Hi everyone,
I’m getting fed up windows and want to switch my laptop to linux. My laptop also doesn’t meet windows 11 standards so I figured nows a good time to switch. I don’t do a whole lot on my laptop, but there are some programs that I do need to use. I have an E drum kit and right now I use reaper and Steven slate audio center to play and record my drums through my laptop. I looked at reaper, and I see linux options for download. But for Steven slate , I only see windows and Mac. This is pretty disappointing and so I figured I ask to see what would work for me.
I was going to go with Ubuntu, because it seems to be the most user friendly and has good support. I also use mullvad VPN on my laptop very frequently, which was another reason I chose Ubuntu.
Any help is appreciated. I’m willing to look at other distros too if there is one that better fits my needs.
EDIT: I have successfully migrated to linux mint and have reaper working with yabridge. Thanks, everyone, for your help and suggestions!
I work in music and audio post, and everyone I work with would love to be able to use Reaper (or Logic, or Nuendo) instead of Pro Tools, if Pro Tools didn’t have the post industry completely captured in the US.
Reaper is a world-class product, and the team could easily charge 10x as much for the pro licenses, and get it. Stick with Reaper.
There are alternative drum triggers for Linux, I’m sure. Even SPL makes a drum exchanger. There’s got to be one out there.
VMR shouldn’t be a problem to run, I just don’t know what the install process would look like.
I’m pretty sure Airwindows plugs are Linux compatible, probably Audio Obsession too.
In any case, Reaper’s stock plugins are awesome. My only real complaint about them is the EQ cramping in the hi-end, which is typical for stock plugins.
I would prefer to stick with reaper since I’m familiar with it and going off other comments, it seems that I can still use windows vsts in linux so I think that is the route I’m going to go
Yup - vst is OS-agnostic.
Hi, I ran into a problem with reaper taking over my audio driver and I’m not able to play YouTube, or any other music, while reaper is open. I didn’t have this problem in windows because I had the aiso4all driver. But doing some searching, I’m not sure that driver will work on linux. Do you have any insight as to how to fix this?
While I don’t have personal experience with this, I did find this from the bad website:
Install pipewire-jack and use JACK audio device in Reaper. Also, yes make sure that wireplumber is installed.
Not sure about Reaper, but most Windows-only VSTs work fine on Linux using yabridge in my experience. Some DRM can have issues, though, and sometimes you need to install dependencies using winetricks.
Also, I noticed you mentioned using Ubuntu since Mullvad is supported. I have a feeling that you’re attempting to download software through websites instead of using your distro’s repo or by using flathub. Downloading software “the Windows way” by using websites isn’t recommended unless it is not available on repos. Mullvad works on every distro, for example, and is available on most repos.
Oh ok, that’s good to know that I can use vsts on linux. And I’m just overall being more privacy conscientious lately.
I was able to get reaper working with yabridge and I’m using Steven slate free sampler. Thanks for the help
Right now I’d say the best open-source DAW for Linux is LMMS if you want to do everything just on your laptop, or Ardour if you want to use external instruments.
LMMS has some shockingly versatile built in synths, including a port of ZynAddSubFX, supports LADSPA/LV2 plugins, and supports using Wine to run 32-bit Windows VSTs. I’m unsure of Ardour’s VST support, but it at least supports LV2 plugins. Either of those, if you install them through your distro, will likely include Calf Studio Gear, an extensive collection of LV2 effects and a couple synths. As for ones that run natively on Linux, there’s synthv1, samplv1, drumkv1, and padthv1, though I’ve had trouble getting them working myself.
I’ve found some good stuff on the Linux Audio Wiki but IDK how up to date most of it is.
That’s really helpful. Thanks for the info. I will look into Ardour since I exclusively use my e kit. And thanks for the wiki page.
I like Ardour. Unfa on YouTube made a great tutorial on how to use it.
Thanks for the tip!
You should use Ardour, it’s a DAW with native linux version. It’s free for Linux users and it’s a free software.
LMMS isn’t really a DAW, as it can’t really manipulate audio easily, only midi. Reaper and Bitweeg have native Linux version but aren’t free softwares.
Windows Vst are running fine on linux these days, but on Linux there are a lot of audio plugins on Lv2 format you should try as well… Lastly, native vst for Linux do exist and work flawlessly.
Edit: as a general rule, audio in Linux is fairly different than on windows/macos, because it allows more flexible workflows, with the use of multiple softwares in sync to get the best of their abilities. For instance I make professional audio mainly with Ardour but I also use rosegarden, guitarix, luppp, non-daw, open stage control or pure data for some specific functions.
Thanks for the info. I checked out ardour and it seems like a good product. Looks like I’ll have to branch out more and see what my options for vsts are.
If you don’t mind paying for it, Bitwig is probably the best that officially supports Linux. There are also ways to run windows VSTs in wine on Linux. I’m no pro, but I love Bitwig, it has boatloads of cool stuff. Reaper also supports Linux. Ubuntu is fine IMO, I think there is a spin that’s specific to audio workloads that might be nice for a beginner. I use Arch at home but I use Ubuntu for work, it’s pretty nice these days.
I wouldn’t mind paying for a program. But I’m wary of paying for programs because companies these days change their policies and make their services subscription based, and when that happens they gradually increase the price. But I will check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.
Does that program come with drum samples? Or would I have to get that separately?
bitwig studio comes with tons of samples. it’s a fantastic daw.
there’s a reason a lot of ableton users switch over to bitwig.
reaper is also very good, but a bit clunky for edm/techno/etc.
Bitwig is pretty sweet, but definitely more than I need right now. I was able to get my kit to register in reaper so I’ll probably stick with that for now.
Bitwig comes with so much that I can’t remember if they have drum samples or just machines or both. I highly recommend you try the free trial to see if you like it before you buy.
I checked it out and it is a more than I’m needing right now. I’m not an audio guy and bitwig is a little over whelming.
Totally understandable, it has a lot going on and if you already know reaper it might be good to stick with it. Good luck!
my favorite daw is renoise. The sample management is excellent (it’s a tracker) and it manages VST perfectly well.
SunVox is also pretty cool, as far as trackers go
not exactly a DAW/VST but VCV Rack is a open source (though with a pro version , the pro version can work as a VST though I never used it in that way) eurorack modular synthesizer symulator if you want to experiment a bit
there is also Cardinal, based on VCV Rack but with only open source modules
That sounds pretty awesome. But it’s probably more than I’m needing right now. I will keep it in mind in case I want to do more later on
you’ll be fine.
do a dual boot install and play around with reaper. setup wine and see how it does with steven slate.
people are saying use ardour. i don’t like it, but you might. my computer music needs are limited to midi and recording inputs, not performing actual synthesis and sampling “in the box”.
I have been using the “try ubuntu” option from my Bootable USB, I downloaded ardour but was disappointed that their demo was only 10 min… while I was setting up my e kit to make sure it worked, it kept bugging me every 10 min to pay for the software. That was pretty off-putting. I think I will keep using reaper.
it really reaps the llamas ass.
were you able to get the steven slate vsts running in some host?
Not yet unfortunately, I’m still new to linux so it’s still taking me longer to figure things out. I got reaper up and running really easy, but wine took a while to figure out. But I eventually got that working and was able to install Steven slate audio center and I git my drum kit to register in reaper. But I wasn’t able to get Steven slate working, I think I’ll have to use yabridge, which several other comments brought up. But I’m making progress!
Good luck. If Steven slate keeps fucking up your christmas it might be possible to duplicate what you use it for using a native effects package.
Ardour is the most complete and professional DAW in my experience, Zrythm looks promising.
