Long running, open source music production software has gotten a new version that introduces Windows support and a new design.

Ardour is a capable DAW that allows you to record, edit and mix your music. It’s gained appeal around the world with it’s open source platform that allows musicians with proficient enough tech knowledge to tune the DAW to their perfect specifications.

The biggest addition to Ardour in version 5.0 is Windows support meaning that Ardour is now universally compatible across Linux, Mac, and Windows. Ardour have also redesigned the user interface allowing you to switch between editor, mixer, and preference tabs. It’s great for saving screen space but if you prefer the old look you can easily switch back.

With their new version Ardour will now come with 5 plugins: Compressor, reverb, equaliser, delay, high/low pass. They’re fairly basic plugins and don’t come with their own GUI but are a big improvement on the zero plugins that were included with Ardour before.

DAW software music production

With V5.0 Ardour have a selection of themes that you can choose from to customise the colour scheme of your Ardour DAW. Additionally introduced via the update are VCA control masters, Tempo Ramps, Open Sound Control and quite a few other things.

Ardour is available for free if you can build it yourself, using the source code. If you want to download the pre-packaged program ready to install straight away you can subscribe for as little as $1 a month, pay a one off fee, or try a free demo version. You can download Ardour by your method of choice here.

See all the new additions in Ardour 5.0 here.