Some people actually buys commercial software they use. I don’t use commercial plugins that i haven’t paid. Other thing is that i don’t (nor like to) use that many different plugins either. Mainly synth1, garritan personal orchestra, v-station and key rig.
How ever, here’s something based on my own experience… yes, there are some plugins for linux but so far haven’t seen any good one. I haven’t tried commercial ones in linux because it doesn’t feel worth investing, at least not yet.
Most of the vst(i)'s i’ve used in linux haven’t been stable either. I have used windows plugins with a wrapper in linux renoise and run windows renoise in wine. Overally linux couldn’t give even close satisfactory results compared to windows, as system for music production. I admit, i may not have done every possible thing, but that’s simply because i’m more into music than geeky stuff. Too much geeky stuff kills my inspiration.
If renoise had native synth (decent one) and good collection of multisampled instruments, (at least typical acoustic instruments) things would be different. Maybe that could be something to concider as addition to renoise with additional fee?
Even better would be if there was posibility to run win/mac os vst(i)'s as they were native in linux but somehow i don’t see that happening. I’m not a coder but doesn’t even feel possible. Correct me if i’m wrong.
I agree! A native synth and (my favorite) a working hold pedal with native sampled instrument (for things like grand piano) would really take renoise to the next level IMHO.
I’ve been skimming this thread and I’m just going to add in my own (unsolicited) two cents.
I’ve been primarily using Linux for music production for about 4-5 years now and here’s what I can tell you.
First and foremost: Making the switch to Linux for audio production is something that will most likely be an altogether painful experience (though rewarding at the end of the day).
Linux is not for everyone.
Yes, there are some “limitations” in that, no, not all plugins and pieces of music software were written to run natively under Linux. If you’re the type of person who is incapable of letting go of these pieces of software, then switching to Linux is not for you.
I’ve found that I am fully capable of producing any sound that I’d like to produce in my working environment (A botched-together pile of debs that used to be Ubuntu). One may have to look a bit harder or be a bit more creative in order to get the sound that they want, but it’s all worth it in the end.
If you’re really feeling sore about not being able to run some windows VSTs, I’ve found that audiomulch runs remarkably well under WINE/WINEASIO, and a lot of plugins also work fine.
Also noteworthy: ANYTHING native instruments makes seems to run fantastically under WINE…
If you really have any doubts that Linux can be effectively used for audio production, you’re welcome to peruse my soundcloud…
i just installed the latest version of Crunchbang on a new partition and will strip it down to the bare essentials, then get it prepped for audio-work. this will be my dedicated audio-distro, and i’ll use the other partition for stuff like, well, posting on forums etc
that way, i can also use a RealTime Kernel without having to worry about other apps begging for attention, as the only thing i’ll be running will be Renoise.
it’s great. really, it is. it’s basic, lightweight, and inviting to customize and generally mess around with. also, you get one of the best and friendliest linux-communities to boot.
I used to use Crunchbang. I like lightweight distros. I left it after a brief spell with windows 7, by then I’d been intrigued with Arch so I switched to that.
Right now I’m probably gonna splurge on a System 76 with firewire come May, but it’s a bit on the ugly/bulky side to what I’m used to. Would be nice to see that kind of spec on a sleeker ~13 inch model.
Keep the suggestions coming! I got two months to make a decision here.
You do know System76 are rebadged Clevo laptops yeah? The most famous of the resellers being Sager in North America but there are plenty of others. I believe you could get exactly the same laptop (but without preinstalled Linux and possibly some of the problems ironed out in advance) from a different reseller.
They are generally good machine though. Big, heavy, ugly and run hot but powerful and well made. Even Dell rebadge one of their machines as a high end AlienWare laptop
Update on running Renoise on Debian Sid on Asus U46E:
I’m some weeks into this setup now. Every iteration of kernel 3.2 with realtime support that has come down the pipeline has run without glitches or crashes for both Renoise and all of my other use cases (coding, web browsing, and so on). I like that I don’t have to add any third party repository to get a working realtime kernel. Even the recent transition from module-init-tools to kmod occurred seamlessly in the normal update process. Renoise has not crashed, burped, or glitched out on me even once, not even when the CPU speedsteps to different frequencies. Under Windows 7, all of my music apps were glitching audibly if the CPU was allowed to vary at all from maximum frequency, despite much troubleshooting and tests with three different audio interfaces (motherboard, a Firewire interface and a USB interface).
My arsenal is more limited under Linux but that could easily be seen as a good thing. Getting lost in too many possibilities often doesn’t result in much music being made.
I don’t know if they ALL are but some definitely are. There are very few ODM laptop manufacturers. It’s the same company most places offering specialist audio computers often use, and a lot of the smaller company’s gaming laptops.
I found drivers for my current soundcard (Editol FA-66 FireWire)
I am not a Linux audio expert, but I have been running a Cakewalk SPS-66, which is a rebranded FA66, with near zero problems under Ubuntu Onieric with KXstudio overlay and lowlatency 3.0.x kernel. Worst problem I have run into is occasionally JACK can’t connect to the card which can be solved by rmmod/modprobe the FireWire module.
I am a long time near exclusive Linux user but new to audio. The experienc has been good so far!
I have a Dell Vostro with Core i5, 8gb ram and 128gb ssd. It has the embedded Intel video and it works perfectly with any distro I throw at it. Renoise also works a treat!
I support all the pc’s and laptops for my company and each one runs Debian Squeeze. By far, the best Linux laptop I have run into is the Lenovo Thinkpad. Video, Wifi, EVERYTHING works out of the box.
They’re not that attractive but my god, they’re built like tanks! (just like the old IBM thinkpads!)
Just about anything will do. I tend to favor computers with Intel integrated graphics, as their drivers are completely open source and perform very well. My second option would be an NVIDIA system, proprietary, but stable and performant.
I had a lenovo X200 collecting dust (primary comp is a macbook pro now). At first I installed crunchbang… I liked it, but I got tired of having to do workarounds to download newer versions of packages, so I replaced crunchbang with lubuntu 12.04. Lubuntu is the stripped down minimalist version of ubuntu.
Personally, I think Debian’s out-of-date-but-stable policy is a little silly … especially for use in a personal computing setting. Imagine if the App store had a similar policy - “developer has an update, please wait 2 years for it to appear in the app store to ensure stability”. Not to mention that a lot of these packages are developed by much more competent teams than the typical app store app.
Lubuntu is not quite as aesthetically pleasing as crunchbang (looks a little windows 95-ish but with beautiful ubuntu typefaces and smoothed edges, whereas crunchbang has this dark minimalist dock-free hacker look). However, lubuntu hardware and software support is more up-to-date. Renoise runs beautifully with quite low latencies out of the box using alsa. Pretty happy with the setup so far and I would recommend lubuntu.
Contrary to above comments, it was not painful at all to get up and running with linux, for me at least.
I don’t use commercial plugins that i haven’t paid. Other thing is that i don’t (nor like to) use that many different plugins either. Mainly synth1, garritan personal orchestra, v-station and key rig.
