Can you recommend some free audio plugins in linux for orchestral compositions? Cause I LOVE Manjaro Linux but I don't want to change OS everytime just for composing some music or create a Windows VM just because it's easier to find free VST on windows for that.
--- UPDATE 20202-02-12: Virtual Playing Orchestra has serious licensing issues and should not be used in it's current state. AFAIK Titanic soundfont's source material licensing is also unclear and most likely violates copyright of 3rd parties. What is safe is listed here: hilbricht.net/foss-sampled-instruments.html --- ORIGINAL: On Manjaro (and other Arch-based distros) you can install a bunch of great free LV2 plug-ins encapsulating orchestral soundfonts: aur.archlinux.org/packages/fluidplug-git Also the Titanic Soundfont is a great GM soundfont, so in Ardour you can use the General MIDI Synth to use it: aur.archlinux.org/packages/soundfont-titanic Another resource is The Virtual Playing Orchestra: virtualplaying.com/virtual-playing-orchestra/ It works in Carla, so to play with that in Ardour you need to use the Carla Rack plug-in - then you can drag'n'drop the SFZ files into it. I've just started playing with these, so I don't have a lot of experience yet.
I have no experience with it, and this is not a plugin, but with reference to orchestral compositions rosegarden comes to mind.. FWIW.. www.rosegardenmusic.com/
@@andrzejwawer6241 I've recently started using the Sfizz SFZ sampler - there's quite a few nice orchestral and other samples instruments available in that format in Public Domain.
Hey unfa, your faithful hater here. But excuse me, there is nothing to hate in this video, it is flawless I'd say, I watched it twice to check. You left me without work, so skrew you! Thaks.
Hey unfa, greetings from Brazil! I've been following your channel for a while, and I'm just here to say thank you. You're a great person and a musician. I admire you and thank you for all the knowledge transmitted.
A little correction: Some of the Ardour's Lua plug-ins are actually LV2 plug-ins, and if you installed Ardour from KX Studio Repositories, you can use them in other hosts as well! Though the GUIs look better in Ardour ;)
I love you man, your really amazing.You blew my mind. Everyone's running between Ableton, FL, protools, logic, r Cubase your working with ardour. You'r a fucking legend man. Respects
I like your the "Waaaaay cleaner" phrase! Ready to re-watch it more than 9000 times. Also you may notice that using LSP equalizer is "waaaaaay cheaper" when talking about CPU resources rather than any other EQ for Linux ;) Best, Vladimir
@@unfa00 That's the exact implementation of multiband compressor. Such implementations have problems at the split frequencies. That's because bands utilize FIR filters for splitting the input signal. FIR filters have nonlinear phase, that's why we get serious artifacts when summing final bands into output signal. Multiband compressor in 'Modern' mode uses dynamic filters instead, and the problem of phase distortion at the split frequencies does not occur.
As someone who is learning to use free DAWs and experimenting with producing for the very first time, this is an excellent video. I’ll be looking into a lot of these resources- especially the synth you recommended so highly! Thanks.
I was so frustrated, trying to pirate editing software on windows first, on Mac OS next and accomplished nothing, and than I found your blog. My life became so fucking easier with Linux and open source software, thank you!!!
Just a short comment while watching: I had the same problem with Linux Mint now lacking KDE support, so I switched to KDE Neon, working fine. Just setting it up for music production (mostly guitar recording)
You can't go wrong with Manjaro. I went from Ubuntu to Mint and they were both great but Manjaro with KDE is light years ahead. Setup might not be as simple as Debian distros but once you get everything sorted, it's fantastic.
I hope this message finds you many years after this video was made. I been doing Linux for a LONG time. I have tried to start using Ardour many times only to eventually get to a point where the manual makes no sense to me and there are no ... people like you yet paving the way for us idiots. Thanks Bro! :)
This is excellent. Wanting to go back to electronic music on Linux, I'm happy you did this video which gives a good overview of what is possible now. Thank you!
Thanks for making this video. I'm tired of the jack modular workflow and I'm going to reign it in and use everything in Ardour like you with the exception being vcvrack.
I've asked VCV Rack developers if they'd make an LV2 plug-in version, but they said they only intend VCV Rack to be run as a standalone program, and only in a single instance.
@@unfa00 That is a shame. There is the VeeSeeVSTRack VST thing but I've not used it. I don't think it works with many addons and probably lags behind significantly in versions.
Wow...!!!!!! What a video amazing research amazing thought process.. and above all of it making such an amazing nice flowing video. Truly well presented.. you are truly an inspiration for someone who wants to create a studio for low cost. I always wanted to do that in the past but due to no video on such stuff ended up buying a lot of softwares.. I wish I had seen this video a year ago.. once again please accept my finest compliments for such brilliant work
Lol, good video, I like those transitions you make, like jingles, glitches, distortions... excited about you considering Manjaro, as I have recently started using it.
Lots of new plugins since I stopped doing Linux audio Production a few years back. I used to use TAP autoscaling limiter on the masters then output via jack to Jamin multiband compression for mastering. Would be interested in the trying Calf limiter and multiband compressor
Dude, this is awesome! I'm mainly a Windows user but I love Linux. Just installed mint last night and busy setting it up, and as someone who comes from FL Studio, I want to use Linux as my main OS, so I'm looking into native Linux programs instead of having to use Wine etc, so thank you so much for this! Subbed 😎
@@unfa00 I'm sure I will, thank you. I tried adding the repositories for zyn-fusion so that I can download it, but unfortunately that seems to not work at this point in time. Ardour has been installed via the software manager, so that works, but I'm having difficulty with zyn-fusion right now. If there's an updated method to get it, I'd appreciate it, thank you
welcome, and check out Ubuntu Studio 20.10 (it's pre-release but should work fine, and keep it updated), it's KDE by default now and includes Ardour 6! cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/dvd/current/HEADER.html
Thank you so much for this amazing work. I too have a problem with "industry standards" (although it is a bit of a pain when a client brings in a protools project for me to mix or add tracks to - guess that's what standards are good for). Anyhow, I haven't worked with media production for the last year and I was happy to hear Cockos Reaper and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve are finding their way into Linux. Not libre, I know, but I love the way Reaper is thought around its users and the blazing speed of Resolve's rendering. Ever tried to give Mint MATE a chance? It's kind of flat but very light and useful. And you can install KDE libraries to run software specific to that (I edited my videogame cover videos using kdenlive that way) Thank you again for the great work! Lots of videos to be watched ahead.
I haven't tried MATE - I really like KDE Plasma, and also - it has features like forcing specific window manager properties on certain windows or applications - which is very handy in my workflow, I haven't seen any other DE having such options yet.
I installed Ubuntu (Not studio version) and haven’t found a way to change repositories to find Zyn Fusion. Or, I did download Zyn (and subfx) but can’t figure out the settings in ardor to find the sounds to start with? I’m used to “Kits” but am going to study and support your work so I can become even half as good as you at modding and creating my own sounds. Can’t thank you enough!! I’ll install Linux Mint on my studio computer and see if I can find Zyn fusion. If you would maybe consider makin a video on setting up a computer from scratch that uses ardor and Zyn running mint, that would be amazing.
Arch is the way to go. Their repositories have so much software, no other distro comes close. Ubuntu based distros have outdated software in their repos.
A very interesting video to use as a reference. @unfa, I feel that it would be interesting for you to redo this video from time to time. Almost like a state of the art of the free and open-source music production. I'd watch it :)
great video and great channel, very informative. i'm getting into some beat making myself using ardour in arch and i use most of the plugins you showed in the video, except fabla2 which i discovered in your vid and the concept is amazing. only i got a problem with the UI, as most of the text are some random unreadable symbols, but the funny thing is the plugin works pretty well. any idea on how to fix the UI issue? did you ran into similar issues? keep the good work going!
I’m looking for recommendations for a very stable and lightweight midi sequencer to sequence a full set of music, up to 90 minutes. I would like some ability to loop sections and then continue with the next section. When performing I only want to deal with a few commands that should be triggered by midi. For example: play, pause, loop current section, continue from current section, continue next loop (this would essentially complete the current predefined looping section and continue to play and loop the next predefined loop section), stop all, stop with fade (predefined fade time), stop and fade out current loop (that means the loop plays until it ends with fade out timed to arrive at same time), continue next section (useful if I’ve paused or stopped and then want to continue with the show), skip (will ignore the next section and follow next commands as if the next section doesn’t exist), Jump to next section with fade out and fade in (this allows me to skip ahead if I’m in the middle of a long section and don’t want to play it out), that’s about it. I don’t need a software that can do all of this it everything but mostly the ability to loop sections and then jump to the next in an elegant manner. I can approximate a lot of this behavior in Logic but I’d prefer something midi only and lightweight. Ideally something that can run on a Raspberry Pi would make it much easier to integrate into my hardware setup and not require a laptop for live use. Which is why to be able to send the commands with a midi device. One other thing, I don’t want to have to hard sync this with my hardware instead I will simply plan out the tempo changes and make manual adjustments, so if the sequencer can be nudged faster or slower as needed that would be a plus. Another reason I want midi only if possible. I realize it looks like a huge amount of requirements but really it’s just a wish list. Thanks in advance, oh one more thing, cross platform support would be great too, if I could do all my show prep on my Mac and then just copy over to the RPi for tech run through it would be a good workflow.
I've never had much success with those session managers either. They save stuff, but when you try to reload them it always seems to do completely insane stuff, haha.
Very informative and highly entertaining. I confess, I haven't used Linux since Redhat, around 1997. Ardour will take me from PT. But the dark colors are tough on my eyes these days. It's going to take awhile for me to lighten up the Ardour color scheme. As a huge fan of MB, just seems right to switch to Ardour.
Hi, thanks for all of your contents. I would like to start following a free-software philosophy and here i'm discovering many useful and powerful utilities for my Ubuntu machine. That's wonderful!
I'm a Logic Pro user, but I really want to learn about DAW options on both Windows and Linux so that I can do a variety of things on my channel in the future. I'm familiar with Linux - I'm running Ubuntu on my homemade arcade cabinet. I just subscribed to your channel, because it looks like a great resource!
Hi Unfa, After deciphering the logo at 3:03 I switched from Linux Mint 19 to Manjaro. This was a painstaking process that I rather not reverse. However.. Now I cannot use the KXStudio repositories.... Can you recommend a work-around or an alternative that will work with Manjaro? Greenthing, Bleys * side note- I am completely new to Linux, try and keep that in mind.
That was a bold move :D In Manjaro you can use the AUR - Arch User Repository. In there you'll find a package for Zyn-Fusion. However even outside of AUR, if you open Octopi (the GUI for package management) you can find a group called 'pro-audio' and it has the majority of what I'd need to work. Though I had some problems with it, so I'm still running Linux Mint 18 for now.
i don't understand why you don't use ubuntu studio which comes with a lot of good stuff pre-installed and a low latency kernel and the DE is xfce which is and fairly sane, customizable, and lightweight. And installing the kde desktop environment is just a simple terminal command away or just using synaptic package manager. Customizing which software you want at the install is a really nice thing about ubuntu studio, and because it is an official flavor of ubuntu, you could just keep upgrading from release to release and of course you can use ppa and select proprietary drivers as easily as you can in linux mint. I've tried to manjaro a few times over the years, and in my experience, after a while something breaks that i can't really sort out and i don't really want to spend the time doing so, it's better for tinkerers and people who like to fix stuff that breaks.
Ha ha ha LOL! Seems that you like the postal game. Me to, I’ll go postal when I’m frustrated by someone or something like software pissing me of. To see that particular game in your video bring up old memories from the time I spent doing coding and modifications to the game. Thumbs up 👍 Dude let’s see some more of your great work 😎 Ps. At first when Your face turned up on the living room alter aka tv 📺 I laughed inside thinking 💭 that dude looks just like, well the DUDE. When you stated speaking I was saying ; it is the dude. Then postal came up and I laughed out so freaking loud that all of Denmark 🇩🇰 was able to hear it 😂😂😂😂🐥🤯🤪👍
Jest gdzieś informacja jak zainstalować te programy i wtyczki w Ubuntu np? Mam jeszcze pytanie czy jest możliwość nagrywania automatycznego akompaniamentu z keyborda poprzez port USB? Jeżeli jest to jak to zrobić. Nie ukrywam, że taka opcja bardzo ułatwiłaby mi pracę nad muzyką. Pozdrawiam.
If you like using Mint or any other distro but you do not like their choice of their default desktop environment you can easily use any desktop or window manager with the necessary utilities that come with a desktop environment. I was using Mint and I just installed KDE from the Mint repositories then I had Mint with the plasma desktop, easy peasy. I am now running MX Linux because you do not need to use systemd, I am old school and prefer the old traditional init system. If you are interested just do a search of systemd vs init. MX also does not ship with KDE plasma it has XFCE one of my least favorite desktops and I just installed KDE from the MX repos. MX is based on Debian and so I added the KX Studio repos in the MX package manager and installed KX Studio.
unfa what’s the hype with KDE I feel like it’s super windows looking and it gawks me out. Been a gnome user for over a decade - will I gain functionality ?? I'll just give it a shot
@@jasonpittman5012 the default is very windows like because most of the world uses windows so it's the familiar setup, but you can customize the hell out of KDE and it can look and behave very similar to Mac OS, or Ubuntu Unity, etc. check out Feren OS and you'll see how versatile and customizable KDE can be with their desktop changer tool, whatever it's called. i have mine on Unity, which mimics Ubuntu Unity, with a global menu, dock on the left, similar launcher menu, and maximized window buttons integrating with the top panel. so yea it does look somewhat like windows, but it's easy to make it look like just about anything you want. you can have panels on all 4 sides of the screen edges, from full width to the width of a single widget.
New to Linux. Just experimenting on an old Macbook Pro at the moment, to see if Linux will work for me. I initially chose AV Linux - MX Edition 64bit to try, My DAW of choice is Bitwig Studio. I tried to install Bitwig Studio on AVL, but was met with this: "No Lintian available. Please install using sudo apt-get install lintian." Went to the terminal, typed it in, and it then said: "Package Lintian is not available, but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source." So, I gave up on AV Linux, and tried straight Ubuntu, which the Bitwig team suggests. HATED Ubuntu. Kept crashing. Then tried Linux Mint 20.1, which is Ubuntu based. I was able to install Bitwig Studio on it with no problem, but I don't know if Mint is properly optimized for audio production. I'm having crackling problems with the audio just using one CPU intensive native Bitwig synth plugin. Running just audio is ok, but after a few minutes of letting it loop, the audio quality steadily gets worse. I'm running audio through an iConnectAUDIO4+ in ALSA. Truth be told, I'd rather use AV Linux. It seems to be optimized for audio right out of the gate. Do you have any pointers on how to get Bitwig to install on AVL, or suggestions to optimize Mint for audio, or perhaps I should try a different distro? I'm still thinking of trying Ubuntu Studio to see if that works, even though Ubuntu straight was a bitter pill to swallow. I'm running on a 2009 Macbook Pro, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53ghz CPU, 8gb RAM. Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon, 5.4.0-58 generic kernel. Thanks, Unfa. I dig your videos. Very helpful.
hi, unfa how are you? from turkey ....Will the Behringer UCA202 sound card work in ubuntu studio? or can i record from the behringer qx1204 usb mixer integrated in the same card? thinking to install reaper into linux? Can you help me?
Hi Unfa! How about VST instruments? In LMMS as you know we have VeSTige, but what about Ardour? There are TONS of FREE VST instruments out there (vst4free.com) and I don't know how to use them in Ardour =(
Wow thank you for do that video, I'm new here and thinking move to linux, I used Ableton Live and someone told me Qtractor is the same visual and features you can confirm that to me? Vst's work fine with some open source software? Which software do you recommend to me coming from Ableton? Ty for the video!!
sure has. check out and support Ubuntu Studio. i'm not affiliated with that project in any way, but what a great distro it is and what an awesome bundle of software that it comes with. very nice job, and, beginning with 20.10, it will use (a slightly stripped down, lean and mean) KDE by default.
Hello. Thank you for your video. I am starting a home studio with Mint and I am looking for the "Linux compatible soundcards" and "wich program is the best between Ardour, LMMS, etc.. What is the difference between them? ??" Could you help ? THX
Hi! Did you use any console tracker? I want to try to write music in pure console without X, now I'm considering PLEBTracker eg. I would be very happy if you shared your experience. I'm haunted by my past: I began on a ZX-Spectrum clone with AY-8910 and 3-voice awesome 8bit sound :)))
damn this video is ridiculously well made! Great work Unfa! Watching your videos to learn how to actually do audio stuff in Linux, instead of messing around with fuck all else.
Thank you! Lots of work went into it! Good luck :) And if you have any trouble or want to meet other Linux audio enthusiasts - check out my community chat! chat.unfa.xyz
@@unfa00 I reread the newcomer info, I def remember something about RocketChat but my attention-span and memory retention is crapp nowadays. Will check it out thx!
That is, IF you record acoustic instruments ahaha =) Also though, for vocals/voiceovers, I'm just looking into Linux-friendly interfaces, as I rely a lot on microphones for my creations.
Hello! Greetings from Argentina! Your videos are fabulous, thanks for sharing your knowledge! One question: Is there a bass amplifier simulator for Linux? I've been using Ubuntu Studio for years and never found a dedicated software for that. I have a fretless bass that I never could make sound like I want. I already tried Guitarix and Rakarrack.
Sorry for being 1 year late, but check out ToneLib GFX. It's not open source (as far as I know), but it has guitar and bass amp sims, cabinet emulation, pedals and all that.
I'm a year later as well. Thank you! And sorry! There's a lot of different guitar amplifier simulations, for example github.com/GuitarML/SmartGuitarAmp
hi, thanks for your vids man i have one question about mapitchshift is it possible to build on platforms other than linux? if so, how do i do that? thanks in advance
Great video ! Thanks. Could you make a video about live setup ? How to play live ? I mean, how to change setup between each song, obviously without a new session for every track.. How would you play your album live ? Giutar, multiple keyboard..
That is a big and interesting topic, though I don't think I have enough experience playing live to make it justice. I used to play with a band and I used Carla to trigger ZynAddSubFX using different MIDI channels + add more effects and manipulate them as I played. In Carla you can assign MIDI CC to plug-in controls and also filter that by MIDI channels, so I'd really focus on that. I considered Ardour but it's not really suited for that. I have written some Bash scripts to maintain a MIDI connection in case I disconnect my keyboard by accident (simply run jack_connext in a loop). Again - I haven't done this in a few years, and it never worked flawlessly, when I've been doing it. I had my setup pass the soundcheck, but fail during the show. Not a way to make your band mates happy - I can tell you that. Though we played some gigs without issues too...
@@unfa00 But if you make your track in Ardour (or any daw) with a bit of sound design, it becomes complicated to replicate the sound :/ What about this: ardour loaded with track bases, and used as mixer and soundbank. Remains the midi setup to change between each track outside ardour .. Doable ?
If I were to "solo" perform one of my pieces I'd play along the Ardour session, but I'd freeze whatever I can to lower CPU usage a d potential glitches, pick some parts I can play live, learn them and do it that way. Then I'd have a second Ardour session ready for the next song, and I'll figure a way to load/unload the tracks as I went on. I think this could work, but I'd be pretty rigid, as it's not loop-based. Another way would be to export loops to something like Luppp and perform the whole arrangement with a MIDI controller like that.
I have done some live performances with Linux. All them were with fixed setup: so I loaded all the synths and effects and then changed presets with Midi Program changes and partially by hand. It was a very stable setup: never crashed and worked flawlessly. I used Jack Patchbay to automate all the connections. Zyn was my main synth and I used Rackarrak as my main effects source. In addition I had Mellotron samples through LinuxSampler and a soundfont at QSynth. Sometimes I also used an old sampler called Specimen to play short musical samples. I loaded them all to different virtual desktops and even used program called Mididings to get drumpads of my midi keyboard to change desktops. It was quite cool and I used to awe my bandmates with that.
Here is my writing about that live setup, mainly focusing to the bash script that loads everything up: heikki.ketoharju.info/2012/11/session-management-in-linux/
Hey Unfa, great stuff! ... Did you figure out a new OS/Desktop Environment package? I just destroyed my crappy windows, installed Ubuntu Studio, hated the Desktop Env. on first sight, installed KDE desktop on top of it and loved it, but now I'm not sure if I'm killing the OS cause Ardure and some other apps are acting up! Would out-of-the-box Kubuntu + KXstudio tool kit be reasonable setup? Also what about the low latency kernel the KXStudio distro fans brag about? can that be installed on Kubuntu to replace the native one? I'm a total newbie here so if I sound stupid its because I am :/
I've heard people are using Kubuntu + KX Studio repositories with success. I've had similar experiences, trying to install KDE into Linux Mint 19 - some things didn't look right. The lowlatency kernel can be installed to any distribution. I often use the package `linux-lowlatency` or `linux-lowlatency-hwe-16.04-edge` (it seems to be a newer kernel overall, though I might be wrong).
Hey, Unfa. Not to pick, but might I ask how you justify using Zyn Fusion when they want a minimum of about $45 to download it from their sourceforge page? Is it that you have free rights to use it creatively, even though it's not actually free to use?
It's source code is released under GNU General Public License. There are unofficial binary packages available for Linux. And it's perfectly legal to use these for whatever purpose. But of course choosing to buy the official binaries is a great way to support it's development and thank Mark for his hard work.
I'm using Debian 12 with GNOME. Had no problems at all running Linux Audio and the latency seems pretty good for my needs. Debian is the root distro with none of the extras slowing it down. Takes a little more configuring with backports but the small amount of extra work is worth the effort; at least in my experience. Great video, Unfa, thank you very much. What do you think of Ardour vs Reaper? I'd be very interested to know your opinion.
Didn't Arch installation process scare you away? :D For a first distro I'd r commend something like Ubuntu, Pop_OS! or Manjaro. For audio work there's also Ubuntu Studio. I'd recommend AV Linux, but honestly... my experience with it so far wasn't that great. It has excellent audio performance, but needs quite a lot of tweaking to be comfortable to use. Imo not a good choice for a daily driver. Also it fails to resume from hibernation for me if more than one user is logged into a graphical session :/
@@dadigitechman , Arch Gnome sounds pretty cool. I have a couple of spare disks so might give it a go when I get some time away from work. I'm currently running Reaper for Linux on Debian and finding it really good to work with. I'm into acoustic and vocals so my needs are limited. Reaper does everything I need and a ton more too.
@@unfa00 , Arch is great but I got into Debian-based distros first and they gave me everything I needed from a distro, so I stuck with Debian. I tried a few different distros to begin with but ultimately decided to go with pure Debian because it is the base beneath so many other derived distros and I like to configure it from scratch and tailor it to my specific needs. I run Debian on an old i7 with plenty of RAM; the performance is amazing so I won't be upgrading my hardware any time soon. I agree that Ubuntu, Pop_OS! and Manjaro are also excellent distros. It's interesting to learn about your experiences with AV Linux. I've not tried it yet but soon as though it has some issues. I'm sticking with Debian for the foreseeable future.
@@dadigitechman, I was a 70's lad and "cool" was the "in" saying back then :) Arch is a great learning experience, for sure. Reaper for Linux has been extremely stable for me so far. I'm using Behringer U-Phoria audio interfaces which work very well with Linux straight out of the box. I'm yet to set it up but I will be using Yabridge with some assorted plugins that I have from previous purchases. Unfa did a very good video on installing free Linux Audio software, including Ardour, on regular Linux distros, which I found incredibly handy. His channel really is a treasure chest of invaluable information. What with PipeWire and other relatively recent advances, Audio for Linux has really come of age and I'm thoroughly enjoying using it in my home studio. Always great to chat with others into Linux Audio. Kind regards and all the best with your future audio projects.
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Can you recommend some free audio plugins in linux for orchestral compositions? Cause I LOVE Manjaro Linux but I don't want to change OS everytime just for composing some music or create a Windows VM just because it's easier to find free VST on windows for that.
--- UPDATE 20202-02-12:
Virtual Playing Orchestra has serious licensing issues and should not be used in it's current state.
AFAIK Titanic soundfont's source material licensing is also unclear and most likely violates copyright of 3rd parties.
What is safe is listed here:
hilbricht.net/foss-sampled-instruments.html
--- ORIGINAL:
On Manjaro (and other Arch-based distros) you can install a bunch of great free LV2 plug-ins encapsulating orchestral soundfonts:
aur.archlinux.org/packages/fluidplug-git
Also the Titanic Soundfont is a great GM soundfont, so in Ardour you can use the General MIDI Synth to use it:
aur.archlinux.org/packages/soundfont-titanic
Another resource is The Virtual Playing Orchestra:
virtualplaying.com/virtual-playing-orchestra/
It works in Carla, so to play with that in Ardour you need to use the Carla Rack plug-in - then you can drag'n'drop the SFZ files into it.
I've just started playing with these, so I don't have a lot of experience yet.
I have no experience with it, and this is not a plugin, but with reference to orchestral compositions rosegarden comes to mind.. FWIW.. www.rosegardenmusic.com/
Carla is capable of running Windows VST plugins:
ruclips.net/video/PiaWozQ69eE/видео.html
@@unfa00 GeneralMidiSynth in Ardour uses GeneralUser soundfont schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php it is very good
@@andrzejwawer6241 I've recently started using the Sfizz SFZ sampler - there's quite a few nice orchestral and other samples instruments available in that format in Public Domain.
Hey unfa, your faithful hater here. But excuse me, there is nothing to hate in this video, it is flawless I'd say, I watched it twice to check. You left me without work, so skrew you! Thaks.
Sorry! I'll try to screw up *something* next time!
i love this Exchange
Hey unfa, greetings from Brazil!
I've been following your channel for a while, and I'm just here to say thank you. You're a great person and a musician. I admire you and thank you for all the knowledge transmitted.
@Antonio de Almeida unfa é fera demais!! feliz de ver outro br por aqui tb hahahaha
baixa o surge vst ( :
plugin open source mais maneiro que ja usei, da um pau na maioria dos synths comerciais!
This was exactly the kind of video I needed before I took the plunge into open source music software. I really appreciate it!
Argotlunar2 17:21
Noise Repellent 17:51
Tal Vocoder II 18:11
Calf Vcoder 18:23
Autotune 18:39
Bitrot Repeat 19:08
Bitrot Stoptape 19:22
@ - Introduction
@ - Operating System
@ - Modular Workflow
@ - Digital Audio Workstation
@ - Plug-Ins
@ - Synthesizer Plug-Ins
@ - Sampler Plug-Ins
@ - Effect Processor Plug-Ins
@ - Delays
@ - Reverbs
@ - EQs and Filters
@ - Pitchshifters
@ - Distortion
@ - Dynamics Processing
@ - Other
@ - Epilogue
A little correction:
Some of the Ardour's Lua plug-ins are actually LV2 plug-ins, and if you installed Ardour from KX Studio Repositories, you can use them in other hosts as well! Though the GUIs look better in Ardour ;)
I love you man, your really amazing.You blew my mind. Everyone's running between Ableton, FL, protools, logic, r Cubase your working with ardour. You'r a fucking legend man. Respects
YEEESS BOYO a fellow musician that is into gnu/linux
you're my new favorite youtuber, I haven't even heard your music yet.
Thanks!
If you've watched this video - you've heard some already :D
@@unfa00 Yes, i did! I typed the comment immediately after coming from another video you made where you were explaining about why FOSS for music.
I like your the "Waaaaay cleaner" phrase! Ready to re-watch it more than 9000 times.
Also you may notice that using LSP equalizer is "waaaaaay cheaper" when talking about CPU resources rather than any other EQ for Linux ;)
Best, Vladimir
Actually - Calf Multiband Compressor sounds like LSP Multiband Compressor in the "vintage" mode. So I guess it must be using crossover filters...
@@unfa00 That's the exact implementation of multiband compressor. Such implementations have problems at the split frequencies. That's because bands utilize FIR filters for splitting the input signal. FIR filters have nonlinear phase, that's why we get serious artifacts when summing final bands into output signal. Multiband compressor in 'Modern' mode uses dynamic filters instead, and the problem of phase distortion at the split frequencies does not occur.
As someone who is learning to use free DAWs and experimenting with producing for the very first time, this is an excellent video. I’ll be looking into a lot of these resources- especially the synth you recommended so highly! Thanks.
Dude!!! I hope you know how much are you helping me. Thanks a lot!!! :) Im surelly start for now on Open Source
Can't express the perfection of this video
Calf studio gear is awesome. Can't believe they are giving away that thing for free.
... and open source !
Oh yeah! Calf plug-ins are very important in my workflow as you can see :)
Man!!! You are a light into RUclips's Linux music production darkness!!!
Thank you :D
Goosbumps @18:58, need more of this sound in my life.
Man! How could I have missed this channel for so long?! This is just what I have been looking for! Keep it up, UNFA!
Thanks! I'm making videos and music all the time :)
I was so frustrated, trying to pirate editing software on windows first, on Mac OS next and accomplished nothing, and than I found your blog. My life became so fucking easier with Linux and open source software, thank you!!!
Just a short comment while watching: I had the same problem with Linux Mint now lacking KDE support, so I switched to KDE Neon, working fine. Just setting it up for music production (mostly guitar recording)
Hi, you try manjaro KDE.?
You can't go wrong with Manjaro. I went from Ubuntu to Mint and they were both great but Manjaro with KDE is light years ahead. Setup might not be as simple as Debian distros but once you get everything sorted, it's fantastic.
I hope this message finds you many years after this video was made. I been doing Linux for a LONG time. I have tried to start using Ardour many times only to eventually get to a point where the manual makes no sense to me and there are no ... people like you yet paving the way for us idiots. Thanks Bro! :)
Awesome video. I am slowly trying out music production on Linux and you really are my guiding light with this, thank you !
This is excellent. Wanting to go back to electronic music on Linux, I'm happy you did this video which gives a good overview of what is possible now. Thank you!
I love Ardour. I just opened it today and it's so intuitive.
Thanks for making this video. I'm tired of the jack modular workflow and I'm going to reign it in and use everything in Ardour like you with the exception being vcvrack.
I've asked VCV Rack developers if they'd make an LV2 plug-in version, but they said they only intend VCV Rack to be run as a standalone program, and only in a single instance.
@@unfa00 That is a shame. There is the VeeSeeVSTRack VST thing but I've not used it. I don't think it works with many addons and probably lags behind significantly in versions.
Not only did you make me subscribe, you even made me to kill my windows hdd.
And thanks for recommending some plugins! Gives us a good starting point!
Wow...!!!!!! What a video amazing research amazing thought process.. and above all of it making such an amazing nice flowing video. Truly well presented.. you are truly an inspiration for someone who wants to create a studio for low cost. I always wanted to do that in the past but due to no video on such stuff ended up buying a lot of softwares.. I wish I had seen this video a year ago..
once again please accept my finest compliments for such brilliant work
Thank you! I'm really glad to hear that! Sorry I didn't manage to make it earlier :D
Lol, good video, I like those transitions you make, like jingles, glitches, distortions... excited about you considering Manjaro, as I have recently started using it.
Nicely done, Unfa. I'm a decade behind, but this was a well-thought out overview of some very interesting tools. Thank U.
Thanks! I should probably update it sometime, because there's a lot new and awesome software there that was not available when I released this video.
Wow you are like my dream linux music maker ❤️❤️❤️
Dude, I didn't know that there is so much awesome and free software out there. It's so amazing :)
You're welcome :)
There's much more that I haven't used much or learned yet like VCV Rack for example (a modern open-source modular synthesizer).
Very good plugins. Thanks! I'm doing my own list of plugins. Probably I can add to your list TAL-Filter-2
TAL-Filter 2 is a very nice one indeed. I forgot about it!
Lots of new plugins since I stopped doing Linux audio Production a few years back. I used to use TAP autoscaling limiter on the masters then output via jack to Jamin multiband compression for mastering. Would be interested in the trying Calf limiter and multiband compressor
This video is really well done and helpful! Thank you, I love this channel!
The two seconds of Postal made my day, it was the first game I ran on Linux when I first installed it :D insightful video btw thanks
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed that little nugget :D At the time of making this video I've been playing it a lot with my wife.
Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
🤘🏽🤘🤘🏾🤘🏿🤘🏼🤘🏻
Dude, this is awesome! I'm mainly a Windows user but I love Linux. Just installed mint last night and busy setting it up, and as someone who comes from FL Studio, I want to use Linux as my main OS, so I'm looking into native Linux programs instead of having to use Wine etc, so thank you so much for this! Subbed 😎
Thanks! I've got loads of videos about native Linux audio stuff so you should have plenty to explore and learn from on this channel :)
@@unfa00 I'm sure I will, thank you. I tried adding the repositories for zyn-fusion so that I can download it, but unfortunately that seems to not work at this point in time. Ardour has been installed via the software manager, so that works, but I'm having difficulty with zyn-fusion right now. If there's an updated method to get it, I'd appreciate it, thank you
welcome, and check out Ubuntu Studio 20.10 (it's pre-release but should work fine, and keep it updated), it's KDE by default now and includes Ardour 6!
cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/dvd/current/HEADER.html
That beginning in Numinous! 😍 Can you please make "the making of Numinous"?
I've made a tutorial based on the experience of making Numinous:
ruclips.net/video/2I-8ZFflOmU/видео.html
The beard and hair sold this video for me.
Thank you so much for this amazing work. I too have a problem with "industry standards" (although it is a bit of a pain when a client brings in a protools project for me to mix or add tracks to - guess that's what standards are good for).
Anyhow, I haven't worked with media production for the last year and I was happy to hear Cockos Reaper and Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve are finding their way into Linux. Not libre, I know, but I love the way Reaper is thought around its users and the blazing speed of Resolve's rendering.
Ever tried to give Mint MATE a chance? It's kind of flat but very light and useful. And you can install KDE libraries to run software specific to that (I edited my videogame cover videos using kdenlive that way)
Thank you again for the great work! Lots of videos to be watched ahead.
Thanks! Ardour has an option to import Pro Tools sessions - though I never tried that out.
I haven't tried MATE - I really like KDE Plasma, and also - it has features like forcing specific window manager properties on certain windows or applications - which is very handy in my workflow, I haven't seen any other DE having such options yet.
I installed Ubuntu (Not studio version) and haven’t found a way to change repositories to find Zyn Fusion. Or, I did download Zyn (and subfx) but can’t figure out the settings in ardor to find the sounds to start with? I’m used to “Kits” but am going to study and support your work so I can become even half as good as you at modding and creating my own sounds. Can’t thank you enough!! I’ll install Linux Mint on my studio computer and see if I can find Zyn fusion. If you would maybe consider makin a video on setting up a computer from scratch that uses ardor and Zyn running mint, that would be amazing.
Hey! Thanks!
Have you seen this video maybe?
ruclips.net/video/B66VtJBN2N0/видео.html
Great video, I'm looking forward to your next about open-source software for music production
Arch is the way to go. Their repositories have so much software, no other distro comes close. Ubuntu based distros have outdated software in their repos.
I've switched to Manjaro, and I love it. I thought with out KX Studio Repositories I'll be missing out, but I'm not :)
Great video Unfa, really helpful that you put a list of FOSS music production tools. If possible please do a 2022 update to this list. Thanks.
Hey, thanks! I'd love to make a new version, but my resources are very limited lately.
"In case this sounds fun" xD If there was one way to be convinced, that was it!
That track at the beginning is great!
Thank you!
A very interesting video to use as a reference. @unfa, I feel that it would be interesting for you to redo this video from time to time. Almost like a state of the art of the free and open-source music production. I'd watch it :)
great video and great channel, very informative. i'm getting into some beat making myself using ardour in arch and i use most of the plugins you showed in the video, except fabla2 which i discovered in your vid and the concept is amazing. only i got a problem with the UI, as most of the text are some random unreadable symbols, but the funny thing is the plugin works pretty well. any idea on how to fix the UI issue? did you ran into similar issues? keep the good work going!
Nice set of tips. Keep up the good work!
Cheers!
Thank you sooo soo much - You're sooo inspiring - Love Your Content!
Incredible video! Thanks so much
I’m looking for recommendations for a very stable and lightweight midi sequencer to sequence a full set of music, up to 90 minutes. I would like some ability to loop sections and then continue with the next section. When performing I only want to deal with a few commands that should be triggered by midi. For example: play, pause, loop current section, continue from current section, continue next loop (this would essentially complete the current predefined looping section and continue to play and loop the next predefined loop section), stop all, stop with fade (predefined fade time), stop and fade out current loop (that means the loop plays until it ends with fade out timed to arrive at same time), continue next section (useful if I’ve paused or stopped and then want to continue with the show), skip (will ignore the next section and follow next commands as if the next section doesn’t exist), Jump to next section with fade out and fade in (this allows me to skip ahead if I’m in the middle of a long section and don’t want to play it out), that’s about it. I don’t need a software that can do all of this it everything but mostly the ability to loop sections and then jump to the next in an elegant manner. I can approximate a lot of this behavior in Logic but I’d prefer something midi only and lightweight. Ideally something that can run on a Raspberry Pi would make it much easier to integrate into my hardware setup and not require a laptop for live use. Which is why to be able to send the commands with a midi device. One other thing, I don’t want to have to hard sync this with my hardware instead I will simply plan out the tempo changes and make manual adjustments, so if the sequencer can be nudged faster or slower as needed that would be a plus. Another reason I want midi only if possible. I realize it looks like a huge amount of requirements but really it’s just a wish list. Thanks in advance, oh one more thing, cross platform support would be great too, if I could do all my show prep on my Mac and then just copy over to the RPi for tech run through it would be a good workflow.
I've never had much success with those session managers either. They save stuff, but when you try to reload them it always seems to do completely insane stuff, haha.
Wow. We crossed 104k views on this one. Nice!
Very informative and highly entertaining. I confess, I haven't used Linux since Redhat, around 1997. Ardour will take me from PT. But the dark colors are tough on my eyes these days. It's going to take awhile for me to lighten up the Ardour color scheme. As a huge fan of MB, just seems right to switch to Ardour.
Thank you!
Ardour has a few color themes, you can just switch to a bright one :)
Go to Preferences > Appearance > Colors.
I'm loving your videos. Keep it up.
Thanks! Will do :)
great exposure, could you plz go about a bit on your mic setup, mic you use, app, filter(s), what not ?
Can anyone help???: when i use hydrogen drums my sounds shuts down. I can't find why in internet searches (i'm a newbie).
Great videos, great videos, great videos!!!❤️🔥❤️🔥🔥
Hi, thanks for all of your contents. I would like to start following a free-software philosophy and here i'm discovering many useful and powerful utilities for my Ubuntu machine. That's wonderful!
audioz a vita...
Really great video. I like many of them.
I'm a Logic Pro user, but I really want to learn about DAW options on both Windows and Linux so that I can do a variety of things on my channel in the future. I'm familiar with Linux - I'm running Ubuntu on my homemade arcade cabinet. I just subscribed to your channel, because it looks like a great resource!
Hi Unfa,
After deciphering the logo at 3:03 I switched from Linux Mint 19 to Manjaro.
This was a painstaking process that I rather not reverse.
However.. Now I cannot use the KXStudio repositories....
Can you recommend a work-around or an alternative that will work with Manjaro?
Greenthing,
Bleys
* side note- I am completely new to Linux, try and keep that in mind.
That was a bold move :D In Manjaro you can use the AUR - Arch User Repository. In there you'll find a package for Zyn-Fusion.
However even outside of AUR, if you open Octopi (the GUI for package management) you can find a group called 'pro-audio' and it has the majority of what I'd need to work. Though I had some problems with it, so I'm still running Linux Mint 18 for now.
i don't understand why you don't use ubuntu studio which comes with a lot of good stuff pre-installed and a low latency kernel and the DE is xfce which is and fairly sane, customizable, and lightweight.
And installing the kde desktop environment is just a simple terminal command away or just using synaptic package manager.
Customizing which software you want at the install is a really nice thing about ubuntu studio, and because it is an official flavor of ubuntu, you could just keep upgrading from release to release and of course you can use ppa and select proprietary drivers as easily as you can in linux mint.
I've tried to manjaro a few times over the years, and in my experience, after a while something breaks that i can't really sort out and i don't really want to spend the time doing so, it's better for tinkerers and people who like to fix stuff that breaks.
Ha ha ha LOL! Seems that you like the postal game. Me to, I’ll go postal when I’m frustrated by someone or something like software pissing me of. To see that particular game in your video bring up old memories from the time I spent doing coding and modifications to the game. Thumbs up 👍 Dude let’s see some more of your great work 😎
Ps. At first when Your face turned up on the living room alter aka tv 📺 I laughed inside thinking 💭 that dude looks just like, well the DUDE. When you stated speaking I was saying ; it is the dude. Then postal came up and I laughed out so freaking loud that all of Denmark 🇩🇰 was able to hear it 😂😂😂😂🐥🤯🤪👍
I heard that... And I am from Denmark 😆
Hermano me inspiras siempre he querido usar Linux para producir audio , gracias
Thank you so much for sharing all that!!
You're awesome! ^^
Could you make about keyboard controllers that are Linux and Linux-DAW/Linux-Synths friendly? (Sorry if you already did it)
Jest gdzieś informacja jak zainstalować te programy i wtyczki w Ubuntu np? Mam jeszcze pytanie czy jest możliwość nagrywania automatycznego akompaniamentu z keyborda poprzez port USB? Jeżeli jest to jak to zrobić. Nie ukrywam, że taka opcja bardzo ułatwiłaby mi pracę nad muzyką. Pozdrawiam.
This video is just perfect.
If you like using Mint or any other distro but you do not like their choice of their default desktop environment you can easily use any desktop or window manager with the necessary utilities that come with a desktop environment. I was using Mint and I just installed KDE from the Mint repositories then I had Mint with the plasma desktop, easy peasy. I am now running MX Linux because you do not need to use systemd, I am old school and prefer the old traditional init system. If you are interested just do a search of systemd vs init. MX also does not ship with KDE plasma it has XFCE one of my least favorite desktops and I just installed KDE from the MX repos. MX is based on Debian and so I added the KX Studio repos in the MX package manager and installed KX Studio.
Thanks, though I'm really liking Manjaro :)
You've covered a lot of ground here. Each of the tools require their own Seperate video I suppose.
Hey Unfa, great stuff, many thanks! --question, what Linux distro are you using currently?
Thanks! I run Manjaro Linux with KDE.
Coolio - I’ll check it out thanks! Been juggling between fedora and Debian but looking for perfection :D
unfa what’s the hype with KDE I feel like it’s super windows looking and it gawks me out. Been a gnome user for over a decade - will I gain functionality ??
I'll just give it a shot
@@jasonpittman5012 the default is very windows like because most of the world uses windows so it's the familiar setup, but you can customize the hell out of KDE and it can look and behave very similar to Mac OS, or Ubuntu Unity, etc.
check out Feren OS and you'll see how versatile and customizable KDE can be with their desktop changer tool, whatever it's called. i have mine on Unity, which mimics Ubuntu Unity, with a global menu, dock on the left, similar launcher menu, and maximized window buttons integrating with the top panel.
so yea it does look somewhat like windows, but it's easy to make it look like just about anything you want. you can have panels on all 4 sides of the screen edges, from full width to the width of a single widget.
@@teklife awesome thank you! i'll check it out ;D
New to Linux. Just experimenting on an old Macbook Pro at the moment, to see if Linux will work for me.
I initially chose AV Linux - MX Edition 64bit to try, My DAW of choice is Bitwig Studio.
I tried to install Bitwig Studio on AVL, but was met with this:
"No Lintian available.
Please install using sudo apt-get install lintian."
Went to the terminal, typed it in, and it then said:
"Package Lintian is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or is only available from another source."
So, I gave up on AV Linux, and tried straight Ubuntu, which the Bitwig team suggests.
HATED Ubuntu. Kept crashing.
Then tried Linux Mint 20.1, which is Ubuntu based. I was able to install Bitwig Studio on it with no problem,
but I don't know if Mint is properly optimized for audio production. I'm having crackling problems with the audio just using one
CPU intensive native Bitwig synth plugin. Running just audio is ok, but after a few minutes of letting it loop,
the audio quality steadily gets worse. I'm running audio through an iConnectAUDIO4+ in ALSA.
Truth be told, I'd rather use AV Linux. It seems to be optimized for audio right out of the gate.
Do you have any pointers on how to get Bitwig to install on AVL, or suggestions to optimize Mint for audio,
or perhaps I should try a different distro?
I'm still thinking of trying Ubuntu Studio to see if that works, even though Ubuntu straight was a bitter pill to swallow.
I'm running on a 2009 Macbook Pro, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53ghz CPU, 8gb RAM.
Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon, 5.4.0-58 generic kernel.
Thanks, Unfa. I dig your videos. Very helpful.
Awesome video. Thanks for sharing. Going to install Ardour now. Is it still good?
hi, unfa how are you? from turkey ....Will the Behringer UCA202 sound card work in ubuntu studio? or can i record from the behringer qx1204 usb mixer integrated in the same card? thinking to install reaper into linux? Can you help me?
Hi Unfa! How about VST instruments? In LMMS as you know we have VeSTige, but what about Ardour? There are TONS of FREE VST instruments out there (vst4free.com) and I don't know how to use them in Ardour =(
20.10 Ubuntu studio shifted to KDE Desktop. Have you tried it? is it maybe worth a video? Great Channel, keep it up!
0:40 Bruh, I was doubting you when you said that, but then what you made was very VERY close to what I was thinking. XD
Wow thank you for do that video, I'm new here and thinking move to linux, I used Ableton Live and someone told me Qtractor is the same visual and features you can confirm that to me? Vst's work fine with some open source software? Which software do you recommend to me coming from Ableton? Ty for the video!!
you are amazing man
So did you go for Manjaro? I'm running a MacBook Pro 2012 and it hasn't loved Manjaro in the past.... ever tried KDE Neon?
Hey! I went with Manjaro at that point, but a few years later when I broke something, I've decided to try Arch Linux and I'm using that so far.
Wow. Linux has come along in the past 20 years!
sure has.
check out and support Ubuntu Studio. i'm not affiliated with that project in any way, but what a great distro it is and what an awesome bundle of software that it comes with. very nice job, and, beginning with 20.10, it will use (a slightly stripped down, lean and mean) KDE by default.
Hello. Thank you for your video. I am starting a home studio with Mint and I am looking for the "Linux compatible soundcards" and "wich program is the best between Ardour, LMMS, etc.. What is the difference between them? ??" Could you help ? THX
Hi! Did you use any console tracker? I want to try to write music in pure console without X, now I'm considering PLEBTracker eg. I would be very happy if you shared your experience. I'm haunted by my past: I began on a ZX-Spectrum clone with AY-8910 and 3-voice awesome 8bit sound :)))
damn this video is ridiculously well made! Great work Unfa! Watching your videos to learn how to actually do audio stuff in Linux, instead of messing around with fuck all else.
Thank you! Lots of work went into it! Good luck :) And if you have any trouble or want to meet other Linux audio enthusiasts - check out my community chat!
chat.unfa.xyz
@@unfa00 Im on your Discord already, so you have two chat-groups huh?
@@desmondsparrs No, it's two services bridged into one :) Haven't you read #newcomer-info ?
@@unfa00 I reread the newcomer info, I def remember something about RocketChat but my attention-span and memory retention is crapp nowadays. Will check it out thx!
@@unfa00 should I include the #1234 number tag in my Discord-name? Not sure how this works. keep up the great work! I admire your passion!
Awesome video, thanks for all the value! I'm curious, what interface do you use when recording acoustic instruments?
That is, IF you record acoustic instruments ahaha =) Also though, for vocals/voiceovers, I'm just looking into Linux-friendly interfaces, as I rely a lot on microphones for my creations.
Thanks for sharing man, God bless you
Video was worth my time 👌
Hello! Greetings from Argentina! Your videos are fabulous, thanks for sharing your knowledge! One question: Is there a bass amplifier simulator for Linux? I've been using Ubuntu Studio for years and never found a dedicated software for that. I have a fretless bass that I never could make sound like I want. I already tried Guitarix and Rakarrack.
Sorry for being 1 year late, but check out ToneLib GFX. It's not open source (as far as I know), but it has guitar and bass amp sims, cabinet emulation, pedals and all that.
I'm a year later as well. Thank you! And sorry! There's a lot of different guitar amplifier simulations, for example github.com/GuitarML/SmartGuitarAmp
@@unfa00 Hey, better late than never! :-D thanks for answering, greetings from Argentina !! I will try that amp simulator!!!
hi, thanks for your vids man
i have one question about mapitchshift
is it possible to build on platforms other than linux?
if so, how do i do that?
thanks in advance
I'm also a plama fan and have tried lots of distros for audio production, and for me the most reliable and fun to use has been Arch Linux.
hey unfa. old video. anymore success with Linux DAWs? I want to get off of win10.
Great video ! Thanks. Could you make a video about live setup ? How to play live ? I mean, how to change setup between each song, obviously without a new session for every track.. How would you play your album live ? Giutar, multiple keyboard..
That is a big and interesting topic, though I don't think I have enough experience playing live to make it justice. I used to play with a band and I used Carla to trigger ZynAddSubFX using different MIDI channels + add more effects and manipulate them as I played. In Carla you can assign MIDI CC to plug-in controls and also filter that by MIDI channels, so I'd really focus on that. I considered Ardour but it's not really suited for that. I have written some Bash scripts to maintain a MIDI connection in case I disconnect my keyboard by accident (simply run jack_connext in a loop). Again - I haven't done this in a few years, and it never worked flawlessly, when I've been doing it. I had my setup pass the soundcheck, but fail during the show. Not a way to make your band mates happy - I can tell you that. Though we played some gigs without issues too...
@@unfa00 But if you make your track in Ardour (or any daw) with a bit of sound design, it becomes complicated to replicate the sound :/ What about this: ardour loaded with track bases, and used as mixer and soundbank. Remains the midi setup to change between each track outside ardour .. Doable ?
If I were to "solo" perform one of my pieces I'd play along the Ardour session, but I'd freeze whatever I can to lower CPU usage a d potential glitches, pick some parts I can play live, learn them and do it that way. Then I'd have a second Ardour session ready for the next song, and I'll figure a way to load/unload the tracks as I went on. I think this could work, but I'd be pretty rigid, as it's not loop-based. Another way would be to export loops to something like Luppp and perform the whole arrangement with a MIDI controller like that.
I have done some live performances with Linux. All them were with fixed setup: so I loaded all the synths and effects and then changed presets with Midi Program changes and partially by hand.
It was a very stable setup: never crashed and worked flawlessly. I used Jack Patchbay to automate all the connections. Zyn was my main synth and I used Rackarrak as my main effects source. In addition I had Mellotron samples through LinuxSampler and a soundfont at QSynth. Sometimes I also used an old sampler called Specimen to play short musical samples.
I loaded them all to different virtual desktops and even used program called Mididings to get drumpads of my midi keyboard to change desktops. It was quite cool and I used to awe my bandmates with that.
Here is my writing about that live setup, mainly focusing to the bash script that loads everything up:
heikki.ketoharju.info/2012/11/session-management-in-linux/
I don't usually log in to my youtube but you made me laugh on previous video so here is my comment! thanks!
My pleasure :)
Hey Unfa, great stuff! ... Did you figure out a new OS/Desktop Environment package? I just destroyed my crappy windows, installed Ubuntu Studio, hated the Desktop Env. on first sight, installed KDE desktop on top of it and loved it, but now I'm not sure if I'm killing the OS cause Ardure and some other apps are acting up!
Would out-of-the-box Kubuntu + KXstudio tool kit be reasonable setup?
Also what about the low latency kernel the KXStudio distro fans brag about? can that be installed on Kubuntu to replace the native one?
I'm a total newbie here so if I sound stupid its because I am :/
I've heard people are using Kubuntu + KX Studio repositories with success.
I've had similar experiences, trying to install KDE into Linux Mint 19 - some things didn't look right.
The lowlatency kernel can be installed to any distribution. I often use the package `linux-lowlatency` or `linux-lowlatency-hwe-16.04-edge` (it seems to be a newer kernel overall, though I might be wrong).
Great content! What would you recommend for creating metal music?
There's lots of good plugins, though I am not doing much with guitar tones myself, so you'd better ask in my community chat :)
chat.unfa.xyz
Hey, Unfa. Not to pick, but might I ask how you justify using Zyn Fusion when they want a minimum of about $45 to download it from their sourceforge page? Is it that you have free rights to use it creatively, even though it's not actually free to use?
It's source code is released under GNU General Public License. There are unofficial binary packages available for Linux. And it's perfectly legal to use these for whatever purpose. But of course choosing to buy the official binaries is a great way to support it's development and thank Mark for his hard work.
I'm using Debian 12 with GNOME. Had no problems at all running Linux Audio and the latency seems pretty good for my needs. Debian is the root distro with none of the extras slowing it down. Takes a little more configuring with backports but the small amount of extra work is worth the effort; at least in my experience. Great video, Unfa, thank you very much. What do you think of Ardour vs Reaper? I'd be very interested to know your opinion.
Didn't Arch installation process scare you away? :D
For a first distro I'd r commend something like Ubuntu, Pop_OS! or Manjaro. For audio work there's also Ubuntu Studio. I'd recommend AV Linux, but honestly... my experience with it so far wasn't that great. It has excellent audio performance, but needs quite a lot of tweaking to be comfortable to use. Imo not a good choice for a daily driver. Also it fails to resume from hibernation for me if more than one user is logged into a graphical session :/
@@dadigitechman , Arch Gnome sounds pretty cool. I have a couple of spare disks so might give it a go when I get some time away from work. I'm currently running Reaper for Linux on Debian and finding it really good to work with. I'm into acoustic and vocals so my needs are limited. Reaper does everything I need and a ton more too.
@@unfa00 , Arch is great but I got into Debian-based distros first and they gave me everything I needed from a distro, so I stuck with Debian. I tried a few different distros to begin with but ultimately decided to go with pure Debian because it is the base beneath so many other derived distros and I like to configure it from scratch and tailor it to my specific needs. I run Debian on an old i7 with plenty of RAM; the performance is amazing so I won't be upgrading my hardware any time soon. I agree that Ubuntu, Pop_OS! and Manjaro are also excellent distros. It's interesting to learn about your experiences with AV Linux. I've not tried it yet but soon as though it has some issues. I'm sticking with Debian for the foreseeable future.
@@dadigitechman, I was a 70's lad and "cool" was the "in" saying back then :) Arch is a great learning experience, for sure. Reaper for Linux has been extremely stable for me so far. I'm using Behringer U-Phoria audio interfaces which work very well with Linux straight out of the box. I'm yet to set it up but I will be using Yabridge with some assorted plugins that I have from previous purchases. Unfa did a very good video on installing free Linux Audio software, including Ardour, on regular Linux distros, which I found incredibly handy. His channel really is a treasure chest of invaluable information. What with PipeWire and other relatively recent advances, Audio for Linux has really come of age and I'm thoroughly enjoying using it in my home studio. Always great to chat with others into Linux Audio. Kind regards and all the best with your future audio projects.
what was the song in the intro, i keep coming back to listen to that portion