With an increased interest in Linux currently, I thought I would start a thread discussing some of the options in the Linux audio world.
I’m going to start with DAWs.
Ardour
The primary DAW that tends to get used on Linux is probably Ardour. Ardour started development in 2005 as an alternative to ProTools. It has been supported by various companies including Solid State Logic (SSL), Waves, and Harrison Consoles. It’s the core platform behind the commercial DAW Harrison Mixbus which is, essentially, a version of Ardour with some changes and additional capabilities.
Ardour is, at time of writing, up to version 8.12 with v9 being actively developed (and discussed on the forums and chat group). Ardour is one of the only DAWs where you can directly converse with the developers, or even make contributions to the code.
Ardour is Open Source and is available for free from various sources. The officially packaged installer can be obtained from the Ardour website, but this requires a donation via Paypal, which can be as little as $1. Ardour is available for Linux, Windows and Mac.
This is the DAW I mainly use:
Harrison Mixbus
As described above, this is largely a commercial version of Ardour but with some significant changes. They have adapted Ardour to mimic their renowned 32C studio console (used by Queen, Abba, Michael Jackson, etc.) and to provide a more “analog workflow”. This includes channel strips which emulate the Harrison 32C channel strip, and busses which include analog-style drive.
The “Pro” versions also include an SSL 9000J channel strip option, as well as support for Dolby Atmos, and a free Creator Pack which includes the Slate Sounds Starter pack and a bunch of Native Instruments and other plugs. Unfortunately the plugins are not Linux native, although it may be possible to get them working with Wine/Yabridge.
Mixbus 11 is $49.99 with the Pro version costing $149.99 (but watch for discounts). Mixbus is also available for Mac and Windows.
I have a licence for Mixbus 11 Pro but, currently, I don’t use it that much:
LMMS
LMMS is a DAW I’ve known about for years, but never really used. It’s mainly aimed at electronic music and beat-making styles. It has a reputation for being easy to use, especially for those genres, and includes a lot of built-in synths.
LMMS is Open Source and free to download and use. It’s available for Linux, Mac and Windows.
Qtractor
This is another DAW I’ve known about for years, and really not used much. Again, it’s Open Source and available for free in AppImage format for Linux.
Zrythm
Zyrthm is a fairly recently developed DAW which has had some good reviews. I’ve had a play but, for me, it didn’t give me anything that Ardour didn’t, and I’m pretty familiar with how Ardour works. It’s an Open Source application and a limited version is available for free for Linux, Windows and Mac, with the paid version being £20, and a subscription version being £24/year.
Other DAWs
I’ve bundled in here a bunch of other DAWs that I know of, but haven’t used. These are mostly commercial, non-free applications:
REAPER (yes, Reaper is available for Linux)
Bitwig Studio
PreSonus Studio One** (currently as a public beta)
Renoise
Tracktion Waveform - Commercial DAW with free versions
Fender Studio - Fender’s free DAW with built-in amp modelling
Other Tools
Not DAWs, but some similarity:
Audacity - Free audio editor
MuseScore Studio - Free professional score notation
RoseGarden - Free music composition environment
TuxGuitar - Free TAB/notation editor for guitar
Guitar Pro -Commercial TAB Editor. Not Linux native but works well under WINE
Cheers,
Keith