Hm, leaving all social and political aspects aside I wouldn’t care (mostly) what tools the team uses, as long as it does not affect my user experience in terms of functionality, maintainability, stability and support
Yes, that’s basically my position on it. I don’t care whether a human, a robot, or a monkey wrote the code. My main concern is that the software works as advertised. I also prefer it if a human who understands software engineering is supervising the process. It tends to improve the quality overall.
Sounds like a good time to go into business for yourself. Or to switch careers. I understand that losing your job sucks, but at the end of the day no one is entitled to a job. If you can’t find work in one area, then it’s time to pivot. That’s the reality, sad as it may be.
We have a list of at least 50 things you can do in Ardour but can’t do in other DAWs. Does that count?
And Logic has a whole list of things you can’t do in Ardour. Where’s the Mastering Assistant in Ardour? What about the Session Players? Or Chord ID? Or Flex Time?
You should try out faderframe.
I’ve taken a look at it, but its features are still a bit too basic for my tastes. I’m also eyeing Nota DAW, which has a larger feature set overall.
I think you missed my point. There are things you can do in one DAW that you can’t do in another. If they matter to you, they’re important. If they don’t, they’re not. It’s not an objective measurement of a DAW, but rather an observation about how well a given DAW suits a particular user’s workflow. There will never be a single best DAW for everyone, so while “there’s stuff in Logic that you can’t do in Ardour” is regrettable, it’s not really conclusive.
I am certainly old and apparently quite boring… I’m surprised how many people try these flash in the pan DAWs and Plugins out. In any other paradigm that would be odd but not in software I guess. I like my car and certainly when it’s time to trade it in I will research and try others and even though it’s free and probably enjoyable to test drive other cars I wouldn’t just go and do that today just because I can. Unless they are of obvious interest to AV Linux users I rarely try out new Plugins and any time I’ve looked at other DAWs I’ve come back to Ardour in short order (even including Mixbus!). For those with apprehensions about AI or concerns about the ecological footprint maybe don’t give these projects oxygen unless you are genuinely interested or in need of them…
I think you missed my point. There are things you can do in one DAW that you can’t do in another. If they matter to you, they’re important. If they don’t, they’re not. It’s not an objective measurement of a DAW, but rather an observation about how well a given DAW suits a particular user’s workflow. There will never be a single best DAW for everyone, so while “there’s stuff in Logic that you can’t do in Ardour” is regrettable, it’s not really conclusive.
No, I got that. I think it’s my point you missed. But that’s mainly my fault, since I did not articulate it well.
My main gripe with Ardour is that it is still largely an engineer’s DAW. That’s great if you’re an audio engineer, but I’m a songwriter first and foremost. I’m not using Ardour to record live rock bands. I’m using it to write songs, and make professional-quality recordings of them.
The features I listed are ones that would streamline my workflow greatly. Mastering would be much less of a headache, for example, if Ardour had a mastering assistant. Something like Logic’s Session Players would make arrangements faster and easier to flesh out, especially for instruments I don’t play (basically anything other than vocals and guitar). And Flex Time would make it a lot easier to fix small timing errors that ruin an otherwise-great take.
Ultimately, I would like to see Ardour evolve into a more songwriter-and-musician-friendly DAW. The improvements from Ardour 9 onward have been a step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot more that can be done. The features I described in the last paragraph are merely things I would love to see in Ardour.
I don’t think Logic is a perfect DAW. I just think it’s a great example of one that is designed with songwriters and musicians in mind. I think Ardour could learn a lot from it as it becomes a more musician-friendly DAW. (It’s also completely inaccessible to me as a Linux user, much to my frustration.)
I like seeing that Linux’s software library is going to have it’s gaps filled after an eternity of waiting for a financial model to build around it which could never significantly materialize. That said, hilariously, I’ve been entirely focused on only playing music with other humans playing acoustic instruments live through PAs, Mixers, and Mics for the past year. So, my future becomes more and more analog and expensive while simultaneously software is going to become more pressured to be inexpensive or free.
Well, I too was surfing LinuxDaw this morning and it is intense to take it all in. I played with that StemKit separator this morning, seemed to be a nice Demucs frontend mostly. That was fun. I can’t really grade quality since I am not really out here comparing stem separation quality, I just find it entertaining to analyze parts to old songs through the demasking separation can make possible.
I’m mostly just updating my computer again which I’ll likely abandon for a month or so only to come back and see everything has escalated even further.
But, one thing I’m seeing is that my 2014 macbook pro running MX Linux I’m typing this very post on can get an even longer lease on life as it seems these coding models have the ability to build anything for anything while removing bloat. I’m nowhere near qualified to knowing whether that is an elaborate illusion, but I think the most shocking aspect of the Artcraft apps, which I am toying with, is just how small, debloated, and quick they run and I believe that is the key indictment of the software they’re attempting to feature clone.
Maybe don’t worry about it, or, play it again. There are many great takes by many great artists that have far worse issues. We used to think of imperfections as part of the character, indeed sometimes, what actually makes a great take.
It is an elaborate illusion, a very elaborate illusion.
They also lack a lot of what you actually pay for with commercial software. I’m not defending the business model necessarily, but, when you pay for software, the software isn’t really the product - and there are already plenty of free open source alternatives to spite-coded apps.
(Meanwhile totally off-topic, WTF have UAD just done to LUNA… I let it update without thinking, and my eyeballs were just assaulted mid-sentence by my other monitor displaying what should have been the impeccably tasteful, minimally themed easy to navigate project menu of what was, a very fine (and very pretty) DAW, but seems to have been usurped by some pseudo apple liquid glass inspired visual chaos of cloud this and that, ‘recommended for you’ and ‘try for free’ nonsense with random use of super thin outlines and courier fonts, in a style which really smells of AI influence…). I don’t even know how to open a project anymore - or if I want to )
Me being me, sure, but my main problem never was a lack of available plugins. But more to not get confused by the plethora of available plugins and focus on a few and learn them well.
Then i hear of something new and cool and get distracted again. These days it is shortcircuitXT.
For more pro folks there might be a lack of certain plugins, i wouldn’t know. I sure can’t complain, au contraire.
Maybe don’t worry about it, or, play it again. There are many great takes by many great artists that have far worse issues. We used to think of imperfections as part of the character, indeed sometimes, what actually makes a great take.
Your comment completely misses my point. Some issues are noticeable, and have to be worried about. In that case, I would rather edit them than re-record them.
And this really isn’t an issue about what makes a great take. What’s at issue is that Ardour doesn’t have this feature (as well as the other features I mentioned in my post), despite the fact that I want it, and other DAW’s have it. If a new DAW comes along that has these features, then of course I’m going to try it, and might even completely switch to it if I find it to be better.
The whole point of my post is that Ardour is still not optimized for my workflow. These new DAW’s (vibe-coded or not) interest me because I might actually get an open-source DAW that’s designed for making music the way I want to make it. I’ve been waiting for something like that for years. So of course I’m going to try them, and might even like them.
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic (apologies in advance if you’re not), but I think it’s a perfectly valid complaint on my part, especially as a paying customer for Ardour.
We have about 6-7000 paying customers for Ardour, and when we choose which features to work on we have consider everyone, not just specific people. There’s a case to be made for a more, as you put it, “musician friendly” angle to Ardour, but it is not an open and shut case, and it certainly isn’t made stronger by coming from a paying customer.
We do, however, really thank you and everybody else who makes our continued work on Ardour possible.
Yes, I understand. I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I’m just voicing my frustrations with Ardour as it currently exists. I understand that I am just one of many voices, but I want my voice to be heard.
I will say though that of those 6-7000 paying customers, there are probably quite a few like me. I doubt I’m the only user who wants Ardour to become a fun environment for writing music, even if not everyone wants the specific features I’ve asked for. I humbly ask that you consider my complaints when deciding on future directions for the project.
I do appreciate you taking time to read and respond to my comments. I like to know that my voice is being heard.
Yes, I would love to see you get back to work on it when you get the chance.
Would you like some feedback on its current state? I downloaded it a few months ago, but had some problems with it. Just let me know where you would like me to post if you’d like my feedback. Probably not here in this thread because it’s off-topic.