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Ask HN: Is there any Linux distro dedicated to music performance?

107 points by squarefoot 4y ago

I'm impressed by the recent developments regarding Linux and audio production; I've been using Reaper, both the Windows version under WINE and the native Linux one for some time, and it works flawlessly with very low latency. Also there are some really good native Linux plugins around, and Windows one - including some very old ones that stopped working on Windows ages ago - run without (almost *) any problems using Yabridge. So the question is: why not creating a very minimal Linux distro dedicated only to run straight after the boot either a DAW and related plugins, or a plugin host? I mean it shouldn't even have a desktop and most common applications, no browser etc. Just the bare minimum to run the audio, both native and WINE subsystem with the simplest window manager around. It should boot directly to the music software to minimize boot time, also handy should it crash in the middle of a gig. Anything like that in development?

_spduchamp 4y ago
I've found that Ubuntu Studio just works. I've tried all sorts of variations and have trouble sound not working during recording, but good ol' Ubuntu Studio gets it done. I use Ardour for my DAW. I've been able to record live feeds in Ardour while also live streaming using OBS. Jack works.
- News-Dog 4y ago
  Yes, my first thought was Ubuntu Studio too : https://ubuntustudio.org/ https://ubuntustudio.org/ Ubuntu Studio developer wiki! : https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Studio https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Studio
  - zymhan 4y ago
    Glad to hear it's still around! They had my favorite Gnome theme years ago.
    - tannhaeuser 4y ago
      I didn't check now, but I recall (current) Ubuntu Studio is KDE-based isn't it?
      - jcelerier 4y ago
        Yep. At the SCRIME (experimental comp.sci lab / music studio in Bordeaux) all our computers use 21.10, soon 22.04 and it works pretty well.
seclorum_wien 4y ago
ZynthianOS: https://zynthian.org https://zynthian.org Monome NORNS: https://monome.org/docs/norns/shield/ https://monome.org/docs/norns/shield/ Both of these Linux vendors have created what you describe - definitely worth checking out if you are a performing musician. These machines transform into viable, usable instruments - you don't have to do much Linux hacking, you can just plug in and play, like any other electronic musical instrument, and some of the stuff in the NORNS community is amazing for live performance (actually most of it is): https://norns.community https://norns.community Both systems will let you play with MOD DUO, which is a plug and play effects system that kicks serious ass: https://moddevices.com/devices/dwarf/ https://moddevices.com/devices/dwarf/ Other than that - definitely check out Ubuntu Studio, as others have mentioned. I've been running it for a decade as a production DAW in my studio and it really kicks ass... you will be astonished at what is included, out of the box ..
- worik 4y ago
  https://market.monome.org/ https://market.monome.org/ https://shop.zynthian.org/shop/product/zynthian-kit-v4-6-448?category=13 https://shop.zynthian.org/shop/product/zynthian-kit-v4-6-448... Everything sold out. A common theme these days. Looks interesting
  - seclorum_wien 4y ago
    If you have a Raspberry Pi, you can run ZynthianOS by just flashing the image and booting. You can also run Zynthian headless on your own RaspberryPi, should you have one available: https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php?title=Beginners_Headless_Zynthian_Tutorial https://wiki.zynthian.org/index.php?title=Beginners_Headless... ZynthianOS can be configured with external MIDI controllers for the menus, etc. That might be a bit of work, but its definitely worth the effort, because ZynthianOS is just amaze-balls. NORNS too, its just astonishing the power in these little distros. As well as the original Zynthian, I also have Zynthian running on one of these: https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/open-source-streamers/rasptouch-i-sabre-es9038q2m-streamer-with-touchscreen-32bit-384khz-dsd128-p-12181.html https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/open-source-streamers/rasptou... .. with a touch-pad, and its just such a tidy, neat system. I look forward to this particular flavour of machine becoming much more prevalent in the MI world ..
tyingq 4y ago
Not exactly what you're asking for, but an adjacent area. Bela leverages the built-in real time PRUs on a Beaglebone dev board to get very low latency audio processing. https://bela.io/products/ https://bela.io/products/
- CrazyPyroLinux 4y ago
  Thanks. This is a really cool use for Beaglebone's Realtime Units.
cozzyd 4y ago
Planetccrma, but not sure if it's still active.
- inetsee 4y ago
  Planet CCRMA is still out there but "Last updated on June 17, 2019", and it seems to require Fedora. http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/ http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/
donquichotte 4y ago
May I ask what audio interface you use for recording? I want one mic preamp and one direct input for guitar, and my Roland Octacapture that I am otherwise happy with is not supported on Linux.
- CameronNemo 4y ago
  I've heard good things about the Focusrite Scarlett series. Those are USB class compliant audio interfaces, so they should work in a lot of places (Linux, Android, iOS). Edit: looks like the presonus and Steinberg USB audio interfaces are class compliant too. So the Presonus AudioBox USB 96, Steinberg UR22, and the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 should all do what you need. I have a Steinberg UR44, and it works fine but the preamps are a little weak IME.
  - lloeki 4y ago
    I own a Scarlet 2i2, with a mic (XLR) and an electroacoustic guitar (6") plugged in a Mac, using it with GarageBand and Ardour. Can't voice a general conclusion since everyone has different requirements, but it's a very potent device, great bang for the buck. Maybe gain is a bit weak for my mic, I used to turn it way up which obviously makes it pick up other sounds (guitar, background noise) which might be unwanted. Now I set the gain right before unwanted sound is picked up, which is ~2/3, then tune the gain/EQ baseline up in GarageBand and Ardour for that channel to get a solid sound. Cannot commend on Linux usage, but it's a class device alright so it should be fine. When using Ardour, and only on one of my machines†, I did also get some kind of buffer/timing drift that produced progressively more garbled sound, I identified it to come from other USB devices and/or the USB hub. The issue is not present when using GarageBand. † MacBook Pro 13" 2018, among the ones which you should not charge on the left side. I think USB is hopelessly borked on these devices.
  - chupasaurus 4y ago
    Scarlett 2nd Gen has a noticeable (for a live playthrough) latency which is fixed in 3rd Gen.
- News-Dog 4y ago
willismichael 4y ago
AV Linux probably has the best out-of-box audio production experience: http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/ http://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/ The maintainer, Glen MacArthur, is very active on the Linux Musicians forum and always willing to answer questions: https://linuxmusicians.com https://linuxmusicians.com Side note / self promotion, I'm the primary maintainer of Dragonfly Reverb, which is popular among folks that make music on Linux: https://michaelwillis.github.io/dragonfly-reverb/ https://michaelwillis.github.io/dragonfly-reverb/
- mousefad 4y ago
  I was messing about with Carla on Ubuntu Studio recently and played with your plugin. Nice! :D Thanks for your work.
capableweb 4y ago
Not mentioned yet, is the Pisound together with a raspberry pi. Fast boot and good hardware in general, for the price. Haven't run any daws with it though, only Patchbox OS (which is made by the same people that makes the Pisound, who also makes the Midihub which is a core staple in my home studio: Blokas): - https://blokas.io/pisound/ https://blokas.io/pisound/ - €99 - Pisound is an ultra-low latency high-quality sound card and MIDI interface specially designed for Raspberry Pi pocket computers. - https://blokas.io/patchbox-os/ https://blokas.io/patchbox-os/ - Free - Patchbox OS is a custom Linux distribution specially designed for Raspberry Pi based audio projects. It comes pre-configured for low latency audio performance and pre-installed audio software that will help you get started with your projects in no time! I'm not affiliated with Blokas, just a very happy user of Midihub.
- worik 4y ago
  PiSOund is good. The Raspberry Pi is badly served when it comes to sound cards that do I/O, though. Pi sound has 3/4 inch I/O jacks, all be them stereo. Hi Fi Berry have a multitude of cards but for a musician wielding 3/4 inch cables they are not much use. The PiSound has MIDI Din jacks but I have not found any new MIDI equipment, any more, that requires them. It is all over USB it seems.
teddyh 4y ago
Audiophile Linux: https://www.ap-linux.com/ https://www.ap-linux.com/ (Found on the LWN.net Linux Distribution List: https://lwn.net/Distributions/ https://lwn.net/Distributions/)
- sp332 4y ago
  It has not had a release since 2019 though.
- smitty1e 4y ago
  https://distrowatch.com/ https://distrowatch.com/ also bears mention.
whateveracct 4y ago
musnix: https://github.com/musnix/musnix https://github.com/musnix/musnix
glyphy17 4y ago
hakube 4y ago
For everything Multimedia, Ubuntu Studio
henearkr 4y ago
Is there one such distrib that is not PulseAudio based? (and possibly also without SystemD). I liked quite a lot Alsa/Jack based audio management, but nowadays it seems more and more implemented over a PulseAudio layer, which I would try to avoid. My main motivation is that PulseAudio has had latency problems in the past (I don't know what is its status now, but Alsa/Jack never had such problems), but also I'd to avoid to depend on the DBus infrastructure if it is not strictly required (and in the case of audio management there are alternatives, so DBus is not strictly required).
- kitotik 4y ago
  Pipewire (mostly) works as a drop in for both pulseaudio and jackd. It’s been solid for me with very low latency.
  - worik 4y ago
    Why is Pipewire better than Jack?
    - capableweb 4y ago
      I'd suggest going to the bottom if HN and searching for "pipewire", looking through previous threads. The benefits of Pipewire against X is discussed in a lot of them.
- npteljes 4y ago
  Fedora uses PipeWire by default, for more than a year now. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/DefaultPipeWire https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/DefaultPipeWire
oshanz 4y ago
Fedora Jam https://labs.fedoraproject.org/en/jam/ https://labs.fedoraproject.org/en/jam/
shaicoleman 4y ago
If latency is your main concern, switching your kernel to something like XanMod Real-Time [1] may be enough to fix any latency issues. Switching to Pipewire will also help. 1. https://xanmod.org/ https://xanmod.org/
krnlpnc 4y ago
I honestly would not go down this route unless you intend to spend considerable time on the linux side itself. If you want to just get on with playing music stick with macOS or windows. Also the platform should not crash while live in the first place, but in cases where its critical usually there will be two machines running the same set in a failover config.
- worik 4y ago
  No. That is not true. Using a MIDI input over USB into Yoshmi or ZynAddSubFX is very straight forward and there is a powerful synthesiser straight out of the bow. There is a lot more you can do on Linux, if you choose. But the easy things are easy, the hard things possible, and no silly license requirements (having been burned by Apple....)
squarefoot 4y ago
Thanks for the replies; I had to go out in minutes and didn't have much time to be more specific about the intentions. My goal actually is to see if it's feasible to use a small PC to fill the gap between a MIDI/USB master keyboard and one (or more) ready made synthesizer(s) in a way that there are no distractions or other software slowing things down, exposing points of failure and generally wasting resources. Ideally, if I turn on a mini PC with that Linux distro, it should boot straight into either a DAW or a plugin host, possibly remembering the last known state, so that boot time is kept to a minimum and I can safely turn it off, then back on to find the same configuration (plugins loaded, presets recalled, etc), just like what I would expect from a physical keyboard instrument and possibly more. Such a task could probably be accomplished by taking the bare minimum bootable system, then adding packages one by one until audio, WINE, basic windowing and networking would work, then some scripts could automate loading the DAW or plugin host. Ideally the user doesn't even know there's an operating system under the hood; they switch on the appliance and after a few seconds it shows one or more synthesizer panels and it's ready to play. I recall over 10 years ago there was Muse Receptor, a very well known hardware appliance that did exactly this, and almost nobody knew there was Linux under the hood running all those Windows plugins (there were almost no native Linux plugins back then); price wasn't low because at that time some serious CPU power was needed for live FX and synthesizers, but today I'm sure it could be done a lot more cheaply.
unabomber 4y ago
I think i see what you mean and as far as i know there are some realisations with mixxx that look close to your idea. https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/wiki/Portable-Mixxx https://github.com/mixxxdj/mixxx/wiki/Portable-Mixxx I did something similar with an arch linux running kde and only the packages i needed for using reaper, carla and a few vst synths. This page could be usefull for configuring your distro : https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Professional_audio https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Professional_audio Using it live with many plugins at the same time on my 2015 mid-budget laptop and it's working pretty well.
iostream24 4y ago
I actually suggest Arch Linux, followed by: “sudo pacman -s pro-audio” This will install a zillions packages and occasionally prompt you for a yes, and then you will have a preconfigured Arch Linux audio computer :D Since it’s Arch, all you have to occasionally do is an “sudo pacman -syYu” and upgrade everything to the latest versions. Usb audio interfaces work out of the box, generally, but to refresh ALSA after connecting it doesn’t hurt to “alsactl restore” iirc
rcarmo 4y ago
I recently moved to Fedora 36 and it was almost trivial to get Bitwig and Arturia Windows VSTs running - all I had to do tweaking-wise was set myself up in the real-time group: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/05/21/1145 https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/05/21/1145 I honestly don’t see much of a point in getting rid of the desktop, although I do have a Norns (which I built with a friend) and am toying around with baremetal stuff like MiniDexed: https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/05/28/2320 https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2022/05/28/2320
omar_alt 4y ago
Will bookmark this. I yearn for some type of Fairlight based OS with a distinct audio engine that can be installed on a homebrew mishmash of cpu and midi architecture. Rather than an open source pro-tools but something different using circuits and chips not currently used for generating DAW based audio