Waveform & Linux

[dePUNDIT]

Finally got fed up with windows and decided to move to Linux since both my DAWS (REAPER & Waveform) are native on Linux. I have seen a lot of videos on YouTube talking about how Linux for Music Production is the best but nobody ever talked about some of the quirks of using Linux and now I'm finding out the hard way.
I am indeed enjoying the speed, freedom and flexibility Linux provides but I'm finding it quite hard to not switch back to Windows.

1. I just found out that I can't drag samples from the browser into third party plugins. This is apparently a real issue in Linux as it also affects REAPER and none of the "Linux for Production" YouTube promoters ever mentioned it. If anyone has found a way to resolve this, please let me know.

2. I just noticed that autocrossfade is not working in Waveform even though I have turned it on in the settings.

3. If I have a plugin window open in Waveform, it's always in front of the screen meaning I can't view anything else unless I close the plugin UI. Whatever else I'm trying to view, be it the file manager, a previously opened Plugin UI, even the dialog boxes generated by the open Plugin is not visible until I'm able to close down the plugin UI if I'm even able to do that at all.

4. Waveform is always crashing on Linux. I have tried checking with REAPER and the plugins that crash Waveform, don't crash REAPER. I have some U-He plugins installed and the VST3 versions crash Waveform when trying to open their UI after loading them. This doesn't happen in REAPER. Same goes for all the other plugins that keep crashing Waveform

5. Setting up audio in Waveform on Linux is a nightmare compared to setting up REAPER which was a breeze.

I'm not even done yet with installing and I've run into this many issues besides the fact that I have to forget about many of the plugins and tools I'm used to using in Windows due to the fact that they're not available in Linux and there are no suitable replacements available either which I knew before embarking on this journey. However, it's just beginning to seem like it's not worth the hassle for me anymore.

[talby]

regarding 2) works for me, I am on KDE(Wayland)@Debian13; try this: have 1 audio clip which indeed carries some audio content; check that in the Controls Panel the check box "Auto Crossfade" is activated for the clip; duplicate the audio clip and place the copy behind the original (by keyboard shortcut "d" it will automatically become placed there); drag one of the clips at the header bar of the clip, where no icon is, in the free area between those clip handle icons, and shift all that clip to overlay the other clip;

concerning 3) this is a very annoying issue, yes; even worse, if you minimize instead of closing the plugin window, then it is no more visible, BUT STILL all the area where the plugin window was localized is not accessible! really annoying!

concerning 4) smells you have plugin sandboxing activated? it sucks on Linux, makes more problems than it solves: deactivate it and frequently use CTRL+S for saving, maybe save as various Edits if you want to undo things in big steps;

regarding 5) audio setup fof WF on Linux: bet on pipewire, have installed packages pipewire-jack, wireplumber and qpwgraph, then simply select in Waveform the Audio device to be of type JACK, afterwards make the finer grained settings as you want them, and in parallel in qpwgraph wire the wished connections once and let qpwgraph be autostarted (setting inside qpwgraph);

[Kott]

It's sad to admit, Waveform is the most unstable DAW in Linux. There was some parity between Lin/Win/Mac before seventh version. Now it's really hard to use it here.
IMO the two main issues require a global rework - stability and performance, JUCE graphics in Linux can't deal with WF's complex interface well, and the plugin hosting part still has bugs which lead to crashes.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Alas, I had so many issues with Waveform under Linux Mint that I switched to hardware (!!). I did get audio stable, performance decent, but Master Mix would only load 1/10th of the time, deleting plugins from trakc would crash Waveform, and randomly it'd just POOF to the desktop. Ouch.

For just loop manging, no issues. But Audacity does that as well. Ugh.

None of these issues on Windows but - screw Windows. My book writing software, video editor, and wave editor run brilliantly under Linux.

Maybe someday a used Mac Mini if my groovebox hits the wall. But it's too pricey for just the one app. Maybe if I ever sell my soul and move to After Effects, lool!