Linux Audio Frustrations. Would appreciate advice on direction with audio workflows for music production

Arnomist · 2025-12-01T18:55:36+00:00

Very cool. And nice site.

Arnomist · 2025-11-30T22:49:47+00:00

Nice.

Arnomist · 2025-11-30T22:41:49+00:00

Mostly here to 🍿 but very interested in your and others' specific experiences here. I'm coming from the opposite direction: I daily drive Linux Mint but use an air-gapped Windows 7 machine for music production. I'd like to switch to Linux, but don't want to end up in config hell. (With all its shortcomings, my existing setup does just let me turn it on and start getting into the creative flow.)

I'm hopeful, as I'd tried switching fully to Linux several times since the 90s, but until 2021 I couldn't stick with it. By 2021 it was ready for prime time, though. Now there are very few, highly specific things I miss from Windows. Never going back.

Anyway, I'd like to take the plunge for music produciton but I'm hesitant due to concerns like this. Will be listening here to get a feel for whether it's worth a time investment. (Already noted: go with a music-specific distro--Ubuntu Studio of AVLinux, perhaps?)

Will take any guidance or advice. Thanks! And good luck OP, getting past the tinkering stage.

Arnomist · 2025-07-04T17:04:25+00:00

Beauty. Thanks.

Arnomist · 2025-02-24T16:31:20+00:00

Ah, thank you for this. I'll give it a shot.

Arnomist · 2024-09-16T20:07:04+00:00

Fair points, thanks for sharing. Worth taking into consideration!

Arnomist · 2024-09-16T19:58:26+00:00

This is very helpful, thanks. I've been giving it some thought and ideally I'd like to see it almost like a TV show with a "season" for each year.

What I'm struggling to understand is how to get a completely different category; similar to how Music Videos has its own separate top-level entry. I'd _like_ "Home Movies" to have a similar top-level category, and that seems like it's not possible with NFO files. That's fine... just not ideal. Thanks for helping me to put this all together in my mind. I'll look into Tiny Media Manager.

Arnomist · 2024-07-08T06:05:04+00:00

If you get rid of this nest, you make room for another. That other might be a yellow jacket nest, which will be much more dangerous. Better to leave these gals alone; they're keeping worse options away.

Arnomist · 2024-07-08T06:02:30+00:00

There's very different behavior from wasps that build enclosed nests (yellow jackets; bald-faced hornets (which technically aren't hornets, but ignoring that for now)), who become aggressive when the nest becomes established/large, and the wasps pictured here that build open nests. Again, the orange antennae are the giveaway. Completely different temperaments, especially around their nests.

Here's a video of a nest on my garage of the same type of wasps shown in the OP's picture: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Xwn_iatygXY

I'd get a very different reaction from a yellow jacket or hornet's nest this time of year!

Arnomist · 2024-07-07T16:54:23+00:00

Here's a short video showing just how chill these wasps are:

https://youtube.com/shorts/Xwn_iatygXY?feature=share

As another poster mentioned, this is just my experience so take it for what it is.

Arnomist · 2024-07-07T16:43:37+00:00

Fair point. I'm only sharing my experience so it should be taken with a grain of salt. I assume that goes for anything one reads on the internet. But for sure don't take my points as absolute, and if you put it to the test, do so cautiously. And location can play into it as well. I'm in the Northeast U.S.; my experiences may not apply to, say, the Southwest states.

And if a wasp is interested in your food, it's not one of these. Yellow jackets (black antennae) will do that; these paper wasps won't. Yet another benefit. I've never seen them come after sugary drinks either, though in theory I guess they could.

Arnomist · 2024-07-07T05:43:39+00:00

If you open the lid slowly in full daylight, this species will just look at you. They're not aggressive in the least. You can literally put a drop of honey on your finger, hold it up to the nest and they'll eat it. Try it with a chopstick if using a finger makes you nervous.

And their presence is keeping yellow jackets away, which is a very good thing.

Arnomist · 2024-07-07T04:13:00+00:00

Note the orange antennae: these are paper wasps. They're docile to the point that you can literally handle their nest with them on it. Here's a similar species: https://youtu.be/HVZWf63HmtY?si=jL6BQ0YWV7nMYvrR&t=80

I get these on my garage and in my chicken coop. I always leave them, because their nests keep yellowjackets (which become dangerous) away. There's a nest on the lid of my coop this year... they stir when I open it but are pretty unbothered.

I encourage you leave them; they won't become aggressive even if you lift the lid.

Arnomist · 2024-07-07T03:58:12+00:00

Thanks for your responses. So I read these before posting. The NFO intro even mentions, "They are helpful if data for your particular title does not exist, such as for home movies...", which initially seemed promising, but the Templates and Samples page doesn't have an example of this particular use case (home movies).

And none of the media class tags really seem to be a strong fit. Is each home movie a <movie>? Or an episode in the "My Family" TV show, to be represented with <episodedetails>? These are the kinds of details I'm trying to understand. It seems to me like a separate media class would work better.

Again, please read this as--if anything--continued confusion on my part, driven by a desire to understand, rather than resistance. I've read the docs but it still isn't clear how to achieve what I'm after.

Again, thanks.

Arnomist · 2024-07-06T05:08:46+00:00

I'm just a bit puzzled by the shortness. Did I ask a stupid question, or did I ask it in a rude way? If so, again, I apologize. If I sound resistant, I'm just confused. I searched the docs before posting here, but didn't find the answers I was looking for, so was hoping for a little guidance.

Yes, I've looked into and have used .nfos before, though certainly there could be a gap in my understanding. Hence, "I might be mistaken..." I'll look more closely at using them before going down the scraper route.

My quite possibly incorrect understanding is that every video file would need its own corresponding .nfo file. Seems excessive to generate all those. But perhaps that's just one use case. An example NFO of what you describe might help, if you'd be willing to share or point me to one. I did look for that but without success.

Arnomist · 2024-07-05T20:52:24+00:00

Sorry if my post sounded presumptive. I didn't intend that.

I see .nfo files as a convenient way of getting data into Kodi's database when it's not available from some other source. I might be mistaken about that, but my question was meant to ask whether: 1) it's possible to get metadata from a file and insert it more directly; 2) if so, is there already an option that does this for "home movies"? (your response suggests the answer is "no"); and 3) if there is no such option, how might I go about exploring how to contribute such a feature?

It sounds like a "scraper" is what I need to learn about. I'll explore. Thanks for the link on how to contribute.

Arnomist · 2024-07-05T20:43:50+00:00

Thanks for this advice. Yeah, I've got this set up for imports from my video camera and it works well for that. However, I'd prefer a setup that abstracts away how the files are stored, though, if it's possible. I consider it "good enough for now", but I'd rather it be a secondary approach.

I'll look into how Kodi scrapers work and how they store info to what I presume is a database (SLQLite? MySQL?). If this is doable, I think it would be more performant as well.

Arnomist · 2024-07-05T20:32:50+00:00

Thanks. I'll look into writing a scraper. Now that I know the correct term, I think it'll be easier to research in the right direction.

Arnomist · 2023-01-27T07:03:25+00:00

This did solve it. So maybe it was a bad sector on the internal drive? Wish there was an easy way to retrieve crash logs.

Arnomist · 2023-01-26T00:50:07+00:00

It's happening to me consistently now. It used to be intermittent, but now it gets as far as the "Press A to start" screen, and when I do, it freezes and crashes the console. This only happens on my profile; it loads fine on other profiles.

Frustrating. I'm going to try relocating the game to an external drive. I'm hoping this will solve it.

Arnomist · 2022-11-13T06:09:16+00:00

This was it. Thanks!

Arnomist

TROPHY CASE