Ubuntu Studio

[MusicallyInspired]

I just discovered this. Or I should say rediscovered. I ran into it before when I was first looking for a Linux distro to go with but forgot about it and just got Ubuntu. Anyway, I think I may have finally found an alternative to using Windows for all my music making needs. I hear it's compatible with VST's after some tweaking as well. Originally I was not impressed at all with the Linux sound system and had to always resort to Windows when recording, the constant rebooting of which gets exceedingly annoying. Also there's less HD space on my Windows partition currently.

After trying a bit of Ubuntu Studio I think the only thing left for me to get is a nVidia graphics card for games (currently have an ATI X1650 that I can't get to work properly in Linux) and then I'll rarely have to reboot to Windows ever again except for the odd Windows program that won't work in Wine or Crossover.

I've only just switched from Ubuntu Hardy to Ubuntu Studio 8.04. I intend to make the switch to 8.10 as well, though.

[bobthefish]

I just discovered this. Or I should say rediscovered. I ran into it before when I was first looking for a Linux distro to go with but forgot about it and just got Ubuntu. Anyway, I think I may have finally found an alternative to using Windows for all my music making needs. I hear it's compatible with VST's after some tweaking as well. Originally I was not impressed at all with the Linux sound system and had to always resort to Windows when recording, the constant rebooting of which gets exceedingly annoying. Also there's less HD space on my Windows partition currently.

After trying a bit of Ubuntu Studio I think the only thing left for me to get is a nVidia graphics card for games (currently have an ATI X1650 that I can't get to work properly in Linux) and then I'll rarely have to reboot to Windows ever again except for the odd Windows program that won't work in Wine or Crossover.

I've only just switched from Ubuntu Hardy to Ubuntu Studio 8.04. I intend to make the switch to 8.10 as well, though.

ive mentioned this distro here before.
I use it.
have to be careful with your wireless drivers though. it tends to not handle them well.
for music, make sure you are using Ardour. its a pro-tools rival.
also, there is LMMS. its like fl-studio. (i wrote 1 or 2 demosongs bundeled with it)

[MusicallyInspired]

I don't have any wireless devices so I'm cool with that. It'll be weird using a Pro-Tools-alike program, though. I've been a die-hard Sonar user for a while now. Rosegarden seems interesting, though.

[Phait]

make sure you are using Ardour. its a pro-tools rival.

:haha:

- has no wav/sound file editor
- no midi sequencer
- no looping
- no out-of-the-box VST support (compile bs)
- didn't see mention of being able to work with a video track (for scoring)

PT is miles ahead (http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=390&langid=100&itemid=33346), calling it a rival is a mistake. "Somewhat alternative" would be better.

[bobthefish]

I don't have any wireless devices so I'm cool with that. It'll be weird using a Pro-Tools-alike program, though. I've been a die-hard Sonar user for a while now. Rosegarden seems interesting, though.

Rose Garden is a very fun little app. just make sure you have Jack set up properly.
also, you should try Frinika: http://frinika.sourceforge.net/
it should be in the ubuntu repos, so just open synaptic and install it.

BTW, wine should run sonar just fine.

:haha:

- has no wav/sound file editor
- no midi sequencer
- no looping
- no out-of-the-box VST support (compile bs)
- didn't see mention of being able to work with a video track (for scoring)

PT is miles ahead (http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=390&langid=100&itemid=33346), calling it a rival is a mistake. "Somewhat alternative" would be better.
well, i Use protools.
and i say its a rival because you cant beat its price.
vst support is outrite stupid to mention, because pro-tools doesnt support VSTs, you need to buy a $100 wrapper.
Ardour also uses 2 plugin formats native to linux. which, btw, ubuntu studio ships with HUNDREDS of compatible plugins.
and the midi sequencer in pro-tools is a joke. its miles BEHIND programs like FL-Studio.

[MusicallyInspired]

Wine doesn't run Sonar at all. I've tried 5 and 7. In fact on the compatibility list it says Sonar crashes as soon as it starts. But it doesn't even start for me.

[bobthefish]

Wine doesn't run Sonar at all. I've tried 5 and 7. In fact on the compatibility list it says Sonar crashes as soon as it starts. But it doesn't even start for me.

damn, that sucks.
i know FL-Studio and Reaper run in wine.
also, make sure you have the Ubuntu Studio custom kernel installed. it is designed to get latencies to stay small. in earlier versions, you had to manually update to that kernal, so im not sure if the current versions do this.

[MusicallyInspired]

Is that available through Synaptic? What's the package called? Also is there anything else that supports VSTs other than Ardour recompiled?

Also again, I've tried Rosegarden and it works but it complains at startup about having low-resolution MIDI sync support or something. And when I play MIDIs inside it the sync really is horrible and unusable. I can't quite figure out how to fix this problem.

[bobthefish]

Is that available through Synaptic? What's the package called? Also is there anything else that supports VSTs other than Ardour recompiled?

Also again, I've tried Rosegarden and it works but it complains at startup about having low-resolution MIDI sync support or something. And when I play MIDIs inside it the sync really is horrible and unusable. I can't quite figure out how to fix this problem.

what audio server are you using?
jack, alsa, etc all have latency thingies, kinda like ASIO.

also, there is a plugin in LMMS called VESTIGE that loads VSTs. for this to work, you must have wine installed.
go to synaptic, and type "LMMS", and install the main program, (or if you want to compile the most recent version, go here: http://lmms.sf.net/

to do this, you need to set synaptic to find all packages. im not sure exactly how to do this, but i will be in ubuntu in a few minutes and will tell you how once i walk through it.

also search for and install these: "alsa" "jack" "qt3" "gstreamer"
alsa and jack are audio drivers,
qt3 and libqt3 are MP3 support.

to install the real time audio kernel in ubuntu studio, put this into the terminal.

sudo apt-get install linux-rt

and jsut in case you dont have wine installed already, type in the terminal

apt-get install wine

also, here is a document on the basics of Jack: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToQjackCtlConnections

usually,
you have to start jack before you launch your audio app, BUT you can set your applications up to start jack right away. (this may be the reason behind rosegarden not working so nicely)

but for midi things, i HIGHLY suggest LMMS, as it is a clone of FL-Studio in almost every aspect, including the amaizing piano roll.

it also has some simple but decent plugins in it. the mallets plugin is really fun.
ill get back to you on some more things in a bit. i currently lost everything on one of my hard drives, and im loading things back onto it.

[MusicallyInspired]

what audio server are you using?
jack, alsa, etc all have latency thingies, kinda like ASIO.
ALSA, but I also have JACK.

also, there is a plugin in LMMS called VESTIGE that loads VSTs. for this to work, you must have wine installed.
go to synaptic, and type "LMMS", and install the main program, (or if you want to compile the most recent version, go here: http://lmms.sf.net/
I have LMMS. I'll grab VESTIGE as well.

to do this, you need to set synaptic to find all packages. im not sure exactly how to do this, but i will be in ubuntu in a few minutes and will tell you how once i walk through it.

also search for and install these: "alsa" "jack" "qt3" "libqt3"
alsa and jack are audio drivers,
qt3 and libqt3 are MP3 support.

to install the real time audio kernel in ubuntu studio, put this into the terminal.

sudo apt-get install linux-rt

and jsut in case you dont have wine installed already, type in the terminal

apt-get install wine
I have all this already. I'm not a total noob to Linux.

also, here is a document on the basics of Jack: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToQjackCtlConnections

usually,
you have to start jack before you launch your audio app, BUT you can set your applications up to start jack right away. (this may be the reason behind rosegarden not working so nicely)
No. Rosegarden doesn't work at all if JACK isn't started. After JACK is started and I start Rosegarden it complains that the MIDI Sync is low resolution...I'll have to get the exact message again.

but for midi things, i HIGHLY suggest LMMS, as it is a clone of FL-Studio in almost every aspect, including the amaizing piano roll.
I have FL Studio working fine already. I think it's quite a bit more powerful than LMMS anyway.

EDIT: Here's the message Rosegarden gives me when I start up (whether JACK is running or not):

System timer resolution is too low
Rosegarden was unable to find a high-resolution timing source for MIDI performance.
You may be able to solve this problem by loading the RTC timer kernel module. To do this, try running sudo modprobe snd-rtctimer in a terminal window and then restarting Rosegarden.
Alternatively, check whether your Linux distributor provides a multimedia-optimized kernel. See http://rosegarden.wiki.sourceforge.net/Low+latency+kernels for notes about this.

[bobthefish]

im not 100 percent sure what it is then.
sounds like the latencies are set too low, but im not sure exactly what it is.
gunna link u again: http://frinika.sourceforge.net/

[Xonic]

FL Studio does NOT run well in Wine. I tried it and it lagged so much it was close to unusable and my CPU got overloaded quite easily.

[bobthefish]

FL Studio does NOT run well in Wine. I tried it and it lagged so much it was close to unusable and my CPU got overloaded quite easily.

you are wrong.
i ran all the demosongs around 30% cpu usage through wine.
there is a thread on the FL-Forums dedicated to getting FL running in wine. though, you wont be able to see this thread unless your are a paying customer. you probably just dont know how to set it up.

[MusicallyInspired]

I'm running FL Studio 7 XXL under Crossover and it also works just fine. There are hiccups in the sound if you move the mouse around too much, but for the most part it's quite usable. Even with VSTis.

[bobthefish]

I'm running FL Studio 7 XXL under Crossover and it also works just fine. There are hiccups in the sound if you move the mouse around too much, but for the most part it's quite usable. Even with VSTis.

i a buddy that are using FL-Studio exclusively in wine. they use an ASIO hack for wine, and they also managed to get FL-Studio to detect the Jack Drivers correctly. i have no FREAKIN clue how he did it, but he showed me and whoa what an improvement.