Hello guys and gals, it's me Mutahar again! Massive improvements have been happening in the Linux department since last year where it seems for most of us it might be more than good enough. It's time ...
    • etherphon@midwest.socialEnglish
      8·
      8 days ago

      It will suck less and less the more people use it and the more software it ported over, there are already quite a few plugin makers who are supporting Linux with more all the time. Yes you are limited with DAW choice if that is your thing. If your hardware is class compliant you shouldn’t have a problem with drivers, I am using a Black Lion Audio 6x6 with no official Linux support, but it’s working great. There are certain distros you can use and tweaks you can do to make the real time kernel more responsive for audio work. Here’s some resources I’ve found:

      https://linuxmusician.com/
      https://linuxmusician.com/best-daws-for-linux-a-comprehensive-comparison/
      https://linuxdaw.org/ <- mostly plugins
      https://gearspace.com/board/music-computers/1458002-linux-pro-audio-workstation-2025-complete-no-nonsense-guide.html
      https://github.com/damiensellier/CtrlrX/releases <- hardware synth editors with linux version
      https://github.com/eclab/edisyn <- another hardware synth editor, written in java, runs in linux
      https://github.com/dagargo/elektroid <- sample manager and MIDI device manager, can also send sysex

      • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world
        1·
        8 days ago

        Yeah for me it’s some essential plugins I would have to give up. I’m sure I could technically replace them, but it would take an insane amount of time and insight to get a similar result and some specific things won’t be replaceable.

        Example: izotope AI mastering is awesome. I cannot imagine you will be able to make that work or replace that in Linux. Then there’s specific things like soothe2 or the sound toys suite. Or phase plant or track spacer.

        Idk I just tried it once and I failed at getting the glue to work. And that really discouraged me, because it should be an easier one. And I’m not talking just hooking in the dll, in fact used a combination of different wine tricks additions and wine environments and none of them worked. Besides the fact that I need it to work reliably as well of course.

        • etherphon@midwest.socialEnglish
          1·
          8 days ago

          AH I see, yeah there’s always that, when you’re used to using certain tools and like the result from them I understand the reluctance to make a switch, especially if it’s professional work. I’m mostly MIDI/hardware based so I don’t use quite so many tools ITB, just a handful of plugins for mastering, AirWindows makes a lot of amazing plugins for mixing and mastering, but they are not quite as polished as some of iZotope’s tools for example. https://www.airwindows.com/

          • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world
            1·
            7 days ago

            Very interesting, though I really am not the target audience for airwindows. His console x video features a very gentle mastering chain and for me it’s all about the mainstream genres with heavier compression, limiting and other effects. izotope costs a lot and iLok is just awful, but their mastering plugins are really good.

    • Lee@retrolemmy.com
      2·
      8 days ago

      What DAW do you use? I built a new PC and was thinking of trying to run DAW (Cubase in my case) via windows VM with pass through of my audio interface. Given the timing sensitivity of audio, I’m not optimistic. Have you tried this?

      • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.world
        11·
        8 days ago

        I’ve looked into it a lot.

        I use Ableton with a pile of additional plugins.

        Linux-native you are stuck with I believe LMMS, Reaper or Cubase iirc.

        Plugins are awful. Any external plugins will be a 50/50 shot and plugin licenses can be a huge factor. Even with wine and a very popular plugin.

        When it comes to audio interface drivers you might also be stuck with one specific one that runs a server in the background (can’t remember the name). Also I reckon using an interface might be it’s own can of worms.

        Windows VM is slow af because you have to emulate things like TPM2.0, their background services and the system itself is already extremely bloated (I have not tried more minimal editions or versions tbf like microwin or some other edition than professional.

        Also the audio passthrough can be annoying. My best shot currently is either parsec (very roundabout way to go about it but you take what you get) and I have a let of faith in spice remoting tools.

        If you wanna try it with windows VM I can help you with a bunch of stuff I learned about like virtio drivers and shit (I used proxmox for the virtualization but the kvm underneath is the same you probably would use) just shoot me a message and we can also talk on matrix or discord or whatever ^^

        • nocteb@feddit.org
          2·
          7 days ago

          You should try Bitwig it runs natively on Linux and has a great modular synth/fx system that is so good that you dont need a lot of plugins.

        • TruePe4rl@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          7 days ago

          I recently tried Yabridge. It still needs a lot of work, but many plugins seem to work well there (if we ignore often broken UI and temporary fixes that aren’t for everyone). Still pretty much WIP, but probably the best way to run plugins.

        • Lee@retrolemmy.com
          1·
          7 days ago

          This is my first time doing pass through and idk what other optimizations I could do or if I’ve done anything wrong/sub optimal. I’d like your input. I’ll send you a message later

          For anyone curious if this is an option (running windows in a VM for audio), I’ve had good luck so far. Feels native, but I have more tests to do before I say it’s viable. Without passing through (iommu) the audio interface, it’s unusable.

          I installed Linux and set up a Win 10 pro VM yesterday. I did GPU pass through (although I doubt that was necessary). I also did pass through of my audio interface (MOTU 8pre-es). Windows saw it and it showed up in the proprietary MOTU software after installing the drivers in the VM, however I couldn’t get audio to play. I then tried passing through the USB root hub (built in to mother board) that the MOTU was connected to and then it worked. It worked just as it would running on bare metal. I tried playing a couple projects in Cubase and had no audio dropouts. Cubase has a meter that shows you if you missed audio buffer deadlines and why (CPU, disk) and it didn’t, to my surprise.

          Things I still want to try:

          1. How low can I get my buffer size / ASIO latency?
          2. Can it handle 192KHz sample rate and at what buffer size? The tests I did yesterday were 48k and 44.1k projects.
          3. How does it feel (in terms of latency) when using a MIDI controller keyboard.
          4. Can I do multi channel recording without dropouts?
          5. Does the VM break Cubase’s audio latency compensation when recording (this determines recording latency and automatically aligns the recording to where yiud expect it tobel). I have a feeling that the VM may introduce a latency that Cubase doesn’t account for.
          6. Does iLok or another license that I need fail in VM? I only used Steinberg licenser based software yesterday.
          7. Probably some other stuff I’ve not thought of yet.

          What I’ve not figured out is a way to sort of boot my existing windows install. I’m sure there’s a way, but idk. I know it’s possible to pass an entire disk to the VM, but my host Linux install is on the same nvme. I guess what I’d want is a way to create a virtual block device that maps the other partitions from the nvme and then pass that virtual block device to the VM. Alternatively, install Linux to a different drive, but I’d rather not buy another nvme at this time.

      • Lee@retrolemmy.com
        2·
        7 days ago

        They also dropped support for older plugins of which I have a lot. This is a big issue for audio stuff IMO. Apple breaks backwards compatibility frequently, which has some benefits, but commercial audio plugins are expensive and updates generally aren’t free. I actually have a bunch of very old plugins that were free, but no longer supported. Many were windows only and I can still run them roughly 15-20 years later, but even the ones that were released for Mac, I have no hope of running.

        If you’re doing audio work professionally, you probably keep buying updates for your plugins, so Mac is probably a good choice. I don’t even release music (I just make noise). I’m just a hobbiest (with some higher end equipment and software). There’s a lot of hobbiests who wouldn’t be able to afford the software update costs (ignoring the Apple hardware costs). Depending on the plugin libraries, it’s bigger than the Apple hardware costs. Granted there are some really good free plugins, but some of the really popular stuff isn’t.

  • Jackusflackus@lemmy.world
    9·
    8 days ago

    It’s weird, I’m an old dos guy (relevant for the terminal aspect). However, every time I try testing different variants of Linux (prob 10-15 times now), I just can’t stand it long term. It bothers me and I have to stick with windows. I really want to like it but I just don’t.

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      8 days ago

      i’m your opposite; the far-too-rudimentary terminal integration with the rest of the desktop environment in windows is one of the biggest reasons that keeps me using linux.

    • FatVegan@leminal.space
      1·
      7 days ago

      Meh, i was kinda on the same boat. I dual boot now and i despise when i have to boot up windows. I only really use it because my gamepad isn’t linux compatible and i have to map it on windows. And maybe one or two games, that i rather not play than booting up windows.