Installing Ubuntu, is it worh it?

[alexanderlindo]

Is the Ubuntu install worth it?

Well yes, on various levels. The main pros of using Ubuntu is the fact that it is fast, stable and secure.
Now while I am a hardcore Mac/Logic Pro user, I must give credit where credit is due.
After having used Ubuntu for over 8 years, I must say that it has come a long way and so has the availability of professional software. Under Ubuntu we have Bitwig Studio, Ardour 3, Tracktion 5, among others. I can confidently say that the Ubuntu / Bitwig combination is the most stable and productive choice available on the Linux platform so far.

Before committing to Ubuntu for audio, you will need to have a USB audio interface that is class complaint. (I assumed that because you are running a Windows box, you probably don't use firewire.)
It is one of the first things, (second to the sound) that, I look for in an audio interface. It must be class-compliant and must not depend on any propitiatory/exclusive software to function.
The most popular class-compliant USB audio interfaces include the: Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and 2i4. The other interfaces in the Scarlett line should work as well as they are class complaint but however depend on the proprietary MixControl software for selecting between Mic/Line level signal.

M-Audio just released the M-TRACK EIGHT which is class-compliant and does not depend on any digital routing software as all adjustments are made via the knobs and buttons present on the interface.
Among the M-Audio line, the M-TRACK, and the M-TRACK PLUS are also class complaint and thus should work as well.

You will need the JACK, audio connection toolkit for low latency recording. The best way to obtain it is by downloading QJackCtl from the Ubuntu Software Center. This software manages your sample rate, latency and other goodies. For facts/myths concerning JACK See: http://jackaudio.org/faq/

In regards to plug-ins, LinuxDSP.co.uk and distrho.sourceforge.com has got some handy ones. DiscoDSP has some great synths as-well. Loomer.co.uk is another option.

[lem8r]

Quick tip for linux users. To keep low latency and no xruns with jack you have to kill pulseaudio. They are competing each other. Sad truth is Unity's volume indicator is not working without pulse, so you can forget about it. Sad truth #2: jack runs with less xruns on generic desktop kernel on OpenSUSE 13.1 in comparison with lowlatency kernel on 14.04 and 14.10 Ubuntu.

[glokraw]

I picked up a magazineware dvd with 13.1, is bitwig working with an rpm from
renich/beerhunter? One made with alien? other?
Cheers

[lem8r]

I'm using alien tool.
# alien -r <filename>.deb

[dkasak]

Personally I would not choose Ubuntu, but if you're asking if it's worth installing 'some' Linux distro, for use with Bitwig, at this point I'd unfortunately have to say "no". For me at least ( and I'm really not attempting to do anything that impressive ), things just don't work. Jack and MIDI aren't working together. MIDI controllers don't work out-of-the-box ( there is a hack from Tom to address this ). Then the final straw: no instruments / effects. There is no support for LV2, which is what everyone else using Linux is using. And I've just tried some linux VSTs, and I get parse errors. Bitwig on Linux is a nice looking demo, but not very useful.

If you're asking if Linux with *other* DAWs is worthwhile - unless you're pretty keen for an uphill battle - no. I'm using Ardour, and it does everything I need ( while not looking quite as flashy as Bitwig ). I do get incredibly good performance & low latency. I have to accept that while there are some very high quality LV2 plugins, there aren't a lot of them. But it does what I want - recording, composing with a MIDI keyboard, and real-time effects for gigs.

Either way, I can't see a Windows / OSX user installing Linux, trying Bitwig, and saying "wow why didn't anyone tell me about this?" More likely they'll say "hey why doesn't x, y, and z work out of the box like I'm used to?"

[psycha0s]

Personally I would not choose Ubuntu, but if you're asking if it's worth installing 'some' Linux distro, for use with Bitwig, at this point I'd unfortunately have to say "no". For me at least ( and I'm really not attempting to do anything that impressive ), things just don't work.

And I've just tried some linux VSTs, and I get parse errors. Bitwig on Linux is a nice looking demo, but not very useful.

What Linux distribution do you use? VSTs can be linked with libraries, which are not present on your system (or you have very old versions with different ABI).

[StudioDave]

@dkasak: Bitwig works wonderfully here. I'm running Fedora 19 on a low-powered laptop (AMD64 TurionX2 with 3G memory), I have JACK and ALSA working well together, I have MIDI I/O, et cetera.

As phantom asked, what distro are you using ?

FalkTX recently released a VST plugin version of his Carla-rack, which means I can now run LADSPA, LV2, and DSSI plugins in Bitwig. He's already supplied the JackAss plugin for JACK-Midi connectivity, along with many fine ports of VST plugins, all working very nicely here.

I was playing with Podolski last night, I'm still impressed by its relatively low CPU usage. Also, no xruns during my tests (admittedly lightweight). Nice.

Linux users looking to update might consider Fedora 19 with the Planet CCRMA extensions. Fernando Lopez-Lezcano has maintained Planet C for a very long time, it's a stable and up-to-date system. No, it doesn't come with the catalog of goodies collected in KXStudio or AVLinux, but I've been building and running falkTX's software under Fedora without significant problems.

@virusav: re: abique == Da Man, I can only concur. However, a shout-out to phantom_one is in order too. They're both doing some fine things for the Linux audio apps stack.

Best,

dp

[briandc]

FWIW, I have Ubuntu Studio on one pc, and Bodhi linux on another. Bodhi isn't audio-specific, but I made a few tweaks to it, following the suggestions on the linux-audio website. Bodhi is now faster than Ubuntu, afaict.


brian

[pc999]

Personally I would not choose Ubuntu, but if you're asking if it's worth installing 'some' Linux distro, for use with Bitwig, at this point I'd unfortunately have to say "no". For me at least ( and I'm really not attempting to do anything that impressive ), things just don't work. Jack and MIDI aren't working together. MIDI controllers don't work out-of-the-box ( there is a hack from Tom to address this ). Then the final straw: no instruments / effects. There is no support for LV2, which is what everyone else using Linux is using. And I've just tried some linux VSTs, and I get parse errors. Bitwig on Linux is a nice looking demo, but not very useful.

Strange I am running BWS out of the box with jack and Novation controllers, using both Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint Mate 17.

[glokraw]

Jack and MIDI aren't working together. MIDI controllers don't work out-of-the-box ( there is a hack from Tom to address this ). Then the final straw: no instruments / effects. There is no support for LV2, which is what everyone else using Linux is using. And I've just tried some linux VSTs, and I get parse errors.

This article covers a lot of details needed to achieve audio/midi i/o in linux.
Once this is done, the other parts will start falling into place, dssi, ladspa, lv2,
native vsts, and wine alternatives, are enjoyed daily by many people.
Cheers

http://libremusicproduction.com/article ... arted-jack

[dkasak]

Jack and MIDI aren't working together. MIDI controllers don't work out-of-the-box ( there is a hack from Tom to address this ). Then the final straw: no instruments / effects. There is no support for LV2, which is what everyone else using Linux is using. And I've just tried some linux VSTs, and I get parse errors.

This article covers a lot of details needed to achieve audio/midi i/o in linux.
Once this is done, the other parts will start falling into place, dssi, ladspa, lv2,
native vsts, and wine alternatives, are enjoyed daily by many people.
Cheers

http://libremusicproduction.com/article ... arted-jack

Yes I'm well aware of how to use Jack and pretty much all of the rest of it. I fought the good fight, quite a few years back, to achieve enough knowledge, configuration files, and scripts to now make it 'relatively easy' to roll out another low-latency, Jack, MIDI capable system running Ardour with my favourite LV2 plugins. I've never seriously considered running VST plugins in wine ( I need stability for gigs ), though I understand that other people do this.

This knowledge did not translate to a smooth experience with Bitwig, and as I've noted, my main audio workstation simply refuses to talk to MIDI controllers at all running Bitwig and Jack, whereas if I close Bitwig and start Ardour, everything works perfectly. If I use Bitwig with a direct ALSA connection, Bitwig can at least identify my MIDI controller by name, but then it doesn't work. If I use Bitwig with a direct ALSA connection AND Tom's generic controller whatever-it-is-I-have-to-hack-in, then behold ... I can use my controller keyboard! But it shouldn't be like this. And then, as I also noted, none of my Linux VST plugins that just work in Ardour actually get detected in Bitwig - I get a parse error on startup when traversing the directory they're in.

Again, it looks 100% on Ardour graphically, but it's just not at 1.0 level yet, at least for Linux users. If it gets to the point where the a demo 'just works' in that when I close Ardour and open Bitwig, it connects to Jack, connects to my audio hardware and controller, and proceeds to make music, then I'll strongly consider buying a license ... but surely not before that. I paid nothing for Ardour and it's gotten me this far.

[sonofzev]

Skip Ubuntu...

Install KXStudio, Ubuntu Studio or AVLinux.. Personally I think KXStudio is the most complete and it is also Ubuntu based. There are 100's of plugins pre-installed as well as all the major apps.. If you aren't tied to anything in particular and have Bitwig as your main DAW then KXStudio creams windows in performance...

I have been using a custom built Gentoo until I had a disk failure.. I installed KXStudio to test some new hardware and was going to restore a backup of my older OS.. I haven't bothered....... KXStudio has done all the hard yards of configuring a really tight audio focused system..

There are some fantastic commercial plugins as well as free ones...

Honestly, it can't hurt to try..

[glokraw]

and as I've noted, my main audio workstation simply refuses to talk to MIDI controllers

Sorry, I misread your situaion!
I needed to do a few fings to get bitwig working.

1. command modprobe snd_virmidi
2. edit and rename the bitwig generic midi controller script, to contain
the naming that linux uses on the midi interface. See below.
3. replace the bitwigs script uuid, with a unique one, download at
http://www.famkruithof.net/uuid/uuidgen
4. With snd_virmidi module loaded, and bitwig started, bitwig prefs,
your midi controller list will have virmidi ports, but as yet, without visible text.
Select the first 'invisible' one, just below whatever visible choices are shown.
The same invisible choices are there when choosing a midi keyboard
in bitwigs hardware midi device.

bash-4.1$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: M2496 [M Audio Audiophile 24/96], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]


The edited portion of the generic script:

host.defineController("Generic", "Yamaha MIDI Keys", "1.0", "d176e850-ccb3-11e3-9c1a-0800200c9a66");
host.defineMidiPorts(1, 1);
host.addDeviceNameBasedDiscoveryPair(["M Audio Audiophile 24/96"], ["M Audio Audiophile 24/96"]);

So the edit in my case, was just inserting ["M Audio Audiophile 24/96"]
giving the script a new name, "Yamaha MIDI Keys", and adding the
unique uuid.

Hope this helps.
Cheers

[StudioDave]

... I paid nothing for Ardour and it's gotten me this far.

You might consider tossing a few coins to Paul.

Thanks for your honest reply. I admit that I'm stumped as to your problems with Bitwig. I'm also running A3 here, it's my primary DAW on my laptop and desktop machines. Both boxes are running Fedora 19 with the Planet CCRMA kernel and config scripts, and I'm living like a hog in the fat-house.

The best I can suggest at this point is to switch distros, or perhaps set up a second installation if you have the disk space.

Best,

dp

[ThomasHelzle]

I find it very interesting to read how differently people view, use and approach Linux.
90% of it seems to boil down to personal preference and experience on multiple levels.

I was never compatible with the Apple way of doing things, both the Hard and Software side annoy me.
I somehow agree with Windows, although I replace all the software, like Browser, Mail, Explorer etc. and really just use it as a bare-bone OS. The only MS Software I use is Visual Studio Express.
Linux comes in second, but so far I miss a real incentive for a switch...
So either MS needs to do something really bad or something on Linux needs to grab my interest really strongly.
Neither happened yet.

Cheers,

Tom