The linux DAW thread

[audiojunkie]

The last Arch derivative I used was Garuda, and Manjaro a few years before that.
The main criteria for my most-used distro, is that it has the Synaptic package manager. I rely on that, and the various managers available in arch setups are still a day late and a dollar short, and I'm too old to settle for more work, and less recording time.

There is an excellent (Manjaro) Arch setup topic at the linux Reaper forum,

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=255313

and smart people are having great success.

Agreed. Beth's guide is very helpful. It is useful for the whole Arch family of distros, not just Manjaro.

[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.

[glokraw]

Pipewire audio is coming, so I thought it time to dig in and sort the nuts and bolts found in forum posts and wiki pages, to see if it's real, it works, and is documented. According to the screengrab below, and sounds in the headphones, I'd say it's a quality beta at this point. Forum queries at linuxmusicians.com and perusing the debian pipewire wiki page gave me the basics, in the screenshot, my guitar connects to my mAudio pci soundcard as the audio/midi interface, and then to the rakarrack multi-effects app.

The gui is qpwgraph, created by Rui Capela, author of qtractor daw, qjackctl patchbay, many synthesizers, and a stack of utilities. It has a config file in the /home/you/.config/rnbc.org folder.

Neither jackd or pulseaudio are active in the session, straight pipewire

Time for some serious pickin' an grinnin'

Pipewire-gui.png

[glokraw]

Here is Yoshimi synth running via Pipewire. In these examples, I first started wireplumber in a terminal, then started the instrument or effect in a terminal, then started the qpwgraph, and made connections. With a reasonable amount of experimentation, not being the sharpest tool in the toolshed

Pipewire-Yoshimi_synth.png

[glokraw]

Here are Guitarix and Rakarrack in pipewire, and the cat holding on to the ceiling.
(shouldn't have napped on a speaker )

Guitarix-rak-pipewire.png

Guitarix dev realeased a new LV2 plugin called MetalTone. Linux reaper users will love it's wide range, as a basis for many fx chains I used it with the same dev's GX Chorus plugin, followed by two Replika's using lightly modified versions of the NotchRider, and Clouds presets. Reaper output recording with Timemachine, they're all invited to the pipewire party!

ReaperGuitarixTimeMachine.png

[glokraw]

Found the Monster Guitar mentioned in one of KVR's topics, and it's working in Bodhi Linux with wine-staging 7.8 and linux Reaper. In addition to guitar, there are some nice contributed percussion kits in the main menu, perhaps part of the Monter Drums plugin, at least labeled as such in one case. Overall, a goal is to promote Indonesian instrument sounds in a wider range of music. The gui behaves as expected, very basic and responsive, with an interesting range of sounds. Downloads, video demos, and general info found at

www.agushardiman.com

MonsterGuitar.png

[glokraw]

Martin Andrew Smith sampled a nice Flamenco Guitar, and squeezed it into DecentSampler, where it is extremely welcome, and a treat to play! The story and download link is at the site below. I really enjoy learning what went into each Pianobook submission.

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/flame ... ms-guitar/

Flamenco-Dreams-Guitar.jpg

[glokraw]

Here are U-he's free Podolski in it's Verve skin, made and shared by Ploki,
and the magazineware ZebraCM in it's newest skin, along with rakarrack effects,
in it's tired old skin, which I really like, especially with U-he's great sounding synths

Podolski-Zebra-rakarrackCM.jpg

[glokraw]

The Surge XT synth is an epic example of great coders teaming up to release an amazing instrument. They appreciate user feedback, and have a 'nightly builds' release pattern, cross-platform downloads at the link below.

There is an important settings menu in the lower-right corner, to pick size, skin, midi settings etc

The preset browser has categories, and those offer tons of sounds to browse through As you change sounds, watch the changes in the effects area on the far right, and you'll soon catch on to the way it functions.

The pic is from an old 17" monitor, Surge is with it's dark skin at 125% zoom, evrything has enough contrast and size to be readable, not always the case in modern gui's.

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/nightly_XT

Surge-dark-skin.jpg

[glokraw]

This is clap enabled Bitwig 4.3 beta7 with the clap version of the now free Surge XT synth with a fun e-piano sound By Claes, who open-sourced his synth, which quickly attracted a great team of coders to keep it moving forward...is it legendary yet?
If not, it's dangerously close

Surge-claps.png

[JS5656]

Has anyone been able to get ableton working in Linux install lately? New here, searched the thread, but didn't find much...

[glokraw]

This might help, an easy recipe to try in a debian linux:

https://kevinthomas.dev/posts/ableton-on-debian.html

AVLinux is debian with MX Linux trimmings, you could burn an iso to dvd, and try kevinthomas procedure.

AVLinux-MX-Linux info:

http://www.bandshed.net/2022/04/18/avl- ... a-palooza/

AVLinux downloads page:

http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

[glokraw]

falkTX made a web-based version of the Cardinal modular synth, a more open-source friendly version of the vcvrack project. The ideas I had when experimenting were all soon found to exist

It's very sensible, user-friendly, with a great gui, and the link below launches it, with a session seen below, with some nice music playing.
I used it in the latest AVLinux and this week's version of Firefox.

https://cardinal.kx.studio/

A Cardinal disscussion is ongoing at:

viewtopic.php?t=576374

Cardinal-Synth-in-firefox.jpg

[audiojunkie]

For those who are interested:

Due to my recent re-evaluation of Linux 3rd party repositories, and due to the fact that recent kernels provide the ability for generic kernels to access real-time features through kernel boot parameters, I've upgraded and expanded my recommended list of distros for Linux Pro Audio. These are my recommendations (in no particular order):

Easiest distros for new users coming from Windows to Linux:

* AVL Linux
* Ubuntu Studio
* LibraZiK

For Linux users comfortable with Linux and who prefer an individualized and enhanced experience:

* Ubuntu (any official flavor) + Ubuntu Studio Installer + KXStudio Repository (This is probably the easiest option for those comfortable with Linux)
* Mint Linux (as I understand it, Mint uses Ubuntu's official repositories, and therefore has the same apps and the Ubuntu Studio Installer available as well)+KXStudio Repository.
* Debian (pretty much the whole Debian family) + KXStudio Repository
* Arch/EndeavourOS/Manjaro with their official repositories and the AUR
* Fedora (regular and Rawhide) along with RPM Fusion and the Fedora COPR
* OpenSuse (Tumbleweed or Leap) along with the Open Build Service (OBS)

These days, it is now getting to the point to where most distros will work quite well for low latency audio work, as long as the distros provide the software you need in their Official and 3rd party repositories. Things just keep getting better!

[glokraw]

Found a nice article in Linux Magazine that gives a good overview of
the Carla daw/plugin-host system. Circa 2015, but it's been improving in the interim,
and brings a lot of functionality by itself, as well as functioning within other daws
that may lack it's range of support.

https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2015/175/Carla

Cheers