Electronic Music and DAWs

So I've been looking around at the options reasonably available on Linux as far as sequencers and DAWs seem to go. I've noted that Debian packages Ardour, which is probably nice for those interested in mixing down recorded audio for release (and it avoids that annoyance of compiling it yourself), but it doesn't seem to focus much on creating new audio from scratch. In my case my interest is mostly on that side. I messed around with FL Studio a while ago in another life and lately decided I'd like getting back into it. So I found that the two most promising offers for creation would be LMMS (previously Linux MultiMedia Studio) and Qtractor. Both seem to handle MIDI just fine, both can use VSTi and other plugins, both integrate with JACK, the UI seems to have mostly the same features. Features lists seem to, with a brief reading, mostly be equivalent though I suspect the implementations probably aren't always. Does lainchan have a preference for one or the other? What are their strong or weak points compared to other programs? Given my previous dabbling, which do you think would work best for me? Or otherwise FOSS(?) music program thread. Share what you like and why, if you can.

I've mostly used Arduor even though I hate it. Mostly because it's the closest to a traditional DAW on linux and i basically just use it as a tape machine for multitracking. I'm probably going to switch over to qtracktor to see if i like it any better. Here's my impression. >Audio recording Works fine as long as you have a decent working knowledge of JACK. >MIDI composition soykaf. Use an external software sequencer. Everything works fine on the technical side, but the UI for creating MIDI sequences is just bad (compared to renoise/ableton/logic/etc). >Plugins No VSTs... if that matters to you. It's not pretty, and the defaults don't sound great. It's usable but you've got to do some work up front. >Mixing/Production Not as good as the proprietary options but decent enough. Maybe a little too minimalist. The real strength here is JACK's routing capabilities. >tl;dr It's basically an inferior clone of Reaper. Same general design philosophy.

I've been producing stuff on linux for years and this topic still gives me headaches. My advice is don't try to recreate the DAW experience you are used to on other systems. Ardour is the closest we have to that, but it's still a pretty bad approximation so don't rely on it too much. Instead, look for standalone applications that you can then link together with JACK. For digital/electronic production: pick whichever DAW has your favorite sequencer (or use a standalone sequencer and audacity or whatever for the actual recording). Then get a plugin host, a sampler (rec: Hydrogen), some soft synths (rec: ZynAddSubFX), plus maybe something like PureData or Supercollider if you want to experiment. The idea here is to treat your entire work space as a "DAW" so that you can pick and choose software for different functions. JACK is at the core so make sure you get comfortable using it. I've heard a lot of people say "music production on linux is bad", and I don't really agree. It's bad if you're trying to have a highly integrated protools-like experience. The whole dynamic of linux music software (and arguably linux in general) is hostile to the typical "DAW with plugins" setup. On the other hand, it's great if you want almost limitless versatility. If you know anything about modular synthesizers, it's kind of like that. Every function of your DAW can easily be broken out into interchangeable, independent programs. Just an example: qtractor running a midi sequence which is patched into PureData for some control processing. That can then be used to control some soft synths and a drum machine. Take the audio outs and send them through a plugin host or some custom effects software you whipped up in python. Then patch everything back into the track record inputs on qtractor for mixing.

>>1214 This, I have LMMS, and Ardour, but I usually get sick of them pretty quickly when I try to use them. I usually just use Seq24, and ZynAddSubFX with an effects host. Also Stuff like PureData, Csound, and SuperCollider are really schway, but they have a fairly steep learning curve, so keep that in mind.

>>1215 >Seq24 I've been wanting to give this a shot but I never bothered because it's a pain to install on my os. arch. last i checked the aur package had been dropped and the mirror was out of date -_- Know any other good standalone sequencers? I've been using qtractor a bit, and it's fine, but it's a full DAW and I rarely need the complexity. I tried the non-sequencer but that whole software suite is a fuarrrking mess. Rarely have I ever seen such a good idea executed so poorly.

>>1214 I'd been meaning to pick-up a modular-synthesizer emulator at some point to see if I liked it, but apparently I'll basically have to use one anyway. That works for me. Getting back into messing around and learning some new stuff along the way. I find that this (http://libremusicproduction.com/articles/demystifying-jack-%E2%80%93-beginners-guide-getting-started-jack) gave me a decent starting idea of what I can do with JACK. Thanks for giving me a clearer view of how it works in the Linux music world. It kind of changes how I'll proceed for the rest of my searching and choices.

>>1212 I mostly work with hardware, and so my exposure to a DAW is only for touching things up after the fact. Otherwise I find that unlike actual instruments, DAWs tend to not be naturally intuitive to use, so I don't bother unless I have to because it's not enjoyable. >>1215 this poster mentions Seq24, which I am both surprised to read here, and also very pleased. Out of all the 'sound stack' utilities, it's the only one that I use regularly--mostly because it lets me use my laptop as a midi clock source to sync all of my instruments. thats about it though, I just use it for long sequences that my hardware cant extend to and for keeping clock sync. It's very simple to use though and does what it does well. also, just the alsa/pulse tools include quite a lot of useful things! You can make a midi monitor with just the command line and some alsa tools.

>>1219 >modular-synthesizer emulator take a look at this https://www.automatonism.com/

>>1219 >Modular Synth I haven't used it that much, but there's this http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/

I you like trackers, have a look at OpenMPT (BSD license, though it's native for Windows environment, but works flawlessly in WINE; Cross-OS support is in long-term plans), SchismTracker (modern Impulse Tracker clone) or ProTrekkr https://code.google.com/archive/p/protrekkr/downloads. If you want the flexibility of using VSTi in a tracker, OpeMPT is the way to go though. There's also Renoise, which has native Linux version, except it's not FOSS. SunVox is another interesting thing that runs natively on Linux, and lets you arrange your oscillators and filters in a modular fashion.