FAQ: Getting started with Linux Audio (best practices and beginner info)

[audiojunkie]

Since there have been a lot of people requesting this information, I thought it would be useful to point out what to look for when finding plugins for Linux DAWs. I'm posting this as a sort of best practices approach to getting the best plugin results and future proofing for your Linux DAW.

NOTE: FOSS stands for Free and Open Source Software

When looking for plugins for Linux DAWs, try to make sure your desired plugin always has the following support:

* 64 bit and Compiled for your machine's architecture (ie Intel or ARM)
* Comes in an installable format for your OS/Package Manager (ie DEB, RPM, PKGBUILD, script install, source install etc.)
* Uses one of the following DAW supported plugin formats: LV2, VST3, CLAP (coming soon)
* Use only FOSS, or try before you buy for commercial products (to confirm it works properly in your DAW
* Has scaling support for high resolution/HiDPI monitors

When obtaining plugins for your DAW choose preferable software types (in this order) for best experience and stability:

* Linux Native FOSS plugins
* Linux Native Commercial plugins
* Windows Native (used with WINE & yabridge) FOSS plugins
* Windows Native (used with WINE & yabridge) commercial plugins

What would be a good first example of a plugin that meets these criteria? What do you recommend that I try first?

Two examples of favorites are Surge and LinuxSampler (along with Qsampler and gigedit)

What Linux distros would you recommend for music making?

I would recommend using either distros designed for music making or distros that are easy to configure for music making and has lots of music making software support:
NOTE: Notice that I primarily mentioned Debian-based or Arch-based distros. This is because the Debian and Arch families of distros contain the most software.

AV Linux -- (an "appliance" app) for out of the box use
Ubuntu Studio
Ubuntu (any of the other flavors)
Manjaro
EndeavourOS -- (most flexible, but also requires the most Linux knowledge)


What are best places to look for Linux software, and in what order (for these sources) would you recommend for package stability and security?

* Always start with your local repository first.
* If you can't find it there, try to find Flathub, Appimage, or Snap software packages second.
* From there, you can try 3rd party repositories (such as KXStudio for Debian-based systems, or the Arch User Repository (AUR for Arch based systems
* Developer websites or shops are often good places to find or purchase plugins or software, and are (almost aways) the only way to obtain commercial products
* Everything else: Compile from source

I hope this helps! If you need further clarification, just ask!

[audiojunkie]

An additional bit of information that I thought might be useful comes from another thread I posted in:

Link: viewtopic.php?p=8352783#p8352783

What kmonkey and ls1xxx said.

Windows and it's ancestors have been around for 40 years. It's a mature technology, they clearly have nothing else to offer until hardware developers come up with 3d holograms and direct to consciousness interfaces. There is no low hanging fruit left, and decades of 3rd party software to maintain compatibility with meaning they cannot change most of their APIs.

Windows is now essentially free, to help maintain the Windows monopoly over freely available operating systems like Android and Ubuntu. You can install Windows 10 or 11 without a product key and never activate it. Windows 11 is mostly about invading your privacy and turning you into the product that they will sell to anybody will to pay. Ads in the start menu, need I say more?

The problem is: There is no alternative!

Mac?? Before I go on a Mac I kick my computer out of the window and join a monastery...
Besides not being better than Microsoft...

Linux??? I sadly haven´t studied Rocket science nor quantum physics...so this door stays closed for me...

What else??

I think what this world is lacking are some serious laws to force guys like Gates and buddies to offer versions without all that spyware and ads...

You are giving us Linux users more credit than we deserve. We aren't any more intelligent than anyone else. There is a different paradigm and way of thinking, but a lot of that is common place nowadays and isn't really new to anyone anymore. The strangest thing for me to grasp when I first started Linux was the idea that your software that is available for you comes in repositories. Coming from the Windows world, that was strange to me. However, with the advent of smart phones and tablets run by Apple and Android, everyone is used to the idea that software comes from an app store. There are exceptions to that, but that's really the key. The second big thing is that the various Linux distributions are targeted for a particular audience. For example, If you value system stability over having the most recent software, you would choose something like Ubuntu. If you value having the latest and greatest software, you would choose something like Manjaro. Both are very easy to install systems that provide the essentials for audio production in Linux. I personally use EndeavourOS, but that's because I'm an intermediate user and like a little more control over what goes into my system. Beginners can get the full benefit of the Linux experience without having to bother with other distros. Ubuntu or Manjaro should be sufficient for you to do everything. The third unusual thing about Linux is that whereas Windows has one particular desktop environment that gets polished up between version updates, Linux has many different desktop environments to choose from. This is again where personal choice comes into play. I recommend Gnome or KDE Plasma for most people. Again, it comes down to personal choice, but these are two of the best desktop environments. KDE Plasma has a more "Windows"-like feel to it. Windows users should feel right at home with it. It is infinitely configurable to a fault. Gnome is a much easier interface. There are few options, and few are needed to get the job done in an elegant way. Most everything is very intuitive and simple. What you choose is up to you. The 4th big paradigm change for Windows users first experiencing Linux is the way drivers are handled. Whereas, with Windows, you have to install the Windows OS version drivers from the manufacturers of the hardware you purchase, Linux comes with all of its drivers built in. You have to pick your hardware based on whether or not Linux supports it. It's not better or worse than Windows, it's just different. Imagine trying get a piece of hardware you own to run on Windows 11 that only has Windows drivers for Windows XP or Windows 7. In many cases, you won't be able to use that hardware for your Windows system. However, if its popular hardware, then there are chances that it is already in Linux and works fine. Linux drivers are not designed for a particular OS version (like Windows XP or Windows 10), but provided with the brain of the OS, called the kernel. It is the version of the kernel you use, not the OS version you use that matters--the newer the better. One of the neat things that Linux offers is something called a live installer. With these, you put the OS image on a flash drive, boot to the flash drive, and in many cases everything will simply work. If everything works, then you know that your system has the drivers it needs. Or, you can buy a system that is certified to work in Linux, and you'll know that you'll have drivers supported that way too. I personally use a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga Gen 5. It's a 2-in-1 laptop that also serves as a tablet. I researched and bought it because it is Linux certified. Another thing that is different with Linux from Windows, is that as long as your sound card is "Class Compliant", it will work with no problems on Linux. The easy way to find proper hardware is to look for anything that runs on iOS, because they require Class Compliant hardware too. And, while I'm on the subject of class compliant devices, there is no need to worry about ASIO drivers in the Linux world--latency is managed through the kernel. If you use a low latency kernel and have yourself added to the low latency audio group, you can achieve incredibly low latency on linux with the Class Compliant hardware. This is quite different from Windows, where class compliant drivers are often slow and untuned for speed. It's a paradigm change. Aside from that, Linux runs pretty much like Windows. There is more learning involved, but it's not "rocket science"--it's simply learning the Linux way of doing things....just like you learned the Windows way of doing things. The beauty of it all though, is that you can have increased flexibility and efficiency at the cost of a learning curve. You never have to worry about companies spying on you (telemetry) or being told that you can't do things your way. There are no fees involved, and the software remains available for usage year after year. Oh, and one other thing that is really cool...Linux has, over the last 20 years, developed a Windows API layer that runs Windows programs at the native speed of Linux programs. This is a tool called WINE. It's not an emulator, it's actually running Windows programs and executing the code natively. This has allowed for the majority of Windows plugins to work natively with Linux. Most things that aren't using ilok run fine. There is more to it than that, but this is the basic gist of Linux for Pro Audio. It's not that hard, and it's not that difficult, it's just different. Once you have learned the Linux Way, just like you've learned the Windows way, a whole new world is opened up to you with no quantum physics involved.

Best Wishes!

Ok. Let's take a pretty complex plugin: Vps Avenger (https://www.vengeance-sound.com/plugins.php)
On its official webpage nobody mentions Linux, and even if it's running on Linux Wine flawlessly (I doubt that),
I'm almost sure the dev will not support Linux ...

[audiojunkie]

Another thing that came to my mind that will be useful:

I understand that there are many different DAWs available for Linux. Which are the best/most popular on Linux?

Ardour (FOSS)
Reaper (Commercial)
Bitwig (Commercial)
Tracktion's Waveform (Commercial)

[audiojunkie]

What music making software is available for Linux?

This list is not complete, but it's a great start:

https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/linux/recommended

Here are some others:

http://linuxmusic.rocks/

https://github.com/nodiscc/awesome-linuxaudio

http://linux-sound.org/linux-vst-plugins.html

[audiojunkie]

I've heard that I need to use JACK or PipeWire in order to make music on Linux. Is this true?

For regular users, one need not ever worry about using JACK or PipeWire. ALSA is perfectly capable of providing a typical DAW experience that Windows users would be used to. JACK and PipeWire are servers that run on top of ALSA to provide an inter-application audio experience ( think ReWire in Windows, except at the OS level).

One of the biggest things that held me up about starting with Linux was my fear of learning and using JACK/PipeWir--it's complicated, but not needed. In the old days of Linux Audio, there wasn't an Open Source plugin format for Linux like there is now. Back then, to make music with linux, you had to actually wire (with Jack or PipeWire) the actual applications together and save each session in a session manager. It is incredibly powerful, and is still available, but is not needed now that we have DAWs that use plugin formats like LV2, VST3, or CLAP (coming soon).

[audiojunkie]

Here are some popular threads about Linux that are full of information:

This one shows the rapid progress in Linux's WINE and yabridge tools to run Windows plugins:

viewtopic.php?p=8333613#p8333613

Here is another full of useful information:

viewtopic.php?p=8331383#p8331383

[audiojunkie]

Edit

[audiojunkie]

I found an article that would be very useful for helping Windows users (and those new to Linux) build a modern up-to-date Linux Workstation:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/build-new-pc-for-linux/

It's all pretty much common knowledge for users familiar with Linux, but may be very helpful for those who are new or are considering using Linux.

[audiojunkie]

A common concern that people have has to do with all of the different package types that are available through Linux. The options sometimes seem overwhelming. For example, here's a comment that was recently posted:

"I have used Ubuntu all the years. With no problems. But without extetnel gear. Bitwig in the Box with alsa.
But all the difrent package formats (flatpak, snap, etc.) let me tend more and more back to ms.. M"

Linux is not a single operating system. The heart of the operating system is called the kernel. Linux is essentially the kernel. Everything else is built on top of that. Most of the time, the common GNU tools and utilities (a separate open source project) are added as the base that makes up the command line interface. On top of that, is the Window manager or Desktop environment (the Desktop Environment includes the window manger as well as other nice tools to make a more complete "environment", such as a file manager, icons, windows toolbars, folders, etc.) The Windows manager or Desktop environment is graphical part of the OS that you use the mouse to manipulate. On top of all that, are your graphic applications that run in the windows. This is greatly over-simplified, but for this discussion, it should be sufficient. The point is, Linux distributions are called Linux distributions, because they all use the common Linux kernel. All of the other available open source parts go together to form what is called a Linux distribution (often called GNU/Linux because of the core GNU tools and utilites). But the point of all of this, is that because different components (that may or may not be the same or compatible) go into the various distributions, the various distributions may or may not be compatible. Each distro is considered its own operating system.

If you own a typical phone (Android or Apple), you know that they have a repository of apps to choose from that are different from each other. This idea started with Linux. Between the various repositories, you will often find the exact same apps (compiled for that particular Linux distro), and, of course, some will be different. Some distros have more apps than other distros.

In addition to all of this, there are various package managers--the repository installation/management program. Some of these are DPKG (APT) for Debian distros, RPM (YUM) for Red Hat distros, Pacman for Arch distros, etc. The point to all of this, is that the repositories for each distro is usually meant to be just for the distro it was created for.

So, one might ask what would likely happen if someone tried to run binaries of one distro's repository with another distro. The most common thing would be that your system libraries and versions would not match or work with each other, and this would prevent your OS as well as your applications from being stable. This is called Dependency Hell. The Windows world calls this DLL Hell.

So, the over all point of all of this, is that although each of these various distros out there, although very similar, are NOT compatible.

For the past 20 years, various groups have tried to remedy this. An attempt was made to get everyone to agree on a common Linux base at which everything distro could be compatible with each other. Unfortunately, with so many developer groups wanting to do different things with their distros, and with disagreement over what should or should not be the standard, this was never accomplished. A new idea to resolve this issue would have to be created, since, of the 300+ active distros out there, there was no common format that could be shared across distros. This is how sandboxed applications came into being.

The general idea behind the sandbox methodology, is that, like a box for sand is built to keep the sand out of the yard in a child's sandbox, applications, along with all of the libraries that are required to run, are packaged and run in a special space that doesn't mess with the base part of the OS or its libraries. In other words, sandboxed apps don't touch the main OS except in controlled ways--thus preventing any problems with having Dependency Hell.

There are three major sandboxing technologies that try to do similar things that are competing with each other for popularity: Flatpak, Appimage, and Snaps. More or less, these three technologies do the same thing, which is to run the packaged program safe and separated from the OS. This is how the Linux world is trying to allow create a packaging format that is compatible across all Linux Distros.

In addition to native repositories and sandboxed apps, the Linux world has another way of obtaining programs within a distro: Compatibility Layers, Virtualization, and Emulation. Virtualization is running an instance of another operating system within your current Linux distro. For example, you could run a full version of Windows with your Linux distro. Emulation is creating a software package that emulates another OS or device. For example, you can run classic video game ROMs on your system. These are not copies of the programs, these are the actual ROMs that come from the incompatible system. They are Emulated. Because of performance and latency issues with Virtualization and Emulation, these methodologies are not particularly well suited for Music DAWs and apps. However, that's where compatibility layers come in.

Compatibility layers essentially create Linux-native APIs to run the foreign program as if it is a native Linux program. WINE (WINE Is Not an Emulator) is one of the most well known compatibility layers in the Linux world. WINE attempts to natively run Windows applications as if they are native applications. Because WINE is a clean room recreation of Windows compatibility natively run in Linux, it isn't complete or perfected yet. However, WINE has been under constant and continuous development for the last 20 years. It is now good enough to be able to run the majority of available Windows applications natively to at least some degree. In fact, except for ILOK or PACE types of copy protection, Linux can run most Windows plugins with few problems or adjustments. In addition to all of this, Windows applications for WINE run in their own space and don't affect the Linux environment or libraries.

In addition to all of this, another source of obtaining programs in Linux is to actually compile the source code yourself. This is the method that scares people the most, but luckily, although it's an option, a regular user seldom has to resort to doing this. Most of the apps are already in binary format from the repositories, sandboxed sources and compatibility layers. Because of how these methods all work together, they are considered the core sources for Linux applications.

There is, however, another source of applications: Proprietary binaries (ie Closed source/freeware/commercial) These are usually compiled for Ubuntu or another Linux OS, and sold or given away without release of the source code. Each individual developer determines what Linux operating system(s) he/she will support.

To sum it all up, my recommended core Linux app sources (in order of preference) are:

1. Open Source Repositories, Binaries and prepared packages (varies based on distro)

2. Sandboxed sources (including proprietary and Open Source): Flatpak, Appimage, Snaps

3. Virtualization, Emulation, and compatibility layers (ie WINE--aside from regressions, WINE is likely to improve over time, and the Windows binaries should continue to remain compatible)

4. Compile yourself Open Source files (straight from Git or SourceForge)

5. Proprietary binaries (ie Closed Sourse/Freeware/Commercial)--usually compiled for Ubuntu, but often compatible with Bleeding edge OSes like Arch. They are nice to have, but should not be considered part of your "core" linux app sources that you rely on, unless they are binaries for your particular Linux distro. NOTE: This is where "Try before you buy" comes in handy.

I hope this helps resolve this Linux concern! Feel free to ask questions!

[audiojunkie]

After re-reading my message, I realized that I missed one of the app sources in my rambling, stream of consciousness writing above. Here is some additional info and clarification:

For Linux newcomers:

Often the local repository doesn't seem to contain much of what you want and need. Also, you may have heard about the importance of keeping your system stable to avoid "Dependency Hell" (Known as "DLL Hell" on MS Windows. With that in mind, I am posting my updated list of ways of obtaining software for your chosen Linux distribution.

Linux app sources in order of preference


Core Linux app sources:

1. Open Source distro Repositories, Binaries and prepared packages (official and trusted unofficial repositories)

2. Sandboxed sources (including proprietary and Open Source): Flatpak, Appimage, Snaps

3. Virtualization, Emulation, and compatibility layers (ie WINE--aside from regressions, WINE is likely to improve over time, and the Windows binaries should continue to remain compatible). I recommend free apps, but you can use commercial apps as well. Also, these apps should not be fully relied upon for essential work unless, you've come to trust them after a period of testing. Remember to try before you buy.

4. Compile yourself Open Source files (straight from Git or SourceForge, etc.)

5. Packages from other distros -- This is the last resort for the core Linux app resources. Through Linux package converters such as alien, rpm2cpio, F* Package Management (FPM), stdeb, debtap, makedeb (makedeb, mpm, makedeb-db), etc., you can use binaries and packages from other distros. NOTE: It's risky to use other distro's binaries. However, most Linux libraries try to maintain backwards compatibility, so for best results make sure your distro libraries are equal to or newer than the libraries required in the application packages. Consider bleeding edge OSes like Arch, Manjaro, EndeavourOS, Debian Testing (or unstable), Fedora Rawhide, Opensuse Tumbleweed, etc., if you want to guarantee that you have the newest libraries.

An Additional Linux app source:

Proprietary distro binaries (ie Closed Sourse/Freeware/Commercial)--NOTE: SOME OF THE BEST SOFTWARE COMES FROM THIS GROUP. They are usually compiled and supported by developers for a specific OS, such as "Ubuntu or similar". For the distro these apps are designed for, this is perfect--no problems, but be aware that these apps are often also compatible with OSes that use software libraries newer than those that the app uses, for example: Arch, Debian Testing (or unstable), Fedora Rawhide, Opensuse Tumbleweed, etc. These proprietary binaries are especially nice to have, but should not be considered part of your "core" linux app sources that you rely, on if you are using a different distro than what the binary was designed for (unless, you've come to trust them after a period of testing. Explanation: It's a library dependency risk to use other distro's binaries (Often called Dependency Hell). However, as mentioned above, most Linux libraries try to maintain backwards compatibility, so for best results make sure your distro libraries are equal to or newer than the libraries required in the application packages. And above all, try before you buy.