Ardour 8.7, a popular open-source DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), has just been released with a range of new features and improvements. This update comes five months after the previous release, Ardour 8.6, which was a quick fix for a drawing issue in Ardour 8.5.
One of the key features in Ardour 8.7 is the ability to drag selected tracks and busses up or down using the mouse, making it easier to organize your projects. Additionally, the update introduces more unified rulers for locations, ranges, and arrangement, as well as markers for MIDI Scenes. The new version also includes parallelized disk I/O for faster reading and writing of audio and MIDI data.
Developer Paul Davis explained that Ardour 8.7 takes advantage of modern computer hardware with extra cores to improve performance and bandwidth. The update also enhances controller support, adding compatibility for new controller models from Novation, Kurzweil, Korg, Akai, E-MU, and Arturia.
In terms of scripting capabilities, Ardour 8.7 allows Lua scripts to directly control various parameters, optimizes thread-buffer allocation, and improves the user experience on Linux desktops. The update also includes new features like post-export quotes, support for displaying poly pressure values in MIDI Tracer, and utility functions for easier debugging.
Ardour 8.7 introduces section markers, improves session loading, post-export analysis, gain control range, region trimming, and freehand automation drawing. The update also includes various bug fixes and enhancements for a smoother user experience.
For more details on all the changes in Ardour 8.7, you can refer to the release notes. The update is now available for download from the official website, as a Flatpak app from Flathub, or through your distribution’s software repositories.
Overall, Ardour 8.7 brings a host of new features and improvements that will enhance the user experience for both new and existing users of this powerful DAW software.