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Configure and optimize you computer for Audio.
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There are more companies that there ever were before that are commercially selling linux software too.

To name some:

Uhe
Illformed
TAL-Software
Auburn Sounds
Disco DSP
ToneLib
TouchOSC
Overtone DSP
Loomer
Harrison
Audio Damage
Tracktion
Bitwig
Cockos
Cut Through Recordings
Modartt
Bltworks
Evil Turtle Productions
Sonorworks
Audio Assault
LHI Audio
White Elephant Audio
Inertia Sound Systems
Venomode
MOK
Renoise
etc.

Add to that that linux can run most all but the most hardened copy-protected Windows plugins and apps, and you have a HUGE list of available programs and plugins available. :-)
C/R, dongles & other intrusive copy protection equals less-control & more-hassle for consumers. Company gone-can’t authorize. Limit to # of auths. Instability-ie PACE. Forced internet auths. THE HONEST ARE HASSLED, NOT THE PIRATES.

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One would ask, What makes sfizz special? I'll give these answers:

It first and foremost supports direct-from-disk capability, meaning that huge SFZ instruments like sm drums, for instance, can be loaded and run with no problems.

It is Open Source with a clear, unconvoluted license--unlike LinuxSampler.

It supports more SFZ opcodes than most of the basic SFZ players--approaching sforzando's capabilities.

It has controls available to control functionality without needing special license permission--unlike sforzando.

It is currently actively being developed and improved. Very little is done with most of the others, other than to keep them maintained and capable of running.
C/R, dongles & other intrusive copy protection equals less-control & more-hassle for consumers. Company gone-can’t authorize. Limit to # of auths. Instability-ie PACE. Forced internet auths. THE HONEST ARE HASSLED, NOT THE PIRATES.

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These are crazy good times. :hyper: Options for all manner of workflow. The new yabridge 3.4 now provides some drag+drop functions, would be cool if sfizz could receive it's sounds that way! And it seems more of my favorite instruments are back in play with each new yabridge release :party:
Cheers

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kjk
Last edited by codec_spurt on Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ff
Last edited by codec_spurt on Wed Oct 13, 2021 1:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

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hh
Last edited by codec_spurt on Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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If Image-Line and Spectrasonics would release Linux versions I'd be strictly Linux but until then no can do.

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codec_spurt wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:06 pm The great question is:
What is the best Linux distro to use for all our DAWS?
People have different skills, different goals, different needs, different setups, different budgets, but there are some generalities and answered questions we can impose on the diversities.
1. Choose distros that are in line with your skills.
2. Choose the gear and software for your setup that
is widely known to work with your distros, within that skill level.
Sell, trade, or give away things that cause difficulties, but could help someone else.
3. Choose your path... are you desiring to learn and master
the technical aspects of linux, or are you more interested in musicianship, songwriting, and producing finished works?
Focus on one, with the secondary being tolerated as needs be.
4. Make sure your life away from audio production is stable
and prospering. Trainwrecks may be the topic of songs, but surviving them is too costly.
5. In your personal relationships, be honest, are you an entertainer, a student, a teacher, a leader, a follower, a peacemaker, a troublemaker? The kind of distros and setups you choose, should be in line with who you are, and what you want to accomplish.
6. Linux has veins of religiosity and politics when it comes to ideals of free software, open-source licensing, and system content.
It's easy to get diverted from producing music, with precious hours spent on endless discussions, while the record button sits
cold and dry.

In my case, which may not be yours or his or hers or their's, I want distros that are preconfigured for audio, that stay current, that can include older software, that are easy to use, and are beautiful to look at and work with. Finding all that in just one distro is to me, problematic and overly time consuming, so to answer your question of 'which is best', I say use different distro's for different tasks. All aimed to create music that you enjoy listening to.
And if linux isn't good enough for a certain task, find and use what is. I want trouble-free hardware, and stable innovative software. I want to produce, to learn, and to assist. And to have fun doing it.
:hyper: :party: :hyper:

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hoxclab wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:03 pm If Image-Line and Spectrasonics would release Linux versions I'd be strictly Linux but until then no can do.
You're definitely not alone in that line of thought. People that are successfully enrenched in product A, should be careful of changing to another product midstream, and perhaps losing their goto tools.

But modern tools make it easy to add a preconfigured linux setup on an external drive, and there are many tails of woes imposed by the whims of corporate operating systems, the effects of which could be lessened by having more options, for times when a system breaks, or the system breaks software/hardware compatibilty. It would be easy to test and retest the items you mention, with the aid of vst plugin wrappers, linvst or yabridge, and as improved kernels, wine, alsa, jackd, and pulseaudio improve the basic linux audio infrastructure.
Cheers

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If you squint at the screenshot, you can see the groovy Hypercyclic arpeggiator playing the jackd version of Yoshimi. I had to open a filemanager, and tick the Hypercyclic
properties/permissions option t let it 'run as a program', as it had an odd permissions error, perhaps some security deficit needs to be corrected etc

Hypercyclic shows up in qjackctl as 'juce midi', and has good config options. Using some thought processes for combining Yoshimi sounds with differing ADSR's, and it's 16-part multi-timbrality, you can assemble some cool bands, directed by hypercyclics midi output. Lot's of fun possibilities :hyper:

The excellent Folderol soundset panel pictured, is a good place to find Yoshimi sounds!

yoshimi-hypercyclic.png
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https://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=23528

gennargiu has made a debian 'bullseye' and kx-studio' based linux audio distribution,
using the Mate desktop gui by default. From the menu screenshots at the link, it looks to be a very complete collection of linux music tools :hyper:
Cheers
Last edited by glokraw on Mon Aug 09, 2021 5:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

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wq
Last edited by codec_spurt on Tue Oct 12, 2021 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

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No offence taken. Your 'rant' is thought provoking, and your voice is important. 8) Like a used car salesman,
I could have answered your question in two words: Ubuntu Studio. Or one phrase: AVLinux. And moved on. But the ways of producing creative art change quickly. Peoples circumstances can change quickly. A person can face despair, or revel in success, on a twist of fate. In either case, artistry is healthy and fun. Perhaps even crucial to survival, for someone on rock bottom.

I recognize that I write like a pedantic old dinosaur.
It may seem condescending, but to me, the questions I pose are too often neglected, in soundbyte buzzword society, as if everyone is the same, or needs to conform to xyz.

I have a little mission, I try to get strangers to become musicians, rather than just consuming whatever is Top 40 in their prefered genres...bank tellers, store clerks, security guards, medical workers, cops, maybe one in ten will show interest beyond just being polite. But I keep at it, hopefully not becoming a pest.

Sorting through all the fluff I typed in response to 'the great question', my answer was/is/will always be:
"use different distro's for different tasks.". To someone else, without your linux experience, the answer might be, 'Ubuntu Studio if you have an nVidia graphics card', or 'AVLinux if you have a motherboard video chip'.

A mac or win user not permanently polarized betwixt the two waddling commercial giants, may have about 10 choices for an operation system, with the bottom 6 circling the drains of built-in obsolessence. We have dozens and dozens of choices, actively maintained and futurized (but all inferior, if the common advertisements are accepted). A relative just bought a new mac M1 in hopes of solving 'bottom 6' compatability problems. I saw it on the dining room table, and unknowingly said, "Hey, cool looking new tablet!" The room was awkwardly quiet for a moment.
:dog: :hihi: But that's how I roll thud roll roll thud roll roll roll thud :hyper:
Cheers

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codec_spurt wrote: Sun Aug 08, 2021 11:00 pm
glokraw wrote: Mon Jul 19, 2021 9:23 am
codec_spurt wrote: Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:06 pm The great question is:
What is the best Linux distro to use for all our DAWS?
People have different skills, different goals, different needs, different setups, different budgets, but there are some generalities and answered questions we can impose on the diversities.
1. Choose distros that are in line with your skills.
2. Choose the gear and software for your setup that
is widely known to work with your distros, within that skill level.
Sell, trade, or give away things that cause difficulties, but could help someone else.
3. Choose your path... are you desiring to learn and master
the technical aspects of linux, or are you more interested in musicianship, songwriting, and producing finished works?
Focus on one, with the secondary being tolerated as needs be.
4. Make sure your life away from audio production is stable
and prospering. Trainwrecks may be the topic of songs, but surviving them is too costly.
5. In your personal relationships, be honest, are you an entertainer, a student, a teacher, a leader, a follower, a peacemaker, a troublemaker? The kind of distros and setups you choose, should be in line with who you are, and what you want to accomplish.
6. Linux has veins of religiosity and politics when it comes to ideals of free software, open-source licensing, and system content.
It's easy to get diverted from producing music, with precious hours spent on endless discussions, while the record button sits
cold and dry.

In my case, which may not be yours or his or hers or their's, I want distros that are preconfigured for audio, that stay current, that can include older software, that are easy to use, and are beautiful to look at and work with. Finding all that in just one distro is to me, problematic and overly time consuming, so to answer your question of 'which is best', I say use different distro's for different tasks. All aimed to create music that you enjoy listening to.
And if linux isn't good enough for a certain task, find and use what is. I want trouble-free hardware, and stable innovative software. I want to produce, to learn, and to assist. And to have fun doing it.
:hyper: :party: :hyper:

Your post encapsulates and exemplifies why Linux will not only only not take over the desk top, it won't take over the desktop with music programs on it, either.

With respect.

This reply was everything I ever got from the Linux community:

1: Patronising.
2: Condescending.
3: Self-aggrandizing.
4: Nothing to do with the question I asked.

I love you glok, I really do, but you are everything that is wrong with the community, with regard to Linux, and also with regard to getting DAWs on to the desktop for Linux.

Every single thing you mentioned there, I already knew. How many f**king posts do I have here? I've helped people out with Linux before, done beta testing for certain DAW specific Linux distros.

Never mind. The guy that does AV Linux was very helpful to me. He's kind of an exception. I mentioned that I'd used it. I saw that you had used it. I was wondering what you thought of it.

Truth be told, I don't need it. I've bitten off more than I can chew with Windows, XP, 7 and X. All of which I'm trying to maintain. Oh, and win98 as well. LOL.

This was supposed to be fun. I don't need the evangelism. When I post, I always post with the theory of mind that other people are watching in. That other people want answers to these questions as well. So I ask not just for myself, but for others.

I already can do a full production workstation in Linux. I don't need anyone's help for that. WINE. And with the help of other certain people, I can get other programs running native too.

Sorry if this seems like a rant. You do great work for the Linux Audio community Glok. Props to you and respect.

But a little bit of fun and light-heartedness sometimes, maybe?

No one is holding a gun to any one of our heads.

Audio on Linux is difficult. Because of different distros, desktops, managers, drivers.

My question to you was what you were using. I assume you have boiled it down quite a bit. I was really curious if you were using the latest distro of AV Linux which looks superb, and I probably will get around to installing for real or on a VM pretty soon. If I get the time.

Not having a go at you.

But can you see the other side of the fence as well?

It's not just me asking this question.

I'd really love to be part of a forum where I could learn about Linux and about audio on Linux. I might even pay for it. But sadly, there doesn't seem to be anywhere on the internet where this exists. I do extensive, even autistic testing with stuff. But I can't get a straight answer to a straight question, most of the time.

Ok, maybe this was a bit of a rant.

Don't mind me, keep on doing what you are doing glok. I'm sorry if I was a little harsh.

:tu:
I thought Glokraw's answer was none of the things you mentioned above. You have to understand something that non Linux users don't understand--Linux is not a single os like Mac or Windows, and is as much a culture/community as it is a custom set of OSes using a Linux kernel. While much of what is called a distro is similar, each and every distro is different, and different with a purpose. Let's say conservatively that there are 200 distros out there. That's 200+ different operating systems that happen to use the Linux kernel. Each and every distro has been put together to reach a target audience. There are distros for hard-core CLI users and there are distros aimed at technophobes. There are distros meant for full-on lego-style customization, where you can build the OS from the ground up to be what you want it to be, and there are distros that make every single choice for you. There are distros designed and highly-tuned for a very specific purpose, like automation, factory robotics, automobile engines, or space craft, and there are generic distros that are meant to do a bit of everything (albeit maybe not as specifically tuned for a highly specific purpose). To add to that, there are many variations on the Linux kernel. Unlike Macs or Windows, the kernel itself can be highly customized. I could go on and on, but to keep it short, you need to understand that there is NO BEST distro. There is only a best distro for YOU. And, in order to recommend a distro in the linux world, one needs to know about the person that is planning on using that distro. And even then, even at the most basic level, there is a learning curve. A big learning curve!

And, I didn't even get into the whole Repository thing. Each distro has a set of repositories that are designed only for that distro. One has to know what software specifically you are going to be wanting to use. Only what's available in the repository? Commercial software? All of this matters.

So, you want to try a linux distro? I would ask questions like these:

How computer savvy are you? Are you comfortable with computers? And I don't mean something like, "Hey, I love my Mac! I could play on it all day!" I mean, are you willing to research to find an answer to a technical problem. Are you willing to use a text editor to configure something on your system. Are you willing to learn a new way of doing things. Have you ever installed an operating system? If not, you've got some work ahead of you with Linux. Arch, for example, requires you to build your custom system from the ground up through the command line interface. And Arch isn't the hardest linux operating system out there.

What will you be doing on your system? Is it going to be a custom, highly-tuned Real-time kernel running DAW that is specifically designed to run at ultra-low latencies and never meet an XRun? Or, is it a touch-screen laptop that is running NVidia graphics and Virtualbox and requires battery longevity and power considerations? You've got to know what you want, and often you've got to know a little bit about linux to begin knowing what you want.

I could go on and on. But my point is this. In order to recommend the "Best" distro for you, we have to know about YOU. The questions help with determining that.

And P.S. Glokraw's bit about spousal relationships are spot-on. There are conversations about spousal problems from KVR, Gearslutz (Gearspace), and elsewhere, where the Mr./Mrs. takes up too much time with their music. It's only going to get way more time intensive for a Linux Music user--his comments on the time commitment were no joke--at least until you get to a comfort level that you are content with, and no longer feel like you are having to learn new things all the time to get your music done.

You're a cool guy Code_spurt! I don't mean ANY ill will in my post. I only hope to help you see that it is much more difficult than throwing out a distro name, when it comes to Linux.

That said, based on all of this, my recommendation for you would be to start with Ubuntu Studio. Once you become more comfortable with Linux and understand its ways more, you can search for what may better suit you. :)
C/R, dongles & other intrusive copy protection equals less-control & more-hassle for consumers. Company gone-can’t authorize. Limit to # of auths. Instability-ie PACE. Forced internet auths. THE HONEST ARE HASSLED, NOT THE PIRATES.

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I'll give you my personal example:

I currently prefer EndeavourOS.

I want t distro that is community driven rather than being controlled by a corporate/money-making entity--A community driven distro that is not a one-person shop that will go away when the developer gets sick. I want to be able to use my preferred desktop environment--currently Gnome3. I prefer stability, but I'm willing to use a rolling distro because I like timely bug fixes. New features are nice too, but the show-stopper bug fixes are what I'm looking for. I have a Gen 5 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (2-in-1 laptop), and I want to be able to use it as much as a touchscreen device for media consumption as I do for light DAW work. I want to have great battery life, but be able to have reasonable DAW performance. I work in I.T. and have used Linux for years as a hobby, and I am very comfortable working with computers, but I don't really want to get too deep into compiling source code and managing services manually. But at the same time, I want access to the Arch User Repositories. I want multiple kernel options without having to compile my own kernel. I want as many music-making apps as possible, and would like to be able to buy some apps commercially.

For me, EndeavourOS ticks those boxes. What you want and need, and what hardware you use may tick different boxes and may make us suggest a different linux OS for you. :-)
C/R, dongles & other intrusive copy protection equals less-control & more-hassle for consumers. Company gone-can’t authorize. Limit to # of auths. Instability-ie PACE. Forced internet auths. THE HONEST ARE HASSLED, NOT THE PIRATES.

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