LINUX Recording

[(8{)} (: .)]

Hi All,

I'm not sure that this belongs here but...

I figured I'd start a new thread about Linux recording because
it's kind of misunderstood and even though we've temporarily gone
back to Windows (I'll tell you why later) we are big fans of
Linux as a recording platform.

Why we switched in the 1st place
--------------------------------
When we first started recording in our home about 4 years ago
we knew very little about home recording. I didn't want to spend
lots of money until we knew what we were doing. As a result
also decided to go with Cakewalk Home Studio 2004 for starters.
Our computer was a 1.7 MHz Intel box with 1/2 Meg of memory running
Windows XP. Regardless of the software's minimum specs we kept
getting drop-outs no matter what we did.

I've got quite a bit of computer experience (I'm a programmer) but
I've got the patience of a musician. I didn't want to fart around
with XP which I still see as too big, ie. you've got to tweak it in
order to make it usable on lesser machines. I deicied to switch to
W2k. The studio worked brilliantly for a couple of years but the lack
of VST capability started to cheese me off. There were far fewer
DirectX add-ons (is that what you call them?) as VST and since VST's
offer so much I decided it was time to upgrade to Sonar.

The cost of the software upgrade was not an issue; the cost of
buying a new machine just to run it was. We started to look around
and discovered Studio-To-Go, a Linux based package with all of the
latest Linux tools for about $160. We didn't have to upgrade our
machine and, well, I'll continue in the next section.

What's so great about LINUX
----------------------------
Studio-To-Go by Fervent software (Now defunct...) was a lot of fun.
You could install it or run it from a CD. It contained lots of software
from Ardour (ardour | the new digital audio workstation) to Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) to
Hydrogen (see it discussed here recently) to great MIDI support with RoseGarten.
All of these played well together and most of the VSTs that I wanted
I could run as-is under LINUX

The thing that really got us though was the LINUXinter-process communications
through the JACK server (jackaudio.org). For the uninitiated JACK allows
intersoftware communications between compliant (read: ALL) LINUXaudio
packages. You open a connection panel and draw connections between all
running software packages. For example, when we wanted to mix down our
recordings to a singel WAV file we just connected the Ardour outputs to
a stereo Ardour input and, voila.

In addition, all of the software is free. Software updating is something
you have to get used to but the interfaces have improved greatly over the years.
LINUX is generally smaller and faster than Windows. Did I mention that
all of the software being free...


Why we're back under Windows (for now).
---------------------------------------
This is the sad part. A few months after buying Studio-To-Go we discovered
Ubuntu Studio. Ubuntu Studio provided almost everything Studio-To-Go did
(It also has Video editing for those interested) for free. We downloaded it
and decided that it makes little sense not to switch to Ubuntu. In the mean
time Fervent Software (The Studio-To-Go people) either closed shop or stopped
supporting Studio-To-Go. Ubuntu Studio eventually went to version 8.04. This
version added a real time kernel which was what we were looking for but it
also proved problematic to us. I got tired of hearing my son (he runs the
studio) cursing out the software every time he booted up so we decied to go
back to Window for the time being. We're trying out Reaper for now mostly
because we're very resource concious (and yes, we've now got a much faster
machine with more memory, actually, we extended the memory on the old LINUX
box too).

We talk about the day when we go back to LINUX becase the software
really is great. I'm sure we sound like Four Yorkshire Men
(YouTube - Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen) while doing it but
what the hey. Who knows when we'll go back. One thing for sure JACK is great
and I wish there was something compareble under Windows. G-d save us all when
we have to run Vista...

Well, that's it. I don't know if this helped anyone but it sure
was thereputic.

(8{)} (: .)
(Yosi)

[wavesound]

HI
I have been using Linux for audio for nearly 2 years.
You should check out 64studio.
This really is fully professional studio setup.
Give it a look
cheers bob

[(8{)} (: .)]

As I said, we were very pleased with LINUX. Studio to go was great
(and easy...) and we were very sorry to see them go. They were based
on KDE which seems smaller than Ubuntu (that statement is not based
on anything other than a feeling).

Regardless, the whole Ubuntu thing looks like a bad case of Windows
envy and it doesn't look like we're going to go back to a command
prompt any time soon.

So...

We're left with a ****-and-fuzzy regarding LINUX in the studio but,
at least for now, we're going to go back to Windows. : (

(8{)} (: .)