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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Good DAWS and VSTs for linux (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hi everyone,

I'm getting fed up windows and want to switch my laptop to linux. My laptop also doesn't meet windows 11 standards so I figured nows a good time to switch. I don't do a whole lot on my laptop, but there are some programs that I do need to use. I have an E drum kit and right now I use reaper and Steven slate audio center to play and record my drums through my laptop. I looked at reaper, and I see linux options for download. But for Steven slate , I only see windows and Mac. This is pretty disappointing and so I figured I ask to see what would work for me.

I was going to go with Ubuntu, because it seems to be the most user friendly and has good support. I also use mullvad VPN on my laptop very frequently, which was another reason I chose Ubuntu.

Any help is appreciated. I'm willing to look at other distros too if there is one that better fits my needs.

EDIT: I have successfully migrated to linux mint and have reaper working with yabridge. Thanks, everyone, for your help and suggestions!

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[–] azvasKvklenko 13 points 9 months ago (3 children)

As for Windows plugins with no native Linux version, there are ways to use VSTs over Wine. Check out Yabridge project. There’s no guarantee that 100% of plugins will work, but many do pretty well. It requires some additional setup, but once it’s done, you don’t have to think about it much, just call yabridgectl when you add new plugins to sync them (it creates stub library that is seen as Linux native, but it wraps Windows plugin using Wine)

Reaper is perfectly fine choice if you’re already familiar with it, but here are some other you may want to look at:

FOSS Options:

Ardour - it’s pretty old, UX is not perfectly intuitive, basically GIMP of the audio world, but it can do everything you’d expect a professional DAW to do, while being incredibly lightweight. It’s straightforward to install on any Linux system.
Zrhythm - it’s a new DAW that didn’t have a stable release yet, but it’s on 1.0 RC1 so I guess it’s pretty close. It has some promising user interface and feature set, also easy to get installed, but might not be super solid just yet.

Commercial options:

Bitwig Studio - probably the best audio workstation for Linux, but also the most expensive.
Waveform Tracktion - I personally had mixed experience with it. On one hand the UX and flow is quite good (not as flexible as ardour, way more opinionated, but still fully functional and easier to use), but I had bad time dealing with a large project as the editor becomes extremely sluggish as your project grows.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

So as someone who tried Ubuntu first because it seemed like the easiest place to start, don't. First off, I never could get Ardour to run right on it. Try Linux Mint. I switched this weekend and everything seems to work better and there appears to be a lot more available software when you aren't stuck with Snaps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I was able to get reaper working on ubuntu and everything else seems to be working well. I will check out mint though and see if I like it better

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I tried linux mint and fairly quickly I had more issues than with Ubuntu. I tried to install reaper through the app store and it wouldn't launch. I had to get it from the website. I also tried to get wine through the app store and that didn't work either. I couldn't even get it to install properly through the terminal. I'm not too sure about switching now.

[–] azvasKvklenko 1 points 9 months ago

Distro only matters if you know nothing about the OS, don’t want to figure it out and fully rely on defaults. Pro Audio is not always straightforward.

What you need for DAWs to work properly is an audio server with JACK API support and low latency. There are two options for that at the moment:

Actual JACK daemon that takes full control over chosen sound card/audio interface. It’s the old solution that is also well tested and some will argue that it’s more reliable.
PipeWire + pw-jack, the modern sound server that already runs by default on most modern Linux distros (including recent versions of Ubuntu), that is way more flexible, while also being impressively performant. It allows using any amount of sound hardware at the same time and route audio freely, mix regular audio clients with pro-audio/low latency ones and generally is far more flexible. This should be the goto for most people as it’s the easiest to setup (if you already use PW as your sound server) and only requires installing pw-jack.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I was able to get reaper working with yabridge and using Steven slate free sampler, thanks for the help!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I checked out ardour and I was able to get it to register my drum kit, but they kept pestering me to pay for the program every 10 min which was frustrating. Bitwig is a little more than I need at the moment. I'm not creating music, I just need drum triggers and basic drum recording. I was able to get reaper to work and pick up my kit, but I still need to try yabridge to get vsts to trigger.

[–] azvasKvklenko 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wow, what OS you used and where did you take your binaries from? It’s free and open source, but their official builds (distributed through their official website) are paid. I’m using Arch official repo package and it asked me for a donation on first boot, but I could just select to never bother me with it again. You can build Ardour freely on any OS from source, but Linux distros are also free to provide their own packages and most of em do. There’s also Flatpak Ardour build, but your plugins then also must be installed from Flatpak, Wine must be from Flatpak etc., doable but not the most convenient

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I was using ubuntu and I got the program from their main site. I saw they offered monthly subscriptions but I just chose the demo. On their site, it says the demo goes silent after 10 min.. I searched the app store in ubuntu and didn't see it so that's why I went to the website. That's cool you can build it from source though. I think I'll just stick with reaper now however.

[–] azvasKvklenko 1 points 9 months ago

There is Ubuntu package it seems, so it’s a matter of sudo apt install ardour