best distro for music recording/processing...
 

anyone???

I'm trying to decide between Mandrake and Debian because they seem the most mentioned among musical types, but I'm open to other options, just help me leave windows!

Additional:

Audacity seems to point more towards debian too, but is audacity a good program? What other sequencers/production tools are available that are industry standard?

Honestly, I have never heard of a distro just made for recording /processing. I think any distro will do. It's the programs you choose to run which will be key. Mandrake will probably be a better choice for you if you are new to linux. Debian is true open source and is a great distro, but not as well suited for a new person to linux.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Linux-Distributions and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

I really can't recommend one over the other, as they both arrive at the same destination from different roads. One thing you may want to consider is that Mandrake now ships with the 2.6 kernel out of the box and Debian will continue to ship with 2.4. There have been good strides in reducing latency with 2.6. If you want to sample the apps themselves befoire you commit hard drive space, you could try a live-cd distro and see what you're up against. It'll be 1000 times more sluggish than a hard drive install, but you'll get an idea of what you can do. Look on www.distrowatch.com for a large list (or http://iso.linuxquestions.org/). What you will want to explore is Dyne:bolic and Agnula. These two are geared specifically towards multimedia creation. I haven't explored either in depth lately, but I believe that if you like either you will be able to do a hard drive install.

dyne:bolic/Angula/PlanetCCMRA?
 

I've been digging around looking for a good music processing and recording distro. So far, I've come across three names: dyne:bolic, Angula Demudi, and Planet CCMRA. Of those three, the only one I had heard of was dyne:bolic. I'm just wondering if anyone out there has experience with these distros or can recommend one or the other. I didn't see any of these in the reviews section, and it's hard to get anything objective from the distro's developers. I'd also like to know whether having a distro optimized for digital music work makes that much of a difference on fairly current equipment. I'm now running FC3 on an Athlon 64 3200+ and a gig of RAM.

Thanks,
Batard.

I don't think that there's a specific distribution that would provide better results than another. I'm not into music production, but the consensus seems to be low latency is better. If so, than a current kernel compiled with the low latency patch and other tweaks to help it would be the best improvement. Then, you just pick the applications that work the best. All distros have the tools to run. Its just what extras you want.


......and I can't resist! IT LIVES!!!! The thread lives!!! :D

Interesting...
 

I've been reading that the 2.4.x kernel is better latency-wise than the 2.6.x kernel, though I don't know how a patch would factor in that equation. I'm assuming that these recording/processing distros use whatever is optimal; it might be easier to go that path than to do a minimal Gentoo install, say, and build up from there.

Why not play around with the apps. Dyne:bolic is a live-cd. From the 25+ distributions I have tried, some have been better and some have been worse. I don't think its as much of an issue with what you have on the system as much as the system itself. A kernel compiled on the machine seems to cause apps to work better and faster (and Gentoo does make that easy, since it has the toolchain in the base system). Try one and see if you like it. If you don't, try another.

LinuxJournal had a favorable review of Ardour It may be of interest. I'll agree that it's an app question, not a distro question though -- J.W.

Audacity is a good and simple program for recording/editing purposes. It has a simple interface and easy to use for somebody wanted basic audio editing and filtering capabilities on Linux.

Agnula is the only distro made specifically for recording music. It is based on Debian, but it includes low latency patches in its kernel. Don't knock the advantage of specialised distros - sure, it is just a collection of open-source apps available anywhere. But their selection and pre-configuration can make a large difference to your sanity and time...
Dyne:bolic is as I understand it a live CD with a goal of distribution of media (broadcasting and such) rather than professional creation, and I think Planet CCRMA is aimed at producing video rather than sound?