Here's what you need to know about Linux: IT SUCKS FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION......and that's all you need to know

 

This would be very interesting to troubleshoot, but perhaps in its own thread or via DM sometime?
Seems like you spent quite some time trying to get it fixed. Alsa and Pulseaudio are most problematic, oh and definitely anything with Wine. Comparing apples with apples (native plugins), linux ended up beating windows everytime I tried, and without the need for any proprietary drivers, or expensive interfaces, just pipewire and qpwgraph on integrated audio card.

While I don't agree with the tone of the reply, there is some truth to it. It is easy to get used to a crap factor in the OS of our choice, and then pretend there was no issue in the first place. Just like learning a specific workflow in a particular software, and then comparing it to another one, with different features, saying it lacks this and that.
Ultimately, is linux fit for music production? I'd advise checking out 'reaper on linux' category on cockos forums to find out.

 

Last edited: Jan 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM

Linux-related threads invariably attract swarms of haters with nothing coherent to offer and quickly turn into a parade of ill-informed blanket statements and even downward malign behaviour.

To improve signal to noise ratio, I'd advise anyone interested in music production on Linux to download and try AV Linux. The least inconvenient way is via a bootable USB drive, no installation required.

AV Linux is a turnkey solution, fully optimised for music production and includes a nice selection of music software, DAWs (Ardour, demo versions of Reaper and Mixbus), plenty of plugins etc.

An afternoon with AV Linux will give all the practical answers regarding the suitability of a particular hardware configuration, latency, plugin count, etc.

It does not include a demo of Bitwig, however, which is the closest alternative to Ableton, but Bitwig too behaves very well on Linux, virtually indistinguishable from the MacOS and Windows versions.

 

I've never ran into popping/crackling noises in Windows, sounds like a buffer issue, the only time I've had any noise was when the buffer was set too low.....but that's just me

 

Been using Windows 7 and 8.1 and it's fantastic but something happened post Windows 10 1603 and it sucks. I'm not against OS demanding more resources but when those resources are provided, it's still very sluggish. Prior to Windows 10, it was snappier, now explorerframe (ribbon) takes ages to load. The programs, same, Windows modules, same. Almost like Windows 11 doesn't want to be here and made to operate forcefully.

There was ribbon also in Windows 8.1 but its loaded in explorer almost like it's build into it. Even if I slow it down to plank time, I still can't tell explorer from ribbon apart. What changed? Why Microsoft had to do things this way? And when in actual fcuk will Windows be optimized? There's still code, resources and binaries in it from Windows 95 era. Hence, my discontent with Windows and desire to switch.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. Last time I tried Mint, it didn't click with me, Ubuntu did. But as you and many others have voted for it, I will give it one more try.

I am grateful for your input again, your contribution is highly appreciated.

 

Beyond Windows 10, I seriously doubt if it's optimized at all. They just dumped more code on the already available code that was optimized. End result is, it works but it's not as good as it use to be. I have a constant electric supply, so battery life is of no concern.

Thank you for your input.

 

Yea, I already added Mint to my to-do list. As for programs, I'm very uncompromising when it comes to girls, cars and computers.I want everything my way down to last detail. I'm still in the research mode, will do tests to see how far can I go with Linux before settling on something.

Thank you for your input, your interest in my quest is highly appreciated.

 

That looks like Windows 11. Is the explorer, control Panel etc look the same too? I will surely give this a try as it postulates being a distro for the users migrating from Windows so it'll be a little bit familiar or easier for us. The first priority being all my Windows programs work without issues, which ever distro does that, I'll settle for it.

Thank you for bringing this to my knowledge, I'll be sure to test it in a virtual machine.

 

Exactly right. One more factor that's keeping me from switching. I have TB's of softwares, scripts, registry and tools for Windows. I know Windows like the back of my hand. Having to start from a clean slate meaning hours and hours of testing and compiling a library of the programs I want. I don't refrain from putting time into it should it work. In any case, will give it a try though.

Thank you for the recommendation, your help is highky appreciated.

 

Switching mainly because Windows devs don't care about optimization and user experience, which they compensate with ever capable hardware and shiny looks (even that sucks)

Incompetence was one of the reason why outrageous system requirements for Windows 11 were forced onto users so that they can't run that pile of garbage on old systems and see the difference.

If I do stay with Windows, in hell I ever going to use OEM or MSDN images. I only did that when I didn't knew about this stuff much. Even since I discovered I could make it "Lite" I never went back, been using my own built custom image since 2017 and a happy camper.

Thank you for the valuable advice, if I stay with Windows, I'll most surely only use a stripped version. I can build one myself, having done that many times before in the past.

 

Yea, not going to the forums I'm not familiar with. I like this place and if it's gets sorted here, fine, if it doesn't than AI is the way. I've been using ChatGPT for a few months and its really helpful provided you know know how to construct a quarry.

Thank you for the suggestion and input, very helpful indeed.

 

Thank you for the explanation to a newbie. Right now I'm considering Wubuntu, Ubuntu, Mint and Extix. Will try all of thee to see which one I like the best and has most compatibility with the Windows programs I want to run. Will surely give Nobara a try too.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I will be sure to try it out.

 

That's great. But are those DIY versions are as good as custom builds from people like Ghostspectre? Because, I guess these versions aren't just debloated versions but there are also a lot of other changes too. I had used a debloated versions in past, but it didn't work as good as the Ghostspectre.

 

Is it that bad on Linux? I can't imagine, given its popularity. I've heard horror stories about doing trivial things on Linux but I really don't want Windows. HarmoneyOS is in the pipe, will give that a try too. Basically, will give everything a try and if something clicks, voila and if it doesn't, will stay with Windows.

Thank you for sharing your valuable experience with us which would have taken my ample time otherwise. Your help is highly appreciated.

 

Thank you for the helpful tips to ease the head start. I'm making notes of the things I would need for my workflow. This is another advantage with Linux is that users are not limited to stock modules but can opt for their own based on their preferences. I have heard good things about Deepin DE, will give that a try. Extix distro is Ubuntu based but also has Deepin DE variant. So I'll not only benefit from having Ubuntu's vast repo but also have the functionality and looks of Deepin.

As for softwares, I don't have any replacements for Potplayer and Photoshop. To the best of my knowledge, potplayer is the only player that displays subtitles below the video and has an impressive codec foundation. It's difficult to replace that. Same with Photoshop. Affinity designer comes close but then again, I've been using Photoshop for 7 years now and switching to affinity means learning everything from scratch which takes lots of time for the programs of this caliber with millions of functions. Besides, I also have a "Lite" version of Photoshop that comes without all the creative cloud crap, loads and run 100x faster than stock Photoshop and only takes about 2 GB of disk space.

As mentioned before, If I couldn't get these essential programs to work on Linux, I'll just stay with Windows.

In any case, many thanks for your valuable suggestions. I'm extremely grateful for your time and shared experience.

 

Pop_OS looks nice, what distro is it based upon?

 

Linux is for people who know how to find .exes on GitHub.

 

Judging from the number of the replies suggesting the same thing is making me wanna stay with Windows. I want an OS that just works without me having to fix it every now and then and search for little things with maintenance and/or upkeep. I slimmed down Window 11 to the safe level, meaning not heavily tweaked or stripped, just some bloat removed and it runs like shit. Yea, I can still make it better by tweaking some more and stripping some more but there's only so much you could do.

There's an alternate File Explorer which is very good but it's not available yet. If I stay with Windows, will surely replace stock explorer with something more responsive.
https://filepilot.tech

Thank you for your opinion and council. Reading all the replies, I feel like I should give Windows 11 a try after tweaking and stripping it. I'm a Windows modder myself and I know its limitations. No matter what you do with it, it will never be snappy like Windows 7 unless shell, explorer, start menu, task manager and other desktop modules aren't ripped and replaced with 3rd party programs.

Will give it a try too. Thanks again.

 

The new machine's driver page has a tab for Ubuntu which leads me to believe that it should support it. Whatever I'm gonna try, gonna have to do it quickly. Running out of time. I will not stay with Windows without giving Linux a try and living with regret all my life that I could have switched. If Linux doesn't work, then I can in the least be satisfied that Windows is the only way and cope with whatever state Windows 11 is in.