Recording in Linux

[Decimator]

Long story short: My windows machine was getting fucking slow so I needed to do something. Instead of just reinstalling I decided to swich to Linux. After a while of testing different distros I settled to Kubuntu which is great (and looks great too ). The only thing I'm missing about windows is the recording software. I have a dual boot now so if I have to record something I just boot to windows and start cubase and the usual shit. Works just fine but i would like to be able to record fully in Kubuntu.

There are few programs that I have been testing. Ardour was ok, but couldnt handle recording midi. Lmms was fine with midi, but couldnt record audio it was more like FL studio. I just wanted something like Cubase. Reaper worked also through Wine, but was kinda slow. So, Linux experts, should I just stick to the dual boot system that I have now?

 

[iamandy]

you could install "Wine" and run windows programs through that? i think anyways, i'm not a big linux geek.. but i have afew friends that are. but i have a box with ubuntu on it..

 

[slashvanyoung]

All the driver issues have always been spoiling my fun setting up a DAW under Linux. But I haven't caught up on recent developments...

 

[JBroll]

I know there's work being done on MIDI in Ardour, but I haven't done much with that lately so I can't say anything about new stuff.

Jeff

 

[Decimator]

It seems that Cubase won't work with Wine.. 'bout the driver issues, my m-audio 2496 card works great with linux. If you got the same card be sure to get Envy24 Control utility.

Ardour with full midi support would be great. I could settle also with linux version of Reaper. Guess I just have to wait..

 

[DecTV]

I tried installing Ubuntu Studio 8.04.1 a few months ago. It was the fift installation that got it to actually run Ubuntu but at the same time my windows partition was just emptied. Well few of those tries came from adjusting the partition sizes but I digress.

Though Ubuntu studio is optimised for audio use and has all the needed software bundled, it's been a real nightmare just trying to get even the most simple things to work like getting sound out of the right soundcard and the right output. I haven't even gotten to using Ardour or some of the other audio software because it was so much work just to get a few of the mp3 playing softwares working. Flash audio in Firefox still doesn't work properly for me and probably won't work unless I rip one of my soundcards out.

I was thinking to gradually transition to a Linux based DAW but it seems I'll have to wait a bit longer until they get the some more progress on the sound interface development and compatibility between the audio software and drivers. For most people it'll probably work without a hitch after installation, but for me every audio software seems to need hours and hours of tweaking and searching the Ubuntu forums for answers. One of the biggest obstacles was with several soundcards with multiple outputs and still is with dualboot (grub) with SATA and IDE drives.

So for now I'll just stick with my ancient Sonar4.

 

[Kadmium]

I seem to recall there was a KDE app called Rosegarden that supposedly did MIDI and audio.

 

[Kazrog]

It's not a reality yet. Nobody is doing pro work in Linux. Your best bet is to use the Linux side of things to do your downloading, transfer the downloads between Linux and Windows with a USB stick, and keep Windows offline.

That way you never have to worry about viruses or spyware on the Windows side, since you keep it offline.

 

[jhanse]

Another good thought is, if you have an old PC, you can make a "server" out of it and have Linux on there, link it to your windows machine and it will run smooth as hell.

 

[pifos_2]

It's not a reality yet. Nobody is doing pro work in Linux. Your best bet is to use the Linux side of things to do your downloading, transfer the downloads between Linux and Windows with a USB stick, and keep Windows offline.

That way you never have to worry about viruses or spyware on the Windows side, since you keep it offline.

the best solution IMO

 

[Decimator]

It's not a reality yet. Nobody is doing pro work in Linux. Your best bet is to use the Linux side of things to do your downloading, transfer the downloads between Linux and Windows with a USB stick, and keep Windows offline.

That way you never have to worry about viruses or spyware on the Windows side, since you keep it offline.

Yes, this is what I have now. Offline Windows with no upgrades (except SP2) no firewall etc. I have 500gb usb hard drive formatted to NTFS to use for both operating systems. Luckily Kubuntu can read and write to NTFS without problems.

I have to admit that many times it get's annoying when some things are so fucking hard to do in Linux. It's a wonderful operating system, but needs a lot of learning to do before it runs how you want. I tried OpenSuse on my mediaPC before and that was a hell to set up. Gladly, Kubuntu worked very well on that setup also without a lot of tweaking.

I've read about Ubuntu studio. I guess you can basically get the same programs yourself on any Ubuntu. And yea, flash is slow on Linux and I think theres a little that can be done to improve it. Just have to wait for some proper drivers that really use the graphics acceleration. On my system youtube videos work fine, but if you want to watch it in fullscreen its sloppy as hell.

 

[ze kink]

I do not think it's possible to do well yet. I'm using Ubuntu as my web surfing/downloading etc. OS and Win XP for recording myself, and I'm quite happy with that setup.

Perhaps in a few years, it'll be possible.

 

[JBroll]

The biggest problem facing Linux is the damned proprietary VST nonsense - Steinberg has its asshole clenched tight on that issue so even installing VST capability from source code on your machine is of questionable legality. It's the kind of problem, though, that won't be solved until people start using and forcing it. MIDI should be good to go soon, hopefully...

Jeff