Currently looking for a good DAW to run on Linux. I used Ableton Live 11 Standard back on Windows, got it running decently on Fedora with Wine, but kind of want to explore some other options.
Before I used Live, LMMS was actually what I used first while I was learning. I never did anything too real with it so I’m not honestly too sure what it’s capable of, but it also seems to be abandonware? Hasn’t been updated since 2020, what’s that about?
I’m not 100% dead set on using FOSS btw, for this anyways. It would definitely be a plus, but i’ll use proprietary if it runs well on Linux and is good at what it does. Are there any other options I should check out or look into? I’ve heard pretty good things about ardour and bitwig but don’t know too much about them.
Bitwig works nicely and has been winning over some Ableton users. Reaper has a Linux version and Ardour is a pretty popular Linux DAW
I third bitwig, especially for an Ableton user. It was developed by former Ableton developers and is supposed to be similar to it. It’s available as an official flatpak, and it has a 30 day(?) free trial. Some people seem to even like Bitwig better than Ableton. I’ve been seeing a bunch of videos on YouTube about people moving from Ableton to Bitwig after trying it out.
From what I understand, aside from whether the DAW you like will work you also need to check whether the VST plugins you like will work.
Much later edit: I forgot to mention https://www.zrythm.org/, which is an open source DAW which is supposed to be fairly similar to Bitwig.
Ooo thanks for the zrhythm reco. They might be suitable for me because i liked my time with the bitwig trial, but I’m below even a hobby music maker and only like to mess around every now and then so paying the price they ask for is probably not financially responsible for me at the moment.
You’re welcome. I hope it works well for your purposes!
One other thing to consider is that Bitwig has 3 tiers, you can upgrade between them, and they have significant sales occasionally, like in the Summer. I think the 3 tiers were going for $79 ($20 off), $149 ($50 off), and $299 ($100 off) in the sale, from what I recall, and also significant education discounts if you’re a student. Finally, there are legitimate places online to buy used licenses of DAWs.
Didn’t know you could buy used licenses, I’ll definitely have to look into them. Thanks again.
Yeah, it’s definitely less well-known that this is possible. I don’t know if all vendors allow it, but many do. You’re welcome.
I second Bitwig. I was an Ableton user before switching to Linux, and shopped around several FOSS DAWs before deciding to just keep a Mac around to use only for music production. But I later found Bitwig, and was able to use that to switch to Linux full time. I am just a hobbyist, but Bitwig is absolutely professional grade software.
Another former Ableton user who moved to Bitwig after moving to 100% Linux.
The pricing of the various tiers is similar to the price of the Ableton equivalents but the upgrades are generally more expensive, however the upgrade process is different so most users find the value for money to be around the same
Eh… not sure where you get your information but https://github.com/lmms/lmms last update was yesterday.
The github repo has activity, but the last stable release (1.2.2) released 5 years ago. I’m not really interested in using the nightly build
Nightly (alpha) build is pretty good (infinitely better than the “stable” build), but I’m not a professional, so I cannot say how good it works with serious projects.
FWIW from https://lmms.io/download#linux one can get as AppImage (so nothing to build, no repository to modify) either
- 1.3.0-alpha.1.102 alpha
- 1.3.0-alpha.1.894 nightly
so from what I understood you could consider alpha, not nightly.
102 -> 894
Come on now. I know that asking for 1.3.1 is pure madness… But can’t we get a beta version of 1.3.0 maybe?
If the nightly version is good, just put out a new release after 5 years. Are they shooting for some milestone or something? I guess I should look into it myself…
(Really tho I’m glad this project is still active and I’ll check out the nightly version.)
FWIW not only is the project alive (last commit 17 hours ago) but distribution too (cf links above) and project management too (cf e.g. https://github.com/orgs/LMMS/projects/1 as example of complex set of tasks mostly done toward a major release).
So… I’m not going to give people working on LMMS any advice, but of course I hear you, and OP, when it shows for people who aren’t deep into it a project that seems abandoned.
I do not know no why the project is in that state but what I hope I have shown is that for sure it’s very much active.
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Lmms seems to still have activity on its github, though you’re right that there were no proper release since 2020-2021. Most options i know of have been presented by others, i’ll just put another reference to yabridge, as it could be useful to get some of your vst up and running.
Look at my reply here, where I explained the FOSS apps, their pros and cons: https://lemmy.ml/post/36874236/21366132
I like Ardour. It’s got everything you need. It’s what I’ve been using for the past couple years now. It even supports VST2/VST3 plugins through WINE
I also recommend using yabridge to set up Windows plugins to work on Linux, but be warned there is risk of compatibility issues with plugins on Linux when buying new ones!
EDIT - Resources:
- Ardour website - https://ardour.org/
- Recommend installing from your package manager tho
- Yabridge tool - https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridge
- A few plugins that work:
- Drum kit plugin I like (free) - https://www.powerdrumkit.com/
- Voxengo SPAN (Frequency Analyzer, also free) - https://www.voxengo.com/product/span/
- Luciano Dato’s Noise-Repellant (free) - https://github.com/lucianodato/noise-repellent
- Typically use the built in LPF/HPF, Graph Eq, Reverb, and Compressor plugins. They work great
Wait a little while and low key Audacity 4 might release a fully capable DAW as well now that it’s adding better clip support, plugin support, non-destructive editing for some effects like compression, reverb, etc. Of course, it will be mainly for if you do a lot of recording. For electronic, Ardour would probably be better even after Audacity 4 releases.
- Ardour website - https://ardour.org/
So top, IMO, is Reaper. Not FLOSS, but the developer has consistently had a reasonable user price set, you can download and install free, you get a short nag screen. If you like it, buy it.
Bespoke is a synthesizer first but “like a DAW in some ways, but with less of a focus on a global timeline. Instead, it has a design more optimized for jamming and exploration.” (youtube trailer, wiki, wikipedia)
I am a FOSS enthusiast, and use FOSS whenever possible. However, my DAW of choice is Reaper. It may not be FOSS, but I love this application. It works well, on windows, on Linux. It’s powerful.
Bigwig Studio is made by some of the original Devs of Ableton i believe and from what I’ve messed around with it in a trial. It’s way better (stylish too). If I was less of an occasional dabbler in music production I’d absolutely pay for this. Linux is not a second class citizen to them which is great, any VSTs they release themselves always work on Linux natively too.
Theres also reaper, but I feel like the barrier to entry on that one can feel a bit daunting. It never feels just ready to go for a newcomer.
Theres also a bunch of different trackers that are Linux compatible some with VST support too, but that’s a very different way of making music from the traditional DAW.
Renoise is sweet as far as trackers go.
Ardour was always my go-to although it’s been crashing on me a lot.
Shout out to BespokeSynth for being amazing, I forgive the crashes because it’s so cool and strongly foss.
bitwig is great, it is my favorite DAW that I’ve used (Logic and Ableton were previously used by me).
I really enjoy the flexibility and creativity I get with the grid.
I use LMMS although I’m planning on switching to reaper once I find out how to properly configure it and bring my LMMS presets in.
To use the latest version of LMMS, you have to click on the alpha or latest release version on the downloads page instead of whatever the main release is. If you ever want help figuring out LMMS, feel free to reach out.
I dual boot Windows for Cubase and Kontakt. Never could get Cubase working well on Linux and I probably could switch to Reaper and make Kontakt work with yabridge, but I have been using Cubase for over 20 years and haven’t had the inclination to switch just yet.
There are no good DAWs on Linux.
