1y ago

Audio production oriented distribution recommendations?

Any recommendations for easy-to-use Linux distribution for audio production? I might try PipeWire installation too if it's stable and compatible enough.

I've been using debian based distros for 10+ years for now: started with Ubuntus and the last half I've spent with Debian 9/10 but I've become tired of fixing things. I've considered MX Linux and LMDE. I have some experience with them already (although haven't tried Mint's Debian variant yet).

For years I've been bridging JACK and pulseaudio, but it's never been optimal, hence considering PipeWire. I read somewhere that wire plumber package in MX is broken. Not sure about the current state. I probably need to know things like these beforehand when installing a distro or another.

5 comments

Check out KX Studio. Ubuntu Studio is also a thing where most stuff comes preinstalled and it might be good enough for some.
Though I would still say that it's still faster and easier to get a job, earn a months pay and buy a Windows/Mac laptop for music production than try to get shit done in Linux. Pipewire kinda-sorta-works if you aren't doing anything weird, but it's not going to be optimal either, and it's at best beta-quality software still.
- I have tried some KXStudio and Ubuntu Studio stuff first time about 10 years ago. I guess that's still a valid option too.
  Also I've already made my whole discography purely under Linux for 10+ years, no turning back. There's still that much stubbornness left :p
  
  I applaud the stubbornness. If enough people are stubborn enough, maybe linux pro audio some day becomes less of a mess.
  I've tried every couple of years since 2006 to see if I could finally ditch my windows/mac box, since making music is my last hurdle, but it's still been too much of a chore for me. I make music to get rid of computer-induced stress, so it's the one place where I'm not interested in configuring for days.

You might already know about it but I saw someone using rtkit with pipewire. I think it's for real-time threads priorities.
They also changed a bunch of stuff in the default config. I have no idea what it's for. See: https://github.com/lovesegfault/nix-config/blob/ad9a15936e162e3cb8e28eb5a5d0f2fbd4834ff9/hardware/sound.nix
Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting nixos for audio. Your message just make be think about someone's config so I thought it could interest people reading this thread.

I've been using Pipewire on NixOS for over a year and it's worked great. Idk if NixOS would be good for you though cause it's pretty hard to learn, but it is really solid.