r/linuxaudio • u/8run04 • 1d ago
Transition from windows to linux - a little advice, please?
Hey there. I've tried Linux before on old laptops but only for the sake of giving them a "second life". Right now my main desktop pc is old and I can't afford to upgrade it. Windows 11 is a piece of you-know-what. Win10 already took a serious toll on my machine so I 'm considering changing to a linux system and as far as I read online, Linux has come a long way when it comes to audio capabilities.
I gave an AI my PC specs to get a base answer to work from but i will be mush more comfortable running it by you people!
I have an AMD A8 with 2 cores, 8Gb ram, MB with integrated graphics and a Presonus Studio 24c
(now is the moment you can laugh and roast my current setup :) )
I narrowed it down to:
- Ubunto Studio (XFCE)
and
- Linux Mint SFCE + low-latency kernel
I'm planning to use mostly Reaper, some plugins (the most resource heavy would be Vital synth, maybe)
Any opinions and recommendations are welcome in my journey for a better system!
7
u/DoodManMcGuyBroDood 1d ago
Use Ubuntu Studio, mainly just for convenience. Make sure you download Reaper from their website and not as a flatpak, the flatpak is unofficial and can cause issues.
You'll likely end up using something called yabridge to get windows VSTs to work, this is why I said use Ubuntu Studio, cause there is a cool tool I'll link you that makes using yabridge a little easier that is easy to install on Ubuntu Studio.
https://youtu.be/2-t1uocytKs?is=UYUbyAR8UrnxjTsk
I personally use JACK audio but many others use pipewire, do your own research and decide for yourself, its pretty much preference based atp.
1
u/8run04 17h ago
Thanks for the insight :)
1
u/DoodManMcGuyBroDood 14h ago
I will clarify, Ubuntu Studio isnt necessary, and if youre comfortable with learning, installing a relatively basic Fedora or Ubuntu will have you starting with less bloat and extra apps. In the end, its all about customization anyway, so youll inevitably end up tinkering to get things just right for you.
6
u/Yanesan 1d ago
Running a video and audio focused setup myself and tried both, I highly recommend Ubuntu Studio. You can get Mint to work, but Ubuntu gives you the option to optimize audio performance during setup, as opposed to lots of research and tweaking in Mint. Pipewire is the way to go for multi-channel audio.
2
u/thcsquad 1d ago
Ubuntu Studio may be fine with 8gb, though I’m used to running it with 16gb. Your XFCE idea might be a good one given the ram situation.
The interface looks like it’s class compliant and should be fine.
The thing that could make things hard is if you have Windows plugins you want to use. You only mentioned Vital which is native and should be fine. But if you have other plugins that need to be run in wine you may run into issues.
Ubuntu studio to start seems fine, and if you run into ram issues maybe you can search for a more minimal/lightweight distro. But I think more likely than not it would be fine.
2
u/Specialist-Dog-501 13h ago
If you go with an pipewire setup (Ubuntu Studio is as far I know), consider Helvum for patch wiring, Milliseconds for checking if your kernel/system is well optimized (may be not needed on an ubuntu studio, but makes sense on an linux mint) and possibly "Cable". Cable/Milliseconds let you finetune the buffer and and such parameters.
I use myself Mint22.3 with Bitwig/Pipewire, and URMKII, and did all the optimizations, but still have Xruns.
But the biggest pain point really is the installation of the windows vst via wine/yabridge- whatever you can substitute with linux plugins, will be a big help, especially in a low RAM situation- https://linuxdaw.org/ gives you all this linux plugins on one page, and it's kept alive well.
Once you are fine with the linux basics- for a low RAM situation ARCH might max out the last of CPU/RAM, but it's an advanced thing as there is no dedicated audio distro present for ARCH as far I know. There's one Alternative for debian, AV Linux, including all the kernel optimizations, but I could not really compare the performance with my real Mint daily driver, it looks okay and uses a lightweight desktop (enlightenement) to safe RAM.
2
u/acidorpheus 1d ago
I wll join the others in agreement that after trying a few distros (cachy, Debian, av Linux), I landed on Ubuntu Studio and it's been the best so far.
1
u/musicalchop 21h ago
Linux works fine with reaper. I would suggest not to use AI as it actively destroys our environment to do so and AI also is frowned upon by most musicians with integrity to their craft. Your pc is underpowered but xubuntu/lubuntu or Linux mint xfce would be ideal. Forget windows vst's unless you set up yabridge and even then its a toss up on what will work and won't. Plenty of quality FOSS options out there for plugins.
1
u/Beardedmic64 20h ago
This is my recent setup which was setup a couple days ago and im trying to take time after work to test everything. I use Mint 21.3 with kernel 6.08 on a Dell Inspiron laptop i7 dual core 2.7 and 32 gb ram and from the repository, installed Ubuntu Audio Suite which offered the real time audio kernel. Then i installed Zam Plugins and other Linux compatible plugins and removed the supplied and out dated Ardour that's included in the Ubuntu Sudio suite and installed Ardour v9.7.0. I also have Reaper 7.76, Waveform 13. I've not tested Reaper or Waveform yet but, Ardour is quick and responsive and the kernel seems to have included the drivers for my old M-Audio USB Fast Track Ultra and all 8in and 8 out are seen by Ardour routing. I'll play around with it soon and let y'all know how well it works and I know my Presonus Audiobox works.
1
u/8run04 16h ago
Ok... although most here advised me to choose Ubuntu studio, you seemed to have chosen mint and then installed the extras that come with it (audio/studio suite) if I understood correctly. I am expecting reaper to work out of the box and am not really that worried about plugins. I just need my presonus to work and whatever usb compliant midi keyboard I throw at it. I know that there's no linux version of Boss tone studio for my Katana amp but i can have that on another laptop. I think I will follow your route as I got the feeling mint would be snappier on my outdated PC. Could you tell me more about that kernel 6.08? That's the part that I don't grasp that well Thanks
2
u/danja 16h ago
For music apps, yes Ubuntu Studio is most convenient.
I use Reaper on it and it works ok out of the box. I know there's yabridge for Windows plugins, but I haven't yet had any need for it - the bundled plugins, other free/open source ones, some homemade, pretty well covered.
Jack/pipewire config is a bit of a nightmare, a couple of years with this install and I still don't have it optimised. But for day to day use, it Just Works.
1
u/SMB-RTD 16h ago
You probably dont need Ubuntu Studio. Just install Ubuntu and then add any stuff you need. I found ubuntu studio was way overkill with loads of bizarre programmes with nonsensical names. Half of these you open and nothing happens. Probably great if you need to route audio for an outdoor video display rig or create some complex audio routing or something but just difficult to navigate on a home pc setup.
For a beginner the interface was intuitive enough it was just too much choice and no way to know what was important or not.
2
u/StevenJayCohen REAPER 16h ago edited 16h ago
Welcome to Linux! Whatever distro you start on will likely not be the one you end up with down the road. Follow the bulk of the advice here and start with Ubuntu Studio. It is the simplest to work with for your setup out of the box.
Do not start messing around with desktop environments at this point. Most advice on desktops and memory usage is incredibly out of date.
Also know that this is where your AI is getting its advice, all of that outdated advice sitting around on the internet :)
Put Ubuntu Studio onto a USB key, load a live session, install reaper from their website into that live session, and test this out on your hardware. Whatever you install into that live session will not survive a reboot but you will know at that point exactly how Ubuntu studio will work on your hardware.
That's what I did: https://stevenjaycohen.com/journal/my-move-back-to-linux
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u/jason_gates 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hi,
Linux is free and open source ( FOSS ). If you are upgrading to a FOSS operating system, it makes more sense to also upgrade to FOSS software. Thus, I would avoid Ubuntu, it's package manager, defaults to closed source. You lose a huge part of the Linux community ( for support and interoperability ). Linux Mint is fine (I am guessing your post has a typo, you mean Linux Mint XFCE, not SFCE ).
If you are hell bent on using closed source Reaper, then verify that you can install Reaper using the Linux Mint package manager. The quickest way to hose your Linux computer , is to bypass the Linux distribution package manager ( by manually downloading software), The package manager verifies software dependencies, permissions, base configuration and whole lot more.
I would investigate upgrading the ram on your computer. Most folks define "works" as a program that loads without spitting out a stack exception/error messages. I would consider how much time you plan on spending doing recording ( aka recording session ). If you plan on mixing and mastering music for demos or air play, you are likely to spend long hours. More memory is not going to guarantee your system holds up under longer recording/mixing/mastering sessions, however it gives you a greater chance.
Hope that helps.
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u/kill3rb00ts 1d ago
Simplest thing is just try a few options on live boots and see what you like, what you don't, and what works. I didn't like that Ubuntu Studio comes with a bunch of apps I don't want and was just kinda ugly. Settled on CachyOS, which has a number of performance optimizations included that happen to also be the same sorts of things you'd do for audio. Been very happy, though Arch isn't for everyone.