First of all, sorry for the very long post ;-) I'm just here to talk about my experience with Linux in the pro audio environment. Not specifically in audio production, but more broadly in a large multi-track recording and mixing setup in a more acoustic jazz or classical field. In this area, there are several elements that are essential when we talk about equipment. (Microphones and preamps, that have nothing to do with Linux!) AD-DA converters and interfaces, Computers & OS, DAW. When you have 60 musicians from a classical orchestra, paid a fortune per hour, in the room, you must be able to have an ultra stable setup that ensures flawless recording. When you record 32 (minimum) or more tracks, a crash or computer problem of any kind is not an option. In this area, the safest systems is, whether you like it or not, Mac OSX. My latest experience with Windows 10 and 11 did not make me want to continue with this OS. (back in the old days, Windows7 was OK for the majority of the time. Windows8 is the worst in my experience). I started using Linux, first as a desktop computer, in 2017. Firstly out of curiosity, and also out of anger towards the sales policies of the 2 big IT players. (Apple is the worst company in the world at this level. “Think different” my ass!!!) Don't dream...! It took me hundreds of hours to achieve a stable and usable system in my professional work environment. If the software is easily functional, the biggest problem remains compatibility with the hardware, mainly AD-DA converters, all because of the lack of driver development. To simplify, I managed not to be worried as soon as I press Record with: Computer: _64Bits PC hardware with Intel processor. Of curse CPU & RAM is important, but not that much! (AMD is ok most of the time, but unfortunately some bad surprises happens from time to time. _Intel Macs are mostly ok. (Don't think about doing this with a previous 2010 Mac, you will quickly be disappointed). M1, M2 work relatively well, I had incomprehensible problems with the M3, and I have not yet tested the M4 which have just been released. BONE: _"Arch" Linux, in the KDE Plasma environment! The best for me even if it's not the easiest to set up. (Manjaro or Garuda are more accessible versions of the same kernel for beginners). I don't know why, but the Gnome environment seems to create problems following updates, even though it's my favorite distro, by far, for anything other than pro audio on a computer. Or maybe it's just me doing shit, I still recommend it. XFCE is not a success for me, one day ok, the next day out. I haven't tested other distributions. "Ubuntu" is also ok but it happens that suddenly nothing works without me being able to debug the problem. AD-DA Hardware: The best part ;-) _I remind you that these are large setups with a minimum of 32 converter inputs!) Impossible to test everything that exists. _My best friends in the field are: RME Audio, LynxStudio... and that's it! _Universal Audio, AVID/ProTools, Antelope, DAD, BlaBlaBla... no path to glory ;-/ Of course nothing is possible without "JACK", which bridges the gap between the Linux kernel and pro audio hardware, the biggest problem in Linux to date. “PulseAudio” is also an option but I ended up turning away from it due to lack of time to certify its stability. (certainly a very valid option!) "ASLA" is also possible but I have never tested this solution. DAW 1_Reaper 2_Ardour 3_Harrison-MixBus 3-Bitwig _Without the slightest doubt... "Reaper"! Integration, setup and above all stability!!! The few times I had crashes with Reaper, the Logs always confirmed a problem with the hardware drivers. _"Ardour" is also superbly integrated and there isn't really a big difference with Reaper but it's just that I prefer the Reaper environment. Keep in mind that as soon as you integrate VST plugins into these setups (natively or otherwise), it is more complicated to guarantee pure stability. _Harrison-MixBus is also very good but I only quickly tested their product and especially for mixing. _Bitwig seems ok too but I still had more unexplained crashes with it. As for SSD disk formatting, which remains one of the very important elements: For pure performance, I leave you with the “EXT4” format. "BTRFS" is also very good but especially when an SSD has to process a very large number of very small files. For long-term backup on linux, "ZFS" seems to be best! Used on Linux servers for a long, long time. Don't ask me more about that... I don't know... ;-P Never mind all that. It is possible to do lots of things under Linux. Of course it requires a little more effort than just having an account with Apple or Windows and believing that everything will be done by magic. If I can help, I will. Best regards.
I'm actually pretty surprised you're using Arch in a studio environment where stability is of the utmost. I would assume you'd roll something like Debian in that case. Thank you for sharing all your thoughts and experience! Great to see this.
We have so much in common! Love for Linux, Jazz and orquestral/classical. Also the immens respect for reaper. You should give the new Harrison Livetrax a spin, looks promising. Unfortunately I work with Antelope hardware, interfaces/clock/microphones, couldn't agree more on the stability of RME, but that would be a very expensive switch for me now, therefore I still work in windows. 😢 I really should be on the outlook of selling the Antelope interfaces and swap them for RME. Great work! Thanks a lot!
@@LinuxCreative Please create a forum anywhere you want (I cannot say any platform because my comment will be del e ted again) so we can share about this exciting field. Thanks for the video.
Your underestimating BitWig Studio 5 unlike Ableton it's a fresh build every time and is more stable and better for Sound design. While I did my Diploma of Electronic Music Production in Ableton, Ableton often crashes, do better
I took the plunge with Linux audio production a couple years ago and was actually really shocked by how easy it was to set up. I'm using a 20 year old audio interface with no hiccups whatsoever. I started using Ardour to try it out but end up loving it so much I haven't found a compelling reason to switch to anything else. Jack just works and gives me all the flexibility I need. Yabridge lets me use windows vst plugins with surprising effectiveness. the only block for some pro users would probably just be plugin suites you can't get working with yabridge, and mostly that has to do with licensing crap. I'm hopeful even these hurdles will be overcome eventually.
As a developer, I nod along like I understand half of what you're saying about Linux. But honestly, I keep coming back to your channel just because your voice is like the background music I never knew I needed. You could read out kernel panic logs, and I'd still be here, chilling.
@@rachelrobert1478 As a Linux enthusiast, I read "developer" and pretend I might be one. But honestly, I keep making videos because people keep encouraging me even though I feel like a total fraud most of the time. Thank you!! 🥹
Great video! Your reasons for choosing to use Linux for audio production mirror pretty much all of mine.The learning curve is not for everyone and you did a great job of elaborating the why, but it was definitely worth it for me. The powerful routing and syncing between applications is something that I've not seen any equivalent to on other operating systems. There are so many impressive free and open source synths and plugins available like Surge XT and Cadence. Not having to deal with iLok or frustrating plugin authorization applications that limit how many install seats you can have is great. Even better is I can write a bash script or an Ansible playbook and have a consistent studio config on any new machine in minutes. The flexibility of Linux also allows you to create specialized small form factor music devices. Using a Raspberry Pi or some other cheap SBC you can create a stripped down and efficient system that will boot directly into your desired application(s), setup routing automatically, and even run headless if you don't need a UI. Looking forward to other videos from you on this subject!
There's a project taking old (or new) Pi's using them DIRECTLY as synths - without any OS. One of the devs are the guy behind HelloSystem (FreeBSD for creatives with a classic Mac interface) and AppImage.
Push 3 Standalone from Ableton uses Linux, and it just runs special version of Live inside itself. So it means the core engine and all the stock instruments and effects of Ableton Live are already working on x86 Linux. I hope Ableton will actually make full Linux version of Live one day.
Everything operates within Push. All software utilizes Push hardware, which is likely built on top of operating systems like Windows OS or macOS. I doubt they used Linux for that application.
JACK was one of the first things that stuck out to me when I switched to Linux. A bit of a struggle to get it set up, but once I did and learned about Carla, I was completely blown away, especially with how software like Ardour and Zrythm integrated with JACK. Ardour has a fantastic mixer, but unfortunately Linux DAWs in general - especially Ardour - leave a lot to be desired when it comes to composing MIDI by hand. For my time composing on Windows, it was easy for me to take FL Studio's pattern system and piano roll for granted. I am yet to find any sort of Linux tool with a workflow I find as friction-free as FL's. LMMS comes close, but is missing the patterns, among many other of its own issues. This issue is driving me to the point of taking up a project to program up such a sequencing tool, but admittedly the JACK API seems a bit daunting.
FL Studio does have a fantastic MIDI editor. I rather like Ardour's, but wish it handled bends differently. Bitwig seems alright for midi editing. Anymore, I tend to sequence all my midi in trackers like SunVox. I find it super efficient. Definitely know what you mean though!
I've purchased Bitwig back in 2018 because I was using LINUX for development. I could install and make things work back then. I tried Ardour and it was complicated and not as advanced as Bitwig. I switched to OSX and purchased many plugins and right now I can use Bitwig without using other plugins. I saw that LINUX for music creation now has changed a lot. I'm a dev and I know how to go into the terminal and fix problems but when I make music I want to have fun and not trying to fix problems and that was the Linux experience back in 2018.
That's too bad! I am not, nor would I ever claim publicly to be a developer. I do like solving problems though, and don't find it burdensome to update my packages or confs to get things working. I prefer it by far to the driver and software issues I had when I was using Windows. I'm sure Apple is a lot nicer than the Windows experience though.
I'd had a similar experience . Around the same time I was trying to get into Linux audio and it frustrated the hell out of me. I know my way around Linux, I was a red hat support tech, system engineer, and an embedded sw developer. Now I just use OSX and Reaper, sometimes I play with disAbleton. I do like the idea of seeing what's changed in the last 7-8 years so I might spin up Ubuntu Studio or AV linux on my spare hackintosh. I like the idea of Pipewire, but Jack must be bloody working properly by now, right?
@@TheOriginalCoda Yeah OSX it's very easy to work with you don't have to worry about drivers and very little config. Sometimes you need to go to the terminal and it's something that can be solved pretty easy.
@@hotuser5783 I have this on my list to highlight in a video! I need to get my subwoofer tamed (properly crossover'd). I did a quick and dirty job with noise and eq, but would love to dial it in better.
I dont get very excited by youtube videos anymore, but this is an exception. I tried using csound and ardour on Linux way back in the day, nearly 20 years ago. The experience was quite different then, and i have since settled on Ableton. Im on the verge of getting a new Mac, but your summary of the state of audio production on linux is making me think twice. I have an overpowered linux desktop that couldmsave me thousands of dollars! Plus, i could reunite my two biggest hobbies, Linux and music. Thanks.
Love this! If you have a bunch of plugins you've paid for, you should look at the yabridge project. Also, Ardour is still a fantastic choice of DAW. One of my favorite features is that resizing a MIDI track just opens up the MIDI editor. It's ultra-intuitive vs opening a separate midi editor in my opinion. If you're big on csound, check out Cabbage Audio. It lets you turn your CSound patches into plugins! cabbageaudio.com/
Awesome video. I didn't know many of these tools. I was able to install Zrythm in my Garuda box with no issue at all. It looks very interesting but I have not played much yet.
I got into Linux since I saw that Bitwig had a Linux version. Jack audio is the best reason to use linux for audio, though it did take a good amount of tweaking and trouble shooting. In regards to Bitwig, yes it had origins in Ableton Live, but it's much better then Live. Definitely worth the paid annual update.
I haven't used it enough to comment on anything but the workflow, which at times bewilders me! The effect chains are similar to Renoise though, which I've used a bunch. I also love the MPE midi editing and scale tuning tools.
Hi @LinuxCreative! As a Linux enthusiast I really enjoyed your creative approach! Also, I would like to ask you about some things: 1. You've said "there's not much difference between Linux native DAW and something that you might be used to on Windows, or Apple computers, they all kind of do the same thing". In fact that's true. I'm a Reaper user, but I use some plugins like Sonarworks Reference ID (for calibrate my headphones correctly), Waves NX Abbey Road 3 (for emulate a treated room) and I don't think there's a similar option in Linux for them (I wish it has). If you know something I can use, I would love to hear. 2. I have an Arturia interface (Minifuse 2) and I'm not sure if I can make it work with Jack or ALSA. I'm not a not a big fan of using Wine, I would love using only Linux compatible programs. Thank you for your time reading this. 🎸🎹🎧
Hi there. I have used both LinVst and Carla to bridge Windows based VSTs for use on Linux. Both work well. There are some great parametric EQs that could do what Sonar is doing practically if you already know the eq curve you're looking for. LSP plugins work nicely, and on Reaper, ReEQ jsfx. I use Pianoteq on Linux, both x86 and ARM and it works well for stunning piano and epiano sounds. There are some free alternatives, but Pianoteq sounds fantastic and is Linux native. Hope this helps!
I've been using Linux exclusively for 16 years and I've been into guitars since before that and dabbled in DAW's like Cubase Reaper Ardour and paid for a few versions of Mixbus. Played with Waves plugin bundles among others. The things that I have learned is that just because you buy something to make music doesn't mean you will make good music. Think that new DAW will make you better? Probably not. Think that new shiny plugin suite will make you better? Probably not. I can go on and on. I say stick with the free stuff until you are good enough to sell something. Even all of the free stuff that we have available today are light years ahead of what every band had available back in the 80s and earlier. And that is some of the best music ever produced because people relied on knowledge, talent, experience, etc. Stuff that you can't buy. So even just having Ardour with Calf Studio Gear plugin suite and Linux Studio Plugins suite will give you everything that a studio could need. Unlimited tracks on modern hardware, as many rack effect units that you could possibly dream of, as many takes as you want, all of the studio time you could ever dream of. Everyone has access to this stuff and yet nobody does anything with it. I think it would be so cool to one day see a band use nothing but this free stuff and knock it out of the park on an album.
My journey led me to orange pi5 running one guitar plugin ) Daily I use arch like os for recording and writing music, best gain in productivity was discovering yabridge. Best and one of a kind approach is pipewire.
You absolutely can produce professional audio using Linux, so it's kind of disappointing to hear you say that you wouldn't recommend it for creating music. In most cases it's no more complicated than setting up and using an audio workstation on any other platform. Linux gives you the ability to tweak and customize if you want to, but most importantly, you don't have to - you can still get great results - and there are many more high quality Linux native plug-ins (paid and unpaid) now too.
Thanks for watching! Sorry to disappoint. I know plenty of folks who feel like they need their proprietary software that only works on X or Y platform, so I've learned not to recommend those people stray from their comfort zone.
To be fair, I would personally only recommend a Mac for musicians and producers. I’m an audio engineer and mac is by far the best platform for music as it has the drivers built in, is optimized for music, and has the widest variety and availability of daws, plug-ins, audio libraries, etc. This is basically the only time you can say this about mac’s. But it’s true! I used to use Windows (and Linux) for audio production (using Ableton and Reaper) and once I bought a macbook pro alongside Logic (and also using Ableton.. and also protools for my job at the studio 😢) my life became so much better. I have had no driver errors, minimal bugs and freezes. Basically. I am a mac and linux user now and Mac is just way better for music!
Lol no. Take an electric guitar, an audio interface, a fresh install of a mainstream distro (Debian/Mint/Ubuntu/Fedora/Arch) and see how long it takes until you can hear the guitar's sound through an amp sim with reasonable delay (10-20ms). On Windows it's like 10-30 minutes, mostly bottlenecked by your internet speed to download the software. On Linux you're in for a fun few evenings of trying to understand what the f ALSA, JACK, PulseAudio and PipeWire even are and why your distro does not have a sensible config out of the box. Also, poor software support, and trying to use Wine works bad. Not just my opinion, there's probably a reason Ableton and FL have much more users than LMMS or whatever
@@em_the_bee I really hope Pipewire fixes this problem for most people, but it isn't straightforward getting good low latency settings out of Pipewire at the moment. I feel crazy sometimes because every gamer/streamer tells me Pipewire is the way, and I am still over here disagreeing, using JACK for the time being. I want it to be good enough for recording. It isn't in my experience.
More then that is that now we can use Lutris to install Windows third party software that don't have a Linux version, so we can use them on Linux. By the way, for me, Zorin OS 17.1 did it. It looks and feel exactly like Windows and there's not a lot to mess with the terminal. Many things are Double click. So it's like being in Windows without the need of Windows.
Cudos for getting it to work. Linux is not an catch-all thing. It works very very well when you set it up to do one thing for one computer. Hsve done the same a few times. It's still a hasle, but it works ok.
One thing, the Reaper demo runs out after 60 days. They don't cripple it after that time, just increase the time on the nag screen. But legally you have to delete it or buy it after 60 days and that's only fair.
What I love with Audio production/music creation and Linux, is that you can absolutely decide what resources should be dedicated to that, and not to just populate your system memory to just hang around, lingering, doing F.all! I know several ppl that work as experts in configuring windows so that it solely are customised to Audio production. Removing services and tweaking processes, modifying registry, so that all resources goes to the Audio production. It's close to not necessary on *nix
Wow, thank you! It feels silly sometimes pouring myself into RU-vid videos about my hobby, but I'm glad it's making a positive impact. It's my whole reason for sharing. I really appreciate you taking the time to drop a quick compliment - it's wind in my sails!
Great stuff, I use bits and pieces of audio on software on Linux (SunVox, Rack and Bespoke mostly - modular stuff). I always point this out when Jack is mentioned ... Jack is available for Windows and offers an ASIO driver called JackRouter, so integrates with basically everything. Carla's on Windows as well. Brings a lot of the flexibility you described to lesser platforms 😉 MIDI still sucks on Windows, though - ALSA is way more flexible and dynamic.
4:09 Yeah no, I want a Prophet 5 and a Jupiter 8. But even those can distract you from actually writing music. Sometimes it's best to go full general midi and then worry about sound design later. But depends on the genre.
I hear ya! There are some very good softsynths available on Linux, and if you're feeling adventurous, you could always design your own with the various digital modular synths. Splitting arranging and sound design / mixing into separate sessions is not a bad idea at all! Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks, came along at the eight time for me, about to dump apple and Performer for something else and Reaper. About to, as in trying to figure out the best place to land.
Long time Linux user (for Audio) and only recently started using Pipewire, have to say that Jack is still my favourite. Like you I have also tried different DAWs and do so every now and again just to check on progress. For me, only real stable one is Reaper, find Ardour a bit too different and not all that stable. Having said that, still much more stable than Qtractor which crashes for any little thing, can't recommend it for any serious work at all. As for Audacity, like you say it's not a DAW, it's an editor with some nice features. Just don't use it for mastering or any work that requires accurate level measurements and mixing/exporting. There has been a bug in it for years where the reported (and returned) audio when using an external plugin, can vary by up to 5dB and it's not constant. It does not apply to the "internal" compiled effects or Nyquist effects. This bug is present on all OS'es.
While I absolutely love linux, I’ve gotta admit that Macs are just a lot better for music. Especially for live music, and musicians. Production also excels on macs. There’s a reason that Macs are the industry standard for music. They have the widest selection of softwares available. (The only time you can say this about macos lmao) They have all the drivers built in. No need to download anything. They are optimized for art, especially music. They have the ease of use. When I’m in the zone I don’t want to exit to use the terminal
Yeah man! We’re on the same page! No but it was a really great video and good to see what others try too! Any tips on what linux daw I should use? I have a linux laptop I haven’t been using as I’d like to be and I love trying new daws
Music Pattern Generator! Fun little project for making generative and euclidean patterns. www.hisschemoller.com/blog/2019/music-pattern-generator-v2-1/
The only real problem I find with linux is the quality vst for orchestration, theres none, and the very little is really bad quality. I tried to use Labs free vst, but i haven't been able to run it either by using wine nor using bottles and thats a nightmare I hope I can fix. The daw I use is tracktion and works fantastic.
I'm not super familiar, but I've used a bunch of quality sample libraries and soundfonts (sf2, sfz) on Linux no problem. Check out the Sounds FTP section on Bandshed.net
lol cult, how dare you :D Bitwig is the LEGO of DAWs :P Put a reverb inside the reverb tank, or a chorus, resonator bank, etc. It's so much more from its early days compared to Live (I still have Live, btw ;) ) Studio One has an early Linux beta that started back in December. I don't think it has moved very far by this point. Thanks for sharing :)
This is great! thx.. new sub. I've been in audio foe ages.. I'm also a hardcore Arch user. I can't figure out which software I have to start first and how to save projects that use say Ardour, Hydrogen and some Synth's.. .I know it can be done. I'm just lazy, I guess.. Could make an ABC/101 video on how to create and save a an Ardour, Hydrogen, Synth session in the same folder and how to recall everything? so that you just open one thing (Carla I guess) and everything (connections, settings, etc...) shows up like you left it? thanks so much in advance.
I used Linux from 2006 right through to about 2018 for work based tasks. I had many fights with WiFi, printer drivers and sound card drivers. Eventually I started audio production. Many hours uing commandline tools to sort issues out over the years. Plus breakage after updates or uninstalling the wrong thing. Despite trying Ardour with Jack, using Reaper and Mixbus were just never really up to the task and felt entirely subpar. So much faffing and less time spent in actual music production. I jumped to Windows but found Asio and drivers unstble despite optimisation and a custome built PC. I guess you all know what im going to say next 😊 Yes i moved to Mac. No issues with drivers or latency or hardware. All software available including daws like Ableton. I dislike Mac Os from a gui standpoint but from a performance and stability standpoint it's rock solid. When dealing with musicians mixes or whilst doing production i have no issues using my M series Mac. I only use Linux as a VM these days and that's only for some critical stuff I do. Otherwise besides the open source nature of it, i just cant be bothered with the faff. Before you flame me, was was a die hard Linux zealot who just got tired of the hassle of using Linux.
No flame, my friend! The most important thing is that you found a friction free way to express your creativity. Being able to lock in and flow is so important in creating music or any other artwork. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your story!
I agree. For real professional work MAC is the way to go. You are paid to for the work and should use tools and software with high level support and stability. Just remember MAC is derived from BSD Unix and linux was created as a kind of a modern version of Unix. So they share a lot of the same fundamental traits.
Not true. RME was one of the first supported interfaces. M-Audio another one. But being dependent on reverse engineering for non-compliant equipment does mean a lot of equipment was not supported 10 years ago. Today any class compliant equipment can be used directly by linux.
@michaelsen101 Post a link to the Linux version of RME Totalmix, as well as the RME drivers for a Fireface 802, and then we'll talk. Until then, this is very true: THEY ARE NOT SUPPORTED and cannot be fully used as intended.
This is interesting for sure. I doubt Linux audio production has the same market share as their iPad user base they seem to be in love with, but the tech is pretty close to the same. RME Totalmix sounds like it's not a driver, but a more complex software. Linux drivers do work on MANY chipset combinations without any additional fiddling, but when manufacturers add proprietary software features to their devices and release the software themselves for only Windows and Apple computers, there isn't much the Linux community can do about it. The onus is pretty squarely on the manufacturers at making their products more open and adaptable to their clients' needs.
@@LinuxCreative Totalmix is not a driver. But it's the very core of RME interfaces and converters. Without it, the interface is more or less unusable professionally. I myself will never ever buy anything else than RME, products. They are just the easiest to use, and the most rock solid pro products on the market. They also support drivers and software for over 20 years hardware. So they so there you go, linux audio is out of the question for me as a pro.
I tried using ardor a while back when i was messing around with Linux. I felt like it was too much for me. trying to complied things and get all the settings and config files right. Definitely not something I'd want to deal with while producing for a client that asks for random creatively inspired ideas in the heat of the moment. If they could make it simpler to deal with i think Linux would be fantastic. Studio One has a Linux version now too, but i haven't tried it. I'm really glad some people are using it and developing for it though. Who knows what the future may bring.
Waveform 13 Pro user here. Win11 finally pushed me to Linux (Linux Mint 22). With Blender and OpenShot I make y own (poor for now) music videos. The AMD box I loaded Linux on is like a faster machine! VERY happy I switched, and once I come to terms with Mixxx I'll quit SAM Broadcaster and dump Windows forever. Now if only DaVinci Resolve didn't require a dedicated GPU on Linux.. sigh.. maybe some dy.
Hi! The pipewire-jack-client is the package on Arch that initiates pipewire as a Jack client. You may need to replace pipewire-jack with jack2 first. I hope this helps!
No mention of Ubuntu Studio or low latency kernels? No mention of Surge XT? I appreciate that you like Jack but for me Jack is the barrier of complexity for switching to linux for audio. I wish there were better explanations how to troubleshoot jack. I am already heavily using Bitwig and VCV that both work on linux natively.
Stay tuned! I haven't used Ubuntu Studio in years and you make a great point --> people often ask me which distro I use and it almost pains me to say Arch, because that's not the point and not a good place to start.
Could you make a video about audio hardware and Linux? I have like 8 interfaces, all professional, but the only one I can make work in Linux is the BabyFace Pro. If I could make work a 24 line in, 8 line out workflow, no doubt I would say farewell to the other OSs.
The problem is hardware. There are only be about a dozen audio interfaces that have truly working linux drivers, and most of those seem to be class-compliant 2-channel behringer interfaces. There doesn't seem to be a modern, reliable way to get a lot of outboard equipment into a linux workstation. If it weren't for that, I'd be running linux on all of my machines. It just isn't workable for a professional studio unless you're doing almost everything in the box. I wish that weren't the case.
There are several Linux users running more than 2 channels, various PCIe, USB cards with way more features than the 3 MOTU boxes I'm currently running (all but one are more than 2 channels...). If you can get the same sample rate, channels, audio signals, and latency without a proprietary piece of software, what's the issue? I don't understand why this keeps coming up in this comment section. It's simply not true.
I've found in the past year (and with a recent update within just a month) latency on pipewire has gotten pretty good. I'm not much of a musician but playing a synth in to an audio interface and monitoring through my onboard audio doesn't noticeably trip me up with latency. Stuff like fedora or ubuntu which are fixed versions might not be seeing these benefits yet though.
I'm a "wanna be" music creator. I have the hardware, software and technical know how to create something but I just haven't yet. Thanks for your video! It has given me some hope that I can create something. I have a dedicated Windows 10 machine for my DAW. But it has a very slow hard drive that makes creation an unpleasant experience. I'm looking to change my setup. I'm knowledgable in Linux. I have used it on and off since compiling my own kernel in the 2.2.14 days. I also use FreeBSD and have used OpenBSD and NetBSD. So I have the tech side down. I have a project to try and use Arturia Collection 9 on Windows to talk with Reaper on Linux using JACK. Midi would be sent from Reaper/Linux to Arturia/Windows via JACK midi. JACK audio would return the output from Arturia/Windows and pipe it into Reaper/Linux. I'm not sure if this is possible, but it sounds fun to me. My brother-in-law and a programming guru says to me, "Why not? Cause can." Many of us who use Linux do so by choice and the lure of the challenge. Thanks all! Be great! Product music and share it.
I just use audacity in Linux. That works. What does not work is reducing size of mp3 in Linux. Go under 96kbps and thd quality goes too much down. In windows xp, 7, 10 I can go to 48kbps and it's still reasonable. Why?
@@LinuxCreative Of course. My music is better. But spoken text files can be way lower. Interesting when it gets to terrabytes full of mp3's. It copies faster. Uploads and downloads faster on telegram... And 48 is not bad' it just misses some high fréquences. Tv sound is often worse...
@@LinuxCreative But I have the Bible in audio in 800 languages on my computer. It takes still 350 giga of space. 48kbps helps to reduce size and still have good enough quality...
The biggest problem in my opinion is that Linux _doesn't_ support a standard instrument and effects plugin format with modern features -- dynamic processing allocation, multiple ins and outs, MIDI 2.0, etc. etc.
Multiple ins and outs _with_ _a_ _graphic_ would be awesome. Then you could have plugins that seemlessly fit in with "rackmount simulations" similar to Reason, or which ignore that graphic in favour of other signal routing schemes often used in other DAWs. Having said that, it's a shame the Linux community doesn't create a kernel that provides specific DSP functions, similar to the 56K chipset. Then plugins could potentially run on a variety of Linux distros (Intel and ARM, 32-bit and 64-bit) without needing to be modified or recompiled, provided the DSP kernel is standardized and ported.
@@LinuxCreative : Admittedly I haven't looked much into CLAP because I keep forgetting it exists... I don't come across plugins made in that format very often, if ever. But in my testing VST3 on Linux was a real crap-shoot. Many plugins didn't load with graphics while others didn't load altogether, and while I saw forum posts about how to get iLok working I never could. I'm under the impression the problem is VST3 on Linux uses a bridge that is unique to each DAW. @ktechnology : A DSP kernel module modelled after the 56K chipset (or expanding upon it) would be awesome.
informative video. I have a question: I'm migrating away from Windows (for too many reasons to cover here). I have a workflow that is very easy on Windows using some older software (sooo stable). The Linux distro I'm migrating to is ZORIN because of the familiar feel of the interface. Zorin also integrates WINE. I am hoping to use WINE to allow importing my Windows audio software in order to enjoy the flow of audio creation that I have developed. My understanding is that REAPER (which I use) will run directly on LINUX. Do you have any experience or suggestions using this type of configuration? Also, what sound HARDWARE would you suggest I use with ZORIN? I'm leaning toward USB devices such as Steinburg's UR22C - but it doesn't indicate that it has Linux support. Is that an issue running Zorin & WINE? Thanks for the time & FB.
This is a very timely comment given the video I have been working on for the last 2 weeks. It essentially answers all of your questions and gives some reasoning and background for each answer. Having said that, my suggestion is that you wait until I upload a new video this week. 😉 It will be well worth the wait.
Basically, a driver-free audio interface that supports USB Audio Class is required. FL STUDIO can run on Windows software compatibility layer using Wine. Zorin's ability to run WindowsEXE uses WINE.
I know I'll get eyerolls for this but Audacity is fully capable DAW, you just have to modify the keyboard shortcuts extensively. It helps if your style is unpolished electronic music. It's only taken me 13 years to figure out a work flow, though the new version sucks and I need to go back to 2.6 or 2.8.
Many VST and VST3 plugins are available for Linux. For those that aren't, Carla has a Windows VST bridge that works well on about every Windows DLL I have thrown at it.
Question: I've been trying to create an aggregate device with my SSL 2+ and an Expert Sleepers ES-8, and I can't seem to figure it out in Linux. It's pretty straight forward on the Mac, but I'm dumping Apple, due to their forced upgrading model, which I cannot stand. (Sorry for the mini rant.) I want to be able to use VCV Rack Pro with my Dotcom Box 11 modular in Bitwig. It seems like it should be pretty simple, but no dice so far. Any pointers or scripts on creating this aggregate device? Thanks. Cool video.
I'm not sure about syncing with Ableton over the network, but Ardour's Cues feature might be interesting to you! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sQYT5f1Z6FQ.html
Sooperlooper is the most usefull if you plan on live performance however requires jack and effort to understand the setup. Once you use jack, you can use jacktrip to use network. You can even use a midi controller on the network too using timidi. I did that using Raspberry and focusrite scarlett usb soundcard.
@@LinuxCreativeArdour can be controlled by midi messages. Its basically so easy to setup that its only mentioned very short in the manual. Right-click on the button and activate your midi control once. Done.
@@LinuxCreative I tried to use Sunvox but I get stuck with Milkytracker and LMMS, especially because I cannot export Sunvox files as XM format. Thanks for the video, you have made me curious about ZRYTHM DAW, I have to try it :D
would love to turn my current asus machine into a linux machine for music but it seems like you have to be a bit of a tech genius to manage it lol *didnt know bitwig had a linux version, thats kind of promising
That's a great question, and one I hope to answer more thoroughly in an upcoming video. For now, I'm tempted to say either Ubuntu Studio, AV Linux, or Fedora Jam Lab.
@@Noone-of-your-Business I generally look for devices that play well with Apple products AND make sure anything I buy is USB class compliant. It makes for plug and play on Linux.
@@LinuxCreative What is "USB class compliant"? My PreSonus interface is plug&play sure enough. But that only installs the general Windows drivers and not the ASIO drivers I need for low latency. What is the equivalent of ASIO under Linux?
@@Noone-of-your-Business ASIO skips the Windows media mixer as a driver-based hack and exclusively sends audio directly to USB to avoid delays and low-quality resampling. In other words, no such hack is needed on Linux because you can configure any audio server you like. So all you need to do on Linux is to configure JACK. Also, if you are aiming for extreme low latency, you might use a real-time or low-latency kernel. we usually recommend a distribution that uses a low-latency kernel by default, such as Ubuntu Studio or AV Linux.
I'd like to find a laughing app ..I've been looking around but I can't seam to find a good one ..for example, 😂 a software for me to export various laughter types . Starting just one to several people laughing , and I can be able to manipulate the laughing tracks . If anybody have any suggestions please comment me back with a link to the software. Tha nKS !
There are other spots in the music production area besides "i am sucking the teat of latest plugin hype" and "i built everything from scratch like practically coding my own ecosystem." Some of us are just looking to record performed music using sufficiently faithful facsimiles of legacy hardware. In fact I would say that outside the youtube "hey gee look at my rig and listen to my generative vibe" space, MOST use of DAWs for music production is basically what I described, if you include keyboard performances of digital instruments. I know there is a ton of semi-human music being extruded, in online ads and single A games and third tier streaming movies, and youtube channels and wherever else... but most digital music that is heard and sought by humans involves A: at some point by someone the writing of words, because even soundtracks are mostly scoring meaning created by words, and the vast majority of listened-to recorded music is songs; B: the physical playing of a physical instrument. The entire youtube production space is taken up with the avoidance of giving people what they most want, while the actual music world, both the trade space and the artist space, is absolutely packed with people playing objects. The disconnect is weird, but of a piece with the general cultural g***cide of the internet and social media. Material reality, cultural history... these are not playthings. They don't go away when you stick your nose in an app. They will be here when this woo woo is gone.
Absolutely! Music is about expressing creativity, not gadgets or gizmos. Each musical work presents its own creative challenges which would make it foolish to throw the same hyped objects at and hope for anything but boring results. Thanks for tuning in! New video going live today.
"You can solve pretty much any problem through a Linux mindset, that is to combining many smaller tools to accomplish a bigger goal". "So you are saying" Linux is Eurorack, but without the GAS etc?
@@LinuxCreative I had Linux mint years ago when my pc at the time broke down, but it got a new life with Linux. Yes, I',m saving up for a dedicated Linux PC as I don't want to switch to Mac. I'm done with windows. Feels like having to live with a person I married for the wrong reasons, just divorced and not yet been able to find another home.
I don't remember where, but I saw someone telling that real time kernel makes impracticable the threads use, what's a bigger problem for every home desktop today's. Latency really comes from not real time kernel?
A realtime kernel is not required for low latency audio performance. Mainline kernel actually works quite well, but there are other optimized variations. Each of these products employ some version of preempt kernel.
Having done a little bit of music production with Android, I can tell you that you're going to get higher latency than you would on Linux or Windows most likely. Other than that, the same devices I've gotten to work with Linux seem to work with Android no problem. I think it's more a question of the software you'd like to use and if there is Android software available for the types of music you'd like to create. I personally really like using SunVox, since it runs on both Linux and Android, and loads no external DLL's. It makes producing music across all my devices quite seamless.
@LinuxCreative I get big latency over Bluetooth. I miss the audio jack. Adapters are also pain in the but. But for programming music it doesn't matter that much. It's mostly a problem with recording life. Have to align the recording with everything else and it's not exactly fun. For audio computer is easier in my case.
Hi! The pipewire-jack-client is the package on Arch that initiates pipewire as a Jack client. You may need to replace pipewire-jack with jack2 first. I hope this helps! I'm not sure the package names for the modules on other distros.
@@LinuxCreativeThanks for response! I'm on Arch Linux and I have pipewire-jack-client and jack2 installed, but unfortunately bridge doesn't spawn for me :(
@@SatyajitRoy2048Don't choose a distro only based on how it looks. If you want this taskbar, you can use any distro with the KDE Plasma desktop environment. If you're new to linux, choose a distro that uses this desktop environment by default.
For music production, we recommend a distribution with a low-lag kernel such as Ubuntu Studio or AV Linux. Properly configuring JACK and other settings can reduce lag when playing soft synths with MIDI or applying an amp simulator to a guitar.
Linux is great if you enjoy setting up and maintaining a functioning audio system more than you enjoy making music. Use Mac if you don't have much time, Windows if you don't have much money and Linux if you don't have ideas for good music.
@@janriepshoff5237 I've released multiple albums and singles all using Linux software to record and arrange audio and midi. I'm sorry, but your observation could not be further from the truth. There are plenty of videos and channels on RU-vid that can show you how to install DAWs and plugins on Windows and Mac if you'd rather do that. We don't need your energy here.
@@LinuxCreative I was not trying to bully anyone - sorry if it came over like that. I was just exaggerating a bit to formulate my observations as an audio plugin/engine developer. I've been looking into it from time to time over the last 15 years but never felt it is where it needs to be in terms of reliability and maintainability. You'll always need to invest more time in a Linux system compared to the other ones. And the learning curve is so steep that it is basically only possible to maintain if you have a certain degree of knowledge that the "normal" music producer naturally doesn't have.
I have tried music on linux 5 years ago ... What about VST instruments ? music companies installers ? ilock ? Jack was not intuitive a all . Far from bieng the fairy tale you describe, even for basic connections. Linux community when it comes to music, not taht much info .... there was no real "start from scratch step by step tuto". Even when you find one good advice, it does not work for your distro, your version of software, or your hardware, I like linux more than any other system, but you have to be ready for hard work with it. It's a all new level with music production. You have to be an advanced linux user to set up the system,, if you what to go as far as you would with a simple windows system. Don't get me wrong , I despise windows. I will try again for sure because, for me : linux "this is the way " . Please, don't make it sound like it 's just a question will and patience. Time also can be limited, such as frustration. It's like a puzzle combined with a worldwide treasure hunt, through time and multiverse. Any way, it was a very interseting video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge
Yeah it's not all as good as the video maker puts it. In reality music producers struggle to understand what even a time signature is, or what an aux does. Let alone how to set up their own computer with Linux. I like the mindset of make it yourself that the video mentions. It's fun to always ask yourself what if and to solve the practical problems that come from "unusual" music making setups. But honestly you can have this experience in windows and Mac too. Nothing is stopping you from doing crazy routing on windows with Jack or blackhole on Mac. Pure data, supercollider, Ardour and a lot of the software mentioned on the video also run on win and Mac. Most producers if they want to dive into DSP or more unorthodox DAWs they should try it on their closed source OS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Especially if you're a working producer or engineer. Artists and hobbyists can use whatever software they want no prob. But if you work in pro audio in film, TV, if you work on a recording studio, radio, etc.. then you do need protools, Izotope RX, adobe audition, ilock and so on. I wish the government would break up avid, adobe and all the others and force them to go Foss. But while we don't live in that world working pros gotta use closed source software ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you're not a working audio professional, so if you're an artist. And you already figured out how to count in 7, what an aux is for, and on top of that you already use a nice unorthodox software, if you got Pd and SC figured out and you still want more depth. Then yeah Linux will do it for you. That or you're a Linux user from the start and you want to get into production later ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sure, but I share production files across my network and even produce parts of music using low-cost SBC's. These machines were made to run Linux on ARM and they do it well. This setup pairs well with my hardware synthesizers. At one point, I even had a Raspberry Pi with a screen bolted into my Eurorack case. I feel somewhat irresponsible making this stuff look difficult. It isn't at all. I had more trouble installing ASIO drivers on Windows than getting JACK up and running on the same card on Linux last time I tried. Maybe it's just because I have used Linux for so long, or maybe it's because the ASIO drivers / proprietary software for my card were garbage to start with. At any rate, it's important that we all use the setups and workflows that make sense to us, and enable us to turn our ideas and inspirations into music. Thanks for watching!
@@LinuxCreative I totaly agree on the fact that we have to make linux more people who don't use it. I do that as often as possible . But , letting people think it is simple will make the m frustated later. I have made this mistake. Especially with linux. Anyway I should go deeper in the system, learning more commands , and how compile . Other than for simple common tasks , at some point, there is no way around it It can be a very rewarding process, and it is the price of freedom. .I will try again, on my linux mint. By th way wich distrib do you prefer, or advise to use, for music ? Linux Distributions is the first big concept to grasp for a beginner. Yes installing ASIO and other drivers on windows is not always peachy . And I'm waiting for other videos for your other videos. this one made me feel like going further. Thank you your help, and inspiration.
@@alex-esc I tried Carla, and oher ways to go full linux with VSTi, for music production. I could not use most of the products I bought ( like many sample libraries) . So I put that on hold. I should try again from time to time. Or why not, use linux to make music with a different state of mind.
@@shykall I think AV Linux is probably one of the best beginner-friendly Linux distros for audio production. I used Ubuntu with KXStudio repos for years. Now I run Arch on pretty much everything. Once you get the basics, those concepts are transferable. I hope your journey goes smoothly and you learn a lot!
Huh, I thought it was pretty clear the video was 10 minutes of me talking about "Why I Use Linux for Audio Production". If that's not what you were looking for, maybe pick a video with a different title.
@LinuxCreative Nope it wasn't clear. The waters of Linux are still just as muddy as ever bud. I specifically clicked on your video hoping someone had cracked it especially with the hundreds of distros out there. It's infuriating especially as the Linux community is very unhelpful towards creatives like us.
@@leepshin hoping to help change that, but I'm only one person with many other time obligations at the moment. Anything specific that's frustrating to you I can help clarify in future videos?
@@LinuxCreative does it just work like with wine etc? I'd switch back to Arch so fast if that's the case. Windows is dreadful. Luckily because I run my machine 24/7 I didn't get the most recent blue screen but still that shit happens too often
@@xanderlurks There is a video that is working although you may need to disable Direct2D. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qzrQwmYF7YQ.htmlsi=d6Te62Cbpea-TFh4 However, unlike FL STUDIO, it may not work depending on the version of WINE or Serum.
Linux community should fix the Alsa Jack pipewire whatever madness at the core. Once forever. I swear to God, we did try everything to change to Linux. Failed miserably. Then we went to the professional solution, Soundgrid from Waves, but with Windows DAW. linux just can’t handle the focking Linux based, Linux originated, Linux driven, Linux server based Soundgrid! It’s a joke! So we did try Linux. No, not with Chinese shot motherboards and home built PC-s. With hardcore Workstations from HP, Dell, IBM, Supermicro. Windows is far more superior with the ASIO. Rigid, fast, reliable and most importantly, STABLE! Nowadays, at least 60% of studio runs Windows as mainframe. 35% Apple, and 5% all others. No, I’m not talking about USA only… Worldwide. Linux sucks with audio when You dealing with multiple IO,s Inserts, outboard gears, mixers, recalls, VCI busses, in ear monitoring, monitor mixes…..etc. Hate me to tell the truth! 😂 Waves started a good job with their Soundgrid platform, Linux should pick it up, and use as standard.
I definitely understand the frustration, and for years, JACK + PulseAudio --> ALSA really upset a lot of people. That said, nowadays, people can opt to use JACK or Pipewire, or even just use ALSA as their sound backend from many popular Linux DAWs. While there's still a fair amount of confusion, I would say this problem has long been solved in a few different ways. Such is the nature of Linux.
@@Dylan-we5dz I don't know what would compel someone to write something like this. I do not hate myself. I love my life, my hobbies, and my family. I hope you do as well.
