The Ardour team is happy to announce the release of Ardour 3.0 for Linux systems (OS X releases will follow in a few weeks).

<p> This is the first release of Ardour that features support for MIDI recording, playback and editing. It also features a huge number of changes to audio workflow, which for many users may be more significant than the MIDI support. For an overview of the changes, please read the <a href="http://ardour.org/whatsnew.html">What's New</a> page. </p> <h3>Please Plan On Updating</h3> <p> You should visit expect subsequent releases of 3.0 to follow at a rapid rate. We plan to release a new version every 2-4 weeks. Since 3.0 has many areas that need to be improved in addition to actual bugs, please plan on upgrading and keeping track of the program as it develops. There is every chance that the problem you encounter today will be solved in a short time. </p> <h3>No Need To Remove Other Versions</h3> <p> This release can be installed on your system at the same time as any previous or future version of Ardour. They will not interfere with each other in anyway, except for possibly sharing your Ardour preferences. </p> <h3>Working with 2.X Sessions</h3> <p> Although Ardour 3.0 will open <em>most</em> sessions created with Ardour 2.X, we recommend <strong>NOT</strong> working on such sessions with Ardour 3.0. Ardour 2.X will continue to be available and may even see occasional maintainance updates from time to time. If you have old sessions, continue to work on them with Ardour 2. </p> <dl class="faq"> <dt>If you insist on opening existing Ardour 2.X sessions with 3.0, be aware that...</dt> <dd> <ul> <li>a backup copy of the 2.X version of the session file will be created</li> <li>panning information will be lost</li> <li>crossfades may not precisely match their 2.X counterparts</li> <li>once you save a session in Ardour 3.0, Ardour 2.X will not be able to open the main session file again. It will, however, be able to use the backup that 3.0 created</li> </ul> </dd> </dl> </p> <h3>Download</h3> <p> As usual, you can get Ardour 3.0 from our <a href="http://ardour.org/download.html">Download page</a> </p>