Development Update, November 2019

Ardour 6 armhf + lsp +oxe fm

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That is a really nice and solid 23% DSP there with that… There is some good potential for those RPi4’s here I think, I wonder how difficult it would be to get Ardour’s Lua talking to an external LCD for rackmount units etc. to run it headless?

     Seablade

hi Robin also foresees an ardour 6 alpha for the arch architecture (manjaro for raspberry pi) ?

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New test Ardour 6 armhf alpha release on Raspbian Buster and Raspberry PI4 with 4 giga ram. In this arrange i used 4 audio track impor (for multi-duplicate) 4 x42 equalizer + 1 midi track (yoshimi synth) + calf reverb + x42 limiter on master track. I used behringer uca 200 usb 16 bit 44 khz + akm 322…

Ardour 6 armhf + x42 + calf + yoshimi + audio tracks

Thanks to the whole team for the development update!

I am looking forward to it, especially the new definition of time (pun intended :wink: ) gets my blood rushing.

You know, I love changing tempo within a song and control it with a knob from one master device. So far I am using Ardour as a multitrack recorder for audio only. If the music time would be recorded with the audio that would be amazing.

I guess I need to repeat more clearly that the work on representing time will NOT be a part of 6.0.

“Music time” is recorded by Ardour, depending on precisely what you mean.

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Thank you for clarifying that. I am sorry that I misunderstood.

Somehow I was under the impression that being able to treat time less linear was thought to be an Ardour6 thing. That struck a tone with me as I did not manage to make Ardour sync to an external source (MIDI sequencers) yet.

Speaking viusually, I meant the beats bars in Ardour to be in sync with Audio although the tempo changes.

Don’t get me wrong. I might just be on the wrong path here and I am actually very happy with Ardour as an audio recording and mastering tool!

I can’t tell if you’re requesting for the DAW to recognize tempo of the audio being recorded and map the tempo to the timeline or if you simply want tempo changes. If its the latter, you can put tempo changes into Ardour along with whether the tempo changes instantaneously or gradually ramps up/down to the next tempo.

Thank you Saam. I am aware of the possibility to set and ramp the tempo. I would like Ardour to record an external MIDI clock. This is to facilitate later cutting and rearranging of the audio (having the beat bars where the real beat is). I will rethink that. I actually have an idea but that’s for another thread…

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Will Ardour’s appearance be changed/improved in some way after the 6.0 release? I understand that 6.0 mainly affects Ardour’s base, but I would really like to know about your plans concerning its look and feel, theming, etc., because I think any multimedia program’s visual impression matters a lot. Perhaps after its more general renovation, a revamp of this kind is the next step?

There are no such plans.

And if you read the history, we do not take particularly well to comments about this stuff unless they are phrased incredibly constructively. There is a long history of people showing up and saying “it really needs a new look & feel”. Remarks like that will be either ignored or considered deliberately antagonistic.

There are already multiple color themes Ardour.

We do not consider arbitrary user themeing to be an important development priority, and we do not use technology that makes this particularly easy to do, if possible at all.

On the other hand, specific observations about particular details of the GUI and sensible suggestions about how to improve them (particularly suggestions that do not assume that this is a web app) can be useful and have often been the stimulus for actual work.

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I don’t see Ardour’s appearance changing significantly. But I do want to schedule another round of “pixel pushing”, tweaking icons, buttons and re-organize a few things.

It’ll mostly be streamlining and not a revamp.

There’s a rather critical review of Muse-Score’s GUI by a visual designer and composer: https://youtu.be/4hZxo96x48A?t=365 – It’s these kind of details that can also be easily criticized in Ardour’s UI.
Even thought this video features borderline explicit commentary, it is helpful in pointing out issues and more importantly also suggests solutions!

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Ok, thanks for explaining. I was unaware of all this, so please don’t be hard on me.

I see. I didn’t necessarily mean big changes, but maybe some tweaks - for example, Gain sliders with a more visible knob instead of their current minimalist horizontal line.

My previous DAW was a highly popular, very inexpensive DAW that seemed to have unlimited theming capabilities as well a repository for user created themes. Despite this, there were no themes that I liked as much as the look of Ardour/Mixbus. Often they were too cluttered and/or the color choices did not make for quickly locating what you are trying to find on the screen.

In my opinion, Ardour got it right the first time. Sure, some slight tweaks here and there may be an improvement, but overall the colors and layout are great! I hate it when I have to go back to the old DAW to do something with an old project.

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Knobs on gain sliders is not something I want. Adding knobs generates an expectation in the mind that the mouse must rest on the knob before the level can be changed. The current minimal but very usable bar gives more of a hint that the bar may be grabbed anywhere and moved and is therefore more correct. So this is more a matter of taste. I find the bar method helps the work get done as it is easier to tell (for me) where the actual level is. Mixbus on the other hand, has chosen to draw a knob. You might prefer using Mixbus just for the GUI, though be aware that the DSP is different as the EQ is always in line even when set to 0. This great in modeling the hardware to sound like the original analog console. Different goals for each, even though they use the same code base for most things, and so different GUI too.
In my mind, the mixer in Ardour packs the control of four feet of analog console into my 20inch screen, a minimalist GUI representation is welcome as it makes things clearer than a more cluttered setup.

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I see your point, Len.

hmm, that’s an interesting approach, I didn’t recognize this.

I also quite like the interface as is. I find it as good or better than the interfaces of most DAWs I’ve seen.

On the other hand, after watching the video Robin posted above, I am not sure I am a good person to judge… I’ve used Muse Score a few times and was OK with it. Now, after watching it, I am sure the icons will bother me. But I could not see the difference in the logos…

I’m incredibly grateful to Paul, Robin and all developers for this great piece of software!

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Also, you can just hover your mouse over it and move it with the scroll wheel, if you have a scroll wheel. This is another advantage of a bar over a knob; with a knob you have to position the mouse precisely over the knob and scroll with the wheel, whereas with a bar you can put it anywhere over the bar to scroll; it’s more forgiving.