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Current stable Elementary is based on a ~2.5 year old version of Ubuntu. The only reason to choose elementary over any flavor of ubuntu is if you like it's OSX-inspired desktop environment.
If I were you, I'd do this:
Pick whichever flavor of Ubuntu whose GUI appeals to you (Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE edition, regular Ubuntu, etc). Ubuntu is often the target for game developers, but the actual GUI you choose won't make a difference for compatibility (but it might for speed and ease of use).
Add the KXStudio repositories to get the latest and greatest music production software for Linux.
As a Linux Audio user, my advice is "don't switch." Apple isn't going anywhere and you can't beat the reliability of audio on a mac laptop. Nearly every top-level, live techno producer uses a Mackbook. These are multi-million dollar music professionals who trust Macs more than anything else. Like /u/termires2 writes, you might want get a dual-boot going first because there will definitely be a transition period. Mine was about six months coming from a Windows environment (I started working with computers and music on Win95).
Another alternative is to Try Ubuntu Studio before installing and see if you can make any noise. This is the distribution currently I use (after trying over a dozen different ones).
Ubuntu Linux is very reliable on Dell laptops. However, I still get some annoying audio crashes on my Dell and would never use Linux on a paying gig.
Also, there is a well-maintained, audio specific Linux distribution called KX Studio created by a reddit user in this sub who might show his face in this thread. :)
That said, I personally think Linux Audio is a complete disaster and try to dissuade any serious musician from using it. This is an unpopular opinion in a Linux sub but a popular sentiment among those who have tried to do professional work and seen how clumsy, buggy, and archaic GNU audio software is. However, with a lot of patience you can make a working system and it is at least a little rewarding if you are kind of a hacker. I've been running Linux as my main OS for over five years now and I do professional audio work on it, but many sacrifices to my workflow have been made since Windows and I still need to run some Windows apps through WINE.
Good luck and have fun with Linux! :)
You should try it out with a Linux live USB! I'm using Ardour 3, which is what I started with. You probably used version 2, which has a laughable GUI. 3 looks really professional, and JACK has gotten really easy too. Also, something I really like and think should be more known: You can use Windows VSTs with their GUIs on Ardour (with Carla, a really nice host that supports LV2, LADSPA, DSSI, VST, VST3 and even SF2 soundfonts!) and you can also use Windows VSTs live with "vst-host", which is included in the dssi-vst package. I'm using the normal kernel, and i have a shitty Realtek sound card, but I got no latency at all with the guitar plugged into the mixer and the signal being sent to a Tape Delay VST.
Edit: By the way, you can get Ardour 3, Carla, dssi-vst as well as a BUNCH of LV2, LADSPA and DSSI plugins in the KXStudio repository. The commands for adding the KXStudio repository can be found here.
Use any Debian-based system and add the KXStudio repositories and to stick to 100% free software, remove the non-free one from the list. KXStudio has tons of the best audio stuff and plugins all packaged for you.
I have't tried it but have you looked into Carla, a plugin host of the KXStudio suite. If you scroll down to the release notes it says windows plugins are supported using wine.
http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/Downloads#LiveDVD
Download an iso of kxStudio and burn it onto a DVD or a bootable usb stick. Boot off of that image. you now have a working DAW with ardour 3 jackdbus and an enormous selection of audio plugins and tools. total cost? Free. If you decide you like kxstudio and ardour3, you can install it and the underlying ubuntu linux OS onto a hard drive from that same image and get much better performance as a hard drive OS install is much faster than a CD based OS anyday. I have used expensive proprietary DAWS and I like ardour better.
EDIT FOR SPELLING.
I used KXStudio for a while and it's good, with lots of custom programs to make the experience easier, real-time kernel etc.
http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/
Still, the traditional modular approach to music production on Linux is a puzzle I don't want to solve. And I never quite 'got' Jack. I like sticking to a single DAW with plug-ins. As on Windows.
This is not for the faint of heart but there are Linux distributions specifically geared to professional audio. KXStudio for example. Check out LibreMusicProduction for some introductory tutorials.
Sorry for no big splashy pictures this time, but this one no longer eats your cat so that's a plus ;)
KXStudio repository users can install "carla-git" and "carla-plugins-lv2" to get it, anyone else can download binaries and source code from here: http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/Downloads
See http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/Applications:Carla if you haven't heard of Carla before.
It's really nice what KXStudio is going for. Seems like they're more focused on just getting this good software out to people, but offer the distro as an all-in-one solution for editors. One thing I noticed, that really isn't a big deal, is they should remove their add-ons from the applications page and set them under the specific application. I'm going to have to try some of these programs out, namely Carla.
Improperly maintained PPAs lead to breakage on both debian and mint. Properly maintained PPAs work just fine on both. KXStudio is a well known example (high quality, up to date audio software for Debian and derivatives).
Just don't expect support from the "official" debian org once you've messed up your software sources, which IMHO is fine (bugs are expected to be reproducible on plain Debian). Mint can support PPAs all they want; they can't do anything about a PPA maintainer forcing you to upgrade to a broken/malicious libc6 from their archive. Which is why using them is discouraged.
and if he doesn't need a full DAW and just an audio editor there is audacity. He may have been using it on his Mac.
Or maybe use something like KXstudio as his distro. I think it only uses Jack and takes some learning, but it comes with a ton of AV software.
from the official website:
> If your distribution offers VST support (requires the installation of Wine) it is generally offered in a separate package. For example, using the KXStudio repository, run this command in a terminal. > > $ sudo apt-get install lmms-vst-full
Alternatively, if you're not running a debian-like distro, you can compile from source.
I strongly suggest you add the KXStudio repositories to your Ubuntu install. It's super simple, and you then will automatically get updated stuff for all sorts of music features, updated Ardour, lots of plugins, a plugin-host called Carla, and more.
Seriously, it's the best way to run music on GNU/Linux.
http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/ has the instructions for adding the repositories.
Ardour 2, not 3?
In Ardour 3 click on 'Window' and open a 'Mixer' window. Your audio tracks will appear as columns. Right click in the column and one of the first menu options will be to add a plugin. Ardour should automatically list LADSPA or LV2 plugins, but I'm sure you can also browse to open any plugins you have downloaded.
You might want to look into enabling KXStudio repositories, if you haven't already. It provides quite a few plugins and other audio software which may not be available otherwise.
Hope this helps.
That is your issue right there, unfortunately. Basically, the really high priced DAWs for Windows and Mac cheat to get around the kernel latency issues, Audacity doesn't. So a lot of the time, the open source editors do indeed have latency issues on Windows and Mac that they wouldn't on Linux if you were using a low latency or real time kernel, depending on your needs.
Anyway, you can run several of the Linux studio distros live from USB, or just break out an old hard drive to test them on real hardware. Ubuntu Studio does most of the configuration for you, as well as another good studio distro called KXStudio. http://ubuntustudio.org/ http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/ Dynebolic is also very good, and can turn even a Pentium II into an audio workstation, but isn't as beginner friendly. http://www.dynebolic.org/ Believe me, I'm not a Linux fanboy when it comes to this (if you notice my username is BSD user), but if you plan to use open source editors the only good way to do it is with Linux, a real time or low latency kernel, and JACK.
I seem to remember reading that debian and debian-based distros (including ubuntu) were the only ones that were going to be supported.
From this link.
>Users on other linux distributions should enable the repositories that best match their distro.
>Remember that KXStudio offers repositories only for Debian and its based systems.
Forgot to mention that KXStudio repositories include some software for session management and coordinating audio software. Specifically you may want to look at 'cadence' and 'claudia'. I think the developer is active on these forums if you have questions.
for an out of the box audio distro i would highly recommend the ubuntu based kxstudio maintained by falkTX. It includes some additional tools designed by falkTX.
personally i run arch with the rt-lts kernel. and use some of falkTX's apps from the aur.
on another note mackie has released Tracktion v4 linux beta, and the commercial software bitwig (ableton live inspired) will be released on march 26th (after a two year private beta) with native linux support!!
To be more precise, I am a video game sound designer.
I switched fully to Linux 2 years ago or so and I've been experimenting a lot lately with various combinations of software and hardware. I would say my main arsenal consists of (bot not limited to) a combination of Ardour, Pure Data, Audacity, many of the Calf effects, along with loads of other fun stuff from the KX repos http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/
I'm sure there are other ways, but it would probably be the easiest to accomplish this with Jack and Catia
http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/Applications:Catia
And here's some info on running LADSPA plugins on your ALSA output
http://alsa.opensrc.org/Low-pass_filter_for_subwoofer_channel_%28HOWTO%29
as far as I know, no. there was a working version of JackD that worked with the asio. There was a group working to do the port but I don't think it ever really grew legs. This is a linux/BSD thing but those tools are quite easy to use these days. If you want to play without paying for the installation time and effort and at no risk to your hard drive try the kxstudio bootable live DVD http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/Downloads#LiveDVD
EDIT: On a side note if you like what that DVD does when you boot it you can install that OS to your system from the DVD as well and it will perform much better.
There are a few music production specific distros: KXStudio http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/
Constant Rolling Studio http://sourceforge.net/projects/constantrollingstudio/
AV Linux http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html
KXStudio is a distro built for audio production. The software tends to be stable, it has ardour3 compiled in, and has a large set of ridiculously good linux audio tools.
Like Artefact2 said, dss1-vst is really helpful. I use Muse Sequencer and lauch my VST's with dssi-vst, then route them using JACK. You give up the ability to send sysex to the plugins, but they work. I've heard KX Studio comes with a session manager that helps makes using VST's much easier but I've never been able to cleanly install KX.
This is seriously, IMHO, probably the best distro when it comes to audio production. Lots of JACK built in(all audio routes through it) and good tools to manage workflows.(like ladish studio tool Klaudia) You could also then use wineasio to connect to JACK.
replying again to orange-red you. I've been looking at kxstudio, another ubuntu based distro. It integrates pulseaudio with jack, which is a genius idea. Ideally you should never have to stop or start jack unless you unplug an interface.