I was recently using Void for a wee while but switched back to Debian (LMDE 7) a couple of weeks ago because it’s a better fit for my needs and usage.
Void is an excellent OS though, I have to say. Are you just using the stock kernel with Pipewire in place as-is etc?
Allright, I’ll settle for liberation, it’s an apt description. There’s nothing militant about my mindset though, trust me. Be that as it may, you speak my heart when you point at
Thank you!
Yes, stock kernel.
I had to install Xorg, turnstile, dbus, jwm window manager, pipewire, pipewire-pulse, alsa-pipewire, libjack-pipewire, and I’m not sure what else. I tried to document everything but I’m such a noob I pretty much stumbled my way along.
I’m using an Audient iD24 interface and it works good so far except I had to install a program called MixiD to use as a control panel for it but I haven’t got that working yet.
I’m just getting into learning Ardour so it will be awhile before I know what I’m doing.
Currently, Ardour and Mixbus are running on the AVL-MX25 distribution on my PC, which also runs graphics and video programs equally well. At the moment, I don’t want to use a different distribution for music and graphics. However, I’m looking at various distributions that are new to me and want to stay informed about new developments. Right now, I’m considering CachyOS.
Let me start by this: You have been warned ! 
Half a year ago i thought it might be a good idea to make a remix of linux-devuan with as many audio-tools i can think of included. It was fun to do, but i quickly came up thinking the idea is not good
( users who just start will only get confused by the amount of software, users who know what they need can easily install what they need themselves and omit all the programs they don’t need at all).
I can’t even promise it will boot for anyone but me, and assuming it does work, i can’t promise it will work.
Also my general approach is to give up on comfort for having more horsepower for the things i want to do. A lot of things a user might expect will not be there out of box (wireless, bluetooth, what-not).
On a last note i only came up with the idea as i was not sure librazik, which comes with a lot of audio-software, would release again.
In the meantime they did, so anyone who is looking for such should use librazik instead.
This was really a fun project only, and i think i already gave up on it again. You never know though … but i strongly doubt it.
Let’s end how i started: You have been warned. Don’t use it !
Is anyone here using some of the complete libre distros, and how is that working out for you?
I tryied an old version of Dyne:bolic long time ago, but i wasn’t able to get half of the stuff working. Also, i remember youtube used to be a problem(cause of Flash) but i hear that now it’s much better (cause of Html5)…
Could you use internet seamlesly, and if not, what’s not working?
Could you do music production and what you have to give up on?
Could you edit 4K videos in KdenLive?
In the long gone past, before i even did anything audio, i had a look at libre distros, mainly at dragora (for a couple of years).
Or just debian without enabling contrib and non-free repositories (which is not gnu-free, but free enough for me).
The main problem was if you wanted to use wireless internet, with a wired connection i had no problems.
( one user in the dragora IRC channel was interested in audio-production too, and he also is a member of the #librazik IRC channel, so perhaps he can tell you more. bill-auger, more of a fedora guy, iirc).
Looking at the output of “vrms”, which lists the packages installed from contrib or non-free, i don’t see one installed which related to audio-production by any means (for most i don’t even know when or why i installed them, and most i sure don’t need. Gotta remove them later, i guess).
So i can’t see a reason why a libre distro should give problems regarding audio-production itself.
About half a year ago i had a short look at the dyne:bolic beta iso.
Seems to do a good job, but having no dpkg/apt and not being able to install it … to me it doesn’t make much sense, but i guess they have their reasons. This doesn’t seem to relate to it being a libre distro though.
I only had a very short look, as that bugged me, so i can only say that much about it.
My uneducated claim: If you willing to give up on a little bit of comfort, like wireless (or buy a dongle which works with a free driver), it should work regarding audio (video i got no clue).
I am not sure how AV Linux and librazik and Ubuntustudio look at contrib and non-free repositories, how easy it is to just disable them and then remove those packages, with the help of “vrms”, so i guess your best bet is either try debian with just main repo (or just one of the remaining libre distros, i am not up to date anymore).
The rather unknown distribution “refracta”, based on debian in the past, now on devuan, is a good starting point for such, xfce, rather small and light, but all you need to get started, and per tradition no contrib or non-free repos enabled, most debian-based distros don’t have that, disabled contrib/non-free, as far i can tell. . Also the “dev” is in contact with the dyne:bolic dev, as far i am informed (both from devuan, duh).
The most short version: to me it usually worked good, but i don’t expect a lot from a computer.
I’m apolitical and all in on that stuff and not a ‘Stallman type’. We’re talking about a dedicated Workstation OS here and hardware support is extremely important for people to have the highest chance of successfully migrating from other platforms. Once people have some Linux experience they can install any Distro or DE they want and embrace any ideology they want. I’m not here to convert people I’m here to make things as easy as possible to show the potential of Linux as a production platform.
All i said is i didn’t remember, so was not sure. Thanks for clarification. Also i agree with what you said.
I only can confirm this notion as to sticking to the distro you are familiar with !!! In my case Suse.
I recently was looking for an Audio distro and evaluated
Ubuntu Studio, Fedora Jam , AV Linux
Since I used Suse for quite some and know my way around it, I stayed with Suse using what was available on applications. Not as comprehensive as the specialised distros but feature rich enough to get
a professional recording.
Here’s my take on why people don’t switch and stay on Linux…And it’s not that we don’t know this. Plain and simple: Rat Race.
Once i had a conversation with a friend of mine - graphics designer/animator. He said…Look - if something colapsed tomorrow, and let’s say, Adobe disappeared, we all could, in a matter of days, get back to work using Gimp/ Inkscape/ Blender…same work could be done, maybe, with a tad more effort. But, nobody wants to be a step behind the next guy, not even as a possibility.
That’s how competitive it all is. Everywhere. It’s annoying, like when you encounter a spoiled brat that’s behaves offensive and wants to pull your strings. I want and strive for something better, with more decency, and not only for myself.
I have a Windows 11 machine at home, but i’m turning it on only when i have to do the work for/with others. That’s not my personal computer, that’s a simbol and instrument of our own demise - Adds/Copilot/Microsoft Account/evermore shiny desktops and latest&greatest apps to impress others and also appeal to our own vanity. That’s no fun - it’s like you stare at the eye of Sauron (if you’re aware of it) .
And then i look at Stallman, the weird, personal agenda old dude who doesn’t give a flying f…
He might be totaly impractical and off, but damn, he’s great . If only i had a luxury to be like him.
So is this stance political? Maybe.
To me it’s more like surroundings is so oppresive that you’re forced to give it a finger, and it’s getting increasingly worse, so, the sooner the better.
I may be wrong, but as I understand it, if you want to use even slightly commercial plugins, they’re usually at least tested on some Debian-based distribution, often Ubuntu. And it’s possible that some of them are distributed as .deb packages. For someone experienced, that’s probably not an issue, but for others it might be. That’s why I think Debian-based options could be the best choice, at least to start with.
Man you speak my heart! Particularly about Stallman. I have long turned my back to microsoft and the whole attitude and lifestyle which is connected with that abomination. I do not even have a smartphone, My 2005 Sony Ericsson Camera Mobile is still good enough for me.
The entire contemporary establishment can go and tell their mothers it’s called The Twist, well almost. That includes Apple, Spotify, Google, YouTube (I’m in the process of deleting my accounts and channels), and what have you.
Even my stunt with the next big thing concerning ethically acceptable platforms, SUBVERT, was a big disappointment, I deleted my account after 3 days because the board assumed it wouldn’t harm the endeavour’s credibility to choose Stripe as their Payment processor service. Totally laughable. You couldn’t even publish anything without a Stripe account, and If you ask me, for a co-op startup with high goals that is in close and dangerous proximity to hypocrisy.
Well, rant over, Sauron fuck off.
Keep on rockin’ in the free world!
But where is it, the free world today,
you might ask, and I’ll tell you: within you.
You could wait for a lifetime
To spend your days in the sunshine
You might as well do the white line
'Cause when it comes on top
Yer gotta make it happen!
(Oasis, “Cigarettes And Alcohol”)
Yep, if it hadn’t been Debian that crossed my path first when a decision had to be made, I would most certainly use Suse today.
I don’t feel that I have to use a Distro that is particularly suited for audio work. It is the hardware that counts. My 2005 Lenovo ThinkStation S10 with Dual Core CPU and 8GB Memory ist still fast enough for Ardour, TOP clearly shows that, but it is the video card that is the weak point. The S10 accepts only one NVidia card which is rather slow and can’t stomach the input of the Ardour editor. The Mixer is okay, but Scrolling for instance is one stuttering pain in the neck, as is the off-sync of the playhead indicator’s progress and the audio, especially when deeply zoomed-in.
But patience is a virtue, and all’s well that ends well. Comes a time when Euros come more easily to me again, and then I’ll upgrade to an S30, whose specs are pure Sience Fiction from my perspective today…!
Well, first time i ran linux for a couple of months in a row, was on Lenovo Thinkstation pentium D (i suspect it was M52). I don’t know how or why, but the distro was basicaly Ubuntu, a few months later, Ubuntu Studio.
That was actualy a good setup for audio, it simply worked. I’m not realy sure, but that was somehere between 2005-2008 cause i was still in college.
Even then, with generaly lighter plugins, you would, more or less easily(depending on project), hit the processing power ceiling while mixing with a dual core, being it on win or lin.
On the other hand, our college had Mac Pros with dual processor motherboards with xeons inside (in dedicated video editing rooms). Now, thats was a real beast. We all dreamed of having double xeons at home.
I suspect Ardour would still run great on those machines.
Ha, I still have a refurbished M52 sitting on the shelf, in its box. It’s equipped with a Pentium 4 Hyperthreading CPU, and the best thing about it is, it’s IBM badged, one of the last produced and sold under the name before the Chinese effectively took charge. There isn’t even IBM Lenovo printed on the sticker that gives machine type and serial number, just IBM. I got it for 19,00 EUR from a specialized trader, would you believe it.
I bought it together with my used S10 for sentimental reasons, for I had been using several M52s before. That design is so beautiful, you open the hood like that of a car and everything lies in plain sight, neatly placed and accessible, no screws to be turned. And Lenovo stick to that design principle.
Now: In a former post I wrote that I was done with the establishment, and the admiration for IBM and Lenovo you can read between the lines seems to contradict that statement. I’d say, it doesn’t just seem like that. It’s my guilty pleasure, I’ve held IBM in high regard since the days of the Selectric typewriter, a mechanical marvel of its time.
BTW, in the aforementioned post, I forgot to mention PayPal, which is decidedly a false friend. Their percentage fee policy has the very convenient effect of generating half cents, which they round off, to their advantage naturally. And they do that how many times a day? When I realized that I immediately deleted my account. The decisison to buy only what I can pay in cash or via bank transfer has made life very easy ever since.
I don’t know…
Even if money is (more often than not) the hardest thing to aquire, i’m usualy not watching too hard over it, esepcialy when it comes to not so significant amounts. Especialy since i have kids, i treat it in a “it came and went” manner . There’s no way to realy control it in that situation, without becoming opssesed, mad.
Thing that annoys me is when self-proclaimed authorities use the position of power to efectively control and harm those who are not in a position do defend themselves.
Or when someone is so arrogant to produce a gigaton of e-waste just because he can, and stays untouchable.
Or when people simply won’t admit that they are being progressively pushed to become modern day slaves, and willingly confuse that with progress.
I’m on a mission to, at least, unblindfold myself, if i can .
Ha!
Just encountered my first Firefox glitch in Debian13.
Or, maybe it is something related to pipewire.
In the middle of Youtube video played through Firefox, i wanted to raise the volume up (to headband to SOAD’s “Question”), and when i touched the volume amount slider in pavucontrol-output devices, everything visual froze, keyboard and mouse became completely unresponsive, and only sound left playing in a one second loop. Only hard system restart helped to get back on track. That’s something new… .
Oh Dear, you know something’s lethally amiss when you can’t even type Reisub…
As a fellow musician once said, Control+Alt Despair…
I’m talking about Ben Kelly of THE AMBER BUGS btw, highly, highly recommendable.
They’re on YT and bandcamp.
Anyhow, let’s get back on topic…
When it comes to just making music, especialy for newcomers, form my experience (which is limited to about 15-20 distros max) i still think AV Linux and Ubuntu Studio are best. When it comes to specialized ones, i also tried Musix (which is now discontinued) and Dyne:bolic - none of which worked out for me. Fedora Jam comes up frequently, but i haven’t tried it.
If you take specialized distro, you dont’t exactly have to understand what you need to adjust in/add to your system for low latency audio to work, and it also comes prebundled with various music making apps.
There’s also laptop-specific stuff, like, you need to use a multicore processor power management tool to switch form powersave to performance mode on all cores when doing cpu intensive DSP work to avoid glitches, or find the right drivers for hybrid gpu technology (internal+dedicated gpu) if your laptop uses that.
From my point of view, the distro choice is generaly not the hardest part (aldo it counts) when it comes to juming ships from other platforms. It’s the unavailability of certain highy used music making plugi-ins (or shortage of them). In my case, it’s the virual drums plugins. From songs i heard so far, Ugritone has the most convincing ones (deep sampled layering, lots of round robins, which makes the drums sound much more like the real thing), but as i gather, they’re not officialy supported, aldo they have Linux installers available.
The other thing lacking for me is manual, precise time-pitch correction (like Melodyne/Izotope Nectar), which as a Ardour user, you can bridge by using, for example, those capabilities in Reaper, or maybe Bitwig (haven’t used Bitwig, don’t exactly know).
If you are producing, let’s say, your own band, and you are sure in your abilities as musicians, there isn’t realy any problems at all. Drummer plays with precision, the rest of you sync-up to inherent groove, vocalist gives his best, and the rest can be taken care of using Ardour+plugins, no fuss at all.
Like all great classic records were made, until mid-nineties.