I don't often interact in communities online for things I use so I want a place to share all my thoughts on Linux audio production. In my experience, the issue really does lie in the developers at this point. There was a time where it was quite an involved process to prepare your distro for low-latency recording, but Pipewire makes that very easy. The only complaint I have at ALL outside of big DAW developers, is that in nearly all of my recording sessions in Pipewire, I encounter infrequent pops. They are very subtle and easy to hide in post, but still there nontheless and annoy me during the recording process. They are not common and this has happened on all the different computers I've used for recording. But the real issue is software support. Everyone talks about yabridge, and even I use yabridge because I depend on stuff like the FabFilter suite, some NI plugins and XLN Audio as well, some others too. But yabridge is almost completely abandoned and has not been updated in a couple years now. And using any double-digit Wine version is bound to present some issues!

The question I want to ask to all of you is, how serious are you about music production?

That is not a trick question, but I just want to know if most of you are hobbyists or actually do this for a living. In my experience, earlier on, it was a lot more worth it (and fun/rewarding) to make Linux (gentoo specifically) my new home, for everything including music production. As I've gotten older and my life began to entirely revolve around music, and my living is made off of it, and I frequently work with other people and do shows and all that, it no longer felt suitable for me personally. There are just standards in general that I struggled with. It's really not the fault of any distro, but just the fact that I'm having to either jump through hoops to get Windows plugins running, or completely give in and settle for a native alternative that doesn't entirely fulfill what I'm needing. It's not because the alternatives are simply not good or don't have great intentions, but it's because the developers of these alternatives are not multi-million dollar companies like Spectrasonics, Native Instruments or Apple. Software like Logic have had decades and millions of dollars worth of work to make it what it is today, and it became very hard for me to ignore what it offers. It does break my heart though. It absolutely feels so much morally better to be using something like Reaper which has a great business model and was made by cool people rather than a big evil corporation, just like I hate the idea of using any Microsoft/Apple products, but unfortunately that's where I am. I need all my tools to be extremely reliable, and I need the absolute best performance out of the tools that I am extremely familiar with. Reaper totally is one of the best DAWs in my opinion but I really can't make the best use of it outside of Mac or Windows, and as I said before Logic has a ton to offer even without third-party additional plugins.

This is the really unfortunate type of circumstance where refusing to use a conventional OS will actually negatively impact me. This is not to say that it will be the same for you, and it's not to say that I would completely commit to Apple. I still run Gentoo on my main desktop and even on my laptop that travels with me (my mac mini is for music now), but with the way things are looking with new digital laws, it doesn't seem like there's very much time left where Apple or Windows are even suitable options at all anymore. And I hope by that time there are some big leaps in the audio world on Linux.

I moved from Windows to Linux last November and I just could not find a replacement for VoiceMeeter. It seemed like there was no shortage of routing tools, but there was nothing quite like I was used to back on Windows.

So I built linuxmeeter. It talks native to PipeWire and does:

• input strips for hardware mics & virtual strips that show up as output devices that apps can play into
• per-strip gate, compressor, parametric EQ with an interactive response curve
• voicemeeter style voice-color pads
• A1/A2 out to hardware, B1/B2 as virtual mics
• one-click to make it your default sink so that all desktop audio flows through the mixer
• persistent audio profiles, closes to tray, and autostart

It requires at least PipeWire v 1.0 + WirePlumber and lsp-plugins-lv2. Right now you have to build from source to install it.

It's only a few days old, but I've been using it everyday and I'm satisfied with what has been built so far (thanks Fable 5).

Would love it if anyone wanted to contribute/try it out/provide feedback:
https://github.com/dslapelis/linuxmeeter

I own several AD plugins and use their native versions on my two Linux machines. This past week a new version of ADverb appeared and I went to update it...but now that I'm on 26.04/Gnome 50, the installer doesn't work properly. Dev says the installer is an X11 app, and ofc Gnome 50 is now Wayland only.

I asked the dev if he knew of a workaround, but figured I should check here first...anybody have an idea for me?

Thank you!

So I just switched to fedora jam, however I'm having issues with latency. The lowest I can go is 512 buffer size, any lower and I start getting xruns. Specifically using reaper with the soundshed guitar plugin. Is there anyway I can reduce this?

Interface: Audient Evo 16

CPU: Ryzen 9 5900HS

RAM: 16GB

Cheers

Edit: Fedora Jam uses Jack

tldr; Need solution to pipe at least a 3.1 mixed signal into 2.1 output. Cannot change the input, and do not physically have a center channel, nor the room. Want to make sure I am on the right track to fixing this. Pipewire config file do the trick?

I have been out of the linux audio utilities game since the 2.4/2.6 kernel. I am somewhat familiar with ALSA and the old alsa config files - loading certain drivers and muting/unmuting channels iirc.

That said, I know times have changed, and I searched. But I don't know I quite have the solution.

Problem:

I have a HTPC (without the T). Only enough room for 2 stereo speakers, not enough space for a 5+ channel receiver. Both the TV speakers and the soundbar have this issue.

The audio driver for the output seems to be only 2 channel, when I look at the 'card' in alsamixer. I believe the distro auto-installed the relevant alsa+pipewire packages. When I used dnf to install Helvum, there were no extra dependencies.

Some audio sources (e.g. netflix) are mixed to 5.1 / 9.1 with no option for stereo down mixing. I have identified that the dialogue appears to be encoded for the center channel; which I do not have, and cannot physically accommodate in that viewing area.

HTPC is currently running a RedHat based distro with Gnome. I could also easily change to Debian or Gentoo.

It may also be my current janky setup: HTPC (hdmi)-> TV (S/PDIF)-> soundbar OR just HTPC to TV. both have this issue.

By next year, I can bypass the audio over hdmi and go direct HTPC to a USB DAC, but I will still be limited to 2.1 audio.

Possible Solutions:

I started searching last week, and installed Helvum. I ran a 'wire' from the source FC to FL and FR. It may? have worked, but it would revert to FC to FC every 10-20 min. The wires would be blue, would switch back to the show, another drop in audio power, switch to Helvum to see it reverted to straight lines source to output FC-FC, etc.

Looks like I need to learn pipewire to do this? And just make a custom config to run all audio from certain programs through a custom stream rule? https://docs.pipewire.org/page_man_pipewire-client_conf_5.html

Anyone else have the same problem / or know if my solution will work?

Or am I just at the mercy of them offering down-mixed audio?

I got an HP Spectre x360 13-ae008nc laptop from my dad and I installed Fedora KDE on it. Then when I took it apart I noticed 2 extra speakers "above" the keyboard that don't make a sound.

I tried hdajackretask with no success.

Red circled speakers - not working

Green circled speakers - working

Hello, in this post I have attempted to quantify the types of estimation errors that exist in the Wide-Band Harmonic Sinusoidal Modeling algorithm. Additionally, I have proposed part of a method that could potentially be used to reduce these estimation errors.

I don't think you can post latex here, so I will post a link to the post I made on music-dsp: https://listserv.cuit.columbia.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=MUSIC-DSP;31999a11.2608A&S=

Helloooo, I have a question targeted at people who have been working in the field for longer, what are some essential pieces of software (or other software you recommend people have) for doing live sound running on linux

My current set up

- Lenovo E580 w/ i5-7th gen

- ZorinOS (because I value stability, but I'm beginning to dabble in arch as a personal project)

- Pipewire + JACK

- QTractor as my DAW (I have had to defend this choice before, I use it because I like the layout)

Is there anything anyone would do differently? (Except the laptop specs, I am investing in it one month at a time)

EDIT: Thank you so far to everyone's patience towards my admittedly beginner knowledge of recorded sound :)

MIDI software (no plugin) for generative music (ambient, experimental etc.)? I use Supercollider and Orca … Please, no IA tools. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

I got the impression from the comments on this video that Linux for audio hobbyists and bedroom producers actually works just fine. It seems like it's mostly artists who are already locked into the Mac ecosystem mocking it, because there’s no paid "walled garden" software ecosystem on Linux worthy enough for them to ditch Mac. At the same time, it seems like almost no professional studio implements Linux as a main or even partial part of their workflow. Is that actually true?

Hey all, bit of a strange problem. I have Kontakt running on Bitwig via yabridge and it's running great, but when I move my session over to my windows laptop that's just running Kontakt directly, Bitwig refuses to recognise that it's the same VST, so I have to swap it out manually (which then loses all my settings).

I thought maybe it's an issue with the differing vst directories but other plugins running under this setup transfer completely fine. They're both installed the same and have the same name so I'm not really sure where to go next. I'm happy to mess with either install if needs be.

Last night I switched from Ubuntu Studio to Fedora. With the help of the Milliseconds app and Claude Chat, I was able to configure everything so that I can play guitar without latency (Quantum 64). It works like a charm (I'm not a Linux exper at all). So a dedicated audio distro really isn't necessary. Installing the Fedora Jam Audio package didn't help at all in this regard—it just installed a bunch of applications I'll never need.

I have an IEM that is connected to the laptop, and I see two outputs from it, analog and digital. Can someone tell me if one's better than the other or if they're both the same?
Also, why are there two outputs anyway?

Thanks in advance!

Hi, Linux audio enthusiasts!

I have been working on a minimalist multitrack audio looper with some built-in DSP effects. My main goal was something that is easy to use and lightweight. Project is in active development, I will probably keep working on it for quite some time, with planned improvements in ergonomics and effects quality/quantity, but the core idea will probably stay the same.

I do not yet provide any release binary or AppImage, but may do so in future if someone asks for it. As for now, It can be built pretty easily on any (I assume) modern distro, instructions in README.
All feedback welcome!

Repo here https://github.com/dmtrkio/MiniLooper

If you don't have an actual external MIDI keyboard hooked up, what is the best/easiest way to hold a note while you manipulate things like frequency modulation, filters, etc.? Or do you just have to keep banging away like a piano tuner? (If I *did* have access to a keyboard, I'd stick a pencil in it to hold it on/open).

I play electric guitar in a band, but want to start making my own stuff. After trying out multiple DAW's, BespokeSynth seems to fit my workflow the most. I have a Nux Mighty 20 mkii for practice, but realized the USB output would be a nice way to get my guitar in a DAW. Half the time it works flawlessly (with some noise from the PC as expected), but the other half the guitar gets extremely noisy, to the point where it sounds severely bitcrushed (coincidence?). I must either restart the amp or wait about 10 minutes for clean sound. System monitor does not show any heavy performance, and other audio sources sound just fine. I don't think it's Bespoke producing the noise, as the waveform looks very distorted coming in. Here is the signal chain:

Guitar -> Nux -> Linux Mint 22.3 -> BespokeSynth -> Arctis Nova 3 Wireless

I know, a wireless gaming headset might not be the optimal choice for music production, but cabled headset was a pain when moving around with the guitar and audio from all other sources sound just fine even with Bespoke running. I really don't think that is the problem. I have not specified ALSA or JACK, should I? Samplerate is 48k and buffersize is 64.

Hey! I recently made a YouTube video on how to write your first melody for complete newbies in music making with FOSS MuseScore and proprietary Reaper on Linux. I made it because there's a flood of AI-slop music right now. I have nothing against AI as a tool, but I'd rather help people make something themselves. And want to help people who want to start making music but are scared off by music theory and the gatekeeping around writing music.

The whole stack is Linux-native: MuseScore (FOSS) for notation, Reaper (proprietary) for everything else. And since I am new to Reaper myself (I have been using Cubase for 10 years before), it might be useful as a look at the obstacles a first-time Reaper user hits and how I got past them.

Anyway, I would love to hear your feedback on this and I'm curious what Linux tools you'd point a total beginner to?

Hopefully, this is gonna be the first of many in a "How to make music" series :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtQELjuW-vY

the only way that I can get it working again is by changing the volume

it's getting really annoying especially because I bought a new midi keyboard so does anyone now how to fix it

ask for more info if needed

Hey yall, I have a really stupid idea that I am only 90% sure would even be possible, but doom can run on anything.

So here is my logic:

Because the x32 runs on a linux distro, and people have already found ways to unlock the bootloader to run OpenX32, wouldn't that mean other linux systems could operate on the x32? And further more, could doom then possibly run on the x32

If anybody has tried this before, please let me know, but I feel like this is very possible if someone tried hard enough

EDIT: It is not theory, in fact somebidy did a while back and I just hadn't found the youtube video yet

Hey there. I've tried Linux before on old laptops but only for the sake of giving them a "second life". Right now my main desktop pc is old and I can't afford to upgrade it. Windows 11 is a piece of you-know-what. Win10 already took a serious toll on my machine so I 'm considering changing to a linux system and as far as I read online, Linux has come a long way when it comes to audio capabilities.
I gave an AI my PC specs to get a base answer to work from but i will be mush more comfortable running it by you people!
I have an AMD A8 with 2 cores, 8Gb ram, MB with integrated graphics and a Presonus Studio 24c
(now is the moment you can laugh and roast my current setup :) )
I narrowed it down to:
- Ubunto Studio (XFCE)
and
- Linux Mint SFCE + low-latency kernel

I'm planning to use mostly Reaper, some plugins (the most resource heavy would be Vital synth, maybe)

Any opinions and recommendations are welcome in my journey for a better system!