KVR Audio

damoog · Post by **damoog** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:55 pm

Thinking of trying out Linux on my laptop(not my main music rig) and wanted to know what people think about the os before I take the plunge...i have posted this topic on a pc based forum and the majority say go with Linux but they are prolly all pc nerds so I can't judge on that alone,I will be using props reason to so that has to work,I'm a complete Linux noob so some guidance is needed...is it worth it or am I off my rocker with this one

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:22 pm

As far as i know Reason won't work on a linux system. And if you want my personal opinion, for audio stuff, i would stick to Windows or MacOS. Linux audio can be quite a pain in the butt to set up, plus most software never has and never will leave alpha status, and therefor is not stable.

sockofgold · Post by **sockofgold** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:28 pm

chk071 wrote: Linux audio can be quite a pain in the butt to set up, plus most software never has and never will leave alpha status, and therefor is not stable.

Honestly, this pretty much sums up Linux in general for me--not just for audio usage. I think most people can respect the ideal of an open OS, but it's just too much trouble to do anything on it, figure out how everything works, get all your drivers working, etc., let alone get it primed for high-demand audio production.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:33 pm

Certainly doesn't sum up linux in general - if you've a support agreement with IBM, etc, you can be pretty sure your servers will work for the workload you've agreed... but yeah, Linux audio - much as I love linux and want it to work - is a pain. And it shouldn't be. The reasons are, to me, entirely down to political in-fighting. The point about IBM linux servers is quite pertinent. In that environment, there's a clear desire for spending large amounts of money on a working product. Who gets into Linux audio to spend large amounts of money..?

pc999 · Post by **pc999** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:47 pm

damoog wrote:Thinking of trying out Linux on my laptop(not my main music rig) and wanted to know what people think about the os before I take the plunge...i have posted this topic on a pc based forum and the majority say go with Linux but they are prolly all pc nerds so I can't judge on that alone,I will be using props reason to so that has to work,I'm a complete Linux noob so some guidance is needed...is it worth it or am I off my rocker with this one

Linux is really a great system, very easy to use, fast and you can do almost anything on it, but its weakness is audio production and games IMO.

But things are going very well very fast, Steam is going to get gaames for it (running faster than on windows !!!) and on the production side is getting some big stuff too , from lightworks for video to Bitwig on audio (reaper also have something in the works) to renoise and Ardour 3. I think that very soon we will speak o f linux in a different way.

Best of all

YOU CAN TRY IT WITHOUT ANY HASSLE

Use a virtual box ( https://www.virtualbox.org/ ) download Ubuntu (or linux mint) and try linux (or windows 8 or OS X or BSD) inside windows, it just use a little more system resources but it runs great, you can try everything you want and it is VERY VERY EASY. It is also completely safe to try in your main music rig.

Aroused by JarJar · Post by **Aroused by JarJar** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:47 pm

Years ago I put Linux on a junker computer and was blown away by the performance compared to how it worked with Windows. So, I've always had a hankering to make a Linux audio box. The software isn't a problem, as I use almost exlusively Csound (blitheringly cross-platform) and acoustic instruments, and Ardour (Linux DAW program) hosts Windows VST's anyway.

The setup/tech part isn't threatening, and there are Linux dorks falling off the trees in my neck of the woods to help.

Come to think of it, now that I hear that mainstream USB ADDAs work with Linux, there's nothing stopping me from doing it...

...I just have this nagging feeling that if you seriously go Linux you have to give Julian Assange a blow job or something...

angelinni · Post by **angelinni** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:51 pm

It's important to know what are you thinking to test. Linux is unbeatable for some things, and very complicate for others, due the way is implemented. If you planned to run your windows stuff under linux using some bridge (actually, wine) my best suggestion will be optimize your OS and don't waste your time. Don't get me wrong. I love linux, is what I use at work, and it's great, no need anything else. But most of time, trying to make it work under linux (I actually installed Komplete 5 under Linux!) it can be very frustrating. However, if you want it to give it a try, understanding that linux is a different environment with different applications, you'll find excellent choices to do some music. Ardour is a very complete Audio recording and mixing tool. There're plugins (LAPSDA or something) for mixing and editing stuff. Rosegarden is a MIDI editor (use soundfonts, nothing else work fine,really, but at forum there's a good one). Hydrogen allows you to create in few steps complex drum patterns with nice quality, a few synths, some FX for guitar, etc. But don't waste your time trying to make VST plugins to work. You can do it, but it will take time, energy, and patience. Instead, learn to use the tools you have. They are powerful, just different. You don't need to become a guru to use it. You may download a distro which includes everything, and make it run from CD or USB pendrive without installing (it's slower, of course) so you can try first and then install the one that fits better for you. Or maybe you'll find out that, due to your needs, you can make it work from a pendrive and that's it. Advice? if you are curious about it, try first. Ubuntustudio is a distro ready to play, tweak from ubuntu. AVLinux has the same purpose, Debian-based. Musix seems to be abandoned, but still exists. If you play guitar, there a small distro (gnuguitarinux) that you can run from a pendrive and has utilities enough to play for a while. Just have fun!

Dead_Musik · Post by **Dead_Musik** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:54 pm

Got Unbuntu on laptop works very well. It really wont hurt to give it a try and its free.

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:55 pm

(edit - I thought of something useful to say, after all!)

I don't think it's been mentioned but, of course, Linuxsampler is native to Linux, too, and it's not a bad SFZ-format-supporting sampler (SF2 and Giga, too). Rosegarden ought to support MIDI-over-JACK... (and it's things like this that start to make life just that bit harder than it should be).

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 8:10 pm

pljones wrote:Certainly doesn't sum up linux in general - if you've a support agreement with IBM, etc, you can be pretty sure your servers will work for the workload you've agreed... but yeah, Linux audio - much as I love linux and want it to work - is a pain. And it shouldn't be. The reasons are, to me, entirely down to political in-fighting. The point about IBM linux servers is quite pertinent. In that environment, there's a clear desire for spending large amounts of money on a working product. Who gets into Linux audio to spend large amounts of money..?

Well the problem with audio stuff under Linux is mostly, imo, that the VST technology, the standard for instruments and effect plugins und Windows, is proprietary, and therefore will never be supported under Linux, so you have to use emulators and tools to make it work, which basically will cost system performance, and adds another element of instability to the system. Seriously, i think the philosophy behind Linux hinders itself the most, not "the companies which don't get involved". But as for most Linux users, the philosophy is what makes them using it, so there is no solution in sight.

scalawag · Post by **scalawag** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:21 pm

http://www.linuxmusicians.com/

It's getting better and better every year!
Ardour 3 with Midi is coming
Harrison Mixbus
Renoise
Bitwig is coming

http://www.kvraudio.com/q.php?search=1&os[]=lin32

sellyoursoul · Post by **sellyoursoul** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:29 pm

There isn't enough development on Linux for audio, video, photo, or games. I'm sure that the recent move by some companies to get games running in Linux will help, but the landscape is pretty barren at the moment. There is software available, but as someone else said, most is in an alpha state. I seriously considered tossing Windows recently, but I just couldn't do it. The available software is lacking functionality, and it is so much trouble to use that the process of making music isn't enjoyable. Give it a try, but I doubt that most anyone could be content using Linux for music making, at this time.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:38 pm

I've been running Linux for more than 13 years at work. Gets the job done. And the uptime stats ain't too shabby either.

Jace-BeOS · Post by **Jace-BeOS** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:45 pm

If you enjoy fiddling with computers as an end in its own (without getting anything practical done), have at it. If you think it will be some kind of replacement for a Win/Mac music production setup, don't waste your time. Linux is curious. It's even somewhat interesting and has come a long way, but its still not a gaming, graphics or audio production environment. If you need basic office and web functionality, and want to run Renoise, it can be a fine system. But it's not very unified, intuitive or robust in usability for media (other than being an mp3 server).

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 7:59 am

chk071 wrote:Well the problem with audio stuff under Linux is mostly, imo, that the VST technology, the standard for instruments and effect plugins und Windows, is proprietary, and therefore will never be supported under Linux, so you have to use emulators and tools to make it work, which basically will cost system performance, and adds another element of instability to the system. Seriously, i think the philosophy behind Linux hinders itself the most, not "the companies which don't get involved". But as for most Linux users, the philosophy is what makes them using it, so there is no solution in sight.

There's loads of proprietary software for Linux -- just none home users are interested in, mostly on the server side where the money is. Most home users use Linux so they don't have to spend money (or feel like they're stealing stuff), as far as I've seen. However, free software (in the software libre / open source sense) only works if you put effort in instead of money -- effort that "costs" more than the money would on a more widely-used platform. (I remain convinced that a lot of MacOS software is funded by Windows version sales.) It's this that's missing. And it's missing at the lowest levels for audio, which puts off application developers as they don't have something to target. JACK could be a wonderful cross-platform solution but with only about six people really involved, several of whom have gone through phases of refusing to talk to each other, you can understand why an application developer might get put off.

("home user" - i.e. people who'd otherwise run a Windows or MacOS PC; I'm not talking about "home Linux users" who are running it embedded in proprietary devices like media servers.)

Linux...anybody using it?