Pros and Cons of using Linux for music production
6 min read
Today we are looking at what it is like to produce music on a PC running a Linux operating system.
Linux is fantastic for many things, and while some people swear by it, it still has a lot of catching up to do before it can compete with mainstream OSes like Windows and MacOS.
For those that don’t know, Linux is a family of open source operating systems based on the Linux kernel, which was first released in 1991, by Linus Torvalds.
READ MORE: Can You Produce Music on a Raspberry Pi?
All computers for day-to-day use run on an operating system, which includes the desktop environment and file systems. Most people will be on PC and MacOS, but thousands of views on this site have come from Linux users, showing that it is very much in use for many people.
Linux has been seen by many mainstream computer users as a bit of an underdog.
While it is free, it is presumed to be less user-friendly than Windows and MacOS (both are paid for either when you buy the computer or build it).
One of the biggest “scary” parts about Linux is the need to use the command line to do certain things, however modern Linux OSes are slowly moving towards fully-graphical interfaces.
To be clear, Linux isn’t a single OS. There are many which you may have heard of, such as Ubuntu, Raspbian, and Debian, and others which you might not have, such as the MacOS-like Elementary.
The Lowdown
Linux is definitely a viable option, particularly for the future, however the lack of VST support and additional work needed to get it running smoothly will leave most producers pining for a better solution.
If you do want to tinker with Linux audio, I recommend grabbing a Raspberry Pi and checking out this article.
Using Linux for music production pros:
Linux is lightweight
One of the biggest pros of using a Linux OS to make music is that it is lightweight.
Music production software can get heavy, particularly with lots of samples and audio being processed simultaneously. This uses lots of CPU power and fills up RAM.
Linux has advantages over Windows and MacOS because it is generally more lightweight. To run the basic operating system, you generally need less computing power, and the base operations take up less RAM.
If we look at when Windows 10 was launched, lots of older computers ground to a halt, because Windows 10 needed at least 2GB of RAM to run. For a cheap computer, this meant even turning it on could use the full amount of system RAM, or at least half.
Once working, a DAW in Linux will (hopefully) run much smoother than it would on the same computer running Windows, this includes better latency and potentially more tracks.
Linux is free
Another big advantage is that Linux OSes and apps are almost always free. It is a heaven for open-source software and so for people on a budget, it may be a good solution. It is worth noting that, as you’ll see in the cons section, the additional time needed to get things working may be worth more than the cost of Windows.
Future of Linux
A lot of the downsides of Linux are being fixed, even as we speak. With thousands of people all contributing to the code behind it, Linux is becoming more and more usable for the average person.
One key area that Linux always struggled with was gaming, yet the past few years have been great for Linux gamers as more and more support has come.
Now, players can even see triple-A video game titles available on Linux in game stores such as Steam.
Music production is not as well supported yet, but as the ecosystem continues to develop, Linux may see even greater improvements.
Using Linux for music production cons:
Linux is still hard for anyone who isn’t tech-savvy
There will be plenty of Linux die-hards that may dislike this, but at the end of the day, Linux is much less plug-and-play than Windows or MacOS.
Driver compatibility is something most producers rarely need to worry about as Windows and MacOS deal with a lot of it under the hood.
In Linux, there isn’t the same user-flow to get something up and running from scratch.
Take me for example, in high school I actually had Ubuntu Linux as my main OS on my school laptop, so I am fairly used to using it day-to-day. Yet even now, I still have to Google solutions to problems much more than I do with Windows.
Finding solutions for Linux on forums is also a bit of a nightmare for tech noobs as everyone contributing to them generally has an expectation that people have done their research first. As much as people say it has a thriving community, it can also be quite snobby and hard to break into.
Linux is the WORST for plugin support
If you’ve ever had the problem with plugins running on a Mac, or realise you can’t run a 64-bit VST on a 32-bit OS, then you are going to hate what Linux has in store for you.
In fact, if you move to Linux, you can say goodbye to all your VSTs, since they often won’t work.
There are exceptions to this, for example running REAPER in WINE (recursive backronym for Wine Is Not an Emulator) – which allows you to run Windows software outside Windows – does allow you to use 64-bit VSTs. However, these tricks are much harder than just having them work from scratch in Windows.
There are a bunch of Linux plugins available, but many don’t work in the same way as VSTs, some may work as separate programs, where you have to pipe the audio back into the DAW after processing.
DAW options are limited in Linux
While Linux does offer a bunch of options for music production DAWs, examples include REAPER and BitWig, you aren’t going to get the industry heavyweights such as Logic, Pro Tools, or Ableton Live.
That said, here’s a list of music production apps Linux does offer.
Sound cards may be “no-sound” cards
Most producers will use an audio interface or a sound card of some kind to get their music to their speakers. In this regard, be very careful of what you buy if you plan to use Linux.
There is a good chance, you will struggle to get one working, and that is if it will be supported at all.
Audio issues in Linux aren’t a case of running Windows troubleshooter
While in Windows, you can solve most problems with the built-in troubleshooters, fixing issues in Linux is a bit more of a pain. Expect to dive deeper into the OS than you feel comfortable, and spend much longer looking for a fix.
There is a high chance when things go wrong you’ll need to dive into the Terminal and type a bit of “code” and navigating the filesystems in Linux can be daunting for newbies (and more seasoned users).
To sum up
I really can’t recommend the hassle of using Linux as a music production OS, unless you are already a Linux fan wanting a hobby. It has so many ongoing issues and hurdles, that you are much better just paying the one off fee of convenience for a Windows licence.
As one redditor put it:
If you’re that hard up for money, your time would be better spent training rabid squirrels to gather aluminum shoehorns. Even if there were plenty of great software (there isn’t,) the whole trainwreck that is Linux audio is crippled by the never-functioning JACK (short for Jack Audio Connection Kit.) It never fucking works. It will crash all day every day, for any reason, or for no reason. Instead of wrestling with already-difficult problems like “should I use side-chain compression?” you’ll be asking yourself “what does ERROR%&%&^(_&^(%$$&%#%# mean?”
/u/Singaya
I was an IT professional for 40 years and an amateur audio engineer. A member of the audio engineering society, I am currently building my own project studio. That should be enough background to put the following comments in context:
Linux is the best platform I have found for working on professional grade audio. It is true that there are some configuration items to deal with, but no more than with the Windows or Mac OS’s. I know some of you may find that difficult to believe, so I will take some specific examples.
Sound cards: Like with all hardware purchases, you should make certain that it will work with your OS. This includes both Windows and Mac as well. Most pieces of hardware will specify system requirements, inculding OS, processor, and RAM. You should pay close attention to this BEFORE you buy if you wish to avoid surprises.
Every piece of connecting hardware on every OS uses a driver. Period. The difference is driver management and, unless you are tech savvy in the first place, it doesn’t matter what OS you are running if you have a driver issue: you will need help.
Many mixers today provide multi-channel USB audio streaming and the AES67 protocol for audio over ip is in early stages of adoption. Many of these mixers will simply connect to your Linux workstation with no requirement for the user to do anything. As long as the relevant module (driver) is on the computer, the OS quietly loads it and the device just works.
If the device fails to work there are three likely possibilities:
1: Manufacturers are always looking for some new secret sauce to make their product stand out in the marketplace, sadly this may mean that there is no hope of running this device on Linux without a lot of probing and coding time. AVID is notable in this regard. Point of fact, there are some AVID sound cards with perfectly acceptable specs, even by today’s standards, that the company does not support on any platform and yet they also refuse to release the relevant documentation to allow for community support on any OS (Open Source is not limited to the Linux platform, it simply refers to a project for which the source code is available to everyone, e.g., the uncompiled program)
The driver has not yet been mainstreamed. This is more likely in newer unique hardware. USB audio limits this because the protocol for connecting via this means is a fairly mature standard. AES67, for ethernet connectivity, is still in its infancy.
The driver has been removed from the mainstream. Let’s face it, there is a limit to how many devices can be actively supported in the mainstream. If every device that made sound since the advent of the computer age was supported out of the box we would require a much larger hard drive. With Linux, however, removed from the mainstream does not mean unsupported. You just need to find the project where some stubborn tech is maintaining the code and install the driver.
Here I am at somewhat of a loss to give advice to newbs who have no interest in learning the command line. I have been using Linux and supporting various unices, Mac (OS 9 and X), and Windows for so long that the command line on all of these OS’s is second nature to me. I find it provides the most amount of information in the shortest period of time because I can quickly get the computer to tell me what I want to know and display it the way I want to see it. The bottom line here is that I am so comfortable with the command line on all these platforms that I have not payed very much attention to the management GUI’s on any of these platforms and, as this is a comment and not an actual article, I feel disinclined to spend the time on research. There is a GUI tool for managing kernel modules (drivers) on Linux, beyond that I can tell you no more.
So, to my recent purchase: I recently purchased a Behringer X32 and connected it via USB. All 32 tracks showed up right away but none of them worked. I looked at everything on the computer and found no issues. The driver was right where it should be, it was the latest rev, the DAW showed the device, but there was no sound making it to the configured tracks.
So it was off to google where I very quickly found the answer: upgrade the firmware on both the mixer and the X-USB sound card. There was even a youtube video. I did so and instantly everything worked. The point: USB audio just worked wonderfully, it was the mixer that was the problem.
Lest you think this is a one off, I recently did some work on an Allen & Heath QU-16 and connected it to my laptop to record the event. This time running Debian 10 and the purchased version ($45) of Ardour, which also runs on the Windows and Mac OS’s. Once more the device simply connected and worked. I didn’t even have to open a terminal window.
Control Surfaces:
The last piece of hardware I will discuss and my latest purchase, an SSL nucleus (original series, NOT the series 2) This DAW control, interface, requires two connections, an ethernet connection for MIDI in order to control the DAW, and a USB connection for audio and sending keyboard and mouse commands from the macro buttons on the surface. Again everything worked, although I did have to go through a little hoop to get the Ardour profile loaded into the Nucleus, but that is outside the scope of this comment and would have been the same on Mac as it was the Nucleus that was the issue.
Wrapping up hardware: Dante is not AES67 compliant, although it appears it may be moving in that direction. Audinate has stated that it has no plans to port (recompile) its virtual soundcard to Linux, so at the moment Linux and Dante are mutually exclusive.
VST plugins: Since information is constantly changing, I will simply paste this link: https://manual.ardour.org/working-with-plugins/
Huge pros for me: With Windows, the monitors move around from time to time, with Mac you either spend huge amounts of money or everything, including extra displays, is supported by external devices. With Linux you get the simplicity and cost effectiveness of commodity hardware combined with unmatched stability. NOTE: Once it is set up, it just keeps going and going and going. I have a mail server running in my basement that has been running for fifteen years. Almost every piece has been replaced, including the motherboard and power supply, but it’s been done a piece at a time and the OS load is the same one as was done back then. Although it has been upgraded from etch (version 4) all the way up to Jessie (Currently 9.13) by simply using the distribution update utility. Since my studio is new, so is my DAW, so only time will tell how long it will run without an OS reload. Probably I’ll do it with each new major Ardour release. The point of all this: Linux is worth any extra work in getting it set up because of the stability factor. It is just a wonderful thing to know that your DAW will just run when you get up in the morning and start to work on your next project.
John Tatum
slidesinger.com
After migrating from Windows (Cakewalk Sonar, and Logic before that) to Linux, and using Linux for a few years, I finally migrated to MacOS and Logic Pro X this year. I can tell you that I am NOT looking back. Logic Pro X is one of the best DAWs out there, it’s only $199, and it comes with SO MANY incredible sounds, drum kits, plugins, virtual instruments, loops, virtual drummers, and functionality, and it’s STABLE. With Linux, every new release brings a new set of headaches, trying to get things working again which worked in the previous release. And your projects from a year or two ago won’t open in the newer version of the SAME open-source DAW, or the DAW just crashes for no apparent reason. Linux music production software is terribly buggy, and different distros (even the ones geared to music production) have different combinations and different versions of DAWs, virtual instruments, plugins, and so on. Also, whomever came up with the idea of JACK (a separate, user-space program) for handling pro audio and MIDI routing, deserves a bullet to the brain. That functionality should be built straight into the kernel, as it is on every operating system which supports professional audio/MIDI work.
As big a fan, user, supporter and maintainer of Linux as I have been over the years, I have to say, MacOS X Catalina and Logic Pro X are the best platform I’ve ever used for music production.
https://soundcloud.com/loheatmusic
Windows can’t even get its latency issues under control LOL
Windows built-in troubleshooters solving problems? Good luck man
Linux isn’t all peaches and cream… but Windows? Please…
Linux has Pipewire now, which is an all-in-one replacement for ALSA, JACK, and Pulseaudio. If you have it installed by default like in Fedora, the out of the box experience is painless. The low-latency it brings is just amazing. I know Linux doesn’t have the best plugin support overall, but there’s amazing free synth and plugins on Linux like LSP, Vital/Vitalium, or ZynFusion. With both Vital and ZynFusion I think you’re set 🙂
I think my minor gripe would be Ardour’s relatively inferior audio and MIDI editing to Reaper. But Reaper looks real ugly on Linux. So it’s hard to decide which to use.