The linux DAW thread

[auricle]

Thanks Glokraw. Ubuntu Studio 21.04 now uses Plasma rather than XFCE. Although I am having problems with Bitwig in this version (Moss Graber's script more specifically).

[glokraw]

Here'a a recent article about Pipewire, withe the developers interviewed, perhaps a new era is ahead for linux media production?
Here's hoping!

https://fedoramagazine.org/pipewire-the ... -linux-34/

From the devs:
" PipeWire provides compatibility with ALSA, PulseAudio and JACK applications with an ALSA plugin, a replacement PulseAudio server and a JACK replacement client library respectively. Theoretically this should provide a way to run all existing applications without modifications."

[glokraw]

To mirror another topic concerning the viability of Pipewire as a new linux audio server, I didn't imagine my evening going that direction, but I added a new AVLinux drive to my setup, making another drive qualified to become a spear-catcher. So I went grubbing around for Pipewire documentation, because it's more of a buzzword lately, and soon will be a possible default install audio server in various linuxi, so a little nawliige kan't hertz......so after reading a qui little byte, I thought, this might actually be doable, donned my linux-doc hip-waders, and went fish'n

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/pipewire-on-ubuntu/20008

https://wiki.debian.org/PipeWire#Using_ ... ACK.2FALSA

After the good-luck reboot things still seemed to have a pulse,
so went back to the docs, pretending to be an end-level BOSS BOSS

The picture is worth a hunnerd words, if willing to squint at the terminal texts, you'll see two jackd standalone apps started and working with the pipewire jackd wrapper command, 'pw-jack' ... My beeerain is officially done for the rest of May 2021 TIME

Pipwire-wrapper-in-da-haus.png

The debian and ubuntu paths were a bit different, so I added the PPA listed in the ubuntu docs, reloaded synaptic package manager, installed all the pipewire items, rebooted, and it was in-da-haus . Later on, I launched linux reaper using the pw-jack wrapper, without issues. In a fully updated Ubuntu Studio 20.04

A lot of the pipewire chatter concerns getting the pro video and color-correction portions working 100% on release day, which no doubt will vary wildly as the captains of a thousand distros chart their courses. Like with the intro of systemd, choices will expand, as lines are drawn in the
low-latency quicksand.
Cheers

[glokraw]

Used linux Reaper to load a new free orchestral library from Dan Keen and the excellent Northern Films Orchestra, DecentSampler format. It's a 1-gig download, with some great brass, winds, and strings, set up in various swells and accents. Details and downloads at

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/nfo ... al-swells/

Dan-Keen-NFO.png

Also available in Kontakt format.
Cheers

[glokraw]

SampleScience mentioned a new version of DecentSampler, 1.07
is now ready to download!

https://www.decentsamples.com/product/d ... er-plugin/

[glokraw]

Cakewalk By Bandlab still installs and runs in a decent wine setup, this time in the MX-linux based AVLinux media distro, found at;

http://www.bandshed.net/

Some paltry details ARE in the commercial linux topic:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=503359&start=330

Cakewalk-SM_ONE-in AVLinux.png

https://discord.com/invite/bandlab

[glokraw]

Got reminded of using guitar for rakarrack's midi out, and connected it to Hydrogen drum machine, some common-sense details can be gleaned from the qjackctl and rakarrack screenshots. Pretty simple connections and settings, but being good at playing staccato, selecting or creating a dry kit, skill at compressor, settings, with tested trigger, and velocity levels will all help in recording several layers to build up some cool percussion tracks, and using audacity's speed playback controls can be put to good use, as the audio-2-midi isn't going to be blazing fast...but experiments help refine that as you go.
Cheers

rakarrack-midi-hydrogen-drums.png

hydrogen-rakarrack-audio.png

[glokraw]

A new ISO release of AVLinux provides fixes for installing Bitwig 3.3.10,
utilising custom options in the filemanager (thunar), and improved
LinVst plugin scans in Ardour, along with a custom theme for Ardour.
It also provides a themed logout panel.

There are instructions atop the website to add the fixes to the previous 5-22-21 release, with pretty pictures and links that even I can comprehend

www.bandshed.net

The iso 64 and 32 bit iso's are at

www.bandshed.net/avlinux (scroll down for the mirrors)

[glokraw]

Christian Henson, the PianoBook team, and samplists have been hard at it and here's a video detailing the progress, and below is a list of samples recently coverted to DecentSampler format, and the cross platform instrument can be downloaded here:

https://www.decentsamples.com/product/d ... er-plugin/

https://youtu.be/BjuZ7i5e5Ws

From the video notes:
Here’s a list of Fred Poirier’s all new EXS - DS conversions:

Alternate Reality Choir (DS)
AM Static Voices (DS)
Baldwin Piano (DS)
Bass Face (DS)
C&P Strings and Winds (DS)
Cassette Mood (DS) (this one’s great!!!)
Finger Muted Ibach (DS)
Guitar of the Deep (DS)
Into the Forest (DS)
Kai Ukulele (DS)
MegaPortaPad (DS)
Melodical (DS)
Otamatone Choir (DS)
Reverse Piano (DS)
Robs Stylophonogram (DS)
Ultra Ambient Pad (DS)
Vandenhengel Glasspad (DS)
Wind Chimes (DS)

www.pianobook.co.uk


Good times to create music

[glokraw]

Jorge Serrano made 58 .dslibrary samples from Korg X5D
sounds, found here:

https://github.com/J0rgeSerran0/Decent- ... /find/main

...adding nicely to the growing PianoBook library

X5Dynth info:

http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/x5d.php

[tony10000]

Given the trajectory of MacOS and now Windows, I wonder when more DAWs, virtual instruments, and effects are going to make the transition to Linux compatibility? DAWs like Bitwig and Reaper are already multi-platform options.

[audiojunkie]

Given the trajectory of MacOS and now Windows, I wonder when more DAWs, virtual instruments, and effects are going to make the transition to Linux compatibility? DAWs like Bitwig and Reaper are already multi-platform options.

It's getting better. Each year, there is more available than the year before. Also hurdles are being overcome that is making Linux easier for musicians (not techies) to use. The software is getting better too.

There are plans for mainlining the RT kernel patches. Once done, there will be no more need for musicians to mess around with custom kernels.

Pipewire is an audio server replacement for both Pulse Audio and JACK. Non-technical musicians won't need to worry about dealing with audio server conflicts.

Current software is getting better all the time--applications like Ardour, Reaper, Bitwig, etc are more stable, have more features, and run better with each passing version. Ardour v6 was a huge upgrade in timing stability and a new foundation for future growth. Reaper just added LV2 support. Bitwig just released v4 with a whole slew of new features.

New plugins are getting released all the time. For example, Surge, Vital, Odin 2, and Nil's K1v have only become available for Linux in the last year or two.

WINE has finally advanced sufficiently, and bridging capabilities are now available to run most of what Windows can run. We now have a powerful new Windows VST bridging software that supports VST3 and is easier and runs better than linvst (an also great, new bridge). yabridge and WINE are providing the ability to run all but the most copy-protection-hardened of Windows plugins.

There is a new kernel patch coming out in 5.13 (or 5.14) that will reduce latency of external USB audio interfaces.

Things are not improving exponentially, but they are improving steadily. I would dare say that Linux Pro Audio is in fact picking up steam, and improvements for the Linux Audio musician are coming faster and faster. It seems that every year there is a new company that expands product support to Linux. A great example is TAL-Software. It was only a couple of years ago that they started supporting Linux, and they in my opinion, along with Uhe, provide some of the best commercial applications you can find for linux. TAL Sampler is an essential for the Linux user in my book.

Audio Damage is another fantastic company with EXCELLENT plugins that just recently became available for Linux.

I could go on and on... The point is that the changes are happening now. Acceptance is happening now. It's not coming fast, but it's coming steady. I've been a member of KVR Audio since the very beginning--nearly 20 years ago. No one mentioned Linux as anything more than a joke a recently as 10 years ago. 5 years ago, there were many that started taking it seriously. Today, I see more musicians looking into Linux than I ever did in the past. Each day, I open KVR and look to see what new Linux things may have been released. Today, there were three Linux related Top Stories announcements:

VSL's Synchron Stage
Promoted
rncbc.org updates Qtractor to v0.9.23 for Linux
July 14, 2021

Loomer updates String for macOS, Windows, & Linux to v1.15.1 - incl. VST3 & new GUI
14th July 2021

Bitwig has announced that Bitwig Studio 4 is out now along with a new sound package called Anti-Loops.
14th July 2021

You wanna get excited? Check out this post about the DSP563xx Emulator VST plugin that is being developed right now (and is already working). It supports Linux natively:

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=559359

Best,

Sean

[farlukar]

There are plans for mainlining the RT kernel patches. Once done, there will be no more need for musicians to mess around with custom kernels.

Ubuntu has had RT kernels in the repository for many many years.

[audiojunkie]

Continued: Another thought: Just a short year ago, we didn't have sfizz, yabridge, decent sampler, HISE, Sitala, etc.

We no longer need to worry about using the archaic old-school JACK connections to create music. I don't even mess with that part of JACK anymore. It's still there if someone really needs it, but it's like Re-Wire. Unnecessary. I've been compiling a personal list of LV2 and VST plugins, which are available to use. There are a lot! I've left A LOT out, but that's because my list only contains the plugins I'm interested in. Look into these:

Free Software (not counting anything commercial):

Samplers:
Linux Sampler
Sfizz
SFZero
Samplv1
Fluidsynth (Fluidplug, Calf FluidSynth, FluidSynth VST)

Synths:

Surge
Vital (Vitalium)
ZynAddSubFX
Helm
Dexed
OBXD
Xhip
Odin 2
Synth v1
Padth v1
Sorcer
amSynth
Calf Organ
Calf MonoSynth
Yoshimi

Drums:

Hydrogen
AVL Drums
Drumkv1
DrMr
DrumGizmo
Fabla/Fabla2
Speedrum Lite

Effects Suites:

Calf Studio Gear
DistRHO Project
Linux Studio Plugins
DragonFly Reverb
Airwindows
GVST Plugins
MDA Plugins
MVerb
ZamAudio
LoudMax
Mucoder's Hypercyclic

Misc:

Carla
Phrasebox
Guitarix
Audacity (or whatever the new forked version will be called)
VMPK
etc.

[audiojunkie]

There are plans for mainlining the RT kernel patches. Once done, there will be no more need for musicians to mess around with custom kernels.

Ubuntu has had RT kernels in the repository for many many years.

Actually, Ubuntu has not had RT kernels since version 12. They stopped making them. They now use the generic kernel with some compile-time configurations such as Schedule Timer set to 1000hz instead of 250hz, and call it a their "Low Latency" kernel. It's, in my opinion, actually a smart way to go. You don't have to deal with proprietary hardware/software problems and you get to keep power settings. The current proprietary NVIDIA, VirtualBox, VMware Workstation / Player and some other dkms modules builds (ie Wifi) do not officially support Clang'ed (EDGE) and RT kernels. Plan on not having access to these things while using non-generic kernels.

But like I said, they no longer make RT kernels for their repository. Creating a custom kernel is actually very easy, but it scares the heeby-jeebies out of non-tech folks. Also, few people who take Linux Pro Audio seriously will be on the same distro as each other. Ubuntu is a good distro, but there are also the Debian, Manjaro, Fedora, and Arch users--as well as every other Distro you can imagine. Those distros would all need to provide a low-latency or RT kernel with scheduler timing of 1000hz, or else you'll need to compile one yourself. The point is, RT kernels are made from a set of RT patches and compile-time configurations. All of the RT kernel patches are slated to be mainlined into the generic linux code. There will be no more need for custom kernels such as: Liquorix, Xanmod, Xanmod Cacule, Libre-LTS, Libre-Current, Zen, AVLINUX RT, Generic compiled for low latency, Real Time kernel, etc. While they won't go away, the generic kernel will be perfectly sufficient for all pro audio needs. That was my point.