Linux and audio pro 3819

Noah Roberts

Put it this way...if you don't like it then you can always buy something else. At least you don't have to spend $500 to find that out. If someday you grow out of it then you can go buy the later version of something better than you would have now. If you never grow out of it, or it grows with you, then you have just gotten quite a return on your investment.

Just looking at it totally pragmatically the risk vs. possible reward pretty much makes it a given. If you are willing to spend the time and effort learning how to use a DAW the time and effort needed to learn Linux is negligable. The time you spend learning Ardour and such is time well spent even if you decide to switch because these topics are universal. The cost is nil unless you buy a box set, and then it is next to nil. For someone just starting I don't see how you could NOT give Linux DAW a serious look.

What are the risks? That one day you might find that Linux is too limited for you and-or that you are incompatible with the people you want to do business with. So? When 90% of the skills you learned "playing" with Linux transfer directly what time did you waste "playing" with Linux? I didn't buy a $2000 gibson as my first guitar, did you? I didn't buy a $5000 Soldano as my first amp either. But, 15 years later...

Most of the knowledge needed to successfully record music has nothing to do with the DAW. Of that knowledge that is about the DAW most of it is universal. So you have to relearn some interface issues, the fundamentals will already be there and the interface is going to be mostly familiar anyway. How do I know? Because most books about digital recording are based on pro-tools...they actually helped me find stuff about Ardour I didn't know existed. In this way it is much like computer programming...the fundamentals are always the same no matter what language you work in; there are few if any major differences.

And what about that time and effort spent learning how to use Linux? Well, what if you find you actually like this system better? Maybe you will toss out Linux as a DAW but use it for a lot of other things. Maybe you will find that it is so much above everything else that any minor weakness in DAW is meaningless in comparison. Then again, maybe you will just know more about computers and operating systems...especially unix. It never hurts to know more things.

You really only loose if you already have a major investment in another set of tools. Then there isn't any reason to switch unless you percieve a weakness in those tools. But price vs. features there just isn't much that can compete with Linux DAW; even if these major pro systems just blow Linux out of the field they also do in price. As a musician I do not even notice any weaknesses or missing pieces to the Linux DAW, much less be willing to pay an extra $500 to get said missing pieces.

I tell you what too...Linux is MILES above these stupid little console recording systems you see for $2000 and up. This is what many home studios use and there just isn't any comparison in features or ease of use. You could build a pretty damn nice home studio Linux DAW for $2000.