Linux sound

[boombaxx]

Why does my focusrite soundcard sound different on Linux compared to Windows

[TechHaus]

oh lawd...

[planetearth]

Are you 110% sure it's the card, and not any built-in EQ or compression in the audio stream? Have you taken the output of a basic sound from your DAW on Linux and the same output from the same synth in (preferably) the same DAW in Windows and nulled them?

Steve

[TechHaus]

If you're going to try trouble shooting an issue, you have to give as much context as possible. Just a tip.

I could ask the questions that need to be asked, but I feel like it is on you, actually, to just give the info, at this point.

[glokraw]

Why does my focusrite soundcard sound different on Linux compared to Windows

You could get some help from the man who made the Focus-Rite linux software, (Geoffrey) and find which models are fully or partially supported:

https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?t=20669

The goal should be to get the Focus-Rite dialed in and sounding great in linux, without concerns about windows. In a recent linux, you may face choosing between jackd and pipewire audio. Reaper has linux and windows versions to use if comparison is needed. I use jackd with an old mAudio pci card, and love the results.
Cheers

[GaryG]

As an aside, I have noticed I have my monitors and interface levels up higher when using Linux than when I used the same setup with Windows. Tried switching the over amplification on but got distortion when playing just about anything, (this is in Mint w/ Pipewire, Reaper, Jackd etc incidentally) Behringer UHD202 i/f, no specific drivers installed so wondering if that's the issue.

[Tiles]

Linux and Windows use different audio stacks and drivers (ASIO vs ALSA/PipeWire).
They also handle resampling, buffering, and gain staging differently.

So the interface can sound slightly different even though the hardware is the same.

[glokraw]

As an aside, I have noticed I have my monitors and interface levels up higher when using Linux than when I used the same setup with Windows. Tried switching the over amplification on but got distortion when playing just about anything, (this is in Mint w/ Pipewire, Reaper, Jackd etc incidentally) Behringer UHD202 i/f, no specific drivers installed so wondering if that's the issue.

In my jackd based setups, I delete all pipewire related items the package manager will allow without wrecking the distro. This leaves only libpipewire and libspa, and I doubt they do anything on their own to conflict with jackd. They have a bunch of dependencies and some should probably be changed to 'suggested' if the linux audio coders ever get on the same page. (Not holding my breath on that ) There may be a 'usb gain' control or setting somewhere, some hardware have it on the low side by default. Might be worth insuring pulseaudio hasn't tampered with levels somewhere. Samson once sold a mic that messed up usb gain so bad, they granted refunds. Chips mattered
Cheers

[BertKoor]

Linux and Windows use different audio stacks and drivers (ASIO vs ALSA/PipeWire).
They also handle resampling, buffering, and gain staging differently.

So the interface can sound slightly different even though the hardware is the same.

Ah yeah. Assuming OP's windows setup is with ASIO... there's luckily not much of a chain there.

So the question seems valid.

I'd look into possible points in software where the sampling rate might get changed. Good luck with that.

[GaryG]

In my jackd based setups, I delete all pipewire related items the package manager will allow without wrecking the distro.

Yeah, I'm not sure i'm Linux savvy enough to risk doing that yet...

I do have a secondary installation that I haven't really used so will experiment on that one first, thanks!

[glokraw]

In general, synaptic package manager menu has a settings-preferences-files option to keep downloaded files in the cache

/var/cache/apt/archives

This helps with housecleaning, and a filemanager's 'sort by modification time' can also be useful.
Cheers