Ardour vs Other DAWs

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finotti
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Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by finotti »

I've just finished my first project and I've used Ardour. Overall, I quite liked it, but had some problems with it. One of the most annoying was that loading Calf plugins immediately crashes it in my system. (I had to use calfjackhost and inserts in Ardour.) I also had a few (but not too many) crashes... Finally, I was surprised to find out I could not export all my MIDI tracks as a single MIDI file. (Although I could use something else to create the MIDI file first in my future projects.)

When I started I thought Ardour was the natural choice, but after spending some time reading many threads here, it seems that there is some serious competition...

Before I get more used to Ardour (and harder to switch) I thought I would ask if anyone can offer a perspective of moving from Ardour to something else. What made you change and what are the advantages of the new choice.

Reaper sounds really interesting, but so do Mixbus, Bitwig and Tracktion, which are all paid, but relatively cheap. (Did you find worth the price?) Are they all as (or more) capable than Ardour?

Ardour being the only DAW I've ever used, I really don't have anything to compare it with. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

FWIW, I'd use it for creating tracks in MIDI (or I could do there in some other program), print the tracks to audio, record guitars, edit the audio, mix (with plugins and add effects) and master. No loops or electronic music. More rock/progressive rock... For reference, if it helps, you can hear my first production here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16926 (My next projects would be in a similar vein.)

Thanks and best to all,

Luis
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sysrqer
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by sysrqer »

Depends on what you make really. I like ardour for audio editing and general mixing but I use renoise for writing, it's much more creative in my opinion. Calf is known to be problematic though, I stay away from them if I can.
finotti
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by finotti »

sysrqer wrote:Depends on what you make really. I like ardour for audio editing and general mixing but I use renoise for writing, it's much more creative in my opinion. Calf is known to be problematic though, I stay away from them if I can.
Interesting. What plugins do you instead of Calf? Do you ever use things like tape saturation or simulation, phaser, delay, chorus?

Thanks for the reply. I will take a look in renoise!
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sysrqer
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by sysrqer »

finotti wrote: Interesting. What plugins do you instead of Calf? Do you ever use things like tape saturation or simulation, phaser, delay, chorus?
I use whatever comes to mind really. If you're on ubuntu/debian based distro add kxstudio and install the meta packages for plugins. I often use the guitarix plugins for chorus and phaser but there are some other good ones around, it really depends on what I am using them on at the time. For saturation I haven't found a perfect solution but there is one in this pack https://github.com/brummer10/GxPlugins.lv2 and one in the TAP range (if I remember correctly) which I like. For delay, well for me it is one of the most important plugins as I make dub. Again, I've not found many that I am truly happy with, the TAL dub delay is very good but it lacks the nice sound effect when changing the time parameters which I would normally expect in tape delays. There are some interesting ones in the Cabbage packs. Mostly I do that kind of stuff in renoise though because for me it is more of a part of the song rather than mixing and the renoise multi delay has filters in the feedback path and makes some nice noises when changing the time values so I use that. For vocal mixing (and general mixing) I like the Zam delay, it could do with a high pass as well as the low pass but it is great all the same.
finotti wrote: Thanks for the reply. I will take a look in renoise!
You should do, it's underrated. The tracker aspect of it can take some getting used to but it's very powerful once you get used to it (it was the first tracker interface I had ever used and it didn't take long to learn to love it).
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by finotti »

Thanks all for the informative replies. I really appreciate the input.

I might try to download some demos and check them out, but for my next project I will likely stick with Ardour, especially since I could get Calf plugins to work (remove the ladspa version!) and I am creating the MIDI in Muse. But it really seems like there are some interesting alternatives!
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by lilith »

I wonder that some people can use Calf plugins without issues and for other it crashes the DAW. I can't use them, although I don't have the LADSPA version installed. In think falkTX took it out from the repos, because of such problems. Still, when inserting Calf plugins in e.g. Ardour makes Ardour crash sooner or later.
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by English Guy »

Mixbus is the Ardour transport but with a custom mixer, built to emulate the workflow of a Harrison analog console. The eq, compression/ limiting and high pass filter are built into the mixer, as is a very nice tape saturation and a limiter on the master bus.

Because it is based on Ardour, transitioning will be easy and it will open Ardour files (though it loses the panning). The workflow is designed for you to sum your mix into the eight built in mixbuses.

Watch their offers, Mixbus has been on sale for as little as $19.
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by sadko4u »

lilith wrote:I wonder that some people can use Calf plugins without issues and for other it crashes the DAW. I can't use them, although I don't have the LADSPA version installed. In think falkTX took it out from the repos, because of such problems. Still, when inserting Calf plugins in e.g. Ardour makes Ardour crash sooner or later.
There are also some LSP plugins available as alternative to Calf ones :).
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by tavasti »

finotti wrote: Reaper sounds really interesting, but so do Mixbus, Bitwig and Tracktion, which are all paid, but relatively cheap. (Did you find worth the price?) Are they all as (or more) capable than Ardour?
I had search for 'best daw for me', discussion viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15688 and my own 'report' http://cargocollective.com/tavasti/Linu ... -Linux-DAW

When starting, I knew LMMS, which does not have any audio recording. Now I use LMMS, Mixbus and mobile daw Caustic (also with wine in linux machine)

Mixbus is ardour + Harrison mixer, so everything you have learned from Ardour is usable there. Mixer is great, that was reason why jumped to that wagon. They have discounts often, so if not in hurry, check their specials & order their offers mailing.

Linux veteran & Novice musician

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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by rghvdberg »

Lmms will have audio recording pretty soon.
Seems 99% finished.

Also jack transport is in the works.

But for non loop/electric music I find ardour the best.
Really good alternative would be reaper.
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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by bluebell »

sysrqer wrote:Depends on what you make really. I like ardour for audio editing and general mixing but I use renoise for writing, it's much more creative in my opinion. Calf is known to be problematic though, I stay away from them if I can.
In Qtractor I had some problems with crashes when I opened a CALF GUI, I think when no song was running. So loading them without opening their GUI immediately after loading can help.

I think it's a problem of the plugin host.

However, with recent Qtractor versions I have no crashes anymore.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by bluebell »

lilith wrote:I wonder that some people can use Calf plugins without issues and for other it crashes the DAW. I can't use them, although I don't have the LADSPA version installed. In think falkTX took it out from the repos, because of such problems. Still, when inserting Calf plugins in e.g. Ardour makes Ardour crash sooner or later.
When a plugin crashes it's always worth a try to load Carla instead and have Carla load the plugin.

I like the CALF plugins and never had unsolvable problems with them.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

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Re: Ardour vs Other DAWs

Post by lilith »

However, with recent Qtractor versions I have no crashes anymore.
Open Qtractor (latest version), add Calf Analyzer in Master -> Crash

I'll try using Carla with Calf ... at least for the Analyzer tool

I assume that Calf Plugins were responsible of ~80% of my crashes in Ardour. Without using them Ardour sometimes crashes when clicking to much (i.e. two commands at the same time).
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