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Hello Linux Musicians

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 1:49 pm
by Swi

I am a professional film and TV composer who was a mac enthusiast until they became a phone company and did not update Logic 9 for 4 years. I then switched to Cubase when 7 came out and a year later switched to Windows. I have since moved to using Reaper as a DAW and feel very excited and liberated by the power of the open source model.
I am aware that Linux is a much more efficient OS and even though it's nice having my daw and my VEP machines on the same OS I do find windows updates problematic and all the windows apps that I have to turn off everytime I do an update etc.. frustrating.
I would very much like to leave windows and it's my understanding that my UAD cards will not work if I go to Linux. I would love to be liberated from UAD anyway as they have not updated their cards in 10 years.
I built my first AMD rig last fall with a 2990wx 128gb ram and 14tb of m.2 storage pool raid. It has not said no to me yet so I am very satisfied with the build.
I did have to install and run a service that refreshes the error list. Level 1 tech has a video about the 2990wx and windows and why this needs to happen in windows.

My main concern is about my audio hardware. I use the rednet pcie card and although dante will run in linux now I'm not sure the card will work. Four audio has a card that does linux and dante and there is another card call LX Audio (I think?).

The 3990wx chip is rumored to be a 64 core chip and with that I am sure I can dump uad and run 25 Pro-R verbs natively.

I am at the very beginning of this journey to Linux. From what I have read so far it seems like MXLinux with some kxstudio repositories would be a good start.

MXLinux looks like reaper and the flat packs look like reapack so it just feels familiar.

I will put this on an old laptop first and fiddle with it this summer. I hope I can get my audio hardware to work in linux later this fall.

Thanks for listening. Happy to be here.

Re: Hello Linux Musicians

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 3:43 pm
by Michael Willis
Hi Swi! Welcome.

The specs on your AMD rig sound pretty nice. As far as audio hardware goes, the good news is that Linux drivers are WAY better than they used to be, let's say 10 or 15 years ago. Still, you may have trouble with some audio hardware that is not class compliant. I would be surprised if the rednet card doesn't work though, in general people have had really good luck with Focusrite hardware. Best way to find out is to boot linux on the device and see if a JACK server recognizes the hardware.

Please be aware that there is a lot to learn when getting started on Linux. Also be aware that it can be very rewarding (and liberating) once you understand enough to be productive. You're in a good place, there are plenty of people on this forum who are very willing to help you on your way.

Re: Hello Linux Musicians

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 4:13 pm
by Linuxmusician01
Welcome to the very flexible world of Linux!

If you tell us exactly what brand and model hardware you use (and point us to it's official website) then I think we can be of help. As of now I read the terms: UAD (do you mean https://www.uaudio.com ??), rednet pcie (?), dante??, Four audio?, LX Audio??

Good luck. :)

P.S. If I were you I'd start with a Linux distribution that is well supported by the community like Ubuntu. That one will work w/ the KXStudio repo's. You can tweak any Linux user interface (i.e. desktop environment) to your liking. You don't need a "special" (i.e. badly supported) distro for that.

Re: Hello Linux Musicians

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 4:30 pm
by merlyn
Linuxmusician01 wrote:You don't need a "special" (i.e. badly supported) distro for that.
You've said this in a few posts. I think it's misleading. What support are you talking about? Do the Ubuntu forums have specialised pro-audio hardware support? It seems unlikely considering the number of people who turn up here, unable to find solutions in mainstream forums.

Also MXLinux is a fairly mainstream (if relatively new) distro.

Re: Hello Linux Musicians

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 8:19 pm
by milo
Welcome Swi! We are glad you're here. Like Michael said, there is much to learn and the curve might be a little steep at first. Definitely play with Linux in a sandbox before you try to switch your whole professional workflow over. The "old laptop" plan you mentioned in the OP is right on.

I think the majority of us on this forum are music hobbyists, so our demands for convenience and performance in a production tool might not match up to yours. I think this is a great opportunity for us to learn from each other, and I hope you will feel free to contribute your own ideas and criticisms in our various discussions. Your perspective on this craft is very much needed in the Linux audio world.

We also want to hear your progress in using Linux tools. Please post some music once you have something to share.

Again, welcome!

Re: Hello Linux Musicians

Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2019 9:11 pm
by jonetsu
milo wrote: I think the majority of us on this forum are music hobbyists, so our demands for convenience and performance in a production tool might not match up to yours. I think this is a great opportunity for us to learn from each other, and I hope you will feel free to contribute your own ideas and criticisms in our various discussions. Your perspective on this craft is very much needed in the Linux audio world.
+1

It would be very interesting to get the feedback from a professional.

Cheers.

Re: Hello Linux Musicians

Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2019 11:51 am
by Linuxmusician01
merlyn wrote:[...] What support are you talking about?
The support that we give here in this forum.