Ardour is the Blender of the audio community - it's THE open source tool for recording, editing and mixing. You can use it to record and edit samples, compose using your MIDI devices and much more.
The new 8.0 release adds features like more control over MIDI velocity, Launchpad Pro support, improved grouping and more - check out the and the full feature list here.
I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.
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For people new to Ardour, it might be worth mentioning that Ardour and Blender can work very closely together. If you use JACK, you can have Ardour and Blender synced with the same transport, so if you move or play on either timeline, the other will keep aligned. Play/pause, etc., across both.
Looks like it's open source but not free; you have to pay a subscription to use it without limitations. Not really the Blender of the audio community.
That's incorrect; while you can support them financially (just like Blender), it doesn't affect the functionality:
https://www.community.ardour.org/subscribe
"Subscribing to Ardour means making a small monthly payment that helps to support the continued development of the program. It does not affect your "ownership" of the software, the way that some other "subscription-based" systems do."
https://www.community.ardour.org/download?platform=linux&architecture=x86_64&type=compiled&paymentSelection=options
Ah interesting, I see what they've done: the 'compile yourself' version is completely free, but the precompiled binaries aren't. That's not a supercool model, but at least you can still get the full version for free.
Bart - you can get the source code from us, or anyone else, gratis. You can get binaries from anyone else (including most Linux distros), gratis.
If you want a binary from us, we ask that you pay a price of your choosing, starting at US$1. That is how we can have any full time development process - unlike Blender we do not receive grants nor do we have any industry-level financial support.
That makes sense Paul, thanks for clearing that up!