Migrating to Linux

I think I’m going to move to a Linux-based setup for my music from Win7. Windows has become a pain to update, etc. and I have no intention of ever moving to Win10. A Mac is not affordable right now so …

I’m wondering if there are any “gotchas” moving to the Linux version of Renoise 3.1. I know my way around a Linux OS pretty well, so I intend to “roll my own” and forego the “audio-oriented” Linux distros I’ve seen. I exclusively use samples and a few vsts I use to produce samples have Linux versions, no problems there.

Just wondering if there are any substantial differences in the way Renoise works on Linux vs. Windows.

Any thoughts or pointers are appreciated.

Cheers.

I never used renoise on windows but it works perfectly on linux for me.

Not much different on the renoise side I guess, if you really don’t miss the vsts or other windows only software, then…it should work the same except you use different audio drivers (alsa/jack) and you have a different set up plugin formats available (ladspa/dssi/linux native vst)

I find it is not really an easy task to properly set up a generic linux system for audio production, at least not for newbs. But you’ll see with what you’re happy then. In terms of tweaking for realtime dsp perf and latency. And hardware compatibility issues. Ok, you said you know your way around linux well already.

You might want to dig a bit into the “jack connection kit” aka “jackd”, where you can share/mix the audio device among production and normal apps, or pipe audio between applications. You can have quite a number of virtual outputs from renoise (option per track/send) or make the line in device receive audio from different channels from the outside. Then you can connect between apps at will, and even pipe back into renoise, haha… I found stuff like the pulseaudio pipes to jack rob quite some dsp perfomance though, so I made starters to load/unload them in case I want to watch a youtube cat dance with music while renoise is running, or sampling it. Or so. I think it can also sync transport between audio apps, but I never used that feature.

Would for sure be interesting for some here to see how renoise performs on win vs linux with heavy cpu tunes in an a/b test. In case you leave windows on the disk of the same machine.

Thanks for the tips folks. I think I’m going to start with a plain vanilla Debian distro and pare it down from there. Might take a bit longer to get configured, but I’ll have all the tools installed by default and I can eliminate what I don’t want/need. I’m shooting for a “dedicated” config, just what is needed to run Renoise as efficiently as possible. We’ll see where it goes … :slight_smile:

If I can Oops, I’ll try and get some benchmarks. I’m considering a dual boot for a bit until I get all the glitches and bugs worked out. I’ll post something later if it all works out.

Cheers.

Also look for kxstudio - it is repositories with useful tools and plugins from the opensource scene. Like zynaddsubfx, tal noisemaker and oxesynth, as vst, it is not so common for ppl to distribute vst builds from opensource stuff because of license uncertanities, but they are all in there nonetheless. Most stuff in there is pretty simple oldschool dsp though, nothing comparable to the current state of audio plugin industry. Also some flaky hobby projects to loose time with. Also progs like ardour with calf in case you wish to record or try cheap mastering or so. Just watch the repo can also contain system components or libraries like jack and alsa libs, and some other deeper stuff needed for one or another tool in there. If you don’t really want this as bleeding edge auto updated - then maybe look you have your package manegement under your control first before adding all the stuff.

You might have to fiddle a bit to get realtime prio working. All of the guides say to mess around with ulimits, but that doesn’t work on my system, and instead I have to run with CAP_SYS_NICE and CAP_IPC_LOCK (just run ‘setcap cap_ipc_lock,cap_sys_nice=ep /path/to/renoise’).

Also, make sure you run JACK directly on top of ALSA without dmix or PulseAudio getting in the way.

If you are dedicating a computer just to renoise, and you ONLY need sound from renoise, it’s best to avoid jackd altogether and just use ALSA directly (no dmix or pulseaudio). That is how you get the lowest latency, but then there is no OS mixer / sound card sharing. I do some synthesis on the Raspberry Pi sometimes, and jackd and it’s dbus dependency just cause headaches and slow things down. If you are going to use the Linux PC for a desktop + audio workstation, then jack is the way to go for sure.

I am using Ubuntu Studio and it is pre-set for realtime I think, have not testet though because it is while I have done realtime recording. I just remember that all this realtime hassle was easier in Linux than in Windows, even with such poor setup like live Zoom H2n through usb port. But you say you familiar with Linux so I think there is no obstacles, beacause even I, who are very noob in programming and Linux-things survived well from migration.

I liked that you could play multiple programs same time, for example: vlc, browser and Renoise. And yeah! thatis very nice that you can easily route sound from browser (Youtube) into Renoise Line Input device, and use Tempotap/Repeater/Filter/OrWhatEver on top of that, nice at gigs to start chopping popular tunes on the fly and get audiences attention : P

Generally it is just so relaxing to act in Linux world and I liked a lot about that you get huge bunch of all kinds of LADSPA and DSSI devices for free. My favorites are realtime pitch shifters like Rubberband and AM Pitchshifter.

I have the overall feeling that everything is running little bit smoothier in Linux all the way to the responsiveness of graphichs.

If you are dedicating a computer just to renoise, and you ONLY need sound from renoise, it’s best to avoid jackd altogether and just use ALSA directly (no dmix or pulseaudio). That is how you get the lowest latency, but then there is no OS mixer / sound card sharing. I do some synthesis on the Raspberry Pi sometimes, and jackd and it’s dbus dependency just cause headaches and slow things down. If you are going to use the Linux PC for a desktop + audio workstation, then jack is the way to go for sure.

For running Renoise and nothing else, using ALSA directly is the way go to, but otherwise, JACK is worth the extra latency. If you want to route other programs into Renoise (e.g. ZynAddSubFX, which isn’t properly configurable via the plugin, and doesn’t even have a plugin in older versions), then it’s much easier to do it with JACK than the alternative of messing around with ALSA loopbacks.

Thanks for the advice and insights everyone. :slight_smile: The install is intended to run only Renoise and a few Linux capable vsts to generate samples with. I think running ALSA only may be the way to go (no plans to do any routing to other devices or software) so I’ll start in that direction first.

Cheers.