from Hacker News

LinuxDAW – Quality audio software for Linux

by fractalf on 12/30/23, 3:21 PM with 61 comments

• by marcodiego on 12/30/23, 6:55 PM

  Highly configurable, safe, extremely stable, very low latency, high performance and throughput and even realtime if one need or want. Pipewire put an end to the mess was the confusing ballet of pulseaudio and Jack and everything else is maturing nicely. These characteristics put (desktop) Linux on a position that the competition simply can't beat.

  They may have had a head start because of very popular and critical software that is un-portable, but the technical superiority is on our side.

  AFAIK, there have been some professional successful DAWs for Linux and I can only think it will grow over time.

  I saw people using OBS with a few USB cameras with reasonable quality making good quality webcasts and I'm sure that is also doable in the DAW-land. The future seems bright for musicians and recorders who can now be free from proprietary software and build a reasonable good studio at home using non-imorally-priced hardware.

• by squarefoot on 12/30/23, 5:38 PM

  It's mind blowing the number of quality, often even FOSS, Linux audio software that is appearing these days, I can't wait to try some of these on my latest music laptop installation, which is confined to my own rehearsal room and works only as a plugin host. Unfortunately I had to use Reaper (plus yabridge for Windows plugins compatibility, which works great) as a host because Carla requires Jack which defaults to non usable state at every installation and is a nightmare to set up in a reproducible way, moreover saving in Carla is broken so after an an hour of careful plugins setup one loses everything upon closing. Right now we probably need more a much simpler plugin host that does just that and just works rather than new plugins.

  About Jack, let me repeat this one more time Jack is not necessary at all to obtain low latency, ALSA is more than enough; if you're writing audio software, having Jack support is nice, but please don't depend on it as it just complicates things.

• by amadeuspagel on 12/30/23, 3:51 PM

  To me a DAW is a category of software[1], so I'd choose a more general name for the site.

  [1]: https://linuxdaw.org/?t=daw

• by qwertox on 12/30/23, 7:19 PM

  I love the information density of this page. Screenshots, proper naming and ownership of the plugins with links, free vs paid including price, links to YouTube.

  The best site I've seen so far for this type of content.

• by lioeters on 12/30/23, 4:06 PM

  This looks great, I'm going to enjoy perusing the collection.

  Nothing by falkTX / KXStudio?

  https://kx.studio/

  https://github.com/falkTX

  EDIT: Oh I see there are some but they're not listed under Developer.

• by karolist on 12/30/23, 4:44 PM

  Mind blown continuously by the lazy loading which I hoped to stop at the first 10 items. There's this much DAW software for Linux nonetheless? Makes me question what other niche software fields I'm completely oblivious of.

• by louthy on 12/30/23, 8:24 PM

  O/T: Can anyone recommend a decent PCI based pro sound card with Linux (Mint, Ubuntu, Debian) support?

  I’m trying to de-Windows myself, but my pro-audio setup is the gap I can’t seem to fill.

  I currently have an RME HDSPe MADI FX [1] which allows me to bring in 96 channels of 96khz audio via 3 MADI connections. They connect to my AD/DA convertors [2].

  I found source for a driver [3], but couldn’t get the thing working, and it doesn’t seem particularly well supported/documented.

  Moving toward Dante or AES67 is also an option (because my AD/DA convertors support those formats) if there’s any software solution that can support those formats, but there’s minimal online info. So if anyone’s gone this route I’d love to know how you got everything working!

  [1] https://www.rme-audio.de/hdspe-madi-fx.html

  [2] https://www.ferrofish.com/portfolio/a32pro-dante-converter-m...

  [3] https://github.com/adiknoth/madifx

• by 1920musicman on 12/30/23, 5:35 PM

  To my knowledge all VST plugins can be used on Linux (via Wine). Is that not the case? Here is a page that describes the process of using a single Wine instance to wrap all VSTs in the system: https://z-uo.medium.com/vst-and-vst3-on-linux-mint-20-with-l...

  There could possibly be a clearer name for this effort, since both Reaper and Bitwig run on Linux natively and are top notch DAWs (actual DAWs, not VST plugins). Plus VCV Rack, which is not technically a DAW but close.

  Linux native VST plugins is a way more precise description. DAW is a very specific software category. It's like calling Prettier extension for VSCode an IDE.

  Edit: seems like both linuxvst.com and linuxvst.org are available.

• by davidthewatson on 12/30/23, 9:58 PM

  I've seen a lot of bad marketing copy, but this deserves to be placed on a pedestal of achievement for its tongue in cheek projection of how seriously they took the creation of such a funny thing:

  "The Fart Machine is not just any ordinary guitar pedal or plug-in. Using our unique rectal microphone technology, we have modeled every component of the human bowel system, and now the Fart Machine can turn any sound into flatulence. This technology provides an unprecedented level of control over your fart sounds, enabling you to create a range of unique and unforgettable sounds that will leave your audience in awe."

  I miss music software and its sampling and remixing culture.

• by kingwill101 on 12/30/23, 3:56 PM

  Thank you! As a musician I often complain about having to dual boot to get access to all the really good plugins. Mostly due to me not knowing where to find decent enough plugins without having to rely on hacky workarounds using wine

• by p0nce on 12/30/23, 4:29 PM

  Proud to be listed here :) Nice website.

• by frabbit on 12/31/23, 3:43 PM

  As an aside: can anyone recommend books/tutorials for getting started with DAWs on Linux? I was thinking of starting with Ardour¹ to get the handle on basic concepts before looking at anything else.

  Basic use case is being able to take input from an old MIDI keyboard and feed it into a DAW so that a simple melody can be turned into something more exciting.

  I would appreciate someone being able to point a complete beginner towards a path (if one exists) in which initial work getting familiar with an interface will not be wasted if more advanced functionality is desired later.

  I don`t mind paying for tutorials and/or books or the software (and I see Bitwig has some tutorials) but I want a rich environment that is going to reward investment of time. I would prefer something without lock-in and strongly favor FL/OSS.

  1. https://manual.ardour.org/introducing-ardour/understanding-b...

• by dijksterhuis on 12/30/23, 4:11 PM

  This is fantastic. Wish I knew this existed before. Already spotted a few alternatives for things that are keeping me on a dual boot.

• by MrDrMcCoy on 12/30/23, 8:19 PM

  I opened an issue to get some more projects added:

  https://codeberg.org/fractalf/linuxdaw.org/issues/44

• by fud101 on 12/31/23, 4:46 AM

  These are pretty sophisticated pieces of software. Is there anything for a rank beginner who just wants to make some nice music?

• by CrypticShift on 12/30/23, 5:30 PM

  Spent ages awhile back delving deep into sorting audio tools into a multi-dimensional framework, convinced that deciphering their taxonomy would unleash their full potential. It's frustrating how there are no comprehensive directories for these tools (Linux or not for that matter)

  I applaud your initiative and suggest you give more thought to categorization.

• by chaosprint on 12/30/23, 4:14 PM

  It would be great if we can submit a new entry from the webpage.

  Also, perhaps add a CLI format?

  I know some people use Glicol CLI on Linux:

  https://github.com/glicol/glicol-cli

• by narag on 12/30/23, 4:09 PM

  Useful (at least for me :)) and great interface, thank you!

• by bwanab on 12/30/23, 6:04 PM

  I noticed that SooperLooper is missing. One of my all time favorites.

• by hammyhavoc on 12/30/23, 4:41 PM

  Sweet!

• by kiviuq on 12/30/23, 11:18 PM

  Clap! Clap! Clap!