Which OS for low-end DAW? XP vs Linux

J

jhaas

New member
I'm a newbie, and am currently doing my recording on a Fostex MR-8, but I have an old PC - 450 MHz AMD w/ 512 MB RAM that I'm thinking about doing some recording on - just to get my feet wet with the PC side of it.

The machine currently has Win XP on it, but since Linux is less demanding on resources in general, I'm wondering if it might make a better DAW if I were to re-format the hard drive and install Linux on it.

Is there much/any audio software available that runs on Linux?

And if Linux is a viable option, which flavor of Linux would make the most sense?

Thanks,

John in Vermont, USA
 
Sequencers are available and there are plenty of basic recording tools for Linux, but what're ya gonna do for plugins???

I love Macs, too and will run any OS, but all my recoring programs and plugins are PC-only so that resolved my choice.

Pick what software you what to use FIRST, then go with the OS that supports it...
 
[Pick what software you what to use FIRST, then go with the OS that supports it...]

This makes sense provided your hardware is sufficient to run that software. My concern is that my hardware may not be up to the task of running Windows sequencers and such, and that it may be better suited for the Linux based software of the same caliber.

...but maybe that concern isn't valid.

John
 
Bulls Hit said:
Which Linux-based sequencers are you thing of using?
Click to expand...

I'm totally green here, and don't have any experience with any sequencers, on ANY platform.

My brief search has uncovered ardour and Rosegarden (in the Linux realm), but I'm here to learn...

John
 
i'm wondering if driver support would be a problem in linux?
at my work we use delta 1010's on a beowulf cluster running linux (four nodes, each witha delta 1010 which results in 32 mic inputs simultaineously). We use audacity to do the recording and playback, it works nicely since we only analyze the signals and process them into images. But for doing editing and mixing/producing, i think the options are very limited in linux.
 
pedro_sandchez said:
i'm wondering if driver support would be a problem in linux?
at my work we use delta 1010's on a beowulf cluster running linux (four nodes, each witha delta 1010 which results in 32 mic inputs simultaineously). We use audacity to do the recording and playback, it works nicely since we only analyze the signals and process them into images. But for doing editing and mixing/producing, i think the options are very limited in linux.
Click to expand...

Ardour. No point in using anything else for multitrack audio in Linux. :D

Oh, and there are ways to use your Windows VST plug-ins in Linux using wine and some glue code, or so I've read....

http://www.djcj.org/LAU/quicktoots/toots/vst-plugins/

No DirectX plug-ins, but who needs 'em.... :D
 
Linux uses less resources if you don't run X. Forget the "low resources" idea if you are going to run X with Ardour. Maybe if you would run on the command line with Ecasound...

I'm not saying that that pc wouldn't be able to run it, but don't expect a large difference between using XP or Linux on it.
 
Havoc said:
Linux uses less resources if you don't run X. Forget the "low resources" idea if you are going to run X with Ardour. Maybe if you would run on the command line with Ecasound...

I'm not saying that that pc wouldn't be able to run it, but don't expect a large difference between using XP or Linux on it.
Click to expand...

That's a good point, Havoc - thanks for bringing that up.

...and thanks to the rest of you who replied as well. I appreciate the info!

John
 
yeah X is a hog... for a slower computer running linux I would strongly suggest Dyne:Bolic as thats what it's geared for. ...and is pretty good I just couldn't get graphics greater than 640x480 out of it :) It would be better then trying to run a patched XP on a 450mhz... ugh...

I'm running DeMuDi and like it more than my XP SONAR 2.2XL setup that I ran... driver support is a problem in some cases like I can't use my Aardvark Q10... so I bought an Edirol FA-66.
 
Back around 2000 I used a PII 450 for doing graphics and video work using Windows 2000 Professional. Windows 2K Pro has less overhead than windows XP and lots of stuff will run on it. It would probably be pretty easy to find an older version of cubase or even logic that would run just fine on that.
 
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