First of all - I am not saying Ardour is bad or not possible to use. But it would be nice to get some options so we could choose to work in a different way.
First of all - simplify the interface. I want to turn off all the timeline rulers that I don’t need so that this becomes the default for all new projects.
It would also be nice to be able to configure what buttons that will show as default. Then I could hide anything that has to do with midi or music production.
A good loudness normalization for a project.
Snapping more like we are used to from other programs (I think this is already in the dev version).
Add the possibility to set in and out points by pressing i and o on the keyboard. This is a way of adding editing markers that is widely used and many people have these shortcuts in their fingers.
I can’t answer all of these but at least shortcuts can be changed with window->Keyboard shortcuts.
Have you tried changing the settings under View to unclutter things a bit?
Also you can “detach” the editor and use something like Open Stage Control to create just the controls you want in a second window. Or just use shortcuts.
If you right click on the timeline name, you will get a dialog which allows you to set which time lines show. I don’t know about this case, but many such settings become default for the next new session.
Loudness normalization should be done with plugins, Ardour does not do DSP at all. For export it is possible to pipe through a standalone program as well if you wanted to do that in export. The other place is to use a plugin in master.
I know not in order, but do try some of these things
You can already disable all the timeline rulers. Right click on the ruler names.
Loudness normalization is available during export.
We have no plans to go with a “fully user customizable GUI”. We allow some control over what we consider to be advanced buttons/controls, but we’re not going to extend that to everything.
Ardour doesn’t have “in and out points” in the sense that you mean, but you can already define a selection from the keyboard, using the comma and period/fullstop keys. There’s no default binding for creating a new marker, but the action exists and can be bound.
For the loudness normalization of a podcast I highly recommend auphonic.com. It does not only do the loudness normalization but also the file encoding. It includes all the metadata, even chapter marks and chapter images into the audio files. Then it even uploads the files to where you want to distribute them. If you want, it even downloads the files from your studio/home server. It’s smoothly integrated into the podlove podcast publisher. It saves an awful lot of work.
but at least shortcuts can be changed with window->Keyboard shortcuts.