Running commercial audio software on linux

[glokraw]

Good information guys!! How is the latency with Ubuntu Studio's Low Latency Kernel vs a vanilla or a RT Kernel? Does Ubuntu Studio require any special configuring, or is it already pre configured and works out of the box?

The latency and overall feel of Ubuntu Studio seems much snappier
than in Mint 18, which I used with a 4.15 low-latency kernel.

There is just bare minimum to configure, sound card choice, wallpaper,
icons to put on the panel, number of desktops, ribs or chicken or both

The Ubuntu Studio is using the factory nVidia graphics, rather than Nouveau,
so that accounts for some of the apparent speed increase,
and kernel 5.3.0-24-lowlatency ...quite a jog down the road,
so I'd expect more performance gains there, as well.
Good times The days are and the nights are

[courtjestr]

Had a bit of time to play with NI in Linux today. I was able to install and run Native Access and then Kontakt and Massive. This was on a clean Wine prefix with nothing else installed or overridden, using winehq-staging 5.0 RC4. Once installed, everything worked great, at least in standalone. I have not tried to load Kontakt in a DAW yet.

When I installed the latest version of Native Access, it got stuck trying to install a Native Instruments ISO driver, presumably to mount NI ISOs. I terminated the driver installation from another terminal and NA completed fine. I then installed Massive and Kontakt as per glokraw's instructions, aka using NA to download the installations files and then mounting and installing from the downloaded ISOs or zip files.

Note that I am on a stock Ubuntu 18.04 with kxstudio added, running kernal 5.0.0-37-lowlatency.

Thanks glokraw for the inspiration to get NI running in Linux.

[audiojunkie]

Good information guys!! How is the latency with Ubuntu Studio's Low Latency Kernel vs a vanilla or a RT Kernel? Does Ubuntu Studio require any special configuring, or is it already pre configured and works out of the box?

The latency and overall feel of Ubuntu Studio seems much snappier
than in Mint 18, which I used with a 4.15 low-latency kernel.

There is just bare minimum to configure, sound card choice, wallpaper,
icons to put on the panel, number of desktops, ribs or chicken or both

The Ubuntu Studio is using the factory nVidia graphics, rather than Nouveau,
so that accounts for some of the apparent speed increase,
and kernel 5.3.0-24-lowlatency ...quite a jog down the road,
so I'd expect more performance gains there, as well.
Good times The days are and the nights are

Nice!

[glokraw]

A caution, if using Ubuntu Studio 19.10 with the official
nvidia 3D driver, you might avoid updating your kernel,
as the next kernel provided in Synaptic package manager, led
to errors instead of clear graphics. If you're good with
managing grub and kernel selection, not a huge deal,
but the ability to use an industry standard collection
like Native Instruments provide, in linux, leads me to
'if it ain't broke, don't fix it, update it or
say mean things to it' territory. Put my U-he, discoDSP
and NI products on a fresh SSD, and Ubuntu Studio is
doing well. Gonna set up a fresh Studio 1337 next
Had a fun jam with Kontakt and Fathom, a pair that greatly
compliment one another.
Cheers

[glokraw]

Beerhunter, long-time linux Bitwig user, made a video showing
the install of wine-staging 5.x, Melodyne, and the linvst
plugin wrapper!

Probably a good springboard for installing other windows apps
in linux

https://youtu.be/0DwZ-DuJoEE

[Fourstepper]

Does anyone have any experience running Spitfire Audio libraries and Kontakt 6 Player side by side in Linux? Would be happy to stay on a mainstream distro such as Ubuntu.

These, as they were a gift from my girlfriend (and because I love them), need to go to the potential Linux system with me

Thank you!

[glokraw]

I think best route is a linux on an external drive
to get a wine-staging working and K6-player stable
in reaper, then add the Spitfire app and a lib or two.
Try K6 plugin with using just a single core.
Start everything from terminals, and check them for clues
if the Spitfire misbehaves. Linux libs that are too old or too new
can mess things up, but some distros are fine with
multiple lib versions installed.

Wine over-rides might also help, although it appears
far fewer are needed these days than back in 2018)
Keep testing Kontakt as you go. Set synaptic prefs to keep
downloaded packages in it's cache
and back them up, so a good version of wine-staging
can always replace one with problems. With plenty of diskspace,
it's easy to have several .wine folders, renaming one
for the current session, for example,
.wine5-3
.wineK6
.wine-newest ...and

.wine for the one you want at the moment.
Cheers

[glokraw]

This post is about IK Multimedia's Lurssen Mastering Suite,
and installing T-Racks plugin collection for testing.
the youtube below gives an overview of it's purpose and uses.
As for results, here is a pic, the first track is typical of my homebrew
recordings after editing, the second track is the 'finished' homebrew
rendered with the Lurssen Jazz preset, (one of dozens)
the third track is the result of using Lurssen controls to taste
to modify the preset results more to my liking,
See the video below.
I think this plugin could be useful for linux musicians.
I set my qjackctl 'frames period' to 1024 for this test.

Homebrew_Vs_Lurssen.png

I liked my homebrew for the dynamics, but also liked combos
of all three, or two of the three. The preset result in this case,
was a bit too saturated for the piece tested, but blended with the
more dynamic versions, added some depth, and there are many
presets to start from, and gui controls to then modify the results.
As the video explains. (a little IK bravado included, as always )

https://youtu.be/Ddv_FPJ-KaY?t=46

The free T-Racks 5 Custom shop installs 40+ plugins
for testing, so in my linux-wine-LinVst setups, I install T-Racks plugins
outside my vst paths, then link the ones I own and use, or want to
test, to a folder in the paths. Keeps the clutter down. These include
an excellent full Leslie system plugin, with deep componant selection
allowing mix&match of the parts, among many capabilities.

https://youtu.be/TO9XxSQ_Jhk?t=4

Cheers

[glokraw]

Just testing out IK Multimedia's new T-racks 5.3 with
the new Sunset Sound Studio Reverb. Gui works great in
Ubuntu Studio 19.10, with nVidia pcie card, and
nVidia's official driver.

linux-IK-SunsetStudioReverb.png

This product has great sound, is versatile,
easy to use, and takes well to feeding
rythmic plugins, or being fed from your audio kitchen.
The interface lets you mix and match among the studios
locations and gear, as if you were running long patch cables

IK have been working with the Sunset Studio
to wedgie it's rooms, ambiences, and gear, into a handy interface, that has enough controls, presets and visual aids,
to help the user get that Studio's legendary sounds,
without getting bogged down in minutia.

I have a linux setup for Kontakt, which is set in Reaper
to use just 1 core for audio processing.
It's a 3.4 ghz i7 core, and using SSSR, and I never noticed
any big cpu hit, 10-20% less than a basic Kontakt with 3 or 4 sounds.

I have a Fender GT modeling amp, which among the
120 sounds, has several where a high-gain monster mash
is on the dial next to a super clean tone, for easy A/B hearings.
For my guitar testing, I settled in

Studio Live Room 2
using reverb Plate Spring/Plate 1
Dry 60%
Wet 90%

One of many sweet spots I discovered

Because T-racks installer loads the whole catalog of
T-Racks plugins, I install them in a folder not part of the
usual vst paths, so they don't mingle with the T-racks
plugins I own, forcing a squint or three when
selecting among them.

I'm using kernel 5.3 low latency pre-empt, wine-staging 5.2, Reaper 5.9, with recent versions of LinVst plugin wrapper,
and qjackctl. To the extent that time is money, this product
could be a great investment towards finished productions
that will fit the sonic mold of a great so-cal studio.
I think the $150 intro price is good for a while, allowing
thorough testing. The demo runs 10 days without limits,
but each time the gui appears, you are offered a dialogue
to open the Authorization manager, or not.
Cheers

[glokraw]

a 30 minute tour, and setup for a Sunset session
for those as clueless as I am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpiZCV5iUU4

[audiojunkie]

[glokraw]

http://boscomac.free.fr/?p=rack

This page has dozens of great Reaktor ensembles,
both instruments and effects. Each ensemble
has both a well written description, and a few, or in
some cases, many, nicely performed audio demos.
Beyond the creative genious, a real labor of love
shows through here.

I think playing the audio demos from any 10 of them,
would lead someone unfamiliar with Reaktor,
to take the plunge at least as far as installing the free
Reaktor Player, and then your favorite parts of
the Bosomac Collection. The donation button
has credit/debit and paypal, and very worthy in my opinion.

Someone never before involved with Native Instruments,
can take a few hours to dig in, and then be rewarded with
many years of excellent software, and more going forward.
The Reaktor User Library is an alternate universe,
filled with new and compelling software, as well as
new takes on the bread&butter we beak fast with.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... -download/

[glokraw]

I have a few linux setups with Kontakt and Reaktor in usable order.
Happy to say that I upgraded one of them to the latest wine-staging 5.3,
in Ubuntu Studio 19.10, with Enlightenment system gui,
and after using synaptic to update the linux system, and rebooting,
all is still well That Reaktor User Library is like santa's workshop,
with madd elf geniouses cranking out ever more inventive ensembles.
Need 36 hour days

[glokraw]

Nixon from the Reaper linux forum

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=232677

found this nugget:

https://tal-software.com/

Cheers

[audiojunkie]

Nixon from the Reaper linux forum

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=232677

found this nugget:

https://tal-software.com/

Cheers

Nice! I didn't know TAL was doing 'ANY' Linux ports!