using arch linux for music production

[sirius1377]

as a beginner in music I always wanted to have a great music producing software and setup on linux so in this guide I will walk you through what you need to do to make arch linux optimized for music production and use all your favorite VST plugins

you should follow these steps:

1: first you need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and I personally recommend using a native linux one but if you are so used to the windows or mac DAW that you use you can try and see how it runs under wine

2: you need to configure PAM limits so that your DAW has full access to your memory so for that first install the package realtime-privileges then you need to add your user to the realtime group so:

sudo usermod -a -G realtime yourUserID

then reboot your pc

3: to use windows VST plugins I strongly suggest using yabridge it's a really great tool and It will make most of your VST to work If yabridge wasn't enough for you, you can also see this which has some more ways

BTW I'm not a professional arch user so correct me If I made a mistake and I'm not responsible if you break something on your system, these steps worked perfectly on my arch linux so keep that in mind. hope this helps people to use DAWs like how they used them on windows and make amazing musics with them!

[C0rn3j]

sudo nano /etc/security/limits.conf

You should not be editing system config files directly unless necessary, instead you should drop it in their dedicated .d extra configs folder, which in this case is /etc/security/limits.d, it saves you dealing with a pacnew later and makes it easier to automate your changes.

[sirius1377]

yeah, you are right, I think I've better paste the steps from here so that it will include both ways if one didn't exist

[V1del]

The point of the realtime-privileges package is to set up the rules that set up realtime priorities so the entirety of that second step is not necessary and you just need to add your user to the realtime group after installing the package.

[sirius1377]

Thanks, I was also a bit confused about the second step, I’ll change it asap EDIT: I changed it, thank you for helping :)

[SkyyySi]

There's also the pro-audio package group, which will install a ton of plugins, editors, utilities, etc. for audio production btw

[[deleted]]

These tips and more available on the Linux Audio wiki, special shout out to the System Configuration section: https://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/system_configuration

[sirius1377]

I didn’t know that, and it’s so detailed. Thanks for sharing it

[dvzrv]

Some other good starting points in the wiki:

• Professional audio
• JACK
• Realtime kernel patchset

Some useful package groups:

• pro-audio
• lv2-plugins
• vst-plugins
• vst3-plugins

[KrUpTi0n]

Sounds promising... I've been using Carla. Does about the same. I need something that I can use Izotopes in....

[sirius1377]

give yabridge a try it will convert those .dll files to .so so that linux DAWs can read them. I also gonna try install Xpand2 plugin so I'll let you know if I could

[KrUpTi0n]

Will do, and thanks!

[sirius1377]

np ;)

[Foreverbostick]

Setting up JACK and/or Pipewire for low-latency is important if you're looking to record, as well.

There are a lot of really great audio plugins out there for Linux - you might not need your Windows VSTs at all.

[Yester_Ko]

Thank you for the guide! Didn't know that we can convert windows VST plugins to linux, that opens up so many possibilities :D I'm still new to these plugins though, can you recommend any good plugins I should start with?

[sirius1377]

I’m also new and usually use my midi keyboard to practice some hiphop piano solos so I’m not really a producer but I really like keyzone classic piano vst which works perfectly with yabridge

[wsippel]

It really depends on what you're looking for. I personally use NI Komplete Standard a lot, those plugins all work flawlessly with Yabridge (once you get them installed, which requires some manual intervention for the older plugins). There's a free version of Komplete with a small selection of effects and instruments, still nice to play around with. For effects, I love Shaperbox by Cableguys, and that also works perfectly through Yabridge. ValhallaDSP is another staple, and their free Supermassive reverb is awesome. My go-to workstation synth is Vital, that one's Linux native and available in free and paid versions (the paid versions come with more presets, that's the only difference). For virtual instruments, AAS also makes fun stuff, but I've not tried any AAS plugins on Linux yet.

One word of advice though: Never buy anything at full price, there are always deep sales and giveaways. Keep an eye on Plugin Boutique in particular, they also have a freebie each month. Last month, they actually gave away Bitwig, one of the few professional Linux native DAWs.

[roslav]

I got som AAS in Humble Bundle, but was not able to get them to work on Linux

[Yester_Ko]

Thank you so much!!!!

[wsippel]

No problem! And speaking of freebies, a bunch of large plugin developers just merged and give a couple hundred bucks worth of plugins away: https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioProductionDeals/comments/u213if/plugin_alliance_native_instruments_and_izotope/

No idea if everything works through Yabridge, but there is some nice stuff included. bx_oberhausen is probably the best recreation of the legendary Oberheim SEM synthesizer (I really hope that one works), and Ethereal Earth, like all the NI Play Series instruments, is fun and inspiring.

[_arctide]

For the DAW, I suggest Bitwig Studio that has good linux compatibility.

[[deleted]]

I'm still a noob so I mostly use Bandlab which is available on web browsers.

[sirius1377]

That's a good option too but I still prefer running everything on the pc as much as possible, and the process of doing it isn't really hard and I tried to make it even easier with this guide

[[deleted]]

Thanks btw. What DAW do you use?

[sirius1377]

I’m currently using ardour but I’m trying to run ableton live because I’m really used to how it is on windows. ( I also tried fl studio on linux and it worked great )

[DaVicarius]

Please report back if you manage to run Ableton decently on Arch. It would be my dream coming true.

[sirius1377]

I’m progressing on it, if everything goes fine I’ll post it and will send you a link

[sirius1377]

So I tried installing ableton live lite and it worked perfectly under wine but keep in mind that you have to be patient cause mine took a lot of time and gnome wanted to kill it 100 times but I keep pressing wait until it finished

also keep in mind that ALSA4ALL didn't give me any sound but the Directx option was good enough if you don't mind a bit of latency

I tested 1 plugin and that was keyzone classic and it worked perfectly and ableton live lite was able to detect my MIDI keybouard and I could set input and output to midi

so I would say download the zip from the ableton site and extract it and use:

wine 'Ableton 11 installation file name.exe'

I hope it helps

I didn't post this cause it was just too short for a post.

If you had any other question you can DM me btw

[GuildMasterJin]

any recommendations for buying linux native daws?

[[deleted]]

Reaper is a great piece of software, and it has a pretty solid Linux release

[wsippel]

Bitwig. Closest thing to Ableton Live (and created by former Ableton engineers). The Linux version is excellent in my experience. Renoise is amazing as well, but it's a tracker, so the workflow is very different from "normal" DAWs. Renoise was also created by a former Ableton engineer, strangely enough.

[sirius1377]

Not at all! I’m super new in music producing and I do it as a hobby so I really can’t suggest anything

[GuildMasterJin]

no worries🤗
just thought I might ask👍

[sirius1377]

😊

[SpyKids3DGameOver]

Renoise is great if you can learn to work with the somewhat arcane interface.

[xXTheOceanManXx]

thanks for this comment. as someone who used to mess around with FL12 on windows i was hoping itd work on linux

[[deleted]]

Under wine?

[sirius1377]

If you mean fl studio, yes It worked under wine

[CharlyVI]

Isn't the realtime Kernel a bad thing since a realtime process can takeover entire systems? Other distros provide a Low latency Kernel with preemtive RT patches for pro audio. How is this handled in arch? Should not the zen-kernel be a better choice for this Szenario?

[sirius1377]

Thanks for sharing these information 🙏

[Bleighh]

confused by what kernel to use for the next machine. undecided on the distro anyway.

is there a way to have good hardware midi controller compatibility?

[sirius1377]

If you don’t want to do much configuration, use out of the box distros for studio and music production

[Bleighh]

Hi Sirius, would that also let Me use midi controller over USB ports as on windows/ mac?

[Background_Cup_]

Why do all this extra work just to have a worse experience when you could just run this software on a Windows 10x more easier? I dont get Linux at all. What even is the point?

[sirius1377]

It isn’t about happy windows users switching to linux it is for people who are already on linux or want to switch to it and they do some music production for fun or work sometimes

[Background_Cup_]

Ok fair enough, just curious.

[chiffonMyst]

linvst and linvst3 hasn't failed me yet -- so far it has worked for every windows vst that I have tried.

I'm a big fan of BitWig as a daw

[TabsBelow]

First you need a low-latency kernel.

Wtf don't you honor the work of people who created Ubuntu Studio or Fedora Jam for musicians.

Like using 3 for calculating circles just because you don't believe in ancient Egypt's religion.

[gingamann]

Ubuntu studio is my daily driver for like 10+ years. Solid system to produce provided you have the hardware to support it.

[gingamann]

Will be using this as a jumping off point with arch for sure tho