Reaper vs Ardour?

[Basslint]

Although I would prefer everything opensource, I don't always have that choice as a simple user.

I understand your line of reasoning but think about demand and supply. This is actually not very relevant in GNU/Linux land because we are a small percentage of gamers, but conceptually one can "vote with their wallet". Also, using libre drivers, donating to them and reporting bugs would help them become better and improve the situation for everyone.

Sadly, the most important choice has to be made before buying the hardware. Once you are stuck with hardware that doesn't work well on GNU/Linux, you can't do anything about it. A good way out in this case would be to sell the hardware and buy something (maybe less powerful, since you are not selling at full price) that works well on FLOSS drivers.

[Gps]

I try to vote with my wallet. Wanted to buy serious sam 4, but now there is no Linux version. So I will wait.

I had build an complete AMD pc, and cheered when steam came to Linux.
That cheer died out fast, because of the amd Linux drivers.

A game that run good on my hardware on windows7 32bit, was almost unplayable on Linux. That has changed though, and I am once again on AMD for CPU and GPU.

I can remember buying an nvidia card though, because I was fed up with the state of the amd drivers.
I ranted at AMD because of this, and they had no answer because they knew I was right.

Let hope for a brighter future, Valve does not seem to give up yet, although I have mixed feelings about proton and such. (to run windows games on Linux)

Fun memories too, were the Linux devs were like, wait what, they are now gaming on Linux too ?
I also remember a statement of nvidia, nobody games on Linux, so why do they need good drivers?
There are some non free DAW for Linux, I see this as progress.

What does not make me happy, the number of gamers on Linux does not seem to grow.

I did however play Alien isolation on Linux

I think the main issue with Linux these days is, that its not easy to buy a pc with Linux pre-installed, and allot of the normal users can't install Linux themselves.

[merlyn]

Thanks for the replies. It's interesting to see what people think about this.

@bhilmers and @JamesPeters if you answered the question "Why do you use Linux?" I certainly didn't see it. You dealt more with why you use proprietary software which, in my interpretation, is because you like it, and that's fine.

"Open-source snob" says to me you don't get it, as @tramp alluded to and that is also fine.

There was a post where one of the forum members here got humped by Sonarworks who dropped the Linux version unceremoniously and without warning. So using free (as in speech) software is not simply an airy, idealistic endeavour -- it's quite practical.

[gauderbock]

I really tried to like Ardour, but looping midi caused all sorts of problems with dropped notes, hanging notes, etc. The problem was supposed to be fixed in v6 but still just as bad for me, so I gave up.

As for using both Linux and proprietary, I got into Linux because of the freedom to customize my environment pretty much as deeply as I wanted (which is something that Reaper also lets me do). I completely get the problems of being reliant on the whims of proprietary publishers, but if non-free is the best solution at the time (within Linux), then I'll use it.

[tavasti]

I really tried to like Ardour, but looping midi caused all sorts of problems with dropped notes, hanging notes, etc. The problem was supposed to be fixed in v6 but still just as bad for me, so I gave up.

Yeah, those problems with midi are horrible, and nobody is claiming that they are fixed. And don't know when it will be, for Mixbus v7 is out, and I don't think they are fixed.

Work for fixing midi is here: https://github.com/Ardour/ardour/commits/nutempo2

[JamesPeters]

bhilmers and JamesPeters if you answered the question "Why do you use Linux?" I certainly didn't see it. You dealt more with why you use proprietary software which, in my interpretation, is because you like it, and that's fine.

You asked a question which was a non-sequitur at best, and dishonest. "if you're OK with proprietary software why do you use Linux?" I'm certain you understand why. You're not looking for an honest answer to your "honest question". You have an agenda and it's clear. So my answer was appropriate.

"In a perfect world" I'd use only open-source software. I use mostly open-source software. But this isn't a perfect world. We all make choices out of practicality. Others have said that and alluded to it. Stop pretending to not understand this.

I'm sure I could find something about you which goes against your principles, if I looked closely enough. And that's fine too.

"Open-source snob" says to me you don't get it, as tramp alluded to and that is also fine.

I get it. You're an open-source snob. You have your reasons, but that's what you are. If you refuse to use any closed-source / proprietary software (as you implied), and you openly proselytize for it while claiming using other software is "wrong" somehow, you're an open-source snob.

There was a post where one of the forum members here got humped by Sonarworks who dropped the Linux version unceremoniously and without warning.

Yeah that sucks when that happens, but it's their choice for their reasons. Then I move on. I've done it before (Logic for Windows is the first example I can remember). Not to mention the fact I've changed OSes 3 times (not counting various versions/distros).

I could throw out the baby with the bathwater by refusing to use Reaper, as you'd prefer me to do, just in case Cockos decides to stop supporting Linux (or another OS that I'd be using for that matter). And in the meantime I'm stuck using Ardour? I'll take my chances. Besides there's Wine still. I'll be fine.

Your assessment of Reaper is obviously flawed, and now it's apparent why: even if you prefer Reaper, you'd never admit it, because it's not open source.

Good luck recruiting more people to die on the hill of "open-source only" with you.

[merlyn]

In the nicest possible way : I don't give a fuck what you or anyone else does with their computer.

However, when someone turning up here asks for a software recommendation I will recommend the open source version first, and put the case for it.

No offence, thanks for the drumkit, and I liked your license on that!

[bhilmers]

@bhilmers and @JamesPeters if you answered the question "Why do you use Linux?" I certainly didn't see it.

Sorry, it would be a looong post to list all the reasons I use Linux. The short version is, years ago I was looking for an alternative to Win/Mac environments and I also wanted to show my support for open standards (as well as open source). Open standards is why I bought a device from System76. I'm not a purist though. At the end of the day these are tools and I have work to do, so while open standards and open source is my first choice, I have to balance that with how well each tool fits into my workflow.

[JamesPeters]

In the nicest possible way : I don't give a fuck what you or anyone else does with their computer.

However, when someone turning up here asks for a software recommendation I will recommend the open source version first, and put the case for it.

No offence, thanks for the drumkit, and I liked your license on that!

As long as you're honest about why you're recommending open source software first (because it's open source, and how that has impacted your assessment of any software that's not open source), I have no objection at all.

I hope you enjoy that kit! I wish I had more free samples to make more kits with, which were as good quality (and enough of a sample set with varying velocity levels, round robins, OH/room channels, etc.)

The specific license I chose was due to a misunderstanding about the original license which I tried to explain meant "credit Vincent Sermonne if you're going to make another product from his samples". Apparently someone thought I meant that they had to credit me and/or Vincent if they used the DrumGizmo kit in their songs, despite my telling them otherwise.

Anyway you may not ever use Reaper, but soon you may have the advantage of using any JS plugin (normally only for Reaper). Justin is considering making a ReaJS.lv2 plugin. Similar to the ReaJS VST plugin (Windows VST only, but free), it would allow someone to load a JS plugin in a DAW which normally uses LV2 plugins. ReaJS VST is out of date, not allowing some more advanced functionality of later JS plugins (including interactive GUIs among other things), but if a ReaJS.lv2 plugin is made, I'm sure it would be up to date. Linux DAW users in general may suddenly get a much larger library of free open-source plugins to use, courtesy of Reaper (and anyone who's made a JS plugin).

[lilith]

Yesterday I was trying Ardour 6.7. Made a simple midi pattern with some VST instrument, looped that pattern and got hanging notes after the first loop was finished. --> Checking Ardour 7 next time. I don't know how anybody who is making loop based music can live with these bugs.

[d.healey]

Yesterday I was trying Ardour 6.7. Made a simple midi pattern with some VST instrument, looped that pattern and got hanging notes after the first loop was finished. --> Checking Ardour 7 next time. I don't know how anybody who is making loop based music can live with these bugs.

Don't use Ardour for anything but the most simple MIDI, use Qtractor, Muse, or LMMS instead. Hopefully Ardour 7 will have MIDI improvements but right now I use it only for audio sequencing work (and Audacity for audio editing).

[lilith]

I have Bitwig and Renoise.

[bmarkham]

DAWs are complicated software. How to do X or Y is not the same in all DAWs, and over time you develop a "workflow" and muscle memory for shortcuts etc.

A person who is really good with DAW X can make it do whatever is desired, even if DAW X is not optimized for it.

I use a few different DAWs for different things.

I use Ardour, which I love for certain things. I use Mixbus which is a commercial variant of Ardour that I also like a lot. I use Reaper (pleased as hell they now support LV2s on Linux!). I use all of these on Linux.

I'm a monthly supporter for both Ardour and the LSP (Linux Studio Plugins) project, and I love open source.

That said, as previously alluded, learning a DAW well enough that you can do anything with it that you want is a commitment. You can learn the basics in a couple of hours, but over time you'll invest considerable effort.

This is something you will spend endless, hopefully enjoyable, hours doing. And your first loyalty has to be to yourself rather than an abstract principle or a company.

I would try both, and see the videos by Unfa for Ardour and by Reaper Madness for Reaper. Give them both a whirl for a week, see which works best for your intuition, and then stick with it and get good with it.

[francoisphils]

If you're just doing a bit of recording use Audacity.

Reaper vs Ardour. Ardour is free software therefore it wins.

You may use Reaper freely as long as you like , it depends on your honesty , for me Reaper wins by far!

[francoisphils]

"The Reaper love is coming from people who produce electronic music"
Totally wrong , i do a lot of orchestral arrangements , and i love Reaper.I came to reaper after Cubase , Sonar (both of them became gas-pipes factories) ,then Podium and Finally REAPER 4 , yesterday i made a try for fun on Tracktion waveform free , in my opinion more interesting than Ardour , but not replacing Reaper , so in my way also i abandoned Windows 7 for linux , tried many distros and the one giving me entire satisfaction is Linuxlite 4.8.tested more recent versions , not good!
Don't like XFCE so i installed Cinnamon desktop on it.
Reaper 6 (support now LV2)+Linvst for windows plugins