Ardour

Ardour 9.1 released

February 21st 2026

We are pleased to announce the release of Ardour 9.1. This is primarily a hotfix release intended to correct a number of bugs in the 9.0 release. Most significantly, we have corrected the behavior of the new bottom pane in the Editor which was notably broken by some last minute changes before 9.0 was released. 9.1 also contain a couple of notable new features (MIDI note chasing and duplication) and several improvements too.

You can read more about the new features and fixes that were in the 9.0 release over here or check out the video below.

Download  

New Features

MIDI note chase

If you locate to the middle of a long note in a MIDI track, the note will now start when the transport starts. This is particularly useful for long drones. MIDI note chasing can be turned on and off at both a per-track level (see the track header menu for MIDI tracks) and globally (in Preferences > MIDI). This currently will not work when looping on the timeline where the loop start is in the middle of a note. We hope to address this situation in a future release.

MIDI Note Duplication

Select some MIDI notes, press Ctrl/Cmd-d to duplicate them right after the end of the last note, or, if Snap is on, snapped to the next snap point after the last note. Don't forget that you can them immediately transpose them up/down with the arrow keys if you want, since the new notes are pre-selected.

Improvements

  • Multiple regions can be now dragged simultaneously from the sources list into the editor.
  • Zoom-to-session will now do something more sensible if used while recording in a new, empty session.
  • Show pitchbend as a value in the range -8192..8191 rather than 0..16384.
  • MIDI CC lanes/tracks names make it easier to identify the channel and controller.
  • Small additions to preferences meta-data making it easier to search for some preference items.
  • Auto-return icon now more consistent with other icons.
  • The "normal" process for MIDI learn of cue triggering (Ctrl/Cmd-middle button) is now available, along with a button in the Preferences dialog to clear all current custom cue MIDI bindings. Remember that you will need to set the cue trigger input port in Preferences before using this. The menu-driven version (and "unlearn" operation) are still available.
  • Two mono audio files can be merged into a single stereo track using drag-n-drop: create a stereo track, select two mono regions (same length) from the source list and drag to the track. This will also work with more than 2 files, as long as the files are all the same length and the number of them matches the channel count of the target track.
  • When recording MIDI cues, notes that were held down before recording starts will have the correct velocity values associated with them.

Fixes

  • The behavior of the new bottom pane in the editor is now as intended during changes to the current selection (of regions, tracks, etc.).
  • Prevent a crash when dragging both ends of a range at the same time.
  • Prevent some crashes during startup if certain shortcuts are pressed "too early".
  • Improve the grabbability of region begin/end handles in pianorolls.
  • The follow-action menu for cues is now only accessible using button 1 (right button), not button 3 (left). This ensures that it actually changes the follow action as requested.
  • Close all files used by a session during session unloading (mostly a Windows fix).
  • Deleting patch changes now works.
  • macOS: opening sessions directly from Finder now works more reliably.
  • Fix a crash when shrinking a region using the timeFX tool.
  • Using 1/128th notes in tempos now works correctly.
  • Fix (gain) automation values after cut/delete operations.
  • Correct packing/placement of "new version released" message in the session dialog. Note that the session dialog in 9.0 will now show a messed up appearance because of this bug.
  • Monitor section GUI will no longer crash when dealing with operations on high channel counts.
  • Fix mix-tools route group creation - previously a new group was created for each route in the group.
  • Fix playback offset when editing regions while rolling (#10177).
  • VCA controlling two dependent tracks no longer results in stuck solo (#10192).

Translation Updates

German, Italian, French

Contributors

Cyrus, Franke Burgarino, Guido Pietrella, Jean-Emmanuel, John Emmas, Koutaro Mukai, Paul Davis, Robin Gareus

Older News
<