I’m so glad I finally got all of my Reaper plugins working in Linux. I was able to convert my last Windows box to Linux late last year. Switched everything over to Firefox at the same time. My gaming PC has been on Linux for a couple of years now. Feels good.
Not as simple as in Windows, for sure. You need to understand the audio subsystems. Pipewire is getting better and better, but it’s not quite there for pro audio, so you still need jack audio for sound recording DI instruments with low latency. You also need a realtime kernel and some tweaks to the kernel/os. The easy way is to use Ubuntu Studio and use the audio setting tool to switch to “Pro Audio”. Then install yabridge and Wine-Staging or use Lutris/Bottles to host Windows VST plugins. The latest kernels have built-in support for Focusrite hardware, which is nice. The only plugin I had that I haven’t been able to get working is Kontakt, but there is supposedly a workaround. The NI installer apparently tries to mount ISOs during the install and that hangs, so you have to copy them out of the temp installer folder and mount them manually, then run the individual installers. I haven’t done that because I never really used Kontakt. There are lots of native linux plugins in VST3, LV2, and CLAP format. U-he’s stuff is all Linux native, for instance. Most of my old Windows plugins I installed with Wine and they just work. I have heard Waves is not compatible because of their DRM, so pirated copies would probably work. :/
Thank you for the response. Definitely doesn’t sound like I’m ready to dive in fully yet. Maybe if I get a flash drive and clear some space I could try it out. Luckily I don’t rely on too many VSTs. Only VSTs I really would want are XO Drums and Serato Sample. Serato is nice but not neccesary. I’m not sure I can navigate my samples without XO though. Maybe Scaler 2 would be nice.
I’m so glad I finally got all of my Reaper plugins working in Linux. I was able to convert my last Windows box to Linux late last year. Switched everything over to Firefox at the same time. My gaming PC has been on Linux for a couple of years now. Feels good.
How’s audio work in linux? I prefer Bitwig but there’s some plugins I’d miss.
Not as simple as in Windows, for sure. You need to understand the audio subsystems. Pipewire is getting better and better, but it’s not quite there for pro audio, so you still need jack audio for sound recording DI instruments with low latency. You also need a realtime kernel and some tweaks to the kernel/os. The easy way is to use Ubuntu Studio and use the audio setting tool to switch to “Pro Audio”. Then install yabridge and Wine-Staging or use Lutris/Bottles to host Windows VST plugins. The latest kernels have built-in support for Focusrite hardware, which is nice. The only plugin I had that I haven’t been able to get working is Kontakt, but there is supposedly a workaround. The NI installer apparently tries to mount ISOs during the install and that hangs, so you have to copy them out of the temp installer folder and mount them manually, then run the individual installers. I haven’t done that because I never really used Kontakt. There are lots of native linux plugins in VST3, LV2, and CLAP format. U-he’s stuff is all Linux native, for instance. Most of my old Windows plugins I installed with Wine and they just work. I have heard Waves is not compatible because of their DRM, so pirated copies would probably work. :/
Thank you for the response. Definitely doesn’t sound like I’m ready to dive in fully yet. Maybe if I get a flash drive and clear some space I could try it out. Luckily I don’t rely on too many VSTs. Only VSTs I really would want are XO Drums and Serato Sample. Serato is nice but not neccesary. I’m not sure I can navigate my samples without XO though. Maybe Scaler 2 would be nice.