Production on linux.

[Powelly]

Just wondering if anyone around these parts works solely on linux for their music production? If so what audio interafce do you use and what program? Been working on linux for the last few months, and i just want to switch my production to it as well.
Cheers
Powelly

[stephen]

Yes I use linux. I'm using Crunchbang (#!), a lightweight variant on Debian, with a realtime kernel and the JACK audio server.

Hardware-wise I'm running it on a Dell Insipron 1525 laptop with a Lexicon Alpha audio interface and Edirol midi (can't remember the model right now, I'm at work). Both interfaces run out of the box.

Software - mostly Renoise. I reckon if Renoise wasn't availabe on linux, I wouldn't be using linux....

VST plugins are limited on linux though (don't expect to run windows VSTs with 100% compatibility, despite various workarounds). There are some native VST plugins available (including some of the TAL vst's which work well in Renoise).

You can also run Reaper using wine - that works well.

For general audio editing there's audacity, and for multitrack recording have a look at ardour. There's a native version of energy XT available, but I haven't used it. QTractor is an upcoming DAW with potential, and there's LMMS, an FL Studio clone. These are just a few places to get started with, there's a fair amount of music stuff available for linux.

Linux is a nice music platform if you're willing to put in a little effort up front, and be prepared to accept limitations of hardware and software compatibility.

[natrixgli]

I use Ubuntu for my music, though I cheat and use Wine with Wineasio to run Windows applications. I use EnergyXT2 as my primary DAW application and have good results. If I'm going to be sequencing external gear sometimes I use Reaper because EnergyXT does not send MIDI clock.

Most VST plugins I have used work just fine, and I get superb audio/MIDI latency with Jack / Wineasio. I also use a handful of Linux apps in the mix too, particularly ALSA Modular Synth which is fantastic.

I think when Ardour 3 is out I'll have to take a good look at it since it adds MIDI.

[stephen]

Alsa Modular Synth is superb - you can get some great sounds out of it!

The most stable environment I've had for running windows VSTs is Reaper (at least in my experience). Much compatibility depends on which version of wine you use. For example in the past I've had Sylenth running, but it's not working any more on my system. Although now I've got impOSCar working without problem , whereas previously it crashed on certain patch settings (mostly arps). Some of the heavyweight plugins are a bit sluggish, but that's probably down to the spec of my laptop.

I haven't really played much with reaper/win VSTs in recent months, I find renoise does everything I need. Looking forward to 2.7 being released.

[nuketifromorbit]

How is Renoise's midi latency when just using the default alsa sound drivers, especially in regards to sequencing hardware synths? Vista is driving me f**k insane, and if it weren't for fallout new vegas I would have no reason to continue using it. I mainly use renoise for sequencing hardware synths and sampling and have no interest in running window vsts with it.

[stephen]

Not sure about renoise running under alsa - mine's set up to use JACK, and I don't have any problems with it.

You can download a demo version of renoise and try it before committing to buying a copy. I think their costs and licencing are very reasonable. Version 2.7 should be released soon (currently at beta) and it has some improved midi handling - mostly on midi inputs though. Perhaps you could run a linux live CD, or a distro on a USB stick if you don't want to mess about with your current install.

The only VST I use is TAL noisemaker (there's a native linux version of this), but I have played with the demo version of Loomer Aspect - if I ever get some spare cash together it might be a useful purchase. I'm mostly into using my (limited) hardware too.

Edit: Actually, it wouldn't be any hassle to have a quick try-out of renoise under alsa. I'll give it a go when I've got a spare half hour or so over the weekend, and I'll report back

[Powelly]

Well this all seems very positive. Im running Debian with Ardour and Jack at the moment, but my current soundcard is unsupported, so I'll buy a Lexicon Alpha, and hopefully that will all work out well.

I'm trying to find software that is easy to use and has the kind of the same functionality as Logic Pro (might be a bit of an ask). Any suggestions are welcome, but Ardour does seem very nice.

[nuketifromorbit]

Just said goodbye to vista, thank god. Anyway I managed to get renoise running under ubuntu without it giving me the annoying realtime thread is not supported bs. I swear I'm retarded with computers, especially when it comes to mucking around with command lines and what not, but by some miracle I always manage to get stuff working with ubuntu.

[silikon]

Have you all had a go with Ubuntu studio? I've installed it once or twice on my PC that I have here, but have yet to really give it a workout since I've already got a ton of stuff going on with the Mac.

Looks to have options to install practically everything you could want (including all the above mentioned software), and a really easy install path...

Being that Linux is a fair part of my day job, I have to use Red Hat and some other unpleasant (not that RH is unpleasant, say in contrast to Windows... ) stuff, so to see that Ubuntu has made their install and maintenance routine close to the ease that Mac has, is quite a treat.

...now if only the large DAW vendors and plugin makers would build for linux...

[stephen]

I tried ubuntu a few years back, but most recently I tried Mint and Crunchbang. I like Crunchbang for its low system resources, plus of course it's another one based on Debian so getting hold of software packages (and realtime kernels!) isn't a problem.

KXStudio is another nice distro - their site is currently down for upgrading though. The guy that maintains KXStudio compiled the open source TAL plugins, so we get to play with Noisemaker, Reverb II and III, etc. How nice!

I can't see the big players joining the linux community in the foreseeable future (if ever) We've got renoise which is nice, and Ardour 3.0 with midi support should be good, and there is still plenty of linux audio software around.

What we could really do with is a wider range of plugins. Maybe some of the better freewares might consider linux releases, or some of the smaller software houses might have a go (yay for Loomer!) VST can be successful on linux, plus we've got LV2 format too.

[nogginj]

really dont think there is going to be any one piece of software on linux that does everything logic does.

you're going to basically have one to do the recording, one to do the sequencing, one for synthesis, one for sampling, etc etc.

the good news is this is usually pretty reliable under linux.

has anyone mentioned the planet-ccrma distributions? compiled with audio work at it's core.
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/

hydrogen is a very capable drum machine / sampler that looks good and is easy/fun to use.
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/

zynaddsubfx is also a great synth.
http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/

you can sequence them all with seq24 which is a pretty good mpc clone.
http://www.filter24.org/seq24/

or rosegarden if you prefer more classical approach.
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/

record it all in ardour.
http://ardour.org/

[nuketifromorbit]

I've been using Renoise's sampling function as a multi track recorder.

[el pr0n]

I've been working on maths projects with MatLab in Xfce for the last few months, it's got me really interested in Linux. Currently use Pd and Live on a Mac, but I'd rather not have to bring my production computer to gigs. Thinking of getting a little netbook, putting Ubuntu on it and using it to run Pd at gigs.

Is the Lexicon Alpha the best way to go for an interface? I like how it's cheap

I wasn't sure how hard it'd be to get drivers for interfaces, there's a lot of them up here http://ffado.org for Firewire gear.

[stephen]

There's probably better interfaces than the Lexicon Alpha out there (check out ffado for focusrite firewire support etc), but it 'just works' and it's fine for me (but I'm just an amateur noodler, so what do I know?! )

Renoise 2.7 is at RC1, the new sampler features look good.

[natrixgli]

Currently use Pd

I was curious about Puredata so I looked into it a little bit. Can you tell me more about how you use it? Seems like it has a lot of cool potential. Looks like MIDI and audio work with Jack.

Cheers,

-n8