Ardour 9.1 DAW Released With Editor Fixes and MIDI Improvements

Ardour 9.1 has been released as a hotfix update that resolves several issues introduced in version 9.0. Most notably, it restores the Editor’s bottom pane, which was unintentionally broken due to last-minute changes affecting region and track selection behavior.

This update introduces MIDI note chasing, allowing sustained MIDI notes to sound immediately when playback begins in the middle of a note. The feature can be enabled per MIDI track via the track header menu or globally in Preferences under MIDI. Looping from the middle of a note is not yet supported.

Another new feature is MIDI note duplication. Users can select notes and duplicate them after the last selected note using Ctrl/Cmd + D. When Snap is enabled, duplicates align to the next snap point. The duplicated notes remain selected, making it easy to transpose them using the arrow keys.

Workflow improvements include the ability to drag multiple regions at once from the sources list into the Editor, improved zoom-to-session behavior in new recordings, and clearer pitchbend value display in the -8192 to 8191 range. MIDI CC lane and track naming have also been refined to better reflect channel and controller information.

MIDI learn for cue triggering has been enhanced, preference metadata is now clearer for search, and various UI elements have been made more consistent. Users can now merge two mono files into a stereo track via drag-and-drop when channel counts match. Recording MIDI cues now correctly preserves velocity values for notes held before recording starts.

Stability fixes address crashes caused by dragging both ends of a range simultaneously, early shortcut input during startup, and high channel counts in the monitor section GUI. Additional fixes improve pianoroll region handles, resolve automation inconsistencies after cut or delete actions, correct playback offset issues during rolling edits, and prevent VCA-related stuck solo states.

Platform-specific fixes include proper session file closure on Windows when unloading and more reliable session opening from Finder on macOS.

For full details, refer to the official release announcement.