Advice for a beginner, looking to have a go at recording.

[elsmandino]

Hi there.

I would be really grateful for some initial advice.

I have a couple of guitars, a midi keyboard and a Steinberg ur22 mkii interface.

I would love to try recording some stuff and would be grateful for some initial advice on where to start.

Whilst I am forced to use Windows, for working from home, I try to use Linux wherever possible - I am currently using Linux Mint.

I did try to follow a Youtube videos, to allow me to jam along to Youtube backing tracks, but I have ended up messing my sound up.

As I have three SSDs in my Desktop, I am thinking of having the first two dedicated to Windows and Mint and then the third dedicated to music production (as I have also heard that some dedicated distros have a better kernel that can help with latency issues).

Anyway, can anybody advise me on a good place to start, in terms of a distro to be begin with and any additional software, please?

I have read that Ubuntu Studio and AVLinux are both worth considering.

Just in case it is relevant, my Desktop is a i3-2105 with 8GB RAM.

Thanks in advance.

[dailybug2]

Proposed you stick to Linux, I see 3 basic directions:

(1) You are not a Linux insider and just need something to work with. You do not want so spend any money.
Use Ubuntu Studio or AVlinux and accept whatever you encounter there; probably Ardour or Qtractor. Accept slightly outdated software and don't expect the resolution of problems between major updates.

(2) You are not a Linux insider and you are ready to pay a little money for a somewhat smarter product (smarter, not necessarily better).
Consider Reaper on top of Ubuntu Studio or AVlinux.

(3) You have some Linux experience and you appreciate immediate bug fixes at the expense of building your DAW from source code. You INSIST on a smart and dedicated drum editor integrated into your DAW (neither Ardour nor Reaper have it, SHAME!).
Use MuseSequencer on top of any recent Linux distribution, with the usual real time tweaks of course (a true "real time linux kernel" is not necessary anymore).

I'm with (3), but I'm just a small-time musician. Anyway, the drum editor is absolutely indispensable for me.

Btw; your i3-2105 with 8GiB RAM is OK as a starting point, but you will experience a lack of CPU power using software synths and effects on some tracks.

[Basslint]

I suggest Ardour because now that it's gotten better MIDI support, it's IMHO the easiest DAW for doing a hybrid audio + MIDI workflow (if you were using exclusively MIDI, I'd suggest Qtractor instead).

[Michael Willis]

If you are comfortable using a terminal and a text editor to update the configuration of your Linux distro, you can make a few modifications to outfit your Mint distro for realtime audio instead of putting another distro on a separate partition. I outlined how I did it for ElementaryOS. The same steps should work on Mint since it is another Ubuntu derivative.