LinuxMusicians

Hi Everyone,
I am about to install a new distro to setup with Reaper. I was initially planning on installing kubuntu, but I wanted to check in if there are major advantages or disadvantages compared with ubuntu studio that I should be aware of. I'm just a beginner in with linux audio.

Thanks!

Edit: I realise that this should be Ubuntustudio compared with kubuntu and the kxstudio repos.

If you're comfortable using the command line and customizing your distro, I would recommend picking a distro that you like and then adapting it for real-time audio. Although the steps may seem esoteric the first time you do it, there aren't really that many adjustments that you have to make. There are plenty of people here who will answer your questions along the way.

So if you like kubuntu, give it a try and see how it goes.

Thanks for that Michael. So I guess that leads me to the question of what are the advantages or disadvantages of the different ways of setting up for real time audio. From my quick look around it seems like there are 2 automated ways of setting up (ubuntu studio control panel + ubuntustudio-lowlatency-settings ; or kxstudio's Cadence and kxstudio-default-settings ), or doing it manually (I found this page to have a list of suggestions: wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/system_configuration ).
Do those two automated alternatives do the same thing? And then is there any major difference between them?

Thanks again!

A distro that is designed for audio production will already have the adjustments recommended in that wiki page, so if you want to do it the easy way, just install a pre-built audio distro like Ubuntu Studio or AVLinux or something.

On the other hand, if you really want to use a specific distro (it sounds like you have a preference for Kubuntu), you can customize it yourself so that it will perform well for audio production. The wiki page you linked to has the information you need. It may seem long and scary, but take it one step at a time and ask questions here if you run into trouble.

If you want to go this route, be aware that you don't have to compile a kernel, you can get a prebuilt kernel like the one from Liquorix.

klooter wrote: ↑Wed Mar 25, 2020 2:56 am Hi Everyone,
I am about to install a new distro to setup with Reaper. I was initially planning on installing kubuntu, but I wanted to check in if there are major advantages or disadvantages compared with ubuntu studio that I should be aware of. I'm just a beginner in with linux audio.

Thanks!

Edit: I realise that this should be Ubuntustudio compared with kubuntu and the kxstudio repos.

One thing that have made me abandon Ubuntu studio after running the latest 19.10 version for a short while is the announcement that firewire devices will no longer be supported. They suggests everyone to upgrade to a new USB interface... That is exactly why many people abandon Windows and MacOS to be free from sudden changes in supported devices for no apparent reason.

So if you (like me) have Firewire devices, pick general kx-studio or anything more generic so you can keep using your gear like you shold be able to.

On Ubuntu Studio 21.10 firewire devices are still supported.

There is a third option, you can use Kubuntu (or another ubuntu variant) with the ubuntu studio addon. I use Kubuntu (KDE Is my preference) and the kx studio repo and it works well. Although, Ubuntu Studio are switching to KDE I see but it was XFCE when I made my choice.

Essentially it's all the same thing. It's just a matter of what gets installed by default. They are both Ubuntu and share the same packages. The Ubuntu studio packages can be installed in any of them. Even in Linux Mint.

The desktop environment can be changed and different ones can be installed. Choose the desktop you want when you log in. If you are running mostly in one application like a DAW a desktop like fluxbox can free up a lot of resources compare to running KDE.

Install LTS version of ubuntu studio like 20.04 than you can keep using it for probably 6 years without changing version number.