Ardour - Basics

How to create a basic song in Ardour from the perspective of a new producer or somebody coming from FL Studio or Ableton.

We will be using LV2-based plugins that will work best on Linux. Plugins may vary on Windows or MacOS machines, but the basic ideas still apply (you'll want a multi-sampler, a sampler, and a good set of post processing plugins).

This tutorial assumes you have Ardour and the LV2 plugins already installed.

Capturing MIDI and microphone/guitar input will come in a later tutorial.

VST plugin usage on Linux (as well as plugin discovery) will come in a later tutorial.

Note: I am using Ardour from an Arch Linux podman/docker container (created using Distrobox) on my Steam Deck. If you are using an OS with an immutable, read-only system (e.g. SteamOS or Fedora Silverblue/Kionite), this is a great way to do things. I will probably make a tutorial on this kind of setup as well.

____ Software ____
Get Ardour (Official/Paid Installer): https://ardour.org/
Get Ardour (Unofficial/Free, Arch Linux Package): https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/...
Get LV2 Plugins (Arch Linux Package Group): https://archlinux.org/groups/x86_64/l...

If on Arch Linux, just run `sudo pacman -S ardour lv2-plugins` to install everything.

____ Sounds ____
Looperman: https://www.looperman.com/
W.A. Production: https://www.waproduction.com/

____ Recommended Plugins ____
Note: all come in lv2-plugins package group
Calf Plugins: https://calf-studio-gear.org/
Dragonfly Reverb: https://michaelwillis.github.io/drago...
LSP Plugins: https://lsp-plug.in/
samplv1: https://samplv1.sourceforge.io/
x42 Plugins: https://x42-plugins.com/x42/

____ Chapters ____
Intro 0:00
Software Used 0:15
Example Project 4:00
Creating New Sessions 5:15
Adding Audio Clips/Samples 11:30
Manipulating Audio Clips/Samples 13:48
Basic Mixing 16:50
Looping in the Editor 17:25
Adding Drum Samples with a Multi-sampler 19:03
Using the Piano Roll 23:06
Project Organization 27:09
Using a Sample as an Instrument 30:06
Basic Fading 32:12
Adding Post Processing Effects 32:42
Equalizers 34:51
Automation 36:27
Outro 38:08