Switching from Windows/Mac to Linux (help needed)

What other apps and distros do you use to round out your studio?

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dominic
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Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:52 pm

Switching from Windows/Mac to Linux (help needed)

Post by dominic »

Hello everyone.

I would like to finally make the switch to a Linux based distribution on both my Tower PC running Windows 10 and my Macbook Pro Early-2015 running Mac OS El Capitan.

MIDI devices I am using are a Novation Launchkey 37 and a Akai MPD 232. (They would have to work on the Linux distro)
Software I am using is Ableton Live 10 Suite. (ready to switch to a similar Linux based one)
VSTs I am running are iZotope Ozone, Spectrasonics Omnisphere & Spectrasonics Keyscape.

Can you recommend a Linux Distribution that can handle all of the above on both regular hardware and apple hardware ?

Thank you in advance !
Dominic.
uns4ph3
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Re: Switching from Windows/Mac to Linux (help needed)

Post by uns4ph3 »

Cannot speak to linux on Apple hardware.

I would recommend AV linux as they have everything you might want out of the box with very little configuration. As far as your paid plugins, iLok can be a nightmare on linux so expect some work to get those to work and when you do, they may not work permanently.

As far as a DAW that behaves like ableton, you might look at Bitwig. Zrythm is still alpha level software so it's not really useable for a production machine.
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glowrak guy
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Re: Switching from Windows/Mac to Linux (help needed)

Post by glowrak guy »

Izotope make some great products, but the registration sytem is as dumb as Korg or Propellorheads:
the same internet and browser you buy their product with, magically can't find the same internet
when you go to authorize the product :roll:

I suggest installing linux on a bootable external drive, and take your time exploring
what works. Harrison Mixbus, Bitwig, and Reaper daws have linux versions, with a lot of
bundled support utilities and plugins, and each offers different specialities.
Plenty of excellent linux synths and effects exist, and plenty more windows plugins will
work with linvst plugin wrapper and wine-staging. Lot's to take in, hence no need to rush.

Ubuntu Studio and AVLinux are good choices for external-drive installs.
A few people have installed Ableton, but not much comment on useage after the fact.
Cheers
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