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Open-Source Music Production Tools

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Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#61

Post by Xolvixica »

klodolph wrote: post #52
trts wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like I have been infrequently using Audacity for close to 20 years now which is surprising to think about. I've used it to slice up tons of live recordings, mix multitrack audio, clean up, remove background noise, dub aging tape reels to digital, add some post-production effects to music tracks, and teach my dad how to use free software to do some of the same stuff. Some of the work was for broadcast and dig…

I have been using Audacity for about 20 years as well, or at least 15. I feel seething hatred for it. I use alternatives where possible, even if I have to pay for them. Audacity has the dubious distinction of being the only software that, to my knowledge, has directly caused me physical pain and harm. You see, unlike every other application on the planet, the volume slider in Audacity does not control Audacity’s play…

I just want to address the audio slider issue. On Windows with the latest version of Audacity (2.4.2), when adjusting the "Playback Volume" slider on the main toolbar (I assume that's the one you're referring to), the track volume changes but the system volume does not. The tooltip for the slider says "emulated" so I assume that means exactly that, it's adjusting the volume without messing with the system mixers.

Perhaps the slider works differently on Linux with its sound subsystem, or maybe this was an issue with older versions of Audacity. Googlign does suggest that the Audio host option on the toolbar, if the "wrong" one is selected, could result in the system volume being directly modified by the slider (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/device_toolbar.html)

Anyways, maybe just look into that. In my experience people prefer to whine and whinge rather than solve their problems. Take that as an insult if you want (not intended), but if it helps resolve this issue for you then I don't mind.

Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#62

Post by vbsteven »

exikyut wrote: post #50

Naive, under-researched :) question: what Linux-native program lets me import a bunch of audio tracks, arrange them in a timeline with subsample-level resolution, apply nondestructive edits such as crossfades... ...with a fast, simple UI? :) So far I've poked at Ardour, but a) I was pretty sure it was absolute overkill for my simple purposes, b) The program felt kinda clunky, like if I moved wrong it would crash, and…

It's not open source but for your purposes of figuring out if audio editing is for you Reaper could be a nice introduction. It runs on Linux and works pretty similar to most commercial DAWs. You can run its evaluation mode for free indefinitely with a nag screen at startup. I started with that and then graduated to Cubase when I decided I wanted to pursue further.

Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#63

Post by pcf »

exikyut wrote: post #50

Naive, under-researched :) question: what Linux-native program lets me import a bunch of audio tracks, arrange them in a timeline with subsample-level resolution, apply nondestructive edits such as crossfades... ...with a fast, simple UI? :) So far I've poked at Ardour, but a) I was pretty sure it was absolute overkill for my simple purposes, b) The program felt kinda clunky, like if I moved wrong it would crash, and…

"I've pretty much never pursued playing around with audio or music because all the software out there is either undiscoverably obscure, or firmly out of my price range (which is $0, since I a) have no idea if audio editing will even be interesting, and b) don't know what program would be the most appropriate)."

Not to be a dick, but it doesn't sound like you have a need to play around with audio or music. People who really want that make it happen, no matter how few tools they have at their disposal.

Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#64

Post by geff82 »

I have only experience with Propellerheads Reason and what I like there that lots of instruments and synthesizer settings are available. Where do I go for instruments when using open source software? How is this topic being handled?

Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#66

Post by klodolph »

Xolvixica wrote: post #61
klodolph wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been using Audacity for about 20 years as well, or at least 15. I feel seething hatred for it. I use alternatives where possible, even if I have to pay for them. Audacity has the dubious distinction of being the only software that, to my knowledge, has directly caused me physical pain and harm. You see, unlike every other application on the planet, the volume slider in Audacity does not control Audacity’s play…

I just want to address the audio slider issue. On Windows with the latest version of Audacity (2.4.2), when adjusting the "Playback Volume" slider on the main toolbar (I assume that's the one you're referring to), the track volume changes but the system volume does not. The tooltip for the slider says "emulated" so I assume that means exactly that, it's adjusting the volume without messing with the system mixers. Per…

Not helpful—the problem exists on the latest version of Audacity (2.4.2), and there is no option to change the host. Audacity should never be changing the system audio levels anyway, and it is worrying that the Audacity developers ever thought that this was acceptable behavior.

Honestly, Audacity is just such an all-around nightmare that I don’t think fixing one or two problems would make a difference anyway.

Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#68

Post by fit2rule »

vbsteven wrote: post #62
exikyut wrote: post #50

Naive, under-researched :) question: what Linux-native program lets me import a bunch of audio tracks, arrange them in a timeline with subsample-level resolution, apply nondestructive edits such as crossfades... ...with a fast, simple UI? :) So far I've poked at Ardour, but a) I was pretty sure it was absolute overkill for my simple purposes, b) The program felt kinda clunky, like if I moved wrong it would crash, and…

It's not open source but for your purposes of figuring out if audio editing is for you Reaper could be a nice introduction. It runs on Linux and works pretty similar to most commercial DAWs. You can run its evaluation mode for free indefinitely with a nag screen at startup. I started with that and then graduated to Cubase when I decided I wanted to pursue further.

REAPER runs really very well on Linux, it has to be stated, and is one of the easier DAW's to learn thanks to things like "The REAPER Blog" and "RAPER MANIA" channels on Youtube that really make REAPER great. It is one of the best values for money in the DAW world as well. VERY, very powerful software, great price.

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/user/audiogeekzine

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq297H7Ca98HlB5mVFHGSsQ

Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#69

Post by fit2rule »

keeblers_n_bits wrote: post #13

One of the reasons I haven't been able to fully commit to Linux on the desktop is that I haven't been able to find quality music production tools. I always end up going back to macOS because I miss Logic Pro X and Ableton Live too much. Also the audio routing in macOS is so much easier than any other operating system I've encountered. I would love to hear about music studios using FOSS.

I've been running a Linux DAW in my studio for decades, based around Ubuntu Studio and all the tools that are bundled in that distribution. It is easily one of the most fun DAW's to use in the setup - I have MacOS systems based around UAD (Luna) and Pro Tools as well, as this is a pro studio and we get a lot of musicians in it, who have their own ideas about things - so we accommodate them. The Ubuntu Studio DAW recently got a LOT more use while we got the Mac's upgraded to Catalina and through that painful upgrade/obsolete process - something that just does not happen in Ubuntu.

But whenever someone new comes along who doesn't care what they use to track vocals or backing tracks of whatever, I put them in front of the Ubuntu Studio DAW, leave them alone for a few hours to get their tracking done, and always find its very productive. It holds its own against the other DAW's that are in production as well (MacBooks with REAPER).

The thing that has to be understood is that Ubuntu Studio is designed for 'out of the box' production - you have everything installed that is needed to get started, and if you have good audio hardware (for this system we standardised on PRESONUS, as it is very well supported under Linux) - you can compete with Pro Tools systems, easily. The latency is among the best of the DAW's in the studio, and while its fair to say that the software packages available are not as polished as the commercial offerings, its still an amazing system full of tools to explore and use - thousands of plugins, soft synths and instruments, tons of unique apps that, once you get involved, will give you great capabilities, e.g., seq24, hydrogen, zynaddsubfx = instant jam party, once you get it configured with aconnectgui/Carla, of course..)

Its really worth taking a weekend, installing Ubuntu Studio somewhere, and going through the packages that have been included. They are deep, powerful, and most of all - free and open source. I can't tell you how great it was to have a reverb plugin open and in use, get asked a simple "how does reverb code work?", then bust out the sources and have a look for ourselves .. can't do that with any other DAW, and yet Ubuntu Studio is packed with apps that really work. Having the sources for everything is just astonishing in terms of what it offers the competent producer or engineer in understanding what's going on.

Re: Open-Source Music Production Tools

#70

Post by ryan_midi »

justaj wrote: post #58
ryan_midi wrote: post #8

Hello! I'm the author of this page. I realize that a few tools might be missing. Happy to hear all suggestions. In the meantime, if you want this list in Google sheet, you can make a copy of this one: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YfVyZHy83WHIiZmQJwHh...

Do you accept suggestions for missing tools? I've noticed that Surge [0] was missing, it's a softsynth made by the same dev that now works on Bitwig Studio. 0: https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Happy to include any and all relevant tools. I hope to make this the single most relevant resource for FOSS music production
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