Just a few minutes ago, January 11, 2016, Paul Davis had the great pleasure of announcing the first update of his impressive Ardour open-source DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in 2016, version 4.6.

According to the announcement, Ardour 4.6 is a massive release and comes as an update to the previous version, Ardour 4.4, skipping the 4.5 build of the software. There are hundreds of new features in this release, starting with GCC (GNU Compiler Collection) 5 compatibility on GNU/Linux platforms and numerous MIDI improvements, and continuing with a new plugin sidebar and dozens of fixes for the built-in plugins.

"Ardour 4.6, our first release of 2016, is now available. 4.6 includes some notable new features - deep support for the Presonus FaderPort control surface, Track/Bus duplication, a new Plugin sidebar for the Mixer window - as well as the usual dozens of fixes and improvements to all aspects of the application, particularly automation editing," said Paul Davis, Ardour creator and maintainer.

Deep support for the Presonus Faderport device

Ardour 4.6 also ships with enhanced support for the Presonus Faderport device, several improvements for Mackie Control devices, easy-to-use MIDI port selectors, new MIDI binding maps for Novation Impulse 49 and Yamaha KX25 devices, support for NPRN MIDI controllers, multiple automation enhancements, as well as countless under-the-hood improvements that will make the app more stable and reliable.

Below we've attached the entire changelog of Ardour 4.6 for those of you curious to know what exactly has been implemented in this massive release of the best free, open source and cross-platform Digital Audio Workstation software, which you can download for GNU/Linux and Mac OS X operating systems right now from Softpedia or directly from the project's website, where you'll find all the details you need to get started producing awesome tracks.