When Ardour starts without a session, there is just a single window visible which we call the editor. However, the program has many more windows that can be displayed for various purposes: All Ardour windows have their WMCLASS property set to 'ardour', so that you can configure your window manager to handle them in a certain way if you wish to.

This is the primary Ardour window. It contains the main menubar, plus several tear-off windows, and the editor itself.

This window provides complete control over all of Ardour's transport functionality. it is initially attached to the editor window, but can be torn off and kept as an independent window if you prefer.

This window will be displayed automatically whenever a Session is loaded, and provides a representation of the Session that is modelled on a mixing console. Each track and bus has its own Mixer Strip, and there are also various lists for things like Mix Groups. A more precise way to think about the difference between the editor and the mixer is that the editor is primarily for controlling the time flow of the Session, whereas the mixer is primarily for controlling the signal flow.

This window is used to display, edit and set various Locations and markers within a Session.

This window is used to set the many global and per-session options for Ardour.

This optional window provides a single point of control for configuring all I/O and processing for every track and bus. It doesn't provide anything not offered by other windows, but it does group several things together in one place. You may prefer to use or not use this window.

This optional window provides a display of the playhead position in a large font, readable from some distance. it can be useful when using Ardour to record yourself and you need or want to keep track of time.