FOSS digital audio workstation Ardour reaches version 7

Ardour, a free multi-platform digital audio workstation (DAW), has released version 7. The upgrade comes nearly two and a half years after Ardour 6, which The Reg evaluated in 2020.. Ardor is developed by Paul Davis (formerly Paul Barton-Davis, once Amazon's fourth employee) and his company Linux Audio Systems, which also …

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't appear to be totally free. See:

https://community.ardour.org/download?platform=win&architecture=x86_64&type=compiled&paymentSelection=options

[Will Godfrey]

It's completely free if you compile it yourself.

... which is what I've done with new releases for years.

[Steve Graham]

I've used Ardour on and off for minor stuff for years and never knew that they had a subscription model. This seems to be because my copy was built by the distro (Debian until systemd; now Devuan) and is equivalent to a self-built one.

[Rosie Davies]

I've used Ardour with Ubuntu Studio for years and hadn't paid penny until I felt I wanted to; Mostly because people need to eat and partly because once I worked out the hourly cost for the fun I was having it was pennies. Granted I've run Linux on my own machines exclusively since forever so have never run acropper of the costs (in either time to compile or cold, hard, cash).

It's a great, big, capable program which takes a bit of effort to get your head around but also an absolute doddle compared to a 'real' recording studio. It takes time and effort to build something like that and, personally, I don't feel at all hard done by to contribute a little to the effort.

Rosie