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Linux and DAWs
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| IDarkISwordI |
Hey. Its a rarity I have a question on here but this one has presented itself :). I was curious of how many composers on here are using Linux on their production computers. I was curious to hear what tools you are using and what expirience you have with using WinE and WXP production software in Linux. Oh, and one last important one, which distro is best for DAW in your opinion.
The basic rundown for the intent of my question is that WXP is great for production but it just hogs too much power and resources to truely be efficient. OSX is awesome but I don't want to stray to far from what I am used to software wise which leaves me Linux. I'm planning to build a Linux diskless cluster of 5 P4s that run at 2.4GHz w/ HT enabled and use gigabit ethernet between the computers. I havent decided on the ammount of memory I want but somewhere in the neighborhood of 512MB - 1GB per computer would be sufficient. This will get me plenty of processing power to run way more than the needed nubmer of FX and instruments.
Basicly, I just want to know your thoughts on this project.
Cheers,
Zac |
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| Zombie0915 |
I run fedora core 3 with the planet CCRMA installed on top of it. I wouldn't call my setup "best" though, but it is working really nicely for me. I moved to linux mainly for the affordability and because I have grown comfortable with it at work. It might not offer things that are important for the pros but it is a great way for me to make music, I like how much more fun the linux tools are, I could sit in front of the computer and play with those programs all day, something I never had the patience for on windows, which is kinda weird because most people are opposite, having no patience for linux.
I use ardour, spiralsynth modular, ladspa plugins, and a heap of other programs. They came in the planet ccrma package.
I think jack is awesome, you really can't go wrong with one of those audio packages like agnula or audioslack or planet ccrma, good luck dude. |
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| IDarkISwordI |
Hey. Cool, thanks for the suggestions. I'll check into those tonight :).
Cheers,
Zac |
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| we_R_DNA |
After about a year of trying to just find the right distro for me in linux to use for producing music I finally found the best. At least it is a subjective point of view. I found that CCRMA rocks my flipping world!! I also made a post about different linux studios you setup. Check it out
http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...ght=%22linux%22
Personally I would be down to co-lab with either of you on this thread because I am looking for linux producers which is a rarity it seems and on top of that those that produce trance heheehhe. We should all co-lab with the programs we have at our finger tips.
PM or drop a another message on the thread sometime.
PEace |
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| Zombie0915 |
I'm down for a little collaboration, lighting killed the ethernet card on my linux running laptop and I am having some trouble tracking down a new one, so it might be a while before I am operational again. I was in the middle of changing a bunch of stuff when the lighning struck, now my sound wont work until I download a bunch of things and I can't do that until I find a new nic card.
I could always get a pcmia nic, but I'm not to confident in my abilities to get linux to work with one of those. I should have alot of time this summer to do the things I like, I hope to spend some of it getting better at production, having some people to work with would probably help alot.
I'll send you another message once my system is back on line, until then I am stuck using windows. |
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| messytechie |
| quote: | Originally posted by IDarkISwordI
I'm planning to build a Linux diskless cluster of 5 P4s that run at 2.4GHz w/ HT enabled and use gigabit ethernet between the computers. |
wait wait wait wait wait..... are you saying what I'm thinking your saying? Do u mean you can use the CPU power from 5 machines to power one machine? I've heard of this being done in the Mac world but never in the PC world!
I was contemplating spending a stupid amount of money in the summer on some hot 4ghz P4 type thing, but if this is possible this will completely change my plans. Is it effective? How does it work?
cheers
bemused phil |
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| messytechie |
| oh and can it be done with XP, as well as Linux? |
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| IDarkISwordI |
Hey. You are making me laugh :). Linux clustering has been around since almost the beginning of its coding and before that, UNIX (though, not on PCs) had clustering in it as well. Yes, you can cluster PCs together with Linux. The form I was talking about, a diskless cluster, has a master computer and a bunch of nodes. The master computer has the only hard drive(s) in the setup. From there, the nodes boot across the network from the master PC, with no hard drive in them. This helps cut down on costs. The only issue is having a fast enough interconnect between them. Many times fibre is used, which is a common term for speeds above 1Gb. For home use, I can settle for regular 1Gb transfer speeds between them.
My initial plan was to use a piece of software called VMWare. Unfortunately, it isnt cluster aware (isnt able to utilize it). What VMWare does do, is it allows you to install another OS, such as Windows XP and run it in a windowed form while actually being able to see a Linux desktop in the background. So, I'm left with a program called WinE (Windows Emulator) which does exactly what the name says. Trying to stay non-technical, what it does is; say when you open a program file (.exe), it calls windows giving it a list of instructions on how to open it but Linux speaks a different language and isnt able to read that list; so WinE acts as an interpreter for those commands, allowing you to run Windows based software, in Linux without even having a copy of Windows. WinE sounds excellent, unfortunately, it isnt finished (and wont be for a very long time). On the brighter side of things, WinE does mostly support VSTs, DXs and of course, most important to me, FL Studio but it still has some bugs.
In answer to your question about Windows beign able to cluster, yes it can, but not with Windows XP. If you want clustering abilities (and not nearly as good abilities as Linux provides), you have to move up to thier higher end, server software, such as Windows 2000 Advanced Server or the newer Windows 2003 Server.
If you are contemplating about which to get, a single P4 at 4GHz versus a Linux cluster array, depending on what you will be doing, especially for gaming, stick to the single P4. If you will be doing other stuff, say rendering your latest CGI movie, by all means, definantly go with as many racks as you can afford. For CGI type stuff, clustering is available in all versions of Windows through those programs, but a client version of the app is needed on all of the nodes, requiring you to have Windows installed on ever rack (ouch for the costs!). For me, its also a good deal because, in theory, which I've yet to disprove with WinE, this will let me run FLS with an almsot unlimited nubmer of effects and instruments. Remember though, going with the cluster array means higher power consumption and ultimately a higher electric bill. A power supply in a P4 system, is recommended to be able to push 300 watts, which is far lower than the wattage consumed and lost inside the powersupply. Just be weary of all factors before you decide on something :) and if you have any more questions about it, I'll be glad to try and provide a good answer :).
Cheers,
Zac |
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| Zombie0915 |
I am fairly new to this ccrma package, I muck around with things and can make alot of fun sounds, but I don't have a good routine together for completing a song project quite yet.
Could you explain briefly the process you go through to make a song, there are so many programs on this thing that I dont know what does what yet.
It would be really nice to look over the shoulder of someone who knows what they are doing with this package just to help come up with a decent process for making tunes. |
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| we_R_DNA |
| I agree, there is no solid way to produce a project yet from what I am doing. I am thinking of producing .wav founds with all the programs and putting the recordings into audor and going from there. That is a general idea on how to gather materials for the project by recording .wav files then from there putting them together to produce a track with just wave files. Or you can create a percusion with hydrogen then impliment that into rosegarden and create a melody with rosegarden and an external synth software device IE subsynth. |
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| Zombie0915 |
I was always used to doing everything with a couple programs, 1 being the "main" program that everything centers around, like fruity or buzz or whatever with all the plugins on top of it. It seems to be very different under linux, things appear much more scattered.
It just leaves me a bit confused, I am having trouble picking which program I want everything centered around. I was thinking about using either ardour or rosegarden, but I heard that ardour can only work with audio files and cant do MIDI, but it also says it can handle all sorts of plugins and stuff.
I'm sure I'll come up with a decent routine soon enough, there is so many web pages about it online that its only a matter of time. The synchronization issue is also a bit confusing, sure audio can go back and fourth between programs with jack, but how do I make it all line up so that I can get a song? I guess I should do some more trial and error for that kind of stuff. |
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