Linux in a Recording Studio?

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So, what is Linux?

Like Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, Linux is an operating system, but it is not very well known at all. Linux is also free, which is what makes it so brilliant.  Linux has a growing base of enthusiastic users, and there are good reasons to consider it for a digital recording studio.

Is Linux for Everyone?

Linux will definitely not be the best option for everyone. You may already be comfortable with Windows or Mac OS X, and have invested in  software that you are now familiar with. If you have never used Linux before, it may feel unfamiliar, especially once you start to look under the hood. And most of the audio programs you are familiar with (Audacity being one of the only exceptions) will not have a Linux version. Undoubtedly, the biggest thing most serious recording musicians will miss are their favorite commercial plug-ins, effects and soundfonts. Good alternatives are available, but the best plug-ins are subject to vendor lock-in, and those vendors aren’t making their software available for Linux. And on a positive note, you’ll also lose lots of restrictions. Linux values freedom and openness. The software is free to use, free to customize, and free to share. It is also normally free of cost.

JACK

Linux has provided an entire audio infrastructure called JACK that allows you to connect hardware and software together in ways you’ve never dreamed of.JACK is an audio connection kit which (as the JACK website says) “was designed from the ground up for professional audio work, and its design focuses on two key areas: synchronous execution of all clients, and low latency operation.” It is a system for handling real-time, low latency audio and MIDI. Essentially, JACK has incredible patching abilities that allow you to connect music hardware and software in many ways. Here are a few suggested on the website:

• You can take the audio output of one piece of software and send it to another (or two others).

• You can then take the output of those two other programs, and record it back in the first program.

• You can connect a number of different applications to an audio device.

• You can distribute audio processing across a network.
  

If you like the sound of JACK, but prefer to stay with Windows or Mac, you may be able to get JACK running on your operating system of choice, because it offers support for most operating systems. You may also like to look at ReWire from PropellerHeads and Steinberg, which offer some of JACK’s features.

CD Booting

Yes, thats right, linux can boot straight from a CD. That means that you can run the entire operating system without installing anything, straight off the CD!This enables you to run your studio from a CD, on any computer.

Tailor made Music Systems

A music-specific distro of linux comes with all of the software you need preinstalled, and all of the settings preconfigured. In other words, after installing the operating system, you don’t have to download, install and configure your software. It’s already there!

Here's a list of the best Audio Specific Distro's:

Artistx

Ubuntu Studio

JAD

Jacklab Audio Distribution - Another Free Audio Operating System

Jacklab Audio Distribution (JAD) is a remastered openSUSE for musicians, producers and media creators. Musicians have particular requirements for their Linux environment. A Linux-based distribution that is designed for music needs to be flexible, powerful, yet easy and quick to use. All of these things are essential in a busy, creative environment. 

With this in mind, JAD is based on openSUSE due to its stability and long development history. All major administrative tasks can be done graphically and easily without having to learn any complicated terminal commands. 

JAD is fully compatible with the recently released openSUSE 10.2. It contain a full production environment for media production, primarily music. For this, the JackLab team added a Realtime Kernel version 2.6.19 to have fast audio processing with a latency up to 1.5ms. The default audio system will be based on the the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) which is designed for the needs of musicians and producers and gives a professional audio/midi controlling interface. 

The installer is based on the acclaimed YaST2, which also serves as an easy-to-use administrative tool. To keep as many essential computer resources for music as possible, we have decided to use Enlightenment D17 desktop shell as the default window manager. KDE desktop environment is also included, so the user-friendly file manager - Konqueror, is available along with Kmail, Konversation, k3b and other KDE tools. For music creation and editing, we have included around 70 audio applications with sequencers, synthesizers and tools all installed and ready to go. User-friendly support for setting up and running VST instruments and effects is given. 

Additionally, there are applications for video production and a graphic suite that are included on the DVD. For browsing the internet, we have included Firefox 2.0 chosen for its stability, security and extendability. JAD is a community based effort and is the culmination of the work of many contributors. Recently, JackLab and PackMan (packman.links2linux.de) have joined forces to offer JAD access to the PackMan repositories so that up-to-date audio software, non-audio software and multimedia codecs are available to JAD users. 

Download JAD from the jacklab website. 

Here is the link:

http://jacklab.net/jacklaborg/english/

Artistx

Artistx is based on Ubuntu GNU/Linux and contains nearly all the available free audio, 2D and 3D graphics, and video software for the GNU/Linux computing platform. It doesn't need to be installed, and boots directly into a running system without touching hard drives. The files produced with ArtistX can be easily stored on USB devices or CD/DVD medium while it is running.

Main features
Based on Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10)
Kernel 2.6.27
Compiz Fusion for 3D Desktop effects
Most of Ubuntu Multimedia packages
Gnome 2.24 and Kde 4.2
Ubiquity Installer (tried in VirtualBox, please backup as this is the first version shipped with ArtistX)

Audio Applications Included on the DVD

PD and externals, Rosegarden, Ardour, TerminatorX, Cecilia/Csound, Gnusound, Mixxx and many others.
On the DVD you can find about 2500 multimedia softwares, practically everything made for the GNU/Linux platform. 

Download the latest version of Artistx on the Artistx website

http://www.artistx.org/site2/dowload.html

Ubuntu Studio

Ubuntu Studio is a multimedia editing/creation flavor of Ubuntu. It's built for the GNU/Linux audio, video, and graphic enthusiast or professional.

JACK

Exploring Ubuntu Studio, you will find dozens of audio editing, mixing, and synthesizing programs, plus a wide selection of effects plugins for those programs

Pro audio on Linux (regardless of the distro) always comes down to two components: the high-end audio server JACK and a low-latency kernel. Both are available through standard Ubuntu repositories, but Ubuntu Studio makes them the default and provides sane setups preconfigured.

Ubuntu Studio does build on top of JACK with an impressive array of audio applications, from hard disk recording to MIDI control. Foremost in this arsenal is Ardour, the multi-track recording, mixing, and editing workstation. Ubuntu Studio provides the latest revision, Ardour 2.0; vanilla Ubuntu is stuck with a much older 0.99-series build.

In addition, there are samplers (SooperLooper, LinuxSampler), sequencers (Rosegarden, Shake Tracker, Timidity), software synthesizers (Csound, Hydrogen, FluidSynth), mixers (JAMin, Mixxx), effects racks (JACK Rack), even music typesetters (Lilypond) and soundfont editors (Swami).

The distro breaks out special effects plugins -- both Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API (LADSPA) and DSSI -- into a separate package collection. The selection is geared for modular synthesis, and includes everything from basic oscillators like BLOP to extensive personal collections like Steve Harris's.

The sound and the fury

The long and the short of it is that if you are a musician or audio enthusiast, Ubuntu Studio is a big win: you get a stable, tested, preconfigured source for the high-end audio components you need to do serious recording and editing, and you get it built upon one of today's most popular, well-supported mainstream distros. The millions of vanilla Ubuntu users on 32-bit Intel machines can add the Ubuntu Studio goodness with a simple cut-and-paste APT repository addition (instructions are at ubuntustudio.org) -- a far nicer alternative than installing a separate distro.

Luckily, with open source, users can contribute to making future releases better. The project has a dedicated multimedia forum on ubuntuforums.org, and an active wiki.

As multimedia distros go, Ubuntu Studio's decision to build on to an existing distro instead of reinventing the wheel gives it a leg up on its competition.

Get the latest version of Ubuntu Studio at the Ubuntu Studio website: 

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/9.04/release/