The linux DAW thread

[tetraplan]

There's a handfull of viruses for Linux, but they typically need stuff like Apache or PHP as a vector.
If you really want to be sure, FProt, Antivir and ClamAV are available for Linux. There are threads on the Ubuntu forums about setting them up.

Groet, Erik

[Germ777]

For audio work there are 2 distros out there.
One of them is 64 studio which is based on Debian and the other one is Dynebolic which is mainly a live CD that can be installed in your hard drive if you like it enough.
I have used many different distros and found Ubuntu/Kubuntu to be the easiest to work with but Fedora core 5 is quite cool too.
As for viruses. GNU/Linux is by far safer than Windows but not bullet proof (almost but not quite) and having an antivir is always a good idea if only for your ease of mind.

[Deric]

Perhaps this is a little off topic but...

Apart from avoiding some of the Windows XP bloat and the virus' issue, what are the real benefits of setting up a Linux DAW compared to, say, XP?

Can Plugins (I use VST) be used/wrapped??

[Germ777]

Perhaps this is a little off topic but...

Apart from avoiding some of the Windows XP bloat and the virus' issue, what are the real benefits of setting up a Linux DAW compared to, say, XP?

Can Plugins (I use VST) be used/wrapped??

Realtime sound processing and general stability beyond Windows best efforts?

[rokkon]

i have seen no mention of linux antivirus or firewall software

since i have one do-it-all machine - what gives ?

While Linux has a firewall build-in you don't need it as long as you don't offer services to the outside world. There are no open ports in ubuntu by default.
A firewall simply guards open ports. You wouldn't need one in windows, if you'd stop all listen ports (windows' default settings are crazy), that's what the security indiustry dosn't tell you

About antivirus.. don't bother with the antivir apps for linux, AFAIK they only look out for windows viruses. It's meant for systems that communicate with windows systems, for example you're running an email server on linux and want to protect your windows users

[toddyjoe]

I use Puppy Linux for a Linux DAW after I spent some times compiling and creating packages for that distro. Puppy is a very small-sized distro so it worked well for maximizing the amount of resources, memory and CPU available for the music applications as opposed to the operating system. If you check out the Puppy Linux website and forum, you will find about 40 "Dotpup" packages I created for various music applications such as the new Rosegarden, JACK, Ardour, Hydrogen, numerous soft synths, drum machines, samplers and sound/file editors.

[dark.nowhere]

Perhaps this is a little off topic but...

Apart from avoiding some of the Windows XP bloat and the virus' issue, what are the real benefits of setting up a Linux DAW compared to, say, XP?

Can Plugins (I use VST) be used/wrapped??

I heard a rumor about some VST-enabled host on linux, but the interface is not exactly kosher. Right now there's no real approved VST support, although you might be able to use wine to some capacity for that... I doubt it's worth it, but I have no idea.

I personally wouldn't use Linux for audio (with a few exceptions) because I can't work the way I want to given the available applications. This is changing as I type (my fav. host is having a cross-platform workalike created for it, currently in alpha) and I hope to be using it (since I prefer to use it for everything else.)

[fake]

I go away for a while and while I'm gone a Linux thread appears.....

The spamming come later,

But for now: vst setup

At the last count around 130+ vst's work on linux with either the dssi-vst or the fst wrappers.
Some work perfectly and some don't but that's mainly due to the graffix and using wine.

Install rosegarden, dssi-host-jack, dssi-vst, dssi-example clients and fst. fst is not necessary if using dssi but handy as it give another option and some vst's work better in it. You can find precompiled vst-dssi and fst binaries available so no compiling, use Alien to convert rpm's to deb's.
Install; wine, wine utils, wine dev, libwine, libwine alsa, libwinejack, libwinegl and any other dependencies.
Once wine is installed run in a normal terminal: wineprefixcreate, this will setup wine. To alter any wine configurations run "wine" and then select the config button that way you can select to use jack in a wine app.

Make a directory in your home called vst and put some vst's in and also include the steinberg headers aeffectx.h and aeffect.h.
Start jackctl and then start rosegarden. Rosegarden should then scan the vst's (can take a while) and they should then be available for selection.
Any dssi synths installed will also be available and setting are saved.
To enter a vst serial number open it in rosegarden and do a copy and past, fst will recognise it also.
Some vst's need windows dlls to operate, they need to be copied to the .wine system32 folder.

For fst: open a terminal and run: fst /path to vst folder/vstname.dll and don't forget to always have jack running first.

The om modular synth and rosegarden are dssi enabled so vst's can be used, and to make routing easier use patchage with lash or glashctl for saving all the settings as one file!

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 75#2258675


Iv'e compiled the new fst version with lash so that any vst settings now get saved.

Ok, a few quick tips to make life easier in terminals.

When cd'ing to a directory or typing out a dir/file name don't type out the whole thing, just type the first few letters and hit "tab", it will then auto complete the rest.
Use the up and down arrow buttons to scroll through the past commands typed.

Oh, and the transport button on qjackctl is used for syncing/starting audio apps in jack at once.

Sorry this is quick as i'm now off out.

fake

[pHz]

slainte rob

[tetraplan]

I've just been playing with Dyne:bolic, and it seems pretty nice. My Delta44 worked right away (well, after I raised the volume in AlsaMixer, anyway), video seemed to work well, too.
Currently downloading Pure:dyne to see what that does.

Haven't tested Jack, and FreeJay threw me off because it's a console app. Oh well.

I'll do some more testing later this week, but I can advice everyone to at least download the .iso. Burn it to a CD-RW if you don't want to waste a recordable.
It's a live CD that can be installed on a harddrive or USB stick.

I tested it on a Shuttle XPC, AthlonXP 2600+/512 MB/NForce2/Nvidia 4MX/M-Audio Delta44.

Groet, Erik

[fake]

Make things easy, use xfe file manager to do tasks.

Create a launcher with gksu xfe as the command line, that way it puts you in as administrator and you can alter and easily set attributes, and create links.

Its like the explorer file manager and customisable: associate gedit for text and file-roller for zips etc.

And for laptop touchpad stuff: qsynaptics will customise it, or should!

fake

[pHz]

kind of DAW related (insomuch as its audio / video)

is there a known issue with video in firefox or with flash version 7 in linux ?

seeing a problem where embedded video (in youtube certainly - havent checked others yet) in webpages plays with the audio and video totally out of sync - not a showstopper but irritating nonetheless

slainte rob

[tetraplan]

Ah, you've run into the buggyness that's flashplayer 7 for Linux.
Well, the beta for Flashplayer 9 is out, and it's an immense improvement. Still not completely in sync, but at least it's not as irritating as it used to be.
Also, it supports ALSA now, and doesn't stay on top of anything else on a webpage like v7 used to do.

//edit
It may be a beta, but it's pretty stable.
In fact, it's more usable than v7, which is a major bugfest.

Groet, Erik

[rokkon]

It's rather stable, but I did come across some flash bits that worked on Flash 7 but not on Flash 9. Rather rare though.

Phz, you use Ubuntu? AFAIK the flash 9 beta is already in the backports repo.

[pHz]

Phz, you use Ubuntu? AFAIK the flash 9 beta is already in the backports repo.

so i should be able to get it through synaptics ?

slainte rob