linux and music

[Suburbanite]

hi, just started using audacity with linux, mainly because linux doesn't run as cpu heavy as either windows or mac. in theory this makes a lot of sense but lots of issues keep popping up. does anyone use the same setup?

[Steve Conner]

I've tried a few different flavours of Linux and Windows, and I can say that for CPU-efficient recording, I've not seen anything that beats Windows 98 with an old version of Cubase VST. I used to get 24 tracks out of a 600MHz Pentium 3 on it.

To get good audio under Linux, you probably need to make sure ALSA is installed and configured properly with your soundcard, and that your recording software is actually using ALSA.

To get pro-quality(ish) low-latency performance, you also need some real-time kernel patches. There are dedicated Linux audio distros such as Ubuntu Studio, Planet CCRMA, 64 Studio, and Studio-To-Go. I've only tried Studio-To-Go and I found it pretty unimpressive.

[Suburbanite]

I'm using a 1.8ghz laptop with 512 of ram, just bought a firewire alesis multimix 16, been told its a good setup with audacity, Ive got an old copy of win 98 somewhere would just need to get a copy of the old cubase to try. You think its worth it? what about the old plugins?

[Steve Conner]

I doubt Win98 would even work on that hardware, it's too new. I thought you meant really old like a P3. :P

What CPU does it have? Is it a P4, Celeron, or what? I used to have a 1.8GHz P4 laptop with 512MB, and it ran Pro Tools LE and Ableton under XP no problem, though you couldn't really use it on your lap without risking heat damage to the family jewels

[Suburbanite]

its an amd proccessor in an abused fujisti seimans laptop, 1.8 + 400 whatever that means and going up to 1.256 gig of ram, might need to upgrade the hd as its 1)pretty small and 2) 4400 rpwhatever.

I just want to set it up as a stable recording device able to take to gigs and record demos with

hows the weather up there.

[David Schwab]

hi, just started using audacity with linux, mainly because linux doesn't run as cpu heavy as either windows or mac.

Gee, my 8 year old Mac G4 seems to run ProTools and Cubase SX pretty well.

It's not so much the overhead of the operating system that's the problem, it's the limited amount of CPU power for the application. As I type this I have 82% of my CPU cycles unused as listed by the Mac OS X Activity Monitor. The OS is using about 5-8%.

This machine was 466MHz when I bought it, but now it has a 1GHz CPU upgrade. 1.5 GB RAM. It's quite usable until I get plugin crazy, and even then I haven't run into too many instances where I had to render an effect to an audio track.

And any recent Mac will mop the floors with this old thing! Even the iMacs. The new Intel Macs are really fast. We have a fairly new 2 Ghz X 2 dual core Xenon Mac Pro at work that is scary fast. It launches Photoshop CS 3 in 6 seconds!

I used to run Linux before I started using OS X. OS X reminds me a lot of Linux, only with more available software, plus OS X can run X11 applications too. I don't see where Linux uses less CPU cycles, though the Mach kernel is slower than the Linux kernel because of all the IPC messaging going on.

[Suburbanite]

Just got my alesis multimix (firewire 16) and It don't work with linux

alesis apparently havent got the time to help out the ubunto guys sell their own product, would of though that would be a win win situation

so, its back to xp

[code_m]

There are many different OSes out there besides the standard Windows / Linux / OS X stuff you find.

Besides hardware price I like OS X the best... the new stuff it fast and super compatible.

The best small linux distros are DSL and Puppy, while Ubuntu will do great if you can get it to run.

I also like some user made Solaris distros such as Belenix. I would run belenix all the time if I had the ram to do so. Current release needs at least 1 GB of ram. There was a guy I talk to that ran it on a system with 700 Mhz CPU and 2 GB of ram.

btw... I saw that Wal-Mart is carrying RAM cards now. I think I might invest in a few.

[cminor9]

xfce?

With that hardware you should be able to run ubuntu, but if that isn't working you could try xubuntu. This uses the XFCE desktop environment and is really designed for older hardware.

Make sure you get all of the bad and ugly gstreamer plugins. If not, you'll not be able to play mp3, aac, and so on.

I use ubuntu and for the most part it works great. I have had my share of annoyances (current annoyance is that it won't play audio on youtube because of some flash weirdness) but if you want something lean for the purpose of editing sound files, you'd be hard pressed to do better than XFCE+Audacity.

[Stringbender]

Audacity in Ubuntu

I just started using ubuntu for my main OS. I have just started using Audacity and it seems to be working fine. I haven't changed my recording Computer to ubuntu yet but I am anxious to do so, but still testing and not yet real confident with using ubuntu yet. I always used XP before. I use Audacity to record with(because it is so easy to start up and use) but I like to use Cakewalk to apply effects because I can edit effects in real time. If someone knows if I can edit effects real time in Audacity ,please let me know. maybe I have found out how to yet. But so far I really like how fast my CPU works with ubuntu especially with recording. Thanks Steve

[Steve A.]

So does Linux have preemptive multitasking like Windoze- which I believe makes it less than desirable for audio recording.

Steve Ahola

[cminor9]

So does Linux have preemptive multitasking like Windoze- which I believe makes it less than desirable for audio recording.

I think some of that will depend on the build. But in general, Linux OSes have far less of that than windows. My Linux desktops run pretty lean. I use Ubuntu and Xubuntu. In Linux, you don't have or need a virus scan. That is one process that randomly sucks up a ton of RAM. Then there's all those stupid updater programs (java, flash, real, adobe, apple, etc) in Windows. Software updates are handled differently in Linux so those aren't necessary. The nice thing about many Linux distros is that if you like, you can trim down your desktop environment (the part of the OS that is responsible for the GUI) quite a bit..

[Steve Conner]

Yes, Linux has preemptive multitasking, like all modern OSs do. In stock form, it's not ideal for pro-audio: hardcore users will probably want to patch their kernels for better realtime performance. (If you're still using Audacity, don't worry: you're not hardcore )

http://ardour.org/node/1302

[cminor9]

Yes, Linux has preemptive multitasking, like all modern OSs do.
http://ardour.org/node/1302

Sure, but I guess what I was saying was that Linux seems to have less of it. Just the fact that there is no virus scan takes away one of the biggest resource hogs.

[Steve Conner]

XP doesn't have a virus scan either unless you install one. I've never used virus checking on my audio computer. If you don't use IE or Outlook Express, or play with pirate software, your chances of getting a virus aren't really that much worse than Linux.

If you do play with "warez" it's well worth keeping another computer with a virus scanner around, to use as a guinea pig