Ardor 8.8 (Open Source DAW) introduces fresh fixes and features

Zeal is one of the most popular and powerful open-source digital audio workstations (DAWs), and a major new update has recently been released.

I can’t say I’m any kind of master at making music, even though I spent most of my late childhood face to face in… Studio FL (formerly Fruity loops) I try – unsuccessfully – to direct my interior Cash Cash (’08’ era, before the mainstream genre changed).

Zeal Version 8.8 is the second DAW update in 2 weeks because – as the software developers explain – “v8.7 (…) it turned out to have some serious problems that needed to be fixed quickly. There were some other interesting improvements along the way.”

Some of these fixes include an issue with the playhead moving out of loop range, a VST3 issue causing a “possible deadlock when using the PSL extension for sends,” and quirks in interaction with the snapshot list.

But here’s a brief overview of what’s changed since then Zeal 8.6, which includes most of what was in 8.7, but also some of the changes (beyond fixes) offered in the newer version Zeal Version 8.8:

• Reorder tracks and buses by dragging your mouse in the editor and mixer views
• The number of rulers has now been reduced to 3: locations, ranges and systems
• Initial parallel disk I/O support
• Option to name new MIDI tracks from SMF (using SMF track names only)
• MIDI scene tag support
• New “Captain Light” theme.
• Improved “Boxy Buttons” theme option.
• Supports disk space queries for drives larger than 16 TB
• The “Clear” Ranges operation now clears beat and loop ranges
• The “New Session” dialog is now always centered
• “JACK” renamed “JACK/Pipewire” on Linux
• Double-click the mixer bar name button to rename it
• Lua script to select regions under the playhead
• Lua plugin for DM10-mkII Studio HiHat MIDI message mapping

Control surfaces supported in Ardor 8.8 include the latest Novation LaunchKey mk4 series, while many others have been improved, such as midnam added for the Kong X50 and Kurzweil K2700, and a MIDI binding map added for the Akai MPK mini mk3.

There are also many bug fixes, translation improvements, and other improvements that ensure the app works better on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Ardor is open source software that can be downloaded from the website Zeal website.

However, pre-compiled binaries from the official require a small one-time or ongoing payment to help fund the software and provide support. The source code is free and can be compiled manually.

If you don’t want to go through the hassle of compiling it, you can do so Zeal on Flathub. Or check your distribution’s package repositories for an older version. Ubuntu 24.10 offers Ardor 8.6 in its repositories, while Ubuntu 24.04 LTS includes Ardor 8.4.