Bitwig on Linux

[johnnyboy5000]

Linux is great for Bitwig. Linux gives new life to older PC systems. I'm using Linux Lite 4.8, AMD Phenom II CPU, 12GB of ram and Bitwig 3.1.3. My audio system is an old M-Audio 2496 PCI. I can run 48000 128/3 and get no xruns, which is 8ms latency. I used this video to prepare Linux for audio.
https://youtu.be/E6LuvdDEqCA

[SmajjL]

I have had wierd issues with getting short regular spikes, thought it was Hive2 but (long story short) solution: after installing liquorix kernel AND setting Bitwig plug-in hosting mode to (with-in Bitwig), no spikes what so ever
Ubuntu atm..
No low latency stuff engaged here btw.. and, straight ALSA

[lunardigs]

I have had wierd issues with getting short regular spikes, thought it was Hive2 but (long story short) solution: after installing liquorix kernel AND setting Bitwig plug-in hosting mode to (with-in Bitwig), no spikes what so ever
Ubuntu atm..
No low latency stuff engaged here btw.. and, straight ALSA

Interesting. Never heard of liquorix kernel. I see it's a performance-tuned kernel. I'll have to check it out.

For mainline Linux though you can use "CPU frequency scaling" as a remedy to spiky-cpu. On Fedora, the package is called "kernel-tools" and the commands looks like this:

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cpupower frequency-set --governor performance

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cpupower frequency-set --governor powersave

This should work with any Linux distro/kernel.
The difference in behavior between "performance" and "powersave" is significant too. It give a very noticeable performance boost to Bitwig or anything audio/DSP related.

[SmajjL]

If i'm on a Ubuntu flavour then i might as well sudo apt install ubuntustudio-installer
so i get the Studio Controls and can install what i need, and we have KX studio also.
Im on 7700K, and shuld not get spikes like that .
Since im on Liquorix, echo performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
does not works anymore, set my BIOS to go full turbo, i7-7700K atm, next might go all in on AMD
Ubuntu Studio are going with KDE on the next realease
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Ubuntu studio controls and my own commands did not go so well on Liquorix and i just read that Manjaro actually already patch/tune their Kernel abit, would explain why i have had more luck with it.
But i went to check the Bitwig performance graph and Liquorix leads so far for playback if you ask me, even over Manjaro, tweak more Manjaro?

[Taika-Kim]

I read one benchmark where the Liquorix kernel actually lost to any normal kernel in performance. I also did some preliminary testing, and the generic kernel seems to give better performance with Bitwig than the default Ubuntu Studio low latency kernel.
Also Intel Boost should be off, on my i7-6700 it locks the cores at 3.4ghz,but the performance is better than with boost on, even though then the cores even on average run on a higher speed.

[lunardigs]

I read one benchmark where the Liquorix kernel actually lost to any normal kernel in performance. I also did some preliminary testing, and the generic kernel seems to give better performance with Bitwig than the default Ubuntu Studio low latency kernel.
Also Intel Boost should be off, on my i7-6700 it locks the cores at 3.4ghz,but the performance is better than with boost on, even though then the cores even on average run on a higher speed.

Wow ... That's surprising to me.
You know, it's also definitely desirable to have powersave mode available. When I switch from performance to powersave, my cpu might drop about 7 degrees (C).

[Taika-Kim]

Yes but powersave is very bad for heavy usage. I use it on light projects and general usage, but switch to performance when I'm working on anything heavy. I undervolt my CPU and cache too, around - 150Mv (i7-6700), that helps to keep everything a bit cooler too.

As I see it, the generic kernel runs several processes faster, but the low latency kernel is more responsive with the high priority apps. Responsive, but not necessarily faster. My first test gave around 5% better performance with the generic kernel. Also with the low latency kernel I was experiencing extreme GUI lagginess with the whole system with big projects even on low CPU usage. So maybe the way BW threads stuff or something is not that compatible with the low latency kernel.

[SmajjL]

On KDE i have tried turning off baloo (file index) (tip i got)
Turned off battery brightness (power management) also just a "tick" on KDE
c-states in the BIOS off
i7-7700K/Babyface Pro and with 128 buffers on Windows10, the graph is smooth and low on the exact same project with Bitwig.
Yeah i can tell you that i have a "low-latency-patch"-fobia now, does not really help my graph for playback ghehe!
Plenty of stuff to try still, not giving up :p, gonna try a USB backplate so it can be hopefully undisturbed, but yeah, all is good on w10..
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Nope, no luck on GNOME and installing a Liquorix Kernel i don't know much about as a solution and maby not supported by my Distro is abit *meh*
MX Linux i think does and maby that's why it is on top on Distrowatch? :p
And i noticed, even if i don't play! Bitwig is Stop, the graph shows pixel thin spikes, low but, should not be there at all, says Windows :p

In Terminal (in a folder might be good)
archalien bitwig-studio-3.2beta6.deb
Bam! > studio-3.2beta6-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz
Have to get archalien it from AUR but atleast that easy and still works.
Maby Bitwig will go appimage one day?

Hopefully MX Linux XFCE will not mind if i throw a Cinnamon or KDE on it? and, MX-19.1_ahs_x64.iso supports Nvidia now, Resume distrohopping-off&awayyyYyyy-y-y... must try

[SmajjL]

Some Swedish words later........ WoW!
Tried first with the their default main kernel ofc, it was actually OK but after finding where is stuff/ahh-ohh then i installed Liquorix Kernel and no - peaks - what - so - ever, haleluljah!

Tip: If your Bitwig.deb is on your "other HD" and GDebi just zzZzzZz... then copy or move it to /home/SmajjL/Downloads/ or something, and it shall work
Tip2: do not! change the Hz before you have installed Nvidia
Tip3: install.sh can just be dragged into the Terminal
Tip4: if you get flicker, Windows Manager Tweaks > Compositor > Enable Display Compositing = noOoOo & slam the door
Tip5: add your calibrated .icc manualy, twice...

What is the most CPU/laptop friendly is one thing, most Stable Sea/Ocean of Graphs is Liquorix atm, can't have those peaks/lines in my eye or, ear.. and i have no lappy
Maby main Distro devs can tweak stuff add goodies from Liquorix? i am not good enough for that, yet (don't wait up)
MX Linux is nutts with options and a Debian...
Let's see if i can break something, how it goes, hope not, my main distro now, day1 *fingers crossed*
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Think i'll leave the DE's alone, don't wanna compromize security with backports or what 'evs "update" from the twilightzone, must be a nice Debian-user, yeash
Edit: to much smileys.. even for me, you are welcome..
495MB as a startup, ooo-ki..
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv_BkNvuNlE hehe
All i need is Liquorix Kernel then, on my fav distro and hopefully it won't mess something up.. have to read up on that
Manjaro seems to patch their kernel but all of it is not in there, but if we want more from for example liquorix, then we would have to know what part and what it does, be kinda specific and that, is hard for me lol but they seem open for it if you are a blackbelt penguin and can explain
Because they only give support for their own kernel, if you bake-in / install liquorix, no support so to speak