Installing Ubuntu, is it worh it?

[thetechnobear]

what recommendations are there for a lightweight performance oriented linux distro?
(or should I just build from scratch, done before a few years ago)

Ive been thinking perhaps to use a linux server as an 'instrument farm', run VSTs on it… connected back to my Mac which would run the DAW. In a similar way to the way i use vienna ensemble pro.
so, running audio back via gigabit ethernet (JackNet?), networked midi, a lightweight host (perhaps mixing, to reduce number of audio streams), and remote desktop/vnc for controlling mixer/VST UIs.

my alternative, is to continue with vienna ensemble pro, and buy a mac mini as the server, less hassle, a bit more costly.

… but linux, with the right setup, could give better/stable audio performance, as its easier to strip down installation to essentials.

so rather than replace Win/Mac, augment it - anyone done something similar?

[carlosjcuevasm]

Sorry for not helping you technobear, I am not able to! I am posting some questions myself.

The next paragrah is not needed to get my main reason for this post, anyways maybe you get entertained reading it. Jump to the party emoticon if dont feel like reading too much.

Aint got money atm for independence pro, Kontakt, Sampletank or anything like that.
During one of my werb surfing adventures ( for real, they are like adventures) seeking acceptable quality royalty free samples ( Orchestral ones this time) I came up to one of those Download Link /Rar Password after Downloading this 'X' offer. Thristy for samples, hypnotizised, I gave in to the website desires...ALMOST. During middle of the installation of that "offer download' to get my rar password I suddenly recovered all my mind and damn, tried to stop the damminstallation. Couldnt...I ran to taskmanager I finished the process...Didnt work, as the software and all its brothers, sisters and cousins started to appear on my desktop, processes and pretty much everywhere. God I dont know what happened to me... I never install such stupid thigns...they were all malware. After finally unistalling all of them... they kept appering and suddendly I lost internet conecction dont know f**** why. I installed a malware removal tool from an usb but even after eliminating all malware, connection was lost. I SAID OK, BETTER! So I wont loose my precious time surfing the web and lets work on my studio, I dont need internet acces to that. I was actually kind of happy! I got my tablet for surfing the web, I dont need it in my pc. Well, SURPRISE. Bitwig WONT start. Did some movements, some tricks, nothing worked! No way. You dont mess with my audio stuff nah ah, you dont! Time to format pc, perioid. Did a proper back of everything backup worthy.

So yes, what better time to install ubuntu alongside windows than this one. So I did. Windows then Ubuntu. followed this guide

http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2014/0 ... ndows.html.

With some modifications as just 25gb for the ubuntu "/" partition, (Ubuntu Documentation says at least 10gb so 25 should be cool) and I have 4gb of ram so just 2gbs for sawp area.

End of story. Now some quastion regarding Ubuntu.

I have ubuntu installed right now, this is firefox from ubuntu itself.

But... I am trying to get how it works and I am doing well. "problem" is that documentation for audio production in the ubuntu linux enviorement if not well suited for beginners to Ubuntu( is it?). I installed my Bitwig license and ran the thing, it worked, but audio have crackles sometimes ( scarlet 2i2). I am thinking I need some driver thing to better performance (I tried to run the realtime kernel terminal code but is not sucessful dont know why but ok.)

Guides I have come across are all oriented to some ardour, lmms stuff I dont know at all, I would like to know... having a vanilla Ubuntu installed, and thinking about Bitwig... wich stuff should be done to have a sucessfull expirience. This is the core of my post.

Lot of articles talk about jack to sucessfully route apps before the output to speakers Do I need jack with Bitwig? What Can i do to get better audio playback with Bitwig as using stock Ubuntu. Can I install Bitwig in another folder as It automatically isntall itself in a default directory ( I really like to install thing in folders I reated like, C/:.......Producer/DAWs/Bitwig Studio etc. I installed wine, can but I can not run Vsts in Bitwig, it does not detect them. Should I double install every Vst in both OS?

Perhaps, maybe you can post some "verified" link suited for the new Ubuntu Bitwig user,so I can read it, get everything and start making the software audio ready. Or at least to know if I already am. Who knows, maybe you would like to start some article suited to the Ubuntu Bitwig user.Any help is welcome.Btw... Did not installing UbuntuStudio OS was a big mistake? I got to know about it just after intalling Ubuntu itself.

I am sorry for asking that much, I know they are hundreads of articles on the web about ths topic, but I tried to read some of them and I was not sucessfully getting it.



Cool thing, I am not stuck, after some messing around I am going back to windows for some work. But Iw ould like to have Ubuntu runing as soon as possible to see if I can get things done there.

[glokraw]

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.

The old saying, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' The clam at high tide,
whistles a happy tune. But many a musician is 'busted flat in Baton Rouge',
and many beginners are born each day, and not with bags of ca$h in each hand.

I suppose one's composing routines, and musical preferences should have a say.
Do you like creating custom rythym tracks? Hydrogen is a blast for doing that.
Do you like the DX7/FM type sounds? Hexter gives you sysex import, deep editing,
and barely nudges a cpu. How about deep layers of pristine synth sounds?
Yoshimi/zynaddsubfx offer a wide array of synthesis options, 16 part multi-timbral.
Want an fx bin? Calf collection has 15 or more, and nice monosynth, organ,
and wavetable synths. Rakarrack lets you use 10 fx from 30 or more,
in one gui, save the specialized raks and presets you create. Guitarix is a strong
ampsim environment, well designed for sensible use.

High-end film orchestration might require some time sussing out
the optimum working combination of wine and Kontact, and a powerful computer.
But that's rarified air on any platorm/OS.
I bought Cakewalks Dimension Pro in a no-brainer sale, in case I go all Montovani
in my old age.
Cheers

[glokraw]

Cool thing, I am not stuck, after some messing around I am going back to windows for some work. But I would like to have Ubuntu runing as soon as possible to see if I can get things done there.

There are several distros pre-configured for musicians.
It would save you lot's of time to use one. But it's still important to learn
the steps taken in them, that make things possible.

You can search youtube for qjackctl, along with keywords
hydrogen, zynaddsubfx, and ardour, there are quite a few videos
that go through the steps leading to recording.
Cheers

[ISP]

Why Linux version of Bitwig has very rough and jagged main font? Like anti-aliasing or smoothing is turned off...compared to Windows version it looks not so good at least.

[glokraw]

https://packages.debian.org/jessie/ttf- ... -installer

Check if your system has this? Or check if there is a dpi setting in your
system fonts prefs?
Cheers

[ISP]

Thanks! I'll try!

Not sure about dpi settings, all the other fonts in other apps looks great.

[ISP]

Thanks! I'll try!

Not sure about dpi settings, all the same fonts in other apps looks great.

[dkasak]

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

You might consider tossing a few coins to Paul.

Yes I've donated to quite a few projects like this. Right now, I'm putting up a bounty ( in some freelancer sites ) for getting some OSS libraries built on Windows ( $1,000 if people are handy with mingw or VC++ ). Next pay packet, yeah I should flick Paul a donation. Good of you to remind people

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.

I'm a Gentoo guy I'm a developer and I actually need to be able to run bleeding-edge software ( eg I develop with Gtk3 and the 'broadway' HTML5 backend ... my latest open-source release is http://tesla.duckdns.org/powercom-sunny-roo-software/ and I've been using this is a test-bed for broadway support ). I don't think this is a distro thing. I concede that if I could be bothered posting endless questions, hassling support ( if they offer support to people who haven't bought a license yet ), and making lots of custom scripts, I could probably get a basic setup working ( eg Jack and MIDI working together ). But I don't jump through hoops to make commercial software behave ( or in this case detect a MIDI controller ), unless someone is paying me to do it ( which they often do ). If I'm paying a substantial amount of money, it should 'just work'. I give the latest demo a try every month or 2, but nothing has changed from my perspective from the initial demo. But I know enough from my fiddling around with the direct ALSA connection that there still isn't enough in Bitwig for my simple needs. For example, there is no tap-tempo in the delay plugin ( which I've posted about in other threads ). For people doing live performances ( or at least for me - I play trumpet & trombone in a Reggae / Dub / Drum & Bass band ), this is basic functionality. So if I forked out for a license, I'd still be back in Ardour for gigs.

A certain proportion of my posts in this particular thread is whining, for sure. But keep in mind the original question - is it worth ditching another OS and running Bitwig in Linux.

[glokraw]

But keep in mind the original question - is it worth ditching another OS and running Bitwig in Linux.

I installed two different 64 bit linuxi, to experiment with bitwig,
without having to ditch anything. I jumped through hoops discovered by others.
And learned things. Gladly I call it Continuing Education.
Sure, it would have been nice for bitwig to have been perfect, on release,
but it's getting better. And all the perfect daws are still out there, ready for action,
if time is of the essence.
Reggae band sounds like great fun. That genre is a great stress reliever!

[tomsa]

I agree, it is interesting to see everyone's Linux experiences. For me, pulseaudio was never a big problem as far as latency was concerned. Where pulseaudio causes me problems is that I can't get it to handle anything beyond a stereo pair. I type

Code: Select all

 pulseaudio -k

and

Code: Select all

 pulseaudio --start

a lot more than I care to think about just because I don't have a machine that is solely dedicated to audio work.

Something else that really helps me with cutting down on latency and buffer underruns is disabling the wireless card. At first, I thought it was asking to do so, but as it turns out I get a lot more work done when I can't just flip over to the internet on a whim.

Thanks for the info about the Carla track being able to bring some LV2 plugins to the show. I'll have to give that a whirl.

[psycha0s]

tomsa, in my experience, the pulseaudio works fine with Bitwig as long as you do not try to change the master volume in the mixer (alsamixer, kmix, etc). After volume changing, sound begins to sizzle.. psshh... It's better to use plain ALSA, so you can get the same low-latency output as with JACK (JACK uses ALSA by itself).

[glokraw]

Pulse was made for listening to music, not for producing it.
For producers, it's a needless extra layer of complexity,
and that's when it's actually working

DON'T TOUCH THAT VOLUME KNOB

[gravy]

I am having a lot of fun with bitwig on a Ubuntu Studio installation (on its 3rd major upgrade) running the stock RT kernel and Jack. I did have to mess around to get my whole audio system working (custom .asoundrc) and after major upgrades I seem to have repeat steps a bit like this:
sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio
sudo apt-get autoremove

After about 7 years fiddling with Linux Audio I am finally making some music with bitwig. Live recording of my musical instruments, messing with a midi keyboard and an Alias 8 controller. My sound hardware is an old Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and seems to be clean enough as long as I run at 48000hz. My computer is a pretty low end Core 2 Duo maxed out at 4GB RAM, but it isn't too hard to avoid the dreaded Xruns.

I suppose I made some music before but it was too easy to get distracted by solving the latest technical problem or crash trigger. Bitwig has been mercifully stable and bug free and has enough to keep me occupied so far.

I am running with a BT keyboard and mouse and a wireless internet so the last poster has me thinking that going wired might help with performance a little. I wonder if it would be enough benefit to be worth the trouble though, rather than just increase the latency a little.

My only problem I have not been able to fix with bitwig is to get a sfz sample player for Salamander piano samples. After spending a few weeks on trying to get Virmidi and other work-around solutions working, so I could run an external sfz player, I gave up on that. Linuxsampler-vst works sort of but only wants to run one instance and even that one's buggy. I had a dabble in the stream of Wine-vst-bridge solutions but I've decided to let that one go.

So I am playing a lot with Pianoteq demo but can't quite persuade myself to shell out the cash. Also it uses about 20% of my CPU.

None of that is right to the point of the thread which asks for comparison to other OSs but, outside of work, there's no way I'm touching Win or Mac. Linux is just the way I work for creativity at home and I'm pretty much resolved to use Linux tools unless there's no way to avoid it. I'm happy to pay for them as bitwig purchase proves. It's about the feeling of controlling the whole workstation and not being at the whim of corporate software development processes.

My wishlist for bitwig is a native velocity curve midi plugin, full Jack citizenship including midi, support for midi transport controllers, LV2 support would be great and some scripts to convert sfz, gig etc. into the native bitwig multi-sample format. I also assume some of the other missing stuff will be sorted on all platforms soon enough - looped automation recording in clip mode etc.

[ThomasHelzle]

You can already import sf2 into Bitwig Studio, so maybe go through this to convert:
http://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando/
I created a ticket for sfz import a while ago and hope it will not be too long - it should be close enough to sf2 to be "relatively easy". I see more and more support for the format once again even from commercial vendors and since the format is open source, it would be a great fit.

Check the PIZMIDI plugins, many of them are available as source and can be compiled for linux.

I guess I have to look into the pulseaudio topic. I am constantly confused buy the sheer number of audio systems and subsystems on Linux. While I learn more and more about it, I still don't have a clear overview of what each one does, which ones I need and which ones I could ditch/ignore/disable.

At one point it would be great to have a complete tutorial on Linux Audio for Bitwig with several parts, from the underlying tech aspects, what each system does and how they are related to hands-on tips and tricks and how to setup and tweak different distros.

Cheers,

Tom