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# ardour 3 midi progress
- URL: https://wootangent.net/ardour-3-midi-progress/
- Published: 2011-06-25T09:55:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T08:22:20.000Z
- Author: Leigh Dyer
- Tags: Linux, Music, ardour, ardour 3, automation, calf, midi, so-kl5, #Migrated-1792830072870, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 08:21

I have a new track in the works, and as an exercise, I'm sequencing it all within Ardour 3\. The alphas of Ardour 3 have been great on audio-only projects, but for MIDI work they've been highly unstable until quite recently. Each alpha just gets better, though, and while it still crashes, and has some odd behaviour, alpha 8 has behaved well enough that I've been able to make some solid progress.

I think it'll still be a while before I'll be recommending Ardour 3 for MIDI-intensive work (it may not reach that point until after the 3.0 release, even), but it's developing well, and I figure that actually using it and reporting any problems I find is the best way I can help make it the brilliant all-round DAW I think we're all hope it will become.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/42/8f/428f222b-5293-47dc-a763-0d524d3db42e/content/images/2026/10/ardour3-tonnes-o-midi-2.png "ardour3-tonnes-o-midi.png")

I'm using a combination of synths -- my Blofeld and Hydrogen, using [a2jmidid](http://home.gna.org/a2jmidid/?ref=wootangent.net) to bridge Ardour's JACK MIDI to ALSA MIDI, and some LV2 synth plugins within Ardour -- and they've all worked well so far. The reliance on LV2 for synth plugins is an issue I've mentioned before, and there are still only a handful of LV2 synths, but I've had good fun with Calf Monosynth (the git version adds LFOs and a new UI), and with Jeremy Salwen's ports of [the "SO" synths](https://github.com/jeremysalwen/SO-synth-LV2?ref=wootangent.net). The SO-KL5 "piano" synth sounds really nice in a way that's not entirely dissimilar to an electric piano.

![Calf Monosynth, with some smooth filter cutoff automation](https://storage.ghost.io/c/42/8f/428f222b-5293-47dc-a763-0d524d3db42e/content/images/2026/10/a3-calf-monosynth-automation-2.png "a3-calf-monosynth-automation")

Automation, especially on MIDI CC messages, is quite sketchy at the moment (it should be addressed in alpha 9), but I did get it working for plugin parameters; in this case, the filter cutoff of a Calf Monosynth instance. This worked really well, giving me some lovely, smooth filter sweeps. If alpha 9 lets me automate parameters on my Blofeld just as easily, I'll be a very happy man.

Qtractor is [adding automation](http://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/291?ref=wootangent.net) in its next release, too, so one way or another, it looks like we'll definitely have some solid synth automation features under Linux this year.