Linux

[Cupz]

I made the brave transition from windows to linux (ubuntu studio) not even over a week to go. I love the speed and gui and everything and I'm not regretting making the tranistion...but this morning I was THIS close of reinstalling windows.

Linux IS NOT ANYTHING LIKE windows and allot of my precious software simply wont work, which calls for me to completely re-imagine my studio. Both a blessing and a curse.

For one, I am forced to move from DAWs. No more easy-peasy-look-at-me-I-can-make-a-kickass-track-in-4-hours-in-fl-studio. Creating a track requires initial ideas and an actual plan, what software will do what and how will I do what, which is nice, but will prevent me from going "lets see what I can cook up today". This is a severe change in mindset but one I can only imagine will improve my musicianship. Sketching out ideas will require instruments again. Still, quite a large pill to swallow.

Secondly, all my knowledge in game-design is coming under threat. I used to think I was a pretty advanced game designer, but strip me from my Unity and my Flash and I end up with my mouth open staring blankly into my screen. Same logic applies though, I just need to start from scratch again.

Besides all that everything seems to be allot of work. Installing experimental open-source software, the stuff I really want to use, ends up eating an hour of my free time with building and figuring out what the terminal can do.

I already both love and hate linux, but I have the feeling we can become the greatest friends over time. GREATEST. Already it opened my eyes as to what kind of a fucking amateur I actually am which makes me really eager to learn and master this fucking awesome but fucking fucking operating system.

I might use this thread as a personal diary of sorts...if I feel like posting some thoughts.

And what about twoism? Any thoughts on linux? ARE YOU AFRAID OF LINUX?
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PS. Already I want to thank all the awesome linux internet people for helping me figuring this shit out.

[zeitgeist]

by the sounds of it Cupz, i think Linux should be afraid of you. make it your bitch.

i wouldn't normally recommend a person to reddit, but they have a pretty damn good learning repository, with subreddits on almost every distro. once you get the basics under your belt, there are certainly better places to look.
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/mzrf0/linux_for_music_production/

also, try youtube. i always search for videos when i'm trying to learn something new.
for starters: Making Music on Linux, pt. 1

also, heard of Reaper? it'll run on Linux via Wine:
http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_run_Reaper_in_Wine_on_Linux

lastly, Ardour looks pretty promising.

good luck, if we have to go with out flamingo pudding, we might starve!

[Syberia]

I'm a friend of Linux and Linux is a friend of mine. Actually Linux is the only operating system that I know how to use properly. I had it since I got my first computer and even if I'm a complete noob when it comes to computers I've sticked to it.
I like that the software is for free and easy to instal and also if I have a problem there are lots of forum with many helpful people to ask. It's a shame Microsoft and Mac has monopoly on so many programs though..

[noby]

I have a lot to say about this but I'm not in the mood for a long post right now. I'm mostly a casual user; I can get around with it but I don't really enjoy using it.

If you want a fully capable native linux DAW, I always recommend to look towards http://www.renoise.com/. I've understood you're able to run (some?) Windows VST's and such in it under Linux too, but I haven't confirmed that personally. Worth to try the demo in the least.

It's a shame Microsoft and Mac has monopoly on so many programs though..

Well to be honest it has all to do with the fact that pretty much all Linux distributions (even Ubuntu and the likes imo) are too complicated for about 90% of the people who use the other two operating systems you mentioned.

[pianoforte]

I use Linux exclusively, and have done so since late December 2010. I started with Ubuntu 10.10, then jumped ship around v. 11.10. I distrohopped for ages, but in October of last year I decided to try a distro called CrunchBang, which uses the Openbox windowmanager as opposed to a full-blown, bloated desktop environment like Gnome or KDE. It is simple, works beautifully, and is very hackable/customizable, so I'm happy. I use CrunchBang on every non-server machine in my possession; I use Debian for servers.

I can't really offer much from the perspective of a musician wanting to work with Linux-based systems, as everything I do is recorded to cassette with no computers involved in the production. However, I do transfer/digitize the tapes for distribution. One thing I've noticed is that that the Pulseaudio framework is an absolute nightmare to work with in any capacity. Many people prefer ALSA; however, I have not yet successfully made the transition from Pulse to pure ALSA.

Any Ubuntu-based distro is going to have all kinds of unneeded bloat. I'd recommend looking into CrunchBang, which is much more lightweight and has a nicer forum to boot - or even 'rolling your own' custom system with the Debian netinstall.

Of course, if you're happy with what you've got set up, don't change it. I'm just giving my two cents.

Oh, and don't forget: if you decide there are some aspects of Windows you can't live without, you can always dual- (or triple-, or quadruple-, or...)boot Windows and the Linux distro of your choice.

[Guido]

On and off Linux user since July 2000. Linux distro's have matured incredibly since then. Back then you had to configure X Windows yourself in order to get a very basic graphical interface, often download and compile software yourself (which often didn't go smoothly due to library version mismatches and so forth, oh the horror). These days a Linux distro like Ubuntu is a system that I could recommend to people with a very limited understanding of computers.

On the other hand, being a long time user of both open source and closed source/commercial software, I don't think that open source software will ever get on par with commercial software. Sometimes I need to edit a video, just basic stuff like combine a still image with some of my own music and have it written to an .avi, and I've tried various video editing suites for Linux and they are all inferior to even an application like Windows Movie Maker (software often crashes or doesn't work well for other reasons).

The console is one of Linux' strong aspects. Pipes combined with shell scripting is an incredibly powerful combination that can be used for things such as sorting the lines in a file and batch-resizing a thousand JPG's. I recommend every Linux user to attain at least a superficial understanding of the logic behind pipes and basic shell scripting.

Oh and Cupz, I recommend you install some virtualization software like Virtualbox in Linux and run Windows inside it. Virtualization is similar to a PC emulator like Bochs except that it is much faster because a large portion of the software you want to run is executed directly on your CPU as opposed to being emulated. You might notice some lag but it's better than nothing and you don't have to reboot to enter another operating system.

[Synthestesia]

Once I get confident enough in my musical and artistic abilities (digital) I will totally consider something like this. ***U R AN INSPIRATION TO POPLE EVERWHERE HENDRIK***
~~PLEASE COME TO BRASIL~~

edit: Linux would be my first idea

[Aerial Boundaries]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Linux brought on by the fact that it and the multitude of open source software that can come bundled with it obviously has a huge amount of potential. But I just can't use it for an extended period of time. I can't even point out a singular thing about it, but every time I come back to Linux whether it be Debian/Ubuntu, Gentoo, OpenSUSE or whichever distro, I find that there are minor but incredibly numerous problems that are fine on their own, but when combined somehow just make it a really displeasurable experience.

I am not saying this in a defeatist fashion, nor am I somehow in favour of the use of proprietary software. I completely agree with the principles of open source and copy left, and there are as we know tonnes of open source programs and libraries that consumers use everyday, even if they don't realise it. But this is just what I've found every time I give Linux another go. I've tried for so many years, and I will undoubtedly keep trying.

I am open to suggestions though, so if you guys think that things have changed or that there is a specific setup that I will enjoy using, then by all means let me know.

EDIT: And just to clarify, yes I am very familiar with bash and I know that being able to use the shell properly is really effective.

[noby]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Linux brought on by the fact that it and the multitude of open source software that can come bundled with it obviously has a huge amount of potential. But I just can't use it for an extended period of time. I can't even point out a singular thing about it, but every time I come back to Linux whether it be Debian/Ubuntu, Gentoo, OpenSUSE or whichever distro, I find that there are minor but incredibly numerous problems that are fine on their own, but when combined somehow just make it a really displeasurable experience.

Well thanks for summarizing my take on the subject to a tee on my behalf. It's a great environment for programming, but I haven't found much need to use it otherwise.

[jcnporter]

I've always had a love/hate relationship with Linux brought on by the fact that it and the multitude of open source software that can come bundled with it obviously has a huge amount of potential. But I just can't use it for an extended period of time. I can't even point out a singular thing about it, but every time I come back to Linux whether it be Debian/Ubuntu, Gentoo, OpenSUSE or whichever distro, I find that there are minor but incredibly numerous problems that are fine on their own, but when combined somehow just make it a really displeasurable experience.

I am not saying this in a defeatist fashion, nor am I somehow in favour of the use of proprietary software. I completely agree with the principles of open source and copy left, and there are as we know tonnes of open source programs and libraries that consumers use everyday, even if they don't realise it. But this is just what I've found every time I give Linux another go. I've tried for so many years, and I will undoubtedly keep trying.

I am open to suggestions though, so if you guys think that things have changed or that there is a specific setup that I will enjoy using, then by all means let me know.

EDIT: And just to clarify, yes I am very familiar with bash and I know that being able to use the shell properly is really effective.

I can identify with this as well. I'm not a computer expert, nor a musician, but I fancied messing about with recording some stuff and so converting my old desktop to Ubuntu Studio seemed like a cheap option - I think I started on release 9 point something and had all sorts of problems getting wifi to work, then the sound, only for the next release seemingly to fuck it all up and send me back to square one. Bearing in mind I didn't spend a huge amount of time on it, I thought I had things working, come release 12.04 I found Pulseaudio had been introduced and was back to square one again with Pulseaudio and Jack problems.
Anyway I tried DreamStudio, a variation of Ubuntu Studio with the Pulseaudio and Jack fixes done in a user friendly format and everything seems to be working again.
Don't get me wrong, getting it all for free is fantastic and while I've no idea how it compares to DAW software on a Mac or Windows, it seems simple enough for my purposes now I'm used to it.
If there's a problem, then a fix can be found out there somewhere, but it can be very frustrating come upgrade time, or if hardware such as a soundcard needs changed. Not sure if this helps at all, but there you go.

[jcnporter]

I already both love and hate linux, but I have the feeling we can become the greatest friends over time. GREATEST. Already it opened my eyes as to what kind of a fucking amateur I actually am which makes me really eager to learn and master this fucking awesome but fucking fucking operating system.

I might use this thread as a personal diary of sorts...if I feel like posting some thoughts.

I like your attitude and approach to this - the diary idea sounds cool, I for one would be interested to hear a musician's thoughts on the Linux studio set up.

[Green Pylon]

I use ubuntu for at least 5 years, since then it has popped a few errors even this remains as the best choose i've taken. I agree Linux distros can't compete within Mac or Windows on music and video editing tools, though have some very good ones like Hydrogen(...). I guess they'll improve this on the future.

If you are common o.s user that don't play PC videogames, I recommend by far using Linux distros. They kick ass Windows, that's could be the reason Microsoft made the tablet-oriented W8. The UNIX FS hierarchy is more comprehensible and safely than Windows, it avoid recurrent core crash errors (who remember blue screen of death?).

I use both but if u're a programmer I fully recommend Linux, like some users said bash-based use of the system is optimal, you are able to do whatever you want.
It's just my opinion

see ya

[Cupz]

Thanks for all the advice guys! Really helping allot!

Dear diary (apparently I'm doing this),

Thanks to Noby I thought about using trackers. Renoise looks really cool but I don't have 50 bucks, and the idea of working with open-source software comes under thread. However, there are tons of open-source trackers out there, and I've been using a simple tracker when I was a child. After a quick search on duckduckgo.com (yes, I'm dropping google as well), I found this site: http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/linux/MOD_TRACKERS_PLAYERS/. Enough to find something that suits my needs. I'm going to try the lot. Note to self: there is ALLOT of software out there, don't go overboard and download EVERYTHING and make your tool-belt a fucking mess....or maybe I should.

Last night I've been toying around with Ardour, and I must say I can love it. It feels like a better version of cooledit pro (now audition) even though some of the plugins are dangerously loud if not adjusted correctly. I've thrown my headphones on the ground in shock a couple of times now.

Another thing I noticed: everything just sounds LOUDER. With fl studio I already felt the need for compressing even though it was just a 4x4 kick loop, because apparently its really silent. This could mean future music will be produced more subtle and mixed better in the future.

Problem with ardour is the lack of virtual instrument support, which makes me realize I should get my hands on some new hardware (yamaha dx7 is on mah list folks! if you want to donate, please,). The Hydrogen software is really great for beat-making, better then my usual approach and I'm pretty sure I'm using it wrong. Working with a selection of software sure opens possibilities.

No music has been made yet though I have written a very nice tune on my guitar, so I'm looking forward producing that.

On a game-design perspective, I found the engine jMonkey seems to suit my needs. I already managed to make a player cube that can move on a grid. Hooray!

[Cupz]

PS. Workspace switcher....where have you been all my life

[FernieCanto]

I despise Linux.

Ever since I started to participate on free software events, I decided I'd become a Linux user. When I bought a new PC in 2006, I made a dual boot with Kubuntu -- I'd have to keep Windows on for games and other random stuff. I even thought I'd migrate my music making to Linux completely, but I realised there was absolutely no way it was going to happen, so I had to keep Windows for music as well.

Linux went haywire twice because of the updates. The graphical server simply refused to work, and I had to fix things on command line. The second time around, absolutely nothing was working. I switched to Windows and never looked back ever since. So far the score is as such:

Number of times Linux freaked out and told me to shove it: 2
Number of times Windows freaked out and told me to shove it: 0

Besides, the attitude of the Linux community bugs the hell out of me. If you can't make your monitor do somersaults using command line, then you're a n00b. If you want to use Flash, then you're a capitalist pig and you're a traitor to the movement. If you want to program in C and press CTRL+S for "save" instead of some bizarre code in vi that looks like an Autechre track title, then you're an embarrassment for programmers. If you don't like the programs that Linux offers, then WRITE YOUR OWN PROGRAM, n00b.

Yes, I believe Linux is still better for servers, and I love the idea of free software. But I'm happy with Windows and I'm happy with the fact that proprietary software still exists. I like being free to choose. And I like to use a FREAKING GRAPHICAL INTERFACE and a MOUSE. Fuck the prompt.

[Cupz]

Whats so bad about being a n00b? I love learning new shit!
I get what you're saying Fernie, and yes, linux can be a total bastard sometimes. Just, the freedom it provides, or even just the thought of the freedom it provides is enough for me already to keep me glued to the os. Everything else is just divine extraś (i can has firefox?!).


Btw, since I posted my diary I found a little toy called SunVox...it was love at first sight. My god its awesome!

[pianoforte]

After a quick search on duckduckgo.com (yes, I'm dropping google as well)

Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes, my favorite subject. I've done this as well. Let me know if you need any help!

the attitude of the Linux community bugs the hell out of me. If you can't make your monitor do somersaults using command line, then you're a n00b. If you want to use Flash, then you're a capitalist pig and you're a traitor to the movement. If you want to program in C and press CTRL+S for "save" instead of some bizarre code in vi that looks like an Autechre track title, then you're an embarrassment for programmers. If you don't like the programs that Linux offers, then WRITE YOUR OWN PROGRAM, n00b.

Are you thinking of the Debian forums? Because that's the only place where I've encountered attitudes like that.

[Cupz]

After a quick search on duckduckgo.com (yes, I'm dropping google as well)

Yesyesyesyesyesyesyes, my favorite subject. I've done this as well. Let me know if you need any help!

Maybe a new thread is in order?

[turquoise70]

hi Cupz <3

I currently have a Windows 7/Ubuntu dual boot situation going on. I appreciate the strengths of both.

[Cupz]

hi darling! I tried dual boots, but then I seem to end up using windows.


Look what I cooked up using only linux and linux only and with only the linux!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/976 ... uxwhat.mp3
I just seemed to throw this together in sunvox. This is one powerfull motherfucker!
Its not a full song or anything near amazing songwriting, but for just a couple of hours of finding out how the software works...boy oh boy.

I see and hear now this step is bringing my production next level omg omg cant wait.