Members Mandolin Picker Posted February 22, 2016 Members Share Posted February 22, 2016 Over at Slashdot there is a conversation going on about using Linux in the home studio (http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/16/02/22/1525212/ask-slashdot-linux-and-the-home-recording-studio#comments). I really wish we could find something useful in Linux, but for me it is just not there yet - too clunky. I use Sonar at home and it is the only thing I use on the Windows box (hence cutting the internet cord from the studio box). Everything else I do in Linux. I have found that the latency is much too long regardless of the audio interface. None of the software available seemed to have the 'all in one' package like you see with packages like Sonar or others. We tried using Reaper in Wine on Linux, but again, it just wasn't workable. So has anyone here had a positive experience doing studio recording on a Linux box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted February 23, 2016 CMS Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 You could try MixBus, but you aren't likely to be able to achieve the near real-time input monitoring that you can get with a modern DAW designed for a modern powerful Mac or PC. The problem that I've found with Linux in the home studio is that your choice of hardware interfaces is pretty limited due to the lack of drivers for Linux. Even if there's a driver that passes audio fairly efficiently, generally Linux development never gets much beyond audio. Tou can't take advantage of products like the Focusrite Scarlett series that have a built-in very low latency DSP-based mixer for monitoring because nobody's developed a Linux version of their GUI control panel. You can do OK if you have an analog console (every mandolin picker should have a few) but without one, your multitrack work will be pretty limited. I've tried dabbling with Linux but don't really see the fascination with it. Sure, the OS is free and there isn't a lot of hacking of home Linux systems going on, or viruses, but it was never designed to be a home-user-friendly system. But then, I'm not inclined to switch from a PC to a Mac either - too much slow-learned stuff to forget and re-learn. LIfe's getting too short for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 I agree with Mike - the issue is lack of drivers and support from manufacturers. Without it, trying to record using Linux is too much of a hassle IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted February 23, 2016 Members Share Posted February 23, 2016 And the relatively good (if extra-cautious) reception afforded W10 means a little less demand, as well. I think a lot of folks were considering jumping ship if W10 had ended up too much like the dreaded W8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 The jury is still out on Windows 10 and audio recording. The idea of automatic updates that the user can't turn off sounds like a recipe for disaster when it comes to software control app and driver conflicts. Until I see how that plays out I'm going to stick with Win 7 on my main DAW PC. I've got other computers to experiment with. My wife was not digging Lion on her new (to her) quad core Mac Mini, so I loaded El Capitan into it - we'll see how we like it on that computer before I consider adding it to my work machines. I also recently bought a 2 in 1 tablet with Windows 10 so I could experiment with it and see how I liked it without having to commit to installing it on my main PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mandolin Picker Posted February 24, 2016 Author Members Share Posted February 24, 2016 The jury is still out on Windows 10 and audio recording. The idea of automatic updates that the user can't turn off sounds like a recipe for disaster when it comes to software control app and driver conflicts. This is why my box is disconnected from the web. It is too hard to get a stable box, and to have it messed up during a forced update (that will always come at the most inopportune time) is something I don't want to deal with. Since I only use Windows for audio recording, it was an easy decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted February 24, 2016 Members Share Posted February 24, 2016 I've been into Linux going way back, and Ubuntu Studio for many years. I had a PC running Ubuntu in my studio Until recently. I moved and had to tear the studio down and start over. Right now I'm Running Adobe Audition on a Win XP box and it does everything I need. I'm slow to change things as long as it's working. My Ubuntu box is a 15-year-old Asus P3 MOBO with a 1.4 TUALATIN and 2 gigs of Ram. It screams running Linux. I'll fire it up again once I get some time. My Win XP box with Adobe Audition runs really well. It's also an older Asus board. I keep things forever and have an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. I take stability and reliability over the latest and greatest of what's out there, and that's the key, especially with Linux. Get it tuned and tweaked just how you like it and then leave it alone. So anyway, yeah I have had great experience with Ubuntu and can highly recommend it for those that can get around on Linux. PS I keep all my recording rigs offline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philboking Posted February 25, 2016 Members Share Posted February 25, 2016 I tried this about 10 your ago, using Debian and Ardour. I too came to the conclusion that Linux, at least for studio work, was not ready for prime time. I spent about 3 weeks trying to set up a multiple display with scripts, and trying to figure out which channel of my sound interface was which (it showed up as about 25 unlabelled faders on a mixer app). I finally gave up. Linux might have an excellent chance of being a great OS for a dedicated recording system, but would require a serious capital and time investment in making it work. Something like Radar, for example. But the lack of drivers, the need to customize the OS to the hardware, and the overall lack of accessibility and control make it a nonstarter for me.... After Googling Ubuntu Studio, it looks like that might be a good path to chase. Doubt if I'll mess with it any time soon, but it appears to hold some promise... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mandolin Picker Posted February 26, 2016 Author Members Share Posted February 26, 2016 After Googling Ubuntu Studio, it looks like that might be a good path to chase. Doubt if I'll mess with it any time soon, but it appears to hold some promise... I think that is the key and the problem. There are several items that look promising, but it takes time, effort and developers. If you look at something like LibreOffice, it has made great strides (on Windows and Linux) because it has developers who are actually being paid by some big corporations. There is nothing in the recording industry that is comparable. The closest might by Reaper, but it only runs in Linux under Wine. Until a major company decides it wants to take on a project like this, most of the Linux recording software will likely stay "promising" and move along at a snails pace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted February 26, 2016 Members Share Posted February 26, 2016 We tried using Reaper in Wine on Linux, but again, it just wasn't workable. I'm curious about what made it not workable. Was it Wine itself, or the aforementioned driver issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 PS I keep all my recording rigs offline. I kept my main DAW offline for years and years. My latest PC build (3.5GHz quad core i7 currently running Windows 7), does have a Wifi modem in it, but I only enable and use it for software updates and things like that... never for web browsing, moderating HC, etc. My main Mac (A MBP - another quad core i7) does get used for some recording and for testing Mac versions of apps and programs for reviews, and it's what I typically use for web related things (supplemented by my iPad), but not everyone can assign different computers to different tasks and therefore afford to leave the DAW offline. A lot of people need to be able to use their one computer for multiple tasks. For those folks, Windows 10's automatic updates and the possibility of conflicts after an update could potentially make life miserable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted February 26, 2016 CMS Author Share Posted February 26, 2016 There are several items that look promising, but it takes time, effort and developers. If you look at something like LibreOffice, it has made great strides (on Windows and Linux) because it has developers who are actually being paid by some big corporations. There is nothing in the recording industry that is comparable. The closest might by Reaper, but it only runs in Linux under Wine. Until a major company decides it wants to take on a project like this, most of the Linux recording software will likely stay "promising" and move along at a snails pace. Harrison Consoles is a major Linux user. They were an investor in the Ardour project for quite a while and use a lot of that code in their big digital consoles, and also used it as the basis for their DAW, Mixbus - essentially a fresh mixer built on top of the Ardour recording software. If they took on a project of building something like an Antelope Orion (or got the data from Antelope to write a driver that would get 32 channels of audio in and out of Mixbus) they'd have a full, properly supported recording system. But it would be like Pro Tools before Version 9 - with no other hardware but theirs to run on it. For those who want a wide choice of hardware, they have a Windows version of Mixbus that supports any ASIO driver that's written properly. But those who want a multichannel Linux DAW will have to pick from the rather meager assortment of interfaces that are supported under the ALSA or FFADO projects, at least as far as the audio gozintas and gozoutas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mandolin Picker Posted February 27, 2016 Author Members Share Posted February 27, 2016 I'm curious about what made it not workable. Was it Wine itself, or the aforementioned driver issues? The best way I can describe it is clunky. I use Reaper at our church on an older machine, and it ran smoother than Reaper on the newer Linux box. It some ways it felt like working through an older VPN connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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