The linux DAW thread

[glokraw]

There's an interesting early-reflections reverb in the
invada collection, lots of gui controls, if a bit scientific looking.
Scheduled time for trying it with the ampsims and vsts,
when the rains pick up. Lots of Guitarix plugins are working for
some serious gain-staging variety, and some rkr
(rakarrack derivatives) and Calf for modulation/ambience,
good times emerging, with plenty cpu to spare
Cheers

[glokraw]

https://kushview.net/element/

Element is a modular vst host,
similar in function to using Energy XT, or the
linux patchage gui.
Tried this briefly in Mint 18, so far, so good.
Installed and using it via wine-staging 3.17
I loaded Obxd synth for the midi keyboard,
with LaGrange and Tantra for the usb guitar interface,
in the same session.

Wineasio was detected,
and shows up for drag/drop 'cable' connections,
so drag wineasio output to plugin input

then drag plugin output

to wineasio input

In my test, the first two wineasio connectors
(out of 16 shown) detected both the midi
and line-out correctly.

Scanning plugins also worked well, with a typical
panel allowing to select paths, apply, and scan.

Drag a plugin from the list on the left to the
main window. There is a 'view' button at the upper right,
to switch between views. A right-click on plugin or device
widget opens up the disconnect dialog.

And it's on sale for well under the normal $50
by using the code FALL2018 at checkout,
through October 14th
Cheers

[farlukar]

Overtone DSP plugins now on sale for £10 each, all available as linux vst

[glokraw]

For my winter project, I bought a SonuusGM2 monophonic
guitar to midi interface. It requires
1. great midi instruments
2. great guitar intonation
3. great effort to play notes accurately
4. finding the place on the guitar most suited to the chosen sound(s)
5. suggest a custom string set, minimizing differences in gauge
6. willingness not to attempt shredding
7. willingness to edit audio.

What are it's strengths for a guitarist to gain synth/sampler diversity?
Maximize each pluck!
1. Layering multiple instruments/presets that have varied
adsr settings. Using multiple instruments and varied release settings
creates unique ambient presentations, and can
can obviate the lack of polyphony, while greatly
extending the palate of sounds.
2. Trigger sequences, arpeggio presets, looped beats, at the same time
as backing pads
3. Layer sounds featuring unique modulations, one with delay,
one with portamento, one with phase/flange, one with
chorus/distortion etc
4. Taking advantage of familiar/unique guitar note locations
not easily replicated on midi keyboards.

It will take time to find/create presets that work really well.
And then modify the guitar-playing as needed. Slinky/lazy players
will need to change their ways.
(tugging my beard, in contemplation )

Some synth/sampler plugins I thought would be great,
and are, when using a midi keyboard,
utterly failed the usability minimums, while some I thought
surely would be problematic, worked very well. Beyond that,
within any preset bank, or sampler soundset, some things
will be useful, and others useless.

The hardware is excellent, a tuner light is integrated, which pulses slower
as you get in tune, flashes faster the more you are out of tune.
It has an external switch to enable chromatic mode playing.
There are six jumpers in the battery recess, for some
common system settings.
The battery connectors are firm, and the device goes to sleep
when not played after a time (re-insert cable to reactivate)
or when the guitar cable is removed.
It has a pass-through guitar output,
so your amp is still available as you play midi.
The needed audio-in, and 5pin midi-out, are on opposite ends,
so no kinky cables. As simple to use as the youtube videos show it.

To me, this has somewhat limited 'instant gratification' appeal,
but rewards the first 4 hours investment.
And the fun grows steadily after that.
For a guitarist unfamiliar with available midi sounds,
try a lot of synth/sampler freebies, demos, and no-brainer sales.
I found the Fathom synth and sounds work very well,
and it has a free mono version to use, with a few hundred presets.
Zebra and other U-he synths will also be good choices,
providing a great range of sound types to layer.

My tests were done using an E-mu X2 usb midi adaptor,
in Studio 1337 realtime linux distro, using Reaper in wine
to host plugins. The output soundcard is mAudio 24/96 pci,
with nVidia pcie video card.
The Sonuus device was $79.95 at

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/manufacturer/sonuus

with free shipping,
and arrived in 4 days.
Cheers

[glokraw]

https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb

There is a linux version, just extract the archive in
/home/you/.vst. Testing with Fender Mustang GT40
modeled amps, and U-he ColourCopy, sounds great!
Lots of options and control, to make what you like.
Cheers

[audiojunkie]

The Tracktion engine went open source today!!

[glokraw]

Hope some devs will find some good code in the Traction release,
and give credit when it's due. Too bad Mackie dropped the ball,
but balls do bounce back
Cheers

[glokraw]

I mentioned Native Instruments Reaktor-based Polyplex drum sampler,
over in the commercial linux software topic, it's great fun,
full of useful features, and will be a great companion to
the linux Hydrogen drum machine,
with almost no feature overlap, and lots of ways to
use the strengths of both in creative ways.
A two-week blizzard right now, wouldn't exactly break my hea rt
Cheers

[GaryG]

Is there an up to date list of audio interfaces that play nice with Linux floating around anywhere? The few I've found seem to be a few years old, listing obsolete devices. Thanks.

[glokraw]

Current discussions:

https://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewforum.php?f=6

general guidance:

http://www.linuxstudiopro.com/faq.php

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ubunt ... edHardware

https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?t=17472

Technical details are here:

https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main

an example from the link above, for Native Instruments
Komplete Audio 6:

https://www.alsa-project.org/main/index ... -usb-audio

an overview of linux audio:

https://www.learndigitalaudio.com/how-l ... audio-2017

Cheers

[GaryG]

Thanks!

[glokraw]

Guitarix is one of the staple linux audio apps,
that gets better and better every year. As an ampsim-plugin suite,
once familiar with the wide range of options and plugins,
it is easy to find excellent sounds. I enjoy switching
among the 18 tube emulations, and the gui dials are the best
I've used, large, responsive, and with nice lighting on the
amount rings. There is a subtle stress that builds up
when using small fiddly controls, and guitarix feels more like
relaxing with real gear, than aiming in an arcade shooter.

The developer enjoys studying hardware circuitry to
create LV2 gear models that work in Guitarix. There is
usually a current topic at www.linuxmusicians.com
in the plugins area, look for Gx in the topic titles.
The newest version can always be compiled, but most good distros
keep up with releases, or users add the kx-studio repositories
which also do that.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/guitarix/

I like to make an enjoyable guitarix tone starting from the clean preamp
on my Fender Mustang usb amp, add a few rakarrack effects favorites,
and then cycle through the amps 20 other classic amp models,
for a really wide group of tones, on the hardware main dial.

And you can always route Guitarix standalone output
to a Reaper or similar audio input, to make use of vst plugins,
like the Twangstrom and Dragonfly reverbs,
among the growing masses.
Cheers

[planetearth]

Maybe I'm missing something (and with 58 pages on this topic alone, I probably am), but is there a reason this thread is under "Computer Setup and System Configuration"? It seems to me this would be much easier to find under "Hosts & Applications", where other threads about DAWs are.

It might even be nice to have its own "top-tier" category for everything related to Linux. Then those who are interested in Linux DAWs, plug-ins, and other issues could find things more easily.

I'm not sure how to summon a moderator to get an answer on this. I tried to call their names three times while staring into a mirror, but that didn't seem to do anything.

Eenywho...that would be my 2 cents on the issue--but in the spirit of Linux and "open source", I'll just give it away for free.

Steve

[audiojunkie]

Guitarix is one of the staple linux audio apps,
that gets better and better every year. As an ampsim-plugin suite,
once familiar with the wide range of options and plugins,
it is easy to find excellent sounds. I enjoy switching
among the 18 tube emulations, and the gui dials are the best
I've used, large, responsive, and with nice lighting on the
amount rings. There is a subtle stress that builds up
when using small fiddly controls, and guitarix feels more like
relaxing with real gear, than aiming in an arcade shooter.

The developer enjoys studying hardware circuitry to
create LV2 gear models that work in Guitarix. There is
usually a current topic at www.linuxmusicians.com
in the plugins area, look for Gx in the topic titles.
The newest version can always be compiled, but most good distros
keep up with releases, or users add the kx-studio repositories
which also do that.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/guitarix/

I like to make an enjoyable guitarix tone starting from the clean preamp
on my Fender Mustang usb amp, add a few rakarrack effects favorites,
and then cycle through the amps 20 other classic amp models,
for a really wide group of tones, on the hardware main dial.

And you can always route Guitarix standalone output
to a Reaper or similar audio input, to make use of vst plugins,
like the Twangstrom and Dragonfly reverbs,
among the growing masses.
Cheers

Great tool! Here are some prime guitars to use with it if you cannot play guitar:

Impact soundworks’

Shreddage Guitar v1 Classic Edition (SFZ format)
Shreddage Bass: Picked Edition (SFZ format)

[audiojunkie]

Maybe I'm missing something (and with 58 pages on this topic alone, I probably am), but is there a reason this thread is under "Computer Setup and System Configuration"? It seems to me this would be much easier to find under "Hosts & Applications", where other threads about DAWs are.

It might even be nice to have its own "top-tier" category for everything related to Linux. Then those who are interested in Linux DAWs, plug-ins, and other issues could find things more easily.

I'm not sure how to summon a moderator to get an answer on this. I tried to call their names three times while staring into a mirror, but that didn't seem to do anything.

Eenywho...that would be my 2 cents on the issue--but in the spirit of Linux and "open source", I'll just give it away for free.

Steve

Back when this thread started, the hardest part about getting into Linux music-making was getting the appropriate Linux compatible hardware and doing the initial setup configuration. The WAS the appropriate place for the thread. Thankfully, Linux music making has advanced by leaps and bounds, and this Linux thread has become a main hangout for KVRAudio Linux users to discuss everything Linux music making related. Linux having its own top-tier category would be like a dream come true. The Reaper forums at the Cockos site just barely got one, so maybe it’s time.