I recently came across the following page where the author details reasons why he chose to use Reaper in a pedagogical setting. (Hint: there’s also another page on the site with many free and open source cross-platform plugins to support your DAW of choice!) Reading through the list I found the vast majority of reasons listed to use Reaper were also good reasons to use Ardour, the DAW I teach in my classes. I’m not bashing Reaper, and I don’t want to start a “which is better” thread. However, like the original author, I am very interested in both your reasons for using Ardour and your thoughts about how Ardour meets, exceeds, or misses on the criteria listed in the Reaper post above.
I will aggregate feedback here to either reinforce reasons already stated in the original post because they are also appropriate for Ardour, or I will create new reasons one might choose Ardour (again, focusing on positives, not flaming others). When I’m done with the revised list I’ll post a link to it here. And, hopefully, it will help my students (and maybe yours, or you, or your friends?..) buy into Ardour!