-source model", "summary": "A user likes its paying/open-source model and would not switch to a proprietary DAW.", "quotes": [{"id": 750482576, "item_id": 46905161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46905161", "by": "tarball", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community.", "excerpt": "Ardour is very good and needs more attentions. My respects to the developers, I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community. I also like the paying / open source model, and I wouldn\u2019t change it for a proprietary DAW 99% of the musicians use.", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}]}, {"label": "Cue Recording", "summary": "The Cue Recording feature means a user no longer needs separate software for live looping.", "quotes": [{"id": 750533136, "item_id": 46908321, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46908321", "by": "_cart", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is top tier software.", "excerpt": "Ardour is top tier software. I've been _so_ excited for the \"Cue Recording\" feature. Until now I've had to resort to other software for live looping. Can't wait to give it a shot / use Ardour for \"everything\"!", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording and live looping", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}]}, {"label": "Logic Pro alternative", "summary": "A long-time Logic user says Ardour and Bitwig would suffice as replacements.", "quotes": [{"id": 796846722, "item_id": 49802920, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802920", "by": "davidee", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour and Bitwig will suffice", "excerpt": "It's not just iOS. Final Cut Pro on MacOS now regularly advertises iPadOS Final Cut Pro (which is a paid SaaS tool). Professional applications (arguments about Final Cut Pro X not being all that professional notwithstanding) that advertise like that are almost non-existent in the pro audio and video industry; an Apple pro app advertising, would have been heresy a few years ago. And yeah, it drives me crazy. It's one ", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording", "switched_from": "Logic Pro", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}]}, {"label": "Loudness analyzer", "summary": "Its loudness analyzer and normalizer is cited as an example of a useful tool.", "quotes": [{"id": 774470484, "item_id": 48404405, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48404405", "by": "westurner", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Something like this would be great too:", "excerpt": "From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44717303 : > Objective metrics and tools for video encoding and source signal quality: netflix/vmaf, easyVmaf, psy-ex/metrics, ffmpeg-quality-metrics, netflix/vmaf: https://GitHub.com/netflix/vmwaf gdavila/easyVmaf: https://github.com/gdavila/easyVmaf psy-ex/metrics: https://github.com/psy-ex/metrics/ slhck/ffmpeg-quality-metrics: Calculate quality metrics with FFmpeg (SSIM, ", "context": "", "use_case": "loudness analysis and normalization", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: FFmpeg WebCLI \u2013 Full FFmpeg in Browser, Offline PWA, No Uploads(WASM)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Linux audio latency", "summary": "Low-latency recording means using ALSA directly, which kills sound for other apps.", "quotes": [{"id": 792408272, "item_id": 49525517, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525517", "by": "el_memorioso", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to", "excerpt": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to and what is terrible is that to get acceptable latency and jitter I have to use the sound system at the ALSA level. This kills sound for any other app I happen to be running. Pipewire introduces too much latency for recording good live performances and getting jackd to run properly with Ardour is something I haven't had success with yet, though to be fair I want to record music an", "context": "musician recording live performances", "use_case": "recording music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}]}, {"label": "PipeWire/JACK setup", "summary": "PipeWire adds too much latency, JACK is hard to configure, and PipeWire often needs a restart after quitting.", "quotes": [{"id": 792408272, "item_id": 49525517, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525517", "by": "el_memorioso", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to", "excerpt": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to and what is terrible is that to get acceptable latency and jitter I have to use the sound system at the ALSA level. This kills sound for any other app I happen to be running. Pipewire introduces too much latency for recording good live performances and getting jackd to run properly with Ardour is something I haven't had success with yet, though to be fair I want to record music an", "context": "musician recording live performances", "use_case": "recording music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}]}], "who": [{"by": "el_memorioso", "context": "musician recording live performances", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525517", "date": "2026-09-01"}, {"by": "xrd", "context": "command line guy, Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46121819", "date": "2025-12-02"}], "tags": ["for Linux users", "for musicians", "Logic Pro alternative", "for live looping"], "use_cases": ["audio recording", "recording music", "loudness analysis and normalization", "audio recording and live looping", "digital audio workstation", "music production"], "compared": [{"slug": "logic-pro", "name": "Logic Pro", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "bitwig", "name": "Bitwig", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46903001", "title": "Ardour 9.0 Released", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801939", "title": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49515830", "title": "Run macOS Software on Linux", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48763790", "title": "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48404224", "title": "Show HN: FFmpeg WebCLI \u2013 Full FFmpeg in Browser, Offline PWA, No Uploads(WASM)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46118722", "title": "How Brian Eno Created Ambient 1: Music for Airports (2019)", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 796846722, "item_id": 49802920, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49802920", "by": "davidee", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour and Bitwig will suffice", "excerpt": "It's not just iOS. Final Cut Pro on MacOS now regularly advertises iPadOS Final Cut Pro (which is a paid SaaS tool). Professional applications (arguments about Final Cut Pro X not being all that professional notwithstanding) that advertise like that are almost non-existent in the pro audio and video industry; an Apple pro app advertising, would have been heresy a few years ago. And yeah, it drives me crazy. It's one ", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording", "switched_from": "Logic Pro", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 792408272, "item_id": 49525517, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525517", "by": "el_memorioso", "date": "2026-09-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to", "excerpt": "I use Ardour on Linux when I have to and what is terrible is that to get acceptable latency and jitter I have to use the sound system at the ALSA level. This kills sound for any other app I happen to be running. Pipewire introduces too much latency for recording good live performances and getting jackd to run properly with Ardour is something I haven't had success with yet, though to be fair I want to record music an", "context": "musician recording live performances", "use_case": "recording music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Run macOS Software on Linux"}, {"id": 780304080, "item_id": 48769005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48769005", "by": "speak_on", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love and use your software.", "excerpt": "Ha! OK I take that back. Firstly, it's an amazing experience to randomly interact with people like you - I love and use your software. Hats off and thanks for what you offered to the industry! But secondly, your statement makes even less sense to me: obviously artifacts do add up. Yes, not linearly, like any complex audio in general. But the more tracks with artifacts I have, the more artifacts I have overall. It's n", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording", "switched_from": "", "story": "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense"}, {"id": 774470484, "item_id": 48404405, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48404405", "by": "westurner", "date": "2026-06-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Something like this would be great too:", "excerpt": "From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44717303 : > Objective metrics and tools for video encoding and source signal quality: netflix/vmaf, easyVmaf, psy-ex/metrics, ffmpeg-quality-metrics, netflix/vmaf: https://GitHub.com/netflix/vmwaf gdavila/easyVmaf: https://github.com/gdavila/easyVmaf psy-ex/metrics: https://github.com/psy-ex/metrics/ slhck/ffmpeg-quality-metrics: Calculate quality metrics with FFmpeg (SSIM, ", "context": "", "use_case": "loudness analysis and normalization", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: FFmpeg WebCLI \u2013 Full FFmpeg in Browser, Offline PWA, No Uploads(WASM)"}, {"id": 750533136, "item_id": 46908321, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46908321", "by": "_cart", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is top tier software.", "excerpt": "Ardour is top tier software. I've been _so_ excited for the \"Cue Recording\" feature. Until now I've had to resort to other software for live looping. Can't wait to give it a shot / use Ardour for \"everything\"!", "context": "", "use_case": "audio recording and live looping", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 750482576, "item_id": 46905161, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46905161", "by": "tarball", "date": "2026-02-05", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community.", "excerpt": "Ardour is very good and needs more attentions. My respects to the developers, I use it every day, and I am very happy with it and its community. I also like the paying / open source model, and I wouldn\u2019t change it for a proprietary DAW 99% of the musicians use.", "context": "", "use_case": "digital audio workstation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 737949104, "item_id": 46121819, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46121819", "by": "xrd", "date": "2025-12-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Ardour is great.", "excerpt": "Reading this article makes me want to point out the difference between commercial music software and open source software. What stands out here was that Eno used very simple sounds and looped them. This was not a complicated rube-goldberg machine he built to finally get to these masterpieces. It was simple recordings of voices, looped. Reggie Watts makes incredible, and non-traditional, electronic house music, basica", "context": "command line guy, Linux user", "use_case": "music production", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Brian Eno Created Ambient 1: Music for Airports (2019)"}]}