KX studio, LInux Mint, or Ubuntu Studio? Music Creation enviornment

[Audio_4]

Of the 3 Linux distros which one of these are best suited for Music creation:
1. Linux Mint 20.1
2. Ubuntu Studio
3. KXstudio

I don't know what's currently going on with KXstudio but is the distro still being worked on?

[Shupacabras]

4- KDE Neon + repos KXStudio

[Nachei]

I use Ubuntu Studio with Reaper, and it is very stable. I've also added the KX Studio repo so you can have that too.
That said, my music is very simple plugin wise, so ymmv.
Also, I've found that US is very "hostile" to tweaking. For example, things like changing the window manager and such. You can do it, but it doesn't like it and it takes some effort. Maybe it's a distro supposed to "just work" out of the box and be left alone.
The next thing I want to try is Manjaro, because I heard there is a version you can download that has built in the real time kernel, so, if package management works well, it would just be a matter of equipping it with the software you want, and you can leave out all the fluff.

[varpa]

You might also consider AVL-MXE: http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/.

[ufug]

Distro doesn't seem to be a big deal any more. Pick something that floats your boat in general, and then configure it.

I rarely last an entire year on a distro, and I usually favor Xfce on whatever I use. On a whim I tried out Mint last April and have grown to really enjoy it. The current version of the Cinnamon DE is crazy snappy and uses very few resources (I was shocked at how light it is now, because it was a different scene a few years back). To get going with audio I just ran the Ubuntu Studio Installer from the repos (as you can do on any Ubuntu derivative) and everything was automatically configured. I'm getting lower latency than I've ever had before and the fan almost never needs to kick in. It's pretty amazing how little you have to do nowadays to have a working audio workstation.

Caveat: I don't do all that WINE/VST bridging stuff or use complicated JACK routing etc. I just use a single DAW and a bunch of native plugins. If you need to go all-in for power and variety of pre-installed tools I don't think there's anything currently available that can touch AVLinux.

[Audio_4]

Its been overwhelming so far because I wanted to also do some Post-hardcore music from the 2000's era. I needed some proper VST instruments for it and I did not find what I needed in LMMS. Unless there's some native linux virtual instruments I can use that's out there to work with. Another thing I forgot to mention is that I have a recent AMD Ryzen CPU that may not be properly supported with older Kernels, I looked a bit into that AV Linux MX Edition, the iso mirror is not available.

On my linux mint setup I did add a KXstudio repo, I still haven't been able to get other instruments and plugins to work inside LMMS, apart from a few wine VST plugins using vestiage. Its been confusing to someone like me who is a noob to this, I'm getting lost and confused along the way because it brings up other questions. For this jack audio I'm unsure if it will work on my current OS without breaking something. This youtuber Unfa mentioned that there is a new audio alternative called PipeWire.

I downloaded an app image for LMMS because the repo for Linux Mint doesn't have Vestiage in it due to some error.

An example of the type of Music: Dance Gavin Dance - Tree Village https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhHaJl05W0U

I've come across a Linux Musician who has good advice- Unfa https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYKj_ ... Dp5LtHlH2A

From my experience so far I wish this was more straightforward and out of the box because so far I spent a lot of time researching and looking into things that normally would have driven someone else to give up and go with a windows setup with proprietary software. I'm probably going to need a separate topic to address my issues because it steers off-topic.

EDIT: I tried the live iso of AV Linux MX and it doesn't play well with my 4k monitor. changing the font and scaling stuff doesn't fix everything.

[Audio_4]

I cant send a full image because I get a file is too large error but it doesn't seem to be of the file size but more of resolution size error. So I cropped a section of the desktop screenshot

[bluzee]

KX Studio and Ubuntu Studio are just meta packages. You can install a few or all of them and turn a regular Ubuntu or Mint distro into a Studio version. Ubuntu Studio meta packages are in Ubuntu and Mint repos already. KX Studio repos need to be installed as you already are aware.

KX Studio repos make it pretty easy to install most things you will want. They have dropped packaging for some major apps like guitarix, hydrogen, qtractor and perhaps others. This means Ubuntu and Mint might not have the most recent versions of some programs.

You'll have to be more specific about your request for available instruments. Also more specific details for aid with using specific software apps. What every you ask, someone here will know the answer.

Jack will not break anything. Jack is your friend.

Personally I just use a default Mint 19.3 Cinnamon version with KX Studio repos. I drop out of Cinnamon and use fluxbox desktop when I want to play. For the most part just live guitar processing with a dabbling in midi. When I'm not playing it runs tvheadend and Kodi.

[Audio_4]

I'm trying to create post-hardcore music as well from the 2000's era. I needed some good drums and electric guitar virtual instruments to achieve the desired sound. So I wasn't getting much from stock LMMS when I first got into it, then I find out that LMMS doesn't support the open-source lv2 plugins. Ardour on the other hand I only see 5.12 from the software manager.

I don't really plan on doing instruments that are plugged in into a computer or audio interface unless I really need to do so to get my desired sound. I still have not found the ideal electric guitar vitrual instrument, for some reason they kinda sound like toys to me.

Post-Hardcore examples : Dance Gavin Dance - Tree Village https://vimeo.com/6718789
The Saddest Landscape - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UI1_V5xgDY
Matchbook Romance - Your stories, My Alibis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZhq6MI ... tjVYOywnfx


I did come across these gig samples on my search http://www.flamestudios.org/free/GigaSamples

[Michael Willis]

I've come across a Linux Musician who has good advice- Unfa https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYKj_ ... Dp5LtHlH2A

Unfa is fantastic. He uses only open source software, so following his instructions you don't necessarily need Win VSTs.

Ardour on the other hand I only see 5.12 from the software manager.

You can use the KXStudio repos on any debian-based distro. KXStudio will give you the latest Ardour and many more fun toys.

[bluzee]

Drumgizmo and AVLdrums have some kits that sound pretty decent to me.

http://www.bandshed.net/avldrumkits/

https://drumgizmo.org/wiki/doku.php

Different ways to integrate them. LV2, stand alone. AVL also has kits to download into hydrogen.

http://hydrogen-music.org/

Most of the time I just like to load up the kit samples and play them live with a keyboard.

I'm not sure if there is a good electric guitar virtual instrument any where in any OS period. I've never heard anything I liked.

I expect Ardour 5.12 can do everything you want and then some. If you upgrade to something groovy they have 6.3. I don't have much experience with Ardour. It's a major deal and a big learning curve. I've used qtractor a bit. I was able to figure things out in it not too bad.

[sunrat]

KX Studio repos make it pretty easy to install most things you will want. They have dropped packaging for some major apps like guitarix, hydrogen, qtractor and perhaps others. This means Ubuntu and Mint might not have the most recent versions of some programs.

I'm not surprised falktx is cutting back on maintaining some packages; it was a huge undertaking for one person. Still good for KX utilities like Carla and some other stuff.
The rncbc PPA is great for the latest Qtractor, QJackctl, other Q stuff and nice V1 synths and samplers. I'm running the Bionic one on Debian Buster; make sure to select the right one to match your Debian-based distro.
https://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/2145

I couldn't get the OBS repo working due to a signing key error. YMMV. PPA one works fine.

[sysrqer]

I don't really plan on doing instruments that are plugged in into a computer or audio interface unless I really need to do so to get my desired sound. I still have not found the ideal electric guitar vitrual instrument, for some reason they kinda sound like toys to me.

Post-Hardcore examples : Dance Gavin Dance - Tree Village https://vimeo.com/6718789
The Saddest Landscape - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UI1_V5xgDY
Matchbook Romance - Your stories, My Alibis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZhq6MI ... tjVYOywnfx


I did come across these gig samples on my search http://www.flamestudios.org/free/GigaSamples

Those Giga samples are really good, depending on the sound you are looking for. There are lots of soundfonts around and I think they might be good to look into.

Honestly, I'm not sure how convincing the results will be trying to make this kind of music purely synthetically. Drumgizmo is definitely a good choice for the drums but guitars will be harder I think. Bass can probably be done with soundfonts.

[bluzee]

The rncbc PPA is great for the latest Qtractor, QJackctl, other Q stuff and nice V1 synths and samplers. I'm running the Bionic one on Debian Buster; make sure to select the right one to match your Debian-based distro.
https://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/2145

Thank you. I did not know about these.

No matter which distro you ultimately choose, there is always a way.