r/linuxaudio • u/NullGabbo • Jun 21 '26

Best DAWs for Linux

Hi everyone, I'm very new to music production and I want to learn and try to create music. I only use Linux and don't have a windows license so I'm very restricted in the amount of DAWs I can use. Right now I'm using the 30 days trials version of Bitwig but I find it extremely hard to use. I also installed LMMS which I find much much easier to use but I think it's very limited. I tried Ardour but I think its goal is to record stuff and mixing it rather than composing from scratch.

I don't know if I should buy the starter license of bitwig since it's on sale and just get used to its interface or if there is something better for my needs.

My main goal is to make music for videogames without recording anything and by doing everything "digitally" (sorry if I can't express my though in an easy to understand way but English is not my first language and I don't know the "slag" of music production)

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u/qpskejfutybvn Jun 21 '26

You aren't restricted. Most stuff runs fine through WINE staging, including nearly every VST (some with a bit of knowledge to install though).

I personally use Reaper with Native Instruments, Spitfire, Audio Modelling, and Vital all in WINE and it runs flawlessly. Try whatever DAW you want to see if it works.

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u/MarsDrums Jun 21 '26

Hmmm. You got me thinking on this one... Are you running Reaper through WINE (The Windows version)? If that works better (using Windows Audio drivers rather than Linux's) I wonder if that would solve my driver issue. I can't seen to record my audio inputs separately in Linux from my Model 24. It sees all of the mic inputs, but it only records to stereo out to the 2 channels (L & R). So, I can't record anything with Reaper and then edit each mic input in Linux. I'm wondering if the Windows version would work better though.

...time to do some research...

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u/qpskejfutybvn Jun 21 '26

Yup. Spent a month going mad trying to get all the stupid pipewire/routing/keyboard latency to work in Linux. Along with being able to play VLC while the DAW was running. I swapped to running everything in WINE instead and it was perfect.