Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

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DrMeatball
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Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by DrMeatball »

Been lurking for a while, finally decided today is the day. No stranger to Linux (started back in the Yggsdrasil and Slackware on floppies days if anyone remembers those heh) or Unix-style in general but I've never commit to it full time. Long time macOS with Parallels (Windows and Ubuntu) user, then back to Windows, then off to Hackintosh-land, but I'm so sick and tired of the privacy and politics and all of that Windows / OS X crap. I'm ready. 100% full switch. It's stupid but what really set me off prompting this was Microsoft Edge yet again replacing my default browser. It's so stupid but I'm so tired of it. But I digress....

I know I'm going to lose out on my investment in plugins (esp ILOK related stuff - Melodyne, Neural DSP sims, etc) but I'm fine with this. Maybe Wine? will bring some of them back.. who knows. Deal with that later.

I'm a rock / metal / live drums and instruments guy, no EDM or other electronicy styles. That being said I wouldn't mind having a sample library similar to what is included with Logic or Studio 1 (is there anything like that available?). Not a deal breaker but would be nice! Not interested in loops.

I think most of my stuff is class compliant. Most important are the Focusrite 18i20v2 + 8 outboard ADAT preamps, Behringer Motor 49, Behringer Monitor Controller as well as a bunch of analog rack stuff, speakers, etc etc. System is a 64GB i9, about 16TB of SSD (only mechanical drives I have left are used for backups), Radeon 5700xt and 50" 4k.

Not sure what DAW I'll be using yet but I have licenses for both Reaper and Tracktion. Not ruling out Ardour or the rest, but I know these particular apps already so one less bit of learning curve being thrown at me for the near term is preferable.

Can I just use my Ubuntu USB key and get started? I know there are ready made distros (UBStudio and the like) but I'd prefer to stick as close to a mainstream distro as possible (and then modify it to my needs). [Unless not using UbuntuStudio is just plain dumb.. heh.] No problem compiling, tinkering, etc.

I'm coming from Studio One and Logic Pro, I've already exported the projects I care about to stems and actually looking forward to rebuilding everything.

Any foreseeable hardware issues? Software issues? Things you wish you knew when you started all this? etc

[Kinda Related.. is there any sort of support similar to Aggregate devices like in OS X? Every now and then I need more than 16 channels and I'll throw another interface in the mix (usually a Behringer 404HD or 8 channel) and aggregate them and *bam* everything is fine. If not available I can work around it, but just wondering!]
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by Basslint »

Can't comment on your setup (but will in a short time) because it's very different from mine but I can always welcome you and wish you a good stay, giving you my props for the 100% full switch :D

As for your setup: of course, if by USB key you mean a live distro, then no, it's not suitable for music-making! You should certainly install it.

The hardware seems fine.

As a DAW, it depends on how much MIDI you use. You said you are an instrumentalist, then Ardour would be a good choice.

As for the distro: AVLinux has everything you need to make music. As for regular distros, Manjaro and openSUSE for sure have a wealth of audio packages in their community repos (disclaimer: I help run one for openSUSE).

If I understood correctly your question about aggregate devices, JACK cannot (easily) handle more than one USB sound card. With some work, you might be able to do it, though (I am thinking NetJack and a VM).
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by sunrat »

As you have a Reaper licence it will work for the Reaper Linux version so there's a good start. There are several threads here about Focusrite devices and some smart people working on driver tweaks for full support so check those out.
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by khz »

DrMeatball wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 2:03 am[Kinda Related.. is there any sort of support similar to Aggregate devices like in OS X? Every now and then I need more than 16 channels and I'll throw another interface in the mix (usually a Behringer 404HD or 8 channel) and aggregate them and *bam* everything is fine. If not available I can work around it, but just wondering!]
Maybe with Zita-ajbridge or audioadapter, more Info see viewtopic.php?f=27&t=18785&p=95025#p95025.
. . . FZ - Does humor belongs in Music?
. . GNU/LINUX@AUDIO ~ /Wiki $ Howto.Info && GNU/Linux Debian installing >> Linux Audio Workstation LAW
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by tavasti »

DrMeatball wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 2:03 am Been lurking for a while, finally decided today is the day. No stranger to Linux (started back in the Yggsdrasil and Slackware on floppies days if anyone remembers those heh)
Yeah, I started with Slackware with floppies, and never turned back :--)
DrMeatball wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 2:03 am I know I'm going to lose out on my investment in plugins (esp ILOK related stuff - Melodyne, Neural DSP sims, etc) but I'm fine with this. Maybe Wine? will bring some of them back.. who knows. Deal with that later.
ILok stuff works ok with recent wine, most likely worth following this to know what is recent and working viewtopic.php?f=62&t=22899

For iLok, install it from their own installer, and don't let plugins install their own bonjour version.

Melodyne 5, said to be working in theory (meaning cracked version works), but their authorization/drm stuff does not work with wine. Solution, contact celemony support and ask to switch your Melodyne version to 4, and it works. Be sure to mention you are linux user, so that they are aware.

Most of the softwares and plugins work ok with wine. Registering/auth side is only thing that is causing problems, if getting past it, they work. iZotope Iris2, and most likely rest of the iZotope stuff may be such that cannot get working just because of registering. Demo version of Iris2 works, so cracked version most likely works. Legally it would not be any problem because I have license, but I don't dare to touch warez.

Welcome on board!

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DrMeatball
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by DrMeatball »

And up and running! Had to build wifi drivers for my RTL8812bu but otherwise was easy peasy. Still figuring a lot of things out but man o man, Linux has really come a long way!

The Focusrite was basically plug and play. The Behringer monitor controller was plug and play.. and even better than in Windows, Jack and ALSA seem to be implementing CoreAudio features with it - I can have different input and output devices at the same time again. With Windows ASIO you're limited to the device that has the driver, which required all sorts of external cabling to route signals around properly. Now, just like in MacOS, I can specify the monitor controller be the output (and then choose my various speakers from there) and the focusrite be the input. I can unplug 4 sets of TRS cables each with inline stereo DIs that are no longer needed. Hazzah!

And boom, just got the Behringer MIDI controller working. Motorized faders and everything. It's class compliant MIDI but reaper always needed some wonky workarounds in Windows for it to be used as a control surface. Linux basically point at the correct MIDI ports and good to go.

Officially a Linux for Lifer!
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RobinDe
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by RobinDe »

Hi, DrMeatball.

I am a newbie too, and have also just dived in after 35 years of M$...

And I am very impressed also with Linux. I have a Debian flavor that I've spiced up with a bit of Alsa & Jack, but now I've reached the stage where may try a different distro because the Focusrite 18i20 needs a kernel upgrade to work.

So I'm really curious what you did that the Focusrite was plug and play.

What distro did you start with?

Cheers!
RobinDe,
Who is now, nearly, free of the curse of the scourge of software.
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by glowrak guy »

DrMeatball wrote: Tue Jun 01, 2021 2:03 am I know I'm going to lose out on my investment in plugins (esp ILOK related stuff - Melodyne, Neural DSP sims, etc) but I'm fine with this. Maybe Wine? will bring some of them back.. who knows. Deal with that later.
Great to see your successes with hardware. I suggest you try BlueCat Axiom demo, it's a full, full, FULL
suite, that includes their Late Replies delay/reverb system, their Destructor amp-cab-distortion system,
and Re-guitar, which supplies custom pickup arranging, and acoustic soundboxes, all for mix-match mania.

Each demo has brief periodic fadeouts, so you can really test them thoroughly, and lots of good videos
are out their. The Guitar Legends portion of the presets will reveal a lot of what can be done.

The cherry on top, is that you can load your non-Bluecat vsts in the chains, as desired!
So most favorites are still in play.

Axiom plugin uses wine to install, and yabridge or linvst to wrap it for linux daws,
and the stand-alones should work, where wineasio is set up correctly, as in recent
AVLinux releases.

The new AcouFiend acoustic feedback creator-controller is awesome,
no wall of amps or players are injured by it's use use :wink:


https://www.bluecataudio.com/Main/Home/
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Re: Ready to dive in with both feet. ;)

Post by Michael Willis »

RobinDe wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 5:42 pmFocusrite 18i20 needs a kernel upgrade to work.
I'm not @DrMeatball, but I'm also using a 2nd-gen Focusrite 18i20. Yes, there has been some recent kernel work to support some of its features, but you don't have to install a new distro to get an upgraded kernel. I'm using the Liquorix kernel, which works well for audio production, and is not too scary to install.
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