Almost Totally Linux
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 4558 posts since 21 Mar, 2020
When my present computer conks out and I get a new one, I'm thinking of dual-booting with Linux and seeing how far I can go without Windows. What would be a good version and set-up for audio work. I am aware of LMMS as I have used it in Windows but I'm not familiar with other apps and synths. I might get the version that The Wavewarden has made a version of Odin2 for. That makes a lot of sense to me. Any advice at all in preparation for the big switch?
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- KVRAF
- 7748 posts since 13 Jan, 2003 from Darkest Kent, UK
As a Linux newbie, I've found Ubuntustudio the easiest to install and get running. No config needed last time I installed it. Easily got Reaper native running fine too.
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 4558 posts since 21 Mar, 2020
I hear that Ubuntu is one of the most popular versions. Does Ubuntustudio come with DAWs ready installed? If so, which ones? I'm fond of Reaper but the guy who made it is so trusting and generous, I don't want to download another copy until I can afford to pay the license fee. I think he deserves payment.
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 4558 posts since 21 Mar, 2020
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- KVRAF
- 7748 posts since 13 Jan, 2003 from Darkest Kent, UK
I don't know what you do (style-wise) but Ardour seems pretty well featured, certainly fits in that Reaper/traditional DAW model. I'd probably be happy using it if Reaper wasn't available.
Don't forget Bitwig has a linux version so I'm intending to install the 8track version to play with.
I think the biggest 'problem' I have with Linux is the file structure and knowing what is best practice when it comes to installing things. Looks like most people advise having everything in Home (vst folders, app folders) which I guess seems strange coming from Windows (separating apps and your documents etc). I think it was Glokraw who explained it best.
Don't forget Bitwig has a linux version so I'm intending to install the 8track version to play with.
I think the biggest 'problem' I have with Linux is the file structure and knowing what is best practice when it comes to installing things. Looks like most people advise having everything in Home (vst folders, app folders) which I guess seems strange coming from Windows (separating apps and your documents etc). I think it was Glokraw who explained it best.
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- KVRAF
- 2989 posts since 5 Nov, 2014
Take a look at this recent thread, pretty much cover everything you need to know
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=555691
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=555691
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- Banned
- Topic Starter
- 4558 posts since 21 Mar, 2020
Wine sounds like a good option but there might be no point to Linux if I can't use native software and I don't like Jack because I don't like being so internet reliant.
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- KVRAF
- 35439 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
Biggest problem I always had with Linux is stability, the quality of the software GUI's, and the matureness/development status of the software. It was by far not up to par with Windows or Mac OS a couple of years ago, and I highly doubt that it is now.
I can only recommend to make your own experience though. Check it out. See if you have the same user experience than on Windows or Mac OS. After all it's supposed to be a valid alternative, right?
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- KVRAF
- 2989 posts since 5 Nov, 2014
As I said in one thread already
Same stands, on this machine where I have good working Windows system, I have no reason whatsoever to mess with emulators, bridges and stuff like that, for the next build I will definitely skip Windows and go with either custom PC desktop with Linux or Apple Silicon machine, gonna utilize this machine as AudioGridder server and host all the plugins that can't run natively there, which aren't really a lot, I'm Bitwig guy using mainly U He synths and few cherry picked essential 3rd party effects, I'm mostly good to go Linux or Apple Silicon native at this point without sacrificing much of my current workflow.Passing Bye wrote: ↑Sat Jun 12, 2021 10:49 pm More than happy with Windows 8.1 for audio, it's the last one for this machine, on other hand, Linux Mint is even better all around OS and wouldn't mind using it for audio also, but right now have no reason to do so, same as Windows 10. Back on macOS, everything released after Snow Leopard made no sense to upgrade either, so I started ditching and avoiding developers that started pulling Apple on me, dunno, I quit smoking too because it was bad investment, why would Native Instruments, Waves and other do any better... dunno, feels great not relying on "industry standard" or tobacco industry to pull yourself together...
Someone started a thread about getting into Linux for audio, I try stuff like that every few years to remind myself how bad idea that is, for the first time all my audio stuff actually work on Linux, still, why would I run Windows plugins in a bridge if I can actually still run Windows, but it's good to know I have a choice.
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- KVRAF
- 25053 posts since 20 Oct, 2007 from gonesville
Window and Mac OS seems pretty much like Churchill's remark pertaining to democracy, the worst system in the world except for everything else tried.
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- KVRian
- 1089 posts since 27 Nov, 2006
I have my home mounted on a totally separate drive. That way, if I need to reinstall the OS, I just mount the home as before and all my settings are still there. The added advantage is that all vsts, vst3, and wine info is kept in the home to so all that only needs to be done once.
Don't forget that Reaper runs well on Linux natively, also Renoise.
Don't forget that Reaper runs well on Linux natively, also Renoise.
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- KVRAF
- 9133 posts since 6 Oct, 2004
Some weekend linux Ramen to noodle with...
In a single-drive, single partition linux, the admin is called 'root', and the root level of the filesystem is designated by a
/
The root user of the filesystem will choose a unique password during installation.
/home
is owned by the root user (again, 'admin' in win-speak)
/home/username
is owned by the primary user, bearing a name chosen during installation, and a chosen unique password.
----------------------------------------------------------
Linux vst and lv2 plugins are often installed by package-managers and distro maintainers in
/usr/lib/vst
/usr/lib/lv2
/usr/lib/vst3
These destinations are owned by root. So often, people will move or copy them to user-created-owned 'hidden' folders:
/home/you/.vst
/home/you/.lv2
/home/you/.vst3
Standalone executable music apps usually install to the root owned
/usr/bin
or the user-owned
/home/you/.local/bin
Configuration text-files for music apps are mainly in
/home/you/.config
A lot of data, presets etc are found in
/usr/share/name-of-app
----------------------------------------------------------------------
U-he linux plugins set up a .u-he folder for all their 'stuff'' in
/home/you/.u-he
with links to each plugin placed in
/home/you/.vst/u-he
discoDSP install their whole works in the user-owned
/home/you/Documents
Vital synth places it's stuff in user-owned
/home/you/.local/share/Vital
and it's plugin/app versions in the applicable paths mentioned above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For windows reaper in wine, choose wine between 6.0 and 6.4 from
wine-staging (winehq.org) or their stable 6.0 release. Newer wine versions
oddly-bugly fail to display text on reaper's crucial 'preferences' panel
...but most things will install and register, some of which have extra steps needed, so I mention in the other ongoing linux topics. When wine is installed, open a terminal, and type
winecfg
this will launch wine's preferences panel, and set up your initial fake windows environment, the pathsyou create will be typical win paths like:
/home/you/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/VstPlugins
/home/you/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Native Instruments/VSTPlugins 64 bit
for VST3: /home/you/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3
for NI Kontakt/Reaktor content :
/home/you/.wine/drive_C/users/you/Public/Documents
I put all my freeware and small-shop plugins in
/home/you/.wine/drive_C/users/VstPlugins
In terminal commands, any wine paths or software titles containing spaces will need to quoted from the first word that precedes a space, to the last word
that follows a space, as in
"Program Files/Native Instruments/Battery 4/Battery 4.exe"
or carefully fill in the blanks with *'s, like
Program*Files/Native*Instruments/Battery*4/Battery*4.exe
-----------------------------------------------------------------
For using windows plugins in linux daws like Reaper, Bitwig and Mixbus, I describe the easy steps to use the new 'yabridge' vst plugin wrapper over here:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=503359&start=345
It works very well, and vst3's also get wrapped.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LinVst is a long-established plugin wrapper. After installing linvst, I put
linvst.so
linvstconvert
linvstconverttree
in both /home/me and /usr/bin
and in just /usr/bin,
lin-vst-server.exe
lin-vst-server.exe.so
lin-vst-server32.exe
lin-vst-server32.exe.so
You can start linvstconvert or linvstconverttree version in
a terminal, and the semi-self-explanatory gui opens
1. click the topmost button, labeled 'none', a browser opens,
browse to and select your linvst.so
2. click the next button down, should be labeled according to
your username. In this next browser, scroll down
to the bottom, and select 'other',
then browse to the vst .dll, or
folder of vsts, that you want to convert.
3. click the bottom button, 'Start'. The plugins are wrapped,
and faster than you can doubleclick
Now add your vst folder to your daw app's plugin path,
and restart it, or do a clear-cache-rescan etc.
Easy money! Tone2 Firebird is a good plufin to test,
scroll down at
https://www.tone2.com/download.html
It used to be commercial, free now, and has several
.fxb soundbanks, and a randomizer.
https://github.com/osxmidi/LinVst
there are quite a few technicalities covered in the readme's
along with the apps.
some deb-ubuntu binaries are here, so no compiling
is needed:
https://github.com/osxmidi/LinVst/releases
-----------
I like to extract Linux Reaper archives into a folder named with it's version number, like /home/me/.629
and start it in a terminal for when testing new plugins freezes things,
it's easy to end the session by closing the terminal. Command:
.629/reaper The usual reaper config files will be in
/home/me/.config/REAPER
cheers
In a single-drive, single partition linux, the admin is called 'root', and the root level of the filesystem is designated by a
/
The root user of the filesystem will choose a unique password during installation.
/home
is owned by the root user (again, 'admin' in win-speak)
/home/username
is owned by the primary user, bearing a name chosen during installation, and a chosen unique password.
----------------------------------------------------------
Linux vst and lv2 plugins are often installed by package-managers and distro maintainers in
/usr/lib/vst
/usr/lib/lv2
/usr/lib/vst3
These destinations are owned by root. So often, people will move or copy them to user-created-owned 'hidden' folders:
/home/you/.vst
/home/you/.lv2
/home/you/.vst3
Standalone executable music apps usually install to the root owned
/usr/bin
or the user-owned
/home/you/.local/bin
Configuration text-files for music apps are mainly in
/home/you/.config
A lot of data, presets etc are found in
/usr/share/name-of-app
----------------------------------------------------------------------
U-he linux plugins set up a .u-he folder for all their 'stuff'' in
/home/you/.u-he
with links to each plugin placed in
/home/you/.vst/u-he
discoDSP install their whole works in the user-owned
/home/you/Documents
Vital synth places it's stuff in user-owned
/home/you/.local/share/Vital
and it's plugin/app versions in the applicable paths mentioned above.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For windows reaper in wine, choose wine between 6.0 and 6.4 from
wine-staging (winehq.org) or their stable 6.0 release. Newer wine versions
oddly-bugly fail to display text on reaper's crucial 'preferences' panel
...but most things will install and register, some of which have extra steps needed, so I mention in the other ongoing linux topics. When wine is installed, open a terminal, and type
winecfg
this will launch wine's preferences panel, and set up your initial fake windows environment, the pathsyou create will be typical win paths like:
/home/you/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/VstPlugins
/home/you/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Native Instruments/VSTPlugins 64 bit
for VST3: /home/you/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3
for NI Kontakt/Reaktor content :
/home/you/.wine/drive_C/users/you/Public/Documents
I put all my freeware and small-shop plugins in
/home/you/.wine/drive_C/users/VstPlugins
In terminal commands, any wine paths or software titles containing spaces will need to quoted from the first word that precedes a space, to the last word
that follows a space, as in
"Program Files/Native Instruments/Battery 4/Battery 4.exe"
or carefully fill in the blanks with *'s, like
Program*Files/Native*Instruments/Battery*4/Battery*4.exe
-----------------------------------------------------------------
For using windows plugins in linux daws like Reaper, Bitwig and Mixbus, I describe the easy steps to use the new 'yabridge' vst plugin wrapper over here:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=503359&start=345
It works very well, and vst3's also get wrapped.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LinVst is a long-established plugin wrapper. After installing linvst, I put
linvst.so
linvstconvert
linvstconverttree
in both /home/me and /usr/bin
and in just /usr/bin,
lin-vst-server.exe
lin-vst-server.exe.so
lin-vst-server32.exe
lin-vst-server32.exe.so
You can start linvstconvert or linvstconverttree version in
a terminal, and the semi-self-explanatory gui opens
1. click the topmost button, labeled 'none', a browser opens,
browse to and select your linvst.so
2. click the next button down, should be labeled according to
your username. In this next browser, scroll down
to the bottom, and select 'other',
then browse to the vst .dll, or
folder of vsts, that you want to convert.
3. click the bottom button, 'Start'. The plugins are wrapped,
and faster than you can doubleclick
Now add your vst folder to your daw app's plugin path,
and restart it, or do a clear-cache-rescan etc.
Easy money! Tone2 Firebird is a good plufin to test,
scroll down at
https://www.tone2.com/download.html
It used to be commercial, free now, and has several
.fxb soundbanks, and a randomizer.
https://github.com/osxmidi/LinVst
there are quite a few technicalities covered in the readme's
along with the apps.
some deb-ubuntu binaries are here, so no compiling
is needed:
https://github.com/osxmidi/LinVst/releases
-----------
I like to extract Linux Reaper archives into a folder named with it's version number, like /home/me/.629
and start it in a terminal for when testing new plugins freezes things,
it's easy to end the session by closing the terminal. Command:
.629/reaper The usual reaper config files will be in
/home/me/.config/REAPER
cheers
-
- KVRAF
- 9133 posts since 6 Oct, 2004
I think putting a linux on a fast drive or SSD in an external usb case is a good option, especially at first. It can be accessed from a computer's early boot menu, and the bios adjusted to boot it first, if desired. It can travel to a friends house for collaborations, it can go to a shop to test a computer purchase, and act as a backup.
I have the 5-22-21 release of AVLinux Openbox system gui version in such a case, and it's quite user friendly. It's based on MX-Linux, which has a decent support community, being derived from Mepis and anti-X linux projects. It has a lot of useful utilities to setup and customize, and is ready to produce audio out of the box. Wine 6.2, Reaper demo, Mixbus-demo and some commercial demos are installed, along with a fairly complete range of linux plugins and apps. A burned dvd can be tested, but it's 3.7 gig, so takes some time to load.
http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/
(This is actually an updated fixes version, newer than mine, and fixes are described at the main page:
www.bandshed.net
I have the 5-22-21 release of AVLinux Openbox system gui version in such a case, and it's quite user friendly. It's based on MX-Linux, which has a decent support community, being derived from Mepis and anti-X linux projects. It has a lot of useful utilities to setup and customize, and is ready to produce audio out of the box. Wine 6.2, Reaper demo, Mixbus-demo and some commercial demos are installed, along with a fairly complete range of linux plugins and apps. A burned dvd can be tested, but it's 3.7 gig, so takes some time to load.
http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/
(This is actually an updated fixes version, newer than mine, and fixes are described at the main page:
www.bandshed.net
