As title suggest, personally I'm not entirely convinced, using Linux Mint only for networking and when occasional idea strikes, what about you?

 

Pardon the pun, but, "try Ardour:"

http://ardour.org/features.html

 

Linux is now mature enough for the enterprise world but not yet for the music production.

In a few years I might change my mind but today, I don't have choice: Despite what I can think about Microsoft, there's no way I will use Linux to create some music.

 

See https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=tracktion+linux (free)
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=reaper+linux (shareware)

 

Not primarily. I put Bigwig on my non-production linux machine just to quickly fiddle with when I'm too lazy to step in the studio. What ends up happening though is that I get more done because I'm not distracted by countless plugins / gear.
When I first got into production over a decade ago, I tried and really wanted to use linux, but it wasn't feasible. It's definitely feasible now, but I'm already comfortable with my setup.

 

Thanks for suggestion, as many of you guys, I tried most of the things Linux audio related by now, so yeah, don't like it *no*

Totally agree with you

Thanks, think I have Tracktion 6 license on my account, don't like it overall, with Reaper I'm not gaining much running it on Linux, plugins, resources and latency wise

Bitwig is awesome, another awesome one is MuLab, sure not native, but still you can pretty much get everything done not going outside that much, which is not the case with other offerings.


Guess one needs to plan his Linux setup upfront hardware wise and than really hit the spot with software offerings, as said, it's not yet there, personally, Linux is my main OS, but for audio just scratchpad in the end of the day *yes*

 

Linux Mint is a very nice distro (unlike regular Ubuntu, in witch even LTS distro can get a non upgradable Firefox Beta...when you succeed to install it ). I use it as non-Win laptop alternative (ex:old machines with XP).

As far as musix goes, Linux can work better than anything on SPECIFIC tasks, like Ardour live recording or studio tracking.
But as full all-in-one solution, even if you can see EXT2, Bitwig, Harrison, Reaper... third party plugins are the key.
And hardware drivers, too.
What happens if you can't use your controllers...and sometimes your soundcard ? It is already hard between OSX/Win compatibility.

Full production (tracking, mixing, composing...) with third party softs and full hardware support is not for today on Linux. And even not for tomorrow...sadly. There is no enough user pressure to happen.

 

I use mint for Years (mate now), but I have never been able to get acceptable latency in any distro for music.
I`d like to get rid of Windows, but for the moment I have no choice.

 

You can try this version of ubuntu, it may be interesting https://ubuntustudio.org/tour/audio/

 

Today, there are quite a few Linux solutions offering low audio and midi latency, the biggest problem is that only a few developers build "big" software for Linux.

Bitwig and Ardour are exceptions, as is Linuxsampler. You could set up a Linux machine just for samples playback, if you don't mind converting your sample libs to Gigasampler or SF2 or SFZ formats.
I also highly recommend some reading on the Linuxsampler site about how to achieve low audio latency, which is of course one of the most important aspects of a software sampler anyway.

Another exception is Tracktion 4, a fantastically powerful and easy-to-use DAW, also available for Linux now, and it's free!

There is a Reaper under Linux hack, but I've never tested it and I can't say anything about stability or latency. I don't like the idea of using a DAW under a Wine-emulated Windows environment, but hey, some seem to be happy about it.

 

I keep coming back to Mint, it's really nice *yes*

Exactly, that's my reasoning also, wondered if anyone will share any successful converted story, maybe SineWave?

Cinnamon here, would like that too, but at the moment, it's not possible *no*

Nice distro, personally I have strong preference with Linux Mint Cinnamon, so kinda start from there, AVLinux is nice one too, more complete

Yeah, there's enough happening in Linux audio world for sure today, so guess number of people using it for audio exclusively is bigger and bigger every day, but still it's really sweet spot between one's hardware, software and personal preference

 

Can I suggest you to see kxstudio ?

 

Sure, another nice one

 

Stability and latency are mostly related to audio itself.
So the key is to find an audiocard with GOOD linux drivers support ;)

There are good starter lists here :
Card

 

or you can see this link from Alsa Project

 

A friend of mine playing in a Metal band used Ardour 3 years ago to produce a full album except mastering.
He was quite satisfied with it. But he's an IT guy too so he had no problems setting up the system properly.
And he didn't need any Midi. Obviously.

What's good with Linux is that you don't get distracted by too many top-notch solutions because they simply don't exist

BTW, as junh said, Tracktion for Linux is another great DAW with Midi support (easier to use than Reaper for Linux and powerful enough for most), but I guess hardly anyone even heard of it.
That's most likely for the lack of well-known virtual instruments. There definitely are some good synths like ALSA Modular (somewhat like NI Reaktor) available (see this list), but as you have to touch new ground when you enter Linux, you're better off with an explorer attitude than approaching things like a consumer, clicking through 75.000 presets and falling asleep before you even started to make any music

Another very powerful package is the cross-platform PureData.
Much like MaxMSP, it supports audio, MIDI, file i/o and comes with many DSP and math building blocks. I like it very much, not only for its power, but for the fact that it is really multi-platform:
Aside from the Win/Mac/Linux world, using MobMuPlat, your patches can even run on your Android (see PlayStore) or iOS (see AppStore) mobile device.

 

Last edited: Jul 25, 2015

And Tracktion is free in Linux...

 

I have been tossing around the idea of a Linux machine for Mixbus 3. I have read of folks being able to run Windows plugins as well such as Waves. I wonder how much hassle this would be. I have a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 card in ti reportedly will work but the question is....how well???

 

I do not agree with Linux is only stable for enterprise. I used to use Redhat workstation but that is more for enterprise, For the workstation Linux mint is king. really great and rock solid. The only two issue I can see is pulg in support like others have said here. Also it depends on your Audio interphase if you have something Like a yamha or Steinburg then your are screwed since the drivers support is lacking. Foucus rite and others work fine.

 

I see people coming mature and stopping the war mac vs win, and thats very good.
I love Linux, the community works for a greater good, but the real development is always about the money right?
Today the most profitable market is ios based, so that goes fast.
The near developers future driven by money seams server based on Linux like Muse Reaseach because its a way to avoid hacks from win and OS X users. My dream is to put all machines together...