Hi all. I’m new here. Sorry if the question has already been posted or sounds silly, but I’m not expert at all.
I would like to know where and if is possible to found Ardour 3.5 for download. Since I have an old laptop with Ubuntu 12.04 running, in the software center there’s only Ardour 2.x version for download.
Thank you for any help.
Ardour 3.x is not recommended for current use. Use at least Ardour 4.7. Ardour 5.1 has recently been released, that is the recommended version to use.
You’ll also find that Ardour 5 uses fewer resources than A3.X - handy for old[er] laptops.
Thank you for the answers. My laptop has 4GB Ram, Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz × 2 processor, 32 bit and I have a M-Audio Fast Track Pro. Years ago I started trying Cubase 2 or 3, I don’t remember the version right now, on windows. But since I’m using Linux, I want to move ahead on Ardour. When I’ve installed Ardour 2 I had a message saying that my system had a maximum limit of locked memory, which was 64KB. I don’t know if it would be useful install Ardour 4 or 5 without having problems, or it would be better waiting to get a newer and more powerful computer.
@telover “I had a message saying that my system had a maximum limit of locked memory, which was 64KB”
you might like to use rtirq script, available in some distros. What is yours by the way?
“maximum limit of locked memory” is a configuration option (not a hardware limit)
See http://jackaudio.org/faq/linux_rt_config.html for details
The relevant part is @realtime - memlock unlimited. It basically prevents realtime processes to be swapped out to disk if RAM becomes scarce.
PS. An empty session in 3.x needed a few hundred MB of RAM. With 4.7, 5.X it’s down to under 100MB RSS.
Thank you for all the answers.
Strato, my distro is Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I haven’t updated to 14 nor 16 because they’re too heavy for my hardware and wouldn’t work well.
X42, I’ve read the latest Ardour versions don’t need Jack, right? I mean 4, 5, and so on.
@telover: you do not have to uninstall Ardour3, to get a newer version. Try a http://nightly.ardour.org/ (gcc4 version of Ub 12.04) build or download Ardour 5.1 from ardour.org/download . Those versions can be installed in parallel. I’m confident that i’ll run more smoothly even on your older system. I have a 9 year old Thinkpad X60s here with similar specs as your hardware. It’s rock solid with A5 even at very low buffersizes). And in case there is some issue, you can [report a bug and] just keep using the distro-provided Ardour version.
Ardour 4, 5 does not require JACK, but you can use jackd if you want or need it. Still, tweaking the system for realtime audio is identical (it’s also optional, but you may get dropouts on a system that’s not properly configured).
Most pro-audio-distros do that setup by default (allow an audio user to request realtime scheduling and lock memory among many other tweaks)
If you’re in business for a distribution upgrade, see “Step 1” at http://libremusicproduction.com/workflow
42, thanks alot for all the infos. No, I don’t have the version 3, I’ve downloaded the 2 from the Ubuntu software center but I’ve deleted it. So I’ll try go directly for the 5. In the meantime I’m looking if it’s possible to upgrade at least the RAM to 8GB.
Sorry for the silly question but, I’ve read JACK is needed to connect a board, like mine Fast Track Pro, to the daws, in our case Ardour, right? At the time I was recording, I was only taking care of writing, playing, arranging and so on. All the recording job via the first Cubase, midi boards and so on was in charge of a friend.
I've read JACK is needed to connect a board, like mine Fast Track Pro, to the daws, in our case ArdourOnly for Ardour Versions before 4. So you needed it for Ardour 2 but you won't need it for Ardour 5.
If you have an old laptop with limited resources, you should really consider a Linux distribution designed for audio. My choice is AV Linux, which has always been designed to run well on older systems - for example the XFCE desktop is light on memory. If you really like Ubuntu, consider KX Studio which is based on Ubuntu. Either of those setups will come already configured so you won’t have any of those “locked memory” and similar problems - there’s a whole set of tweaks that are tricky to do on a standard Linux distribution (your standard user is a member of the right groups, for example) and they come with realtime or low latency kernels which will avoid other problems with audio. Usually everything will “just work”.
Hey thank you again. Actually I’ve downloaded the 5 demo for trying. Then, if it’ll work, I’ll get the normal one. I’ve also installed the little program to manage the memory settings, so now I’ve changed it to optimize the performance. Now I only have to check my board. I’m reading around abou the Fast Track but, if I see it brings too many problems, I’ll end with selling it and buy one that I can plug and use without doing anything extra.
The Fast Track pro is USB class compliant, which means it should work on a Linux system without problems and without needing a special driver. If it doesn’t work properly, you should check the rest of your system is set up correctly, otherwise you’ll have promlems with other hardware too.