Audio interface advice / general setup advice.

[lsthwy]

Hey there,

First time poster here..
I've been making music for years under Windows, but after transitioning all my personal computers over to Linux earlier this year and loving it, I've decided after the music project I'm working on now I'll give the studio computer a Linux upgrade too.

My current PC build is something like 12 years old. It's served me really well. I'm using a Digi 003R and Pro Tools 8 with 32-bit Windows XP. I don't use a lot of plugins or anything, so it runs pretty much flawlessly, apart from the odd Pro Tools crash that has been haunting me for a few years.

Anyway, I have a few goals with the new build: More expandability, I'm starting to reach the limits of the 8x analog and 1x ADAT I/O on the 003. To start working with some modern plugins (some sound amazing these days). Responsive MIDI timing in and out of the system (under PT I get a significant delay when routing midi from one instrument to another through PT). To learn a new piece of editing software that's more geared towards electronic music. To potentially dive into something like Pure Data. And of course just to get away from Windows.

After some research around here and other nooks and crannies on the net, I've sort of come away with the idea that a modest new PC build (i5, 16G RAM, etc) and something like the RME RayDAT or the RME HDSP 9652 would suit me well. I'd love to hear from anyone here that has experience with those cards. The older HDSP 9652 sell for next to nothing these days, but do they have any clear disadvantages over the newer PCIe cads?
I could also go the route of a firewire interface (I could take the firewire card out of my current PC), or even a newer USB audio interface. But I've always liked the idea of the interface being directly inside the computer and I imagine it must be great for latency.

My other questions are more general. What would you do if you were making a new build now that you're comfortable with producing under Linux?
Is there something I need to be aware of in terms of PC components? Is there something on the horizon that would be worth waiting for compatibility? (ie. Dante, Ravenna, and all that seems to fascinate me... but from some brief skimming it seems the Linux compatibility isn't quite there yet... plus I'm not sure I need it at all -- I just think it's cool haha).

Thanks for any insights !

[sysrqer]

In term of general build advice I would recommend avoiding Nvidia graphics cards if you can. They work fine in most cases but you need to/should use the non free drivers and it can be a bit of a hassle. I always had little bugs with Nvidia on a laptop like graphics corruption after suspending and things like that. I recently built a pc with AMD graphics and it works flawlessly with no effort or tinkering needed.

[lsthwy]

In term of general build advice I would recommend avoiding Nvidia graphics cards if you can. They work fine in most cases but you need to/should use the non free drivers and it can be a bit of a hassle. I always had little bugs with Nvidia on a laptop like graphics corruption after suspending and things like that. I recently built a pc with AMD graphics and it works flawlessly with no effort or tinkering needed.

Yep, I've heard about the hassles with Nvidia. I think I'll just be going for Intel integrated graphics on this machine.

[bluzee]

I went with onboard intel video last time and I'm happy with it. It just works and no extra drivers or problems getting the nvidia kernel mod to compile.

Biggest trouble with older cards is finding motherboards with PCI slots for a new build. Otherwise new versions usually allow up to 192khz sample rate while older versions probably are 96khz maximum. Is 192khz necessary? You tell me. I set my sample rate at 48khz.

[lsthwy]

I went with onboard intel video last time and I'm happy with it. It just works and no extra drivers or problems getting the nvidia kernel mod to compile.

Biggest trouble with older cards is finding motherboards with PCI slots for a new build. Otherwise new versions usually allow up to 192khz sample rate while older versions probably are 96khz maximum. Is 192khz necessary? You tell me. I set my sample rate at 48khz.

Yeah, I've never personally had a need to go beyond 48khz. So long as there isn't a huge difference in latency between the PCI and PCIe models, it seems pretty logical to go with the older card.
In that case it might be the smart (and eco-friendly) thing to resurrect an old PC. I'm thinking something like this:
https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anz ... 0-228-3401
with a ram upgrade and the HDD swapped for SSD.

I'm planning to run Bitwig, since they actually gave me a license recently. Does anyone have experience running it on a machine of this vintage?
I heard NI plugins can be wrapped to work under Linux. I also got some licenses for their stuff too -- are they particularly resource-hungry? I could sort of imagine so.

[Philotomy]

I'm planning to run Bitwig, since they actually gave me a license recently. Does anyone have experience running it on a machine of this vintage?

I'm running Bitwig on a system with an intel i5-2550K, 16GB RAM, SSD HD, and AMD RX580 for graphics. I haven't noticed any performance issues. (FWIW, I'm running Arch for my distro, JACK 2, and have tweaked the system based on feedback from the realtimeconfigquickscan results. I use Cadence for managing JACK.) I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Gen2 as my interface, and typically use a sampling rate of 48kHz. The 18i8 will do up to 192kHz, but I haven't found any need for it.

(I probably will be looking to upgrade to a newer system in the near future, just because I've been using this one since around 2012 and would enjoy a change. I'll probably go AMD for both CPU and graphics card, when the time comes.)

I heard NI plugins can be wrapped to work under Linux. I also got some licenses for their stuff too -- are they particularly resource-hungry? I could sort of imagine so.

I can't answer that one -- I don't know. You can definitely run some Windows plugins, etc. using WINE and some sort of plugin host (e.g., Carla), but I tend to avoid doing so. Lots of people do it, though. Asking in the Running non-linux software area of the forums is your best bet for answers on that.

Also, you might check out Virtual Playing Orchestra, which provides a bunch of free orchestral instrument SFZs that you can load. I'd recommend sfizz for that (the Bitwig sampler and Carla both can load SFZs, but neither seems to provide full SFZ support).

One stumbling block with Bitwig on Linux is the lack of LV2 plugin support (although Bitwig will load Linux VST plugins just fine). You can get around that using Carla as a host for LV2s, loading Carla into Bitwig as a VST. Another potential stumbling block is the way Bitwig uses MIDI (requiring sole use). You can get around that by configuring a virtual MIDI device.

[lsthwy]

I'm running Bitwig on a system with an intel i5-2550K, 16GB RAM, SSD HD, and AMD RX580 for graphics. I haven't noticed any performance issues. (FWIW, I'm running Arch for my distro, JACK 2, and have tweaked the system based on feedback from the realtimeconfigquickscan results. I use Cadence for managing JACK.) I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 Gen2 as my interface, and typically use a sampling rate of 48kHz. The 18i8 will do up to 192kHz, but I haven't found any need for it.

That realtimeconfigquickscan tool looks super helpful, thanks for that. I was planning on using AVLinux to have everything up for audio performance, but perhaps I'll do a personal config with the help of that script. I'm also running Arch on my main laptop, and feel pretty comfortable with it now.. So it might be better to stick with what I know rather than dive in with something else with AVLinux.

One stumbling block with Bitwig on Linux is the lack of LV2 plugin support (although Bitwig will load Linux VST plugins just fine). You can get around that using Carla as a host for LV2s, loading Carla into Bitwig as a VST. Another potential stumbling block is the way Bitwig uses MIDI (requiring sole use). You can get around that by configuring a virtual MIDI device.

I didn't realise Bitwig didn't support LV2. Good to know!

[Philotomy]

I was planning on using AVLinux to have everything up for audio performance, but perhaps I'll do a personal config with the help of that script. I'm also running Arch on my main laptop, and feel pretty comfortable with it now.. So it might be better to stick with what I know rather than dive in with something else with AVLinux.

I haven't used AVLinux, but I can see the appeal of running a distro that has real time audio tweaks "baked in." That said, I'm very happy with Arch, and you can definitely tweak it for exactly what you need. The main things I like about Arch include the "tailor it to your exact needs" thing, along with the excellent documentation and the rolling release model. The rolling release thing is a big one. I've been running the same installation for years, am always up-to-date, and never have to go through a major "distro version upgrade." Since you're already using Arch you probably know this, but one suggestion I'd offer is avoiding things like proprietary graphics drivers and such. That's one thing that can introduce some pain into the rolling release approach. If you use the open source drivers you won't have to worry about rolling release updates that are incompatible with the proprietary drivers. (That's one reason I've gone with AMD graphics -- the open source AMD drivers are pretty good.)

I didn't realise Bitwig didn't support LV2. Good to know!

Yeah, if there were one feature I could magically add to Bitwig on Linux it would be built-in LV2 support. That said, the built-in devices that Bitwig comes with tend to be quite good, so I end up using fewer third-party plugins than I might otherwise.