Ubuntu Studio

[nathan]

I just installed Ubuntu Studio on my 64 bit machine, and I have to say I'm really loving it. Of course, it doesn't come with very much non-media related software, but the stuff that it comes with for audio production is really great. Is anybody else using Ubuntu Studiio? If so, what do you think?

[zettberlin]

I use it as my daily-work laptop system. It is quite convenient and I can fiddle a bit with patches for synths/FX, check mixes, cut samples and all the stuff, one does between dedicated sessions with musicians.

For the reall work it does not work for me, since it does not play stable with my firewire interface. 64Studio does these jobs for me....

[mondoUNC]

I love Ubuntu Studio, using getdeb.net to get the latest apps has helped me get further and further from windows and ableton

[angelsguitar]

I use both UbuntuStudio and 64Studio to be honest. Although I like UbuntuStudio (it's so easy to configure), I find 64Studio to be a little more optimized and robust for audio and MIDI work; gives me fewer xruns when working on it overall.

[studio32]

I use both UbuntuStudio and 64Studio to be honest. Although I like UbuntuStudio (it's so easy to configure), I find 64Studio to be a little more optimized and robust for audio and MIDI work; gives me fewer xruns when working on it overall.

I think this is a general experience of many people. Ubuntu easy to configure, great for beginners. For pro audio 64studio seems to give more quality (although some packages are more outdated then the ones on Ubuntu)...

[raboof]

would be interesting to find out what makes this difference...

[angelsguitar]

would be interesting to find out what makes this difference...

I think is the fact that 64Studio is based on Debian stable branch which, although it is more conservative and could be a little outdated sometimes, it's well tested and (as the branch name states it) stable.

Ubuntu, on the other hand, is based on Debian's testing and unstable braches, with mods made by Ubuntu's developers.

[studio32]

Good question Raboof, although it fits better in system tuning..
angelsguitar could be right.

I think the 64studio rt-kernel is really good. Why? dunno...
I've noticed in Ubuntu Studio in /etc/security/limits.conf there is only

Code: Select all

@audio           -       rtprio          99

Dunno how it is in 64studio.

I think Ubuntu studio uses relatime as default, don't know if that is much difference with noatime (fstab).
Ubuntu seems to use Compiz as default manager... could cause problems...
There are sometimes 'gui conflicts' in ubuntu....

Ubuntu studio uses pulseaudio or something? Could cause problems too?

[angelsguitar]

Good question Raboof, although it fits better in system tuning..
angelsguitar could be right.

I think the 64studio rt-kernel is really good. Why? dunno...
I've noticed in Ubuntu Studio in /etc/security/limits.conf there is only

Code: Select all

@audio           -       rtprio          99

Dunno how it is in 64studio.

I think Ubuntu studio uses relatime as default, don't know if that is much difference with noatime (fstab).
Ubuntu seems to use Compiz as default manager... could cause problems...
There are sometimes 'gui conflicts' in ubuntu....

Ubuntu studio uses pulseaudio or something? Could cause problems too?

The realtime kernel is an important factor here. I'm not a programmer myself, but I've heard that 64Studio's kernel is better optimized for realtime work. At least it works better for me.

etc/security/limits.conf on my 32bit 64studio installation has this:

Code: Select all

@audio - rtprio 99
#@audio - memlock 250000
@audio - nice -10

I believe Compiz is disabled by default in UbuntuStudio, as well as other packages that are not needed in multimedia production, to better suite the distro for multimedia use. But I could be wrong; I have not verified this.

PulseAudio is indeed enabled, and could cause problems, yes.

[studio32]

I've just installed Ubuntu and added the ubuntustudio packages, edit the /limits file and removed compiz..
What else is wise to do for good audio usage?

[raboof]

I've just installed Ubuntu and added the ubuntustudio packages, edit the /limits file and removed compiz..

What's a good way of telling whether or not compiz is running? Will 'ps aux | grep compiz' do the trick?

What else is wise to do for good audio usage?

The tips on http://wiki.linuxmusicians.com/doku.php ... figuration of course .

[studio32]

@ raboof of course!

So an important thing to find out here is: How do they build real time kernels for 64studio!!

Also they seems to have there own distribution building kit: http://trac.64studio.com/pdk/wiki/HowTo
But I'm getting a bit offtopic maybe...