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- nerddtvg, on 10/05/2008, -3/+40For those who do not need such a massive program, Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net%29 works great. It can mix, edit, and export as many tracks as your computer can handle. And it's cross-platform!
- candyman420, on 10/05/2008, -1/+27"The program comes with a decent set of effects from compression to reverb"
What the author doesn't seem to understand is that if you want to make professional sounding music, "decent" effects aren't really good enough. The programs need to support VST (or Audio Units, but that's a mac thing).. then you can load GOOD compressors, reverbs and EQs like the stuff Universal Audio makes; 3rd party effects are generally tons better than the built-in plugs.
Then there is the issue of how these programs stack up to Logic, Cubase, Sonar, Protools, etc in terms of audio engine quality. This free stuff may be adequate if you're an amateur hobbyist, and they may have some of the same features, but if he's making a serious comparison to the real, pro audio industry standard apps, that's a bit of a stretch. - meheartrobot, on 10/05/2008, -1/+21But a DAW it is not.
- svensko, on 10/05/2008, -7/+24I love Linux.
- RadiatedAnt, on 10/05/2008, -4/+18You don't pay to do it, you pay to make the job easier.
- kd420, on 10/05/2008, -0/+13I've tried Audacity and Ardour and if you want more advanced editing/recording then Ardour is the way to go. But the great thing is that you can try both, no hassle!
- nitsnipe, on 10/05/2008, -1/+12The problem for some people is they since they get these products for free they do not get to appreciate the value they have. Whereas if you pay for something, you would want to get your money's worth back, thus you're going to try harder to understand how to use it. With open-source apps you're a lot more likely to just give up(i.e. GIMP is always going to be a pain to use).
Nevertheless, i'd recommend you try out Hydrogen first. It's very easy to use and making beats is quite fun. - drag, on 10/05/2008, -0/+11Now keep in mind that I can't recommend anybody to switch to Linux for the express purpose of using it for musical creation, but I do recommend if you have the inclination and the aptitude for this sort of thing then it's worth evaluating.
There are still numerous confusing aspects and lack of usability that plague Linux and sound audio. Not to mention that it can be difficult to support some specific types of hardware (such as Creative's newer hardware). So don't think that you can dive right in with no headaches...
But Linux audio capabilities is one of those things that people are just not really aware of. These sort of capabilities have been around for a while now and, believe it or not, Linux-based DAW and other things are making it into professional settings. For example you may want to have a high performance way to do large numbers of recordings for live venues or for studio work. Even if your not using Linux for your main workstation, Linux (due in large part to it's regular use as a mid-to-upper-end enterprise server) it can provide a cheap and inexpensive way to provide disk-based multichannel recording box. Just get some high-quality audio card with lots of I/O and you can have very very good results.
> Yup I love Ubuntu Studio...just wished jack wasn't such a pain to use/set up
I like 64 Studio. It's based on, and compatible, with Debian, and is very mature. Offers professional paid support if you desire it, as well as no-cost downloads. It's used in professional products, right now, and is completely and totally 100% Free and Open Source software
> The programs need to support VST (or Audio Units, but that's a mac thing)..
Really? What makes you think that they DON'T support VST? You don't think that there is their own plugin systems on top of that either? The 'native' plugin infrastructure for Linux audio is called LADSPA. It provides easy way to plugin sound processors to various programs.
I don't recommend using Wine and that sort of thing to use VST stuff in Linux, but if it's ' that one last thing' holding you back then it maybe worth a try.
Also Linux has JACK audio daemon. Jack serves as a way to route PCM audio (raw uncompressed audio streams) and MIDI signals from hardware I/O and various programs. You can 'chain' up applications so that you can produce the results you desire or whatever you favor for your personal workflow.
For example I have a Keyboard-style Midi controller that connects via USB. Using this I can use jack to route the USB midi signals to external MIdi devices. However generally I just use a software syth. However none of the software synths that I use really have that high-quality reverb and sound manipulation to make it sound like I am using a large piano in a hall... so I route the PCM from the software syth into a program called 'Alsa Modular Synth' that I use to create a complex chain that replicates the effects of the piano sound echo'ng off of far walls and other subtle nuances. This requires quite a bit of tweaking to really get how I like it. It can take a bit to avoid sound clipping while pounding away at the keyboard and still be able to hear soft presses when I take it slow.
And in addition to that the modified realtime-preempt Linux kernel and due to the design of Jack and the tweaking I can do to my audio hardware all this processing is done real-time with no discernable ( _consistently_ under 30msec) delay.
> Then there is the issue of how these programs stack up to Logic, Cubase, Sonar, Protools, etc in terms of audio engine quality. This free stuff may be adequate if you're an amateur hobbyist, and they may have some of the same features, but if he's making a serious comparison to the real, pro audio industry standard apps, that's a bit of a stretch.
Really? I expect that you've done some serious competitive analysis between the sound quality of Aurdor vs Cubase, or at least have read up on benchmarks, because assuming that they don't compare is a bit closed minded.
> Still no well-written, free scorewriters--- which is what I need, unfortunately.
Hrm. Have you tried RoseGarden?
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
I don't know how scorewriters work in general, as that's not really my thing, but it seems like it would be fun to play around with. Newer versions support Jack, too. So I expect you could write out your score, send midi signals to other programs.. like software synths or external hardware synths, and listen to your music as you wrote it. Also record midi signals coming in from your keyboard and record them realtime while you re-route them to external synth or software synth. (jack can split and replicate signals so that they go to multiple programs at once). Also you could play along with your own music.
> So now the only bar holding me back from my linux audio production is working drivers for a sound card that is better than the one that came with my motherboard
Well a cheap device that is well supported, produces good sound, and has a decent number of I/O options is the M-audio Audiophile 24/96. It's a "pro-sumer" style card that can be found for under 100 dollars. For the I/O options it's very cheap. It's a older device, so don't expect to impress your friends. Don't expect it to do good surround sound either.. it's lousy for gaming and home theater. Its a specific purpose sound card and does very good for what it's designed for. In fact for a long time I used my onboard audio for home theater and gaming stuff, and used the 2496 as a second card for when I needed better sound quality and performance.
The normal Linux mixer apps are unsuited for it. There is a special Alsa application called envy24control
> How can you possibly go from using Cubase, and FL studio or reason connected with ReWire to Ardour and Hydrogen? Can you even sync the two programs in real time?
Ah. Yes. Think of Jack as Rewire on steroids. It is very useful completely independent applications and there is no '64 channel' restrictions or anything like that. You can connect dozens of different programs and mixers, and connect external hardware and all that happy stuff with Jack with solid realtime performance. This is (relatively) hard to setup on a generic Linux distribution, but you can download 64 Studio or other similar thing and have it setup for you by default.
> Is there a Guitar Rig equivalent for linux?
Maybe. I donno what all people do with Guitar Rig.
It's possible to get it working in Linux, like VST plugins, via Wine and other such things. It will work very well if it works at all, but requires extra setup. I would not recommend it, but if it's the 'one last thing' that is causing you to stay away from Linux audio then it may be worth a try.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=197536
> You don't pay to do it, you pay to make the job easier.
Alright; then pay for it. There are plenty of people more then willing to take your money and they can do a very good job for you.
http://64studio.com/support
Remember: To each their own. - roxgod666, on 10/05/2008, -1/+11Isn't Audacity only for editing audio rather than producing it? Music shake makes really cool beats but you actually have to purchase the finished song at the end.
- nitsnipe, on 10/05/2008, -0/+8He forgot to mention about LMMS (Linux Multimedia Studio)
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php - SLiPSTR34M, on 10/05/2008, -1/+9Agreed. There's a reason people and studios are constantly shelling out hundreds upon thousands of dollars for all this software- Reason. Cubase, DP, Logic, Kontact, GPO, protools. If the free stuff was truly 'professional' quality, people wouldn't be paying $399 for auto tune.
- ArthurSucks, on 10/05/2008, -0/+7Audacity might be missing a lot, but for trimming and normalizing ( with a visual representation ) it's hard to beat.
- spyd3rweb, on 10/05/2008, -3/+10Does anyone remember back to the days when there was no such thing as auto tune, and people actually had to have talent?
- jdubdub, on 10/05/2008, -2/+8Audacity is like a fancy version of Sound Recorder for Windows... it doesn't even remotely compare to modern commercial audio editors!
- lennybird, on 10/05/2008, -1/+7For music production, you're going to need a hardware interface. M-Audio makes some cheap ones. I recommend the TC Electronic konnekt 6, though. $250, has a XLR mic preamp and two balanced 1/4" guitar pre-amp jacks. Don't expect to just jack your guitar in via 1/8" - 1/4" through your line-in on the back panel of your computer. Need the A/D converter that's in it as well. It comes with Cubase LE4, too. I'm completely new to music composition, so I'm a little over my head, here. All I can say is Audacity is hell for music creation. Since you need the hardware, you might as well get something bundled with some decent software.
- zamikazi, on 04/15/2009, -6/+12I think this is all fine and dandy, but the chances of using your sound interface are pretty slim.
- bedouin, on 10/05/2008, -0/+6No, and it will take six weeks of Googling, playing with config files, and asking people who have no idea what you're actually trying to do on Linux forums to find out you can't.
And on pro audio forums no one uses Linux, so -- no support there. - Shirleycakes, on 10/05/2008, -0/+6Couldn't agree more. The entirety of my production sound is not so much based in the host program as the hardware (mics, preamps) and plugins. If there's no VST it's nothing more than windows Sound Recorder to me.
- Sneakernets, on 10/05/2008, -0/+5Still no well-written, free scorewriters--- which is what I need, unfortunately.
- inactive, on 10/05/2008, -0/+5oh..what about all my VSTi's , editor for Spectralis,evolver,VG99 and especcially the VST for the Virus TI. well apart from that i guess linux rules!
- travbrack, on 10/05/2008, -0/+5How can you possibly go from using Cubase, and FL studio or reason connected with ReWire to Ardour and Hydrogen? Can you even sync the two programs in real time?
- UKsHaDoW, on 10/05/2008, -1/+6Which saves you time, which over time saves you money. People often forget that.
- poppacherry, on 10/05/2008, -0/+5Pro tools isn't an industry standard. Apple computers aren't an industry standard. I'm sick and tired of people getting that term confused! An industry standard is a STANDARD given within the industry that ALL manufactures and companies abide by. XLR, 1/4'', Speak-On cables are all wired one way... an industry standard way. So stop getting to two confused!
Although I'm sure Digidesign and Apple's marketing departments love people's remarks like yours... - elektronjunge, on 10/05/2008, -0/+5So now the only bar holding me back from my linux audio production is working drivers for a sound card that is better than the one that came with my motherboard (but that only works on Saturdays so I guess that doesn't help either)
- dogfood, on 10/05/2008, -0/+4Is there a Guitar Rig equivalent for linux? I have played with Aurdor and it is pretty decent- got it to work well with a standard M-audio Firewire setup, but I would need a good guitar emulator to start using it for real.
- Karohan, on 10/05/2008, -2/+6Yup I love Ubuntu Studio...just wished jack wasn't such a pain to use/set up
- TheSnuffster, on 10/05/2008, -0/+4ssshh
- inactive, on 10/05/2008, -2/+5Doesn't matter to me, still won't get rid of stupid dropouts and latency issues. screw Sonar and Acid.
i'm getting a Mac Pro for this stuff. - ATLien74, on 10/05/2008, -0/+3I made the switch about 5 years ago and haven't looked back! I used to use Acid, Cubase, FL Studio, Sound Forge, and now on Mac I use Logic Studio Pro and Peak Bias with a Line6 Toneport and I wouldn't trade it for nothing!
- Abomonog, on 10/05/2008, -1/+4I have a win for Linux users. There are no freeware or open source tone generators available for Windows.
No *****. You can't even pirate one. - ArthurSucks, on 10/05/2008, -0/+3I have yet to find a sound interface I couldn't connect too...
- praisethelard, on 10/05/2008, -1/+4You don't need any of that to compose.
- bieber, on 10/05/2008, -1/+4Amen to that. I'd love to give ardour a try, but simply apt-getting it apparently doesn't set it up correctly, and it's certainly not important enough to go through God only knows how much configuration for :/ Here's hoping it all gets well-integrated some day...
- dogfood, on 10/05/2008, -0/+3I agree that people give up too easy on open source products because they view them as inferior to products that cost a lot of money. Recently, I abandoned Dreamweaver for Aptana Studio and payed for the pro upgrade for three machines (less than the price of one copy of Dreamweaver) because it was in every way superior to Dreamweaver for what I do. I advise everyone to give products like Ardour, Hydrogen, and Aptana a few hours of playing and reading documentation before you write them off. You might not only save thousands of dollars, but find features that are lacking in the expensive brands.
- inactive, on 10/05/2008, -0/+35 years ago i could record very smoothly on Sonar 2. try to do the EXACT same thing today with the same hardware on Sonar 7, and it just ***** itself.
i'm not even doing anything differently! there's something fundamentally wrong here. - DigitAl56K, on 10/05/2008, -1/+4Forget auto-tune. These days people just use auto-coldplay, auto-brittney, and auto-coversong.
- dedknedy, on 10/05/2008, -0/+3Ardour supports the use of native Windows VST's by using a WINE compatibility layer. Also, yes there are native Linux compatible commercial VST's, however I have not tested the quality... google it.
- dbolton, on 10/05/2008, -0/+3Have you tried MuseScore?
http://musescore.org/ - Cupantae, on 10/05/2008, -0/+2This isn't about using the same programmes on Linux, this is about viable alternatives to those programmes
- inactive, on 10/05/2008, -0/+2hell no. for me nothing beats CS3. and yes i use ALL the features.
- hyperlexic, on 10/05/2008, -1/+3For me, the lack of music production software for Linux such as Reason, Ableton Live and FL Studio (plus the host of VSTs i use) is the biggest obstacle for making the switch.
- lennybird, on 10/05/2008, -0/+2Sorry, horrible misuse of the word.
- WaddleDee, on 10/05/2008, -0/+2Me too.
- inactive, on 10/06/2008, -0/+2I'm a linux user but to tell you the truth I still boot back to window for music recording/guitar effects. This is one area where windows and macs win. Plus you can pretty much have professional music production on windows and macs with all the available freeware out there. I've recorded my first cd this way several years ago on an old windows 98 machine. I didn't pay a cent for software and had vst effects and multiple audio tracks. So this goes both ways.
- praisethelard, on 10/05/2008, -1/+3Too bad Ardour isn't available for Windows.
- derkles, on 10/05/2008, -0/+2Reaper runs great un GNU/Linux using WINE. http://www.reaper.fm/
- int19h, on 10/05/2008, -0/+2It's PreSunus' fault if they don't support Linux though. Blame the right people here.
- MrSelfDestruct, on 10/05/2008, -1/+2Why does it have to be free? Why can't you pay for good software?
- int19h, on 10/05/2008, -0/+1LilyPond?
http://lilypond.org/web/ - flatfish, on 10/07/2008, -0/+1I've never had too much luck with Sonar.
I also don't like the busy UI, although it can be customized, it still looks like crap IMHO.
I get dropouts with Ivory like crazy unless I back off on the settings.
No problems with Nuendo or Samplitude 10.1 which I am starting to really like, even better than Nuendo.
The object oriented concept is playing with my mind though!
Different way of thinking, but very powerful once you get used to it.
As far as ardour is concerned, if I get anywhere near 5msec latency I get xruns.
On the same system running Nuendo I get 3.3mesc.
Running Reaper I go below 3msec.
And like others have said, it's all about the plugins.
It really is...
Even moderately priced plugins like iZotope Ozone when used with care can turn muddy tracks into clean, clear crisp sounding tracks.
Problem is most people over process or use the pre-sets and end up with noise. -
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