Voxpopuli said:
Anyone using Linux, along with these apps?
Ardour (multi-tracking)
Audacity (sound editor)
Hydrogen (drum machine)
Just thought this might be a great time to get into Linux, any thoughts?
Short question, long answer
A year ago, even though I've been a linux user for about 6 years now, I would have advised you to wait unless you were pretty familiar with tweaking a linux install. The software just wasn't mature enough.
Now, things are starting to come together, and I've just started to explore setting up a Linux based DAW - again.
So far, things look pretty encouraging. I've started
an Ardour project, and have been *very* pleased with the results so far.
That being said, there's things anyone thinking of trying Linux as a base for a DAW needs to be aware of....
Linux is not Windows! (Duh? Isn't that obvious?) Cosmetically it may look and behave similarly, but under the hood it's a different animal entirely. Windows assumes you're a drooling idiot, even if you're the system admin user. Linux assumes the sysadmin knows what they're doing.
While the GUI config tools will handle 99.99% of your needs, for a DAW you will need to hand edit the config files for your sound drivers. It's not hard, and for most consumer and quite a few professional cards, it's simply a matter of cut and paste from the ALSA website, but it 's a little deeper into the internals of the OS than you'd have to go with Windows.
The software you'll be using will be under *constant* development for the most part. This is a given for almost all software in the Linux/OSS world. What this usually means for the user is that bugs get fixed in days, not months - it's a Good Thing.
Documentation isn't complete for a lot of software. You'll need to use mailing lists, newgroups, and web forums to cover the holes
Now, if I haven't scared you off completely, and you want to know more, head on over to
http://linux-sound.org/ and see what's available to you.
