Reaper Audio Software Is Coming To Linux

[Ardje]

There is also Bitwig, which was developed by ex-ableton employees. The big problem we still have though if that is still too difficult to get Jack running on any normal distribution

The biggest problem on getting Jack running on a normal distribution is the distributions insane choice for pulse-audio. If you get rid of pulse audio it works. I even got very low latency accross network. Having a turntable on one system with jackd and a midi keyboard on another.
But alas, I have pulseaudio on my steam machine, and yes, audio problems. Although it's hard to solve it any other way, as every distribution except for DAW targeted distributions pushes pulseaudio, and you need a software channel mixer to get audio through hdmi. You can bridge alsa to jack with no problems, but pulse to jack is an enormous resource hog.
But at least Samsungs soundcamp uses jack, so that's nice.

[unixfan2001]

The biggest problem on getting Jack running on a normal distribution is the distributions insane choice for pulse-audio. If you get rid of pulse audio it works. I even got very low latency accross network. Having a turntable on one system with jackd and a midi keyboard on another.
But alas, I have pulseaudio on my steam machine, and yes, audio problems. Although it's hard to solve it any other way, as every distribution except for DAW targeted distributions pushes pulseaudio, and you need a software channel mixer to get audio through hdmi. You can bridge alsa to jack with no problems, but pulse to jack is an enormous resource hog.
But at least Samsungs soundcamp uses jack, so that's nice.

Why would be it be an "insane choice"(sic) to go for Pulseaudio? Most distros cater towards the common user, not audio professionals.
Furthermore, running Pulseaudio on top of JACK is not the only option and certainly not the best. They're both soundservers. They're not designed to work together.

[omer666]

Hi, Its been over 4-6 year i check phoronix everyday, and its been a while i should have registered on the forum... but now here I am. It is funny, since yesterday, i was looking at reaper and i was checking if it was compatible with linux (every 5 month, i check DAW). And today, it is. It happen to me quite often i look for something and the day after, it is on phoronix (coincidence, i know, but its quite funny).

Just wanted to point out that from the page you posted, it seem they got a build for armv7. Raspberry PI as audio workstation ?!?!?! Well, only future will tell.

I now intend to set up a Renoise + Reaper workflow. There is just one thing that lack in my current equation... which audio interface to take. I need a cheap audio interface with 1 audio(16 bit is enough, more is better) in, 1 Midi and.... thats all. I want to create some hardware synthesizer, thus i need a audio in and a midi out to control them. And compatible with linux of course.

On the side question, anyone know good VST that can work in linux (not trough wine).

Welcome! You are in the same case as me. I would advise you to look for a used Roland/Edirol UA-25 or UA-25ex. It's got two jack/xlr combo inputs, each with fine preamps, midi in/out, headphones amp, up to 24bits & 96khz (recording only, though...), and you can find some units as low as 40 bucks.

I'll be getting one myself quite soon.

[Sundance]

They're not designed to work together.

That's not correct.

When jackd starts and its configured hardware device is held by pulse, jackd sends a message to pulse; pulse relinquishes the device but stays online; jackd then binds the device and starts listening for connections. Upon detecting the jackd server, if configured accordingly, pulse then connects to jackd and adds its own source and sink as jack clients. In other words, pulse can automatically collaborate with jackd to let jackd insert itself between pulse and the hardware sound device. This all happens online; that is, if you have pulse clients already playing, you don't even have to stop them, though you may have to route them to the jack pulse-sink instead of what the default pulse-sink is in your setup, if you haven't configured that to happen automatically. If you're the playful sort, you can for instance redirect an existing Hangout call through jackd and fire up a LADSPA host to add effects to your voice in real time, to see if your coworkers notice. It's good fun.

Tangentially: let's please not try to manufacture a war between jackd and pulse. Their developers have no qualms with each other. And, recognizing that they're separate tools that serve separate but complementary purposes, neither should you.

[Dr. Righteous]

Well, exciting news.
Most of my audio work professionally is post so I use Audacity. Have to say it is a fantastic example of open source software but it is NOT a DAW. I've tried Traction and never really liked it. I've used REAPER under wine before and it worked OK so this is great news that Reaper is coming to linux as native software. Reaper has great support for VST (virtual instrument) plug ins, something that linux is hurting for. There is a huge amount of these plugins available for free for windows.

NOW, if SONY would port Vegas Pro to linux, I would be on easy street. I started in non-linear editing back in the mid 90s . Vegas and Adobe Premiere is what I learned NLE on. I switch from Premiere to Sony Vegas because early on Premiere was very buggy and their solution was "Buy the new version" instead of fixing bugs in the version you already PAID FOR! I'm amazed there was not a class action lawsuit over this mess 15 years ago.
I've tried and work hard at using some of the native video editors for linux. That one I liked the best was Kdenlive. But I'm sorry. I had to give it up; it was just too buggy. I'm reluctant to relearn a completely different editor; professional editors have a steep learning curve. I've always been of the opinion that if you can't read the documentation and teach yourself how to use software it's poorly designed. It seems much of the professional software are designed this way on purpose. So you HAVE to take their training class to learn how to use it.

[Quixoticelixer]

I now intend to set up a Renoise + Reaper workflow. There is just one thing that lack in my current equation... which audio interface to take. I need a cheap audio interface with 1 audio(16 bit is enough, more is better) in, 1 Midi and.... thats all. I want to create some hardware synthesizer, thus i need a audio in and a midi out to control them. And compatible with linux of course.

On the side question, anyone know good VST that can work in linux (not trough wine).

Have a look at the Scarlett interfaces, they are not super cheap but they are very good, although I am not sure if the lower end ones have MIDI. Otherwise maybe look at some of the Alesis ones, they aren't quite as good but they will do the job.

[prokoudine]

The biggest problem on getting Jack running on a normal distribution is the distributions insane choice for pulse-audio. If you get rid of pulse audio it works.

Fedora 23. Both PulseAudio and JACK installed. It just works. No fiddling, no configuration. Just works as expected.

[Ardje]

Fedora 23. Both PulseAudio and JACK installed. It just works. No fiddling, no configuration. Just works as expected.

So you route jack to pulse, or pulse to jack? How do you route? Or do you have a sound card that can handle multiple clients, because that's not what we are discussing.

[Ardje]

Just wanted to point out that from the page you posted, it seem they got a build for armv7. Raspberry PI as audio workstation ?!?!?! Well, only future will tell.

I use an odroid XU4, and reaper seems to work on that...
I haven't connected my midi keyboard though...

I now intend to set up a Renoise + Reaper workflow. There is just one thing that lack in my current equation... which audio interface to take. I need a cheap audio interface with 1 audio(16 bit is enough, more is better) in, 1 Midi and.... thats all. I want to create some hardware synthesizer, thus i need a audio in and a midi out to control them. And compatible with linux of course.

I was in search for a good audio interface with at least one line in, then I found the herculus universal DJ that has 2 channels LINE IN (no gain controls), 2 channels LINE OUT and 2 channels headphones, fixed at 44k1 @ 16bit per channel. And of course it's a USB-midi based DJ table. It bridges USB-midi to bluetooth midi, so if you have a bluetooth midi device it would work (that's midi over bluetooth RFCOM serial).
I have an M-AUDIO Axiom-61 first generation USB-1.1 midi keyboard with real midi ports too, I have no idea if I can use the real midi port using USB.
The current generation Axiom's are not that expensive, and they are pretty advanced keyboard wise.
Just make sure your devices are USB-midi and USB-audio, and it should work.