Recommended software/workflow to start with

[rothdu]

To briefly describe the position I'm coming from:

Linux wise, I'm a doing 2nd year CS courses, so I'm no pro, but I do have some experience with it. For the past 6 months I've also been experimenting with using Ubuntu as my primary OS.

Music wise, I studied classical music in school and really enjoyed composition, which at the time was using sheet music notation software (the infamous Sibelius). Recently I've bought myself a basic midi keyboard and I'm interested in experimenting with various electronic music production (software synths etc.)

My keyboard came with Ableton Live Lite and I've used that to get a taste of software synths etc. But in the long term, I suspect live lite is going to be a bit too limiting, and I don't have the money to buy the professional version (and besides, doing stuff on linux seems like a fun way to integrate my love of music with my love of tech).

Right now my focus is definitely on learning more with MIDI and software synths etc., but in the medium term I might want to explore some more serious mixing/mastering,and in the long term might want to get some proper equipment for audio recording as well.

From what I've seen by reading around this forum and elsewhere, I see a few options:

1. Using a DAW or similar (Qtractor, MusE, or LMMS). Probably not Ardour because people say it's midi isn't quite up to scratch
2. Build-it-yourself by using JACK to combine things like Rosegarden, various synth and/or effect software, and potentially one of the DAWs as well.

Anyone have any advice on which route to consider, and/or what software to look into further for my use case? Thanks

[Impostor]

Anyone have any advice on which route to consider, and/or what software to look into further for my use case? Thanks :D

I guess using a DAW is easier than going the modular route. Nonetheless, you may end up connecting that DAW to different audio/midi programs anyway.

What DAW? Any DAW! Whatever works for you is highly dependent on your own personal preferences. You named a few good ones already. There's also Renoise, and others. Pick one and try it out, try to stick with it, until you're unhappy with it, then try something else. For synth/efffect plugins you can look on kx.studio, or google U-he, who have some cool free synths to try out. And my favorite plugin, Pianoteq, is also recommended.

Have fun.

[sunrat]

Boggle your mind with what is available - http://linuxmusic.rocks/

[SmoothMountain]

Reaper is a very solid DAW.

It has a good MIDI editor. I can't speak to the notation capabilities, since I have not used that feature, but it is very good at audio recording.

It has had a full featured, native Linux version for several years. There is also a fully featured Arm build that runs on the Raspberry Pi!

Also, it is extremely scriptable. It has a well documented api, and the project files are unencrypted text files. I don't know how well documented the project file structures are, but there is no attempt to obfuscate them.

The Reaper user community has lots of talented scripters, who contribute some truly amazing scripted plugins. Check out the JSFX forum and see what is available:
https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.p ... 925b04&f=3

As a CS student, you should be well-positioned to both learn from, and contribute to, the Reaper scripting community.

It costs $60 which is not a lot of money. There is no mean spirited copy protection. It is not free! But the devs spend their resources improving the software, not trying to keep it out of the hands of those who do not pay.

Whatever you choose, welcome to Linux audio, and good luck!

[Linuxmusician01]

The only thing that I can recommend is to not use a Windows version of a DAW with Wine. Wine is for running the occasional Win prog. If something goes wrong you never know if Wine's the problem or something else.

The Reaper tip is a good one if you ask me: it has a version for Windows and for Linux. And it's quite popular: you can exchange tips w/ your Windows using friends. I personally rather use Qtractor, but any DAW will do (yes: also Ardour).

Antother important tip: nowadays there's PipeWire that comes standard in the latest Linux distro's. I'm under the impression that only the very latest version of PW is good enough en even then: it seems to change a bit from month to month so how it's configured in your favourite tutorial may not be how you configure it today. I'd never advice somebody to rather use something old that might be deprecated one day like JackAudio. Beware: PW can "act" like it's Jack or "emulate" it in some way so you might not even know you're using it.

Lastly, about music notation software: I opened a topic 'bout that a while ago. A Linux favourite of yesteryear, MuseScore, appears to focus on Windows as of ver. 4 and some functionality has been dropped as far as I know. I think I'd rather use Lilypond on Linux.

Good luck choosing and let us know what you chose in the end!

P.S. I don't know if LMMS is a real DAW in the sense that you can also record audio with it...

[GMaq]

I'd never advice somebody to rather use something old that might be deprecated one day like JackAudio.

It is currently still quite alive and well and will be for quite some time I think... It is also still the best option for low-latency Pro Audio workflows (aside from using ALSA directly which will outlast even PipeWire I would guess) PipeWire being the new Desktop Audio kid on the block does not deprecate JACK, it has always been for Pro Audio workflows not daily Desktop business..

@rothdu

Download and boot a USB key of AV Linux... Many of the top DAWs (Reaper, Ardour and the Mixbus32C demo all preinstalled) and hundreds of the best Plugins including OOTB support for Windows Audio Plugins... You don't have to install it, simply boot it and try a system set up for Professional Linux Audio work to experiment with without harming your existing system.

http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

[Linuxmusician01]

I'd never advice somebody to rather use something old that might be deprecated one day like JackAudio.

It is currently still quite alive and well and will be for quite some time I think... It is also still the best option for low-latency Pro Audio workflows (aside from using ALSA directly which will outlast even PipeWire I would guess) PipeWire being the new Desktop Audio kid on the block does not deprecate JACK, it has always been for Pro Audio workflows not daily Desktop business..

[...]

I can't imagine Jack ever not working on Linux no more either. But I thought that PW was supposed to end the confusion on all the Linux Audio Servers. Thought it would be "politically correct" of me to not recommend Jack to a newcomer. Especially since PW is installed per default nowadays and it might not play nice with Jack. Come to think of it: I'm so used to Jack that I might remove PW when I have to upgrade my distro, ha ha.

Peace everybody.

[folderol]

Last I heard was that pipewire will get out of the way if jack is running. The situation is a bit confused and far from settled. We're still nowhere near release version 1.0

[rothdu]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

Life got a bit out of hand the last 2 weeks so I'm only really getting back to doing my setup now.

I installed Ubuntu Studio briefly, but it felt weirdly bloated to me with a lot of software I wasn't planning to use. Also, not sure why, I had a premonition that I wanted to try AVLinux instead.

I've installed it and am now trying to get things set up (major problem being - my second monitor doesn't seem to register), but I'm going to try to ask for support with that elsewhere.

For workflow - I've decided I'm going to start off by trying Qtractor and Surge XT, and maybe some of the CALF plugins. We'll see how things go from there.

Thanks for all the help, everyone!

[talby]

The following talk gives a very nice overview on the audio workflow in Linux:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm3oxMg0oIg

Although not most up to date anymore, I haven't found such clear explanation about these basics elsewhere. You might want to watch out for more recent presentations and discussions about the Linux audio system changing from JACK to PIPEWIRE. But this doesn't change the basic workflow scheme nicely presented in this video. You would just exchange JACK for PIPEWIRE, and accordingly use configuration tools for PIPEWIRE.

In the recorded discussion after the talk, not all answers given are satisfying. I would like to point out, that Linux cannot offer you a susbtitute for hardware configuration apps written and compiled by the vendors for WIN OS or MAC OS. Not having available in Linux the configuration software for your hardware can reduce the functionality of your hardware drastically! It is not only, as painted in the talk, about getting connected some IN and OUT channels between your hardware and your Linux apps, or changing some buffer or bitrate parameters. Beyond these very basic functions, USB audiointerfaces might come with sophisticated configuration apps for setting up the internal signal routing inside the audiointerface. As you most often do not have a Linux compatible app for this, you often cannot access all these powerful features offered by your hardware unless you would still use also a computer driven by another operating system.

However, the main talk recorded in the video is fully worth a serious recommendation!

[GuntherT]

I've decided I'm going to start off by trying Qtractor and Surge XT, and maybe some of the CALF plugins. We'll see how things go from there.

You may want to reconsider using CALF plugins. If they work for you, great, but they have several known issues. The project is not seeing much active development anymore (last release was 4 years ago, last code commit was 2 years ago), meaning the problems could get worse over time and create issues in the future if you try to open past projects that used them in newer versions of DAWs.

The Linux Studio Plugin project is actively maintained, and the developer is present on this forum. I recommend learning their usage over CALF as they will be a better set to rely upon over time.

https://lsp-plug.in/

[Linuxmusician01]

I've decided I'm going to start off by trying Qtractor and Surge XT, and maybe some of the CALF plugins. We'll see how things go from there.

You may want to reconsider using CALF plugins. If they work for you, great, but they have several known issues. The project is not seeing much active development anymore (last release was 4 years ago, last code commit was 2 years ago), meaning the problems could get worse over time and create issues in the future if you try to open past projects that used them in newer versions of DAWs.

The Linux Studio Plugin project is actively maintained, and the developer is present on this forum. I recommend learning their usage over CALF as they will be a better set to rely upon over time.

https://lsp-plug.in/

Good remark. The main problem w/ the Calf plugins is that their (slick) user interface won't render anymore in most DAW's. Unfortunately the UI was written in the now deprecated Gtk2 (known from Gnome2). I too consider LSP their "spiritual" follow up.

[folderol]

Are LSP plugins fixed to a dark theme or can lighter ones be set?
Dark colours can be a strain for some of us {cough} mature {cough} musicians

[Loki Harfagr]

Are LSP plugins fixed to a dark theme or can lighter ones be set?
Dark colours can be a strain for some of us {cough} mature {cough} musicians

There's no "Light" or "Clear" theme per se but you may like "Legacy" theme (in Menu/Visual Schema) which is lots brighter/sharper than "Modern" or "Legacy Dark"

[dougienisbet]

I installed Ubuntu Studio briefly, but it felt weirdly bloated to me with a lot of software I wasn't planning to use. Also, not sure why, I had a premonition that I wanted to try AVLinux instead.

I’m a bit late to the party only recently having joined this site and browsing through the boards. This comment reflects my experience too. I’ve used Debian for years and decided to give Ubuntu Studio a try in the hope that it might provide a more complete and easy to use environment, but boy, it is so slow. And as I’ve seen commented elsewhere, it doesn’t actually offer you any programs that you can’t just simply install yourself in any another distro.

I’ve gone back to Debian bookworm running xfce4 as the desktop. It’s a lot faster and no frills, and I can just install stuff as I need it.