I use both windows (Sonar & FL Studios) along with Linux for my audio creation. 
Linux doesn't yet have a stable DAW program that will do everything, i.e MIDI, Audio, Mastering, etc..  Ardour does audio extremely well, as for MIDI sequencing I just love Seq24. 

In Linux you'll find that you have to use a variety of separate applications to produce a song. 
However, I find the nature of audio producing in Linux quite liberating.  There are just so many powerful and interesting tools that you can interconnect and play around with that there just simply isn't enough time to explore them all. 
Just check out the Linux audio apps page: http://linux-sound.org/

You should check out the alsa website to see if your audio interface is supported. 

I run both Linux and Windows side by side.   I can't do away with windows because my main audio card isn't supported on Linux.  So I just built a cheap system and installed JackLab Audio Distribution.  Then I bought a cheap audio card with midi capabilities off ebay ~$15.  I then set the audio out of linux into my windows machine and the MIDI IN/OUT into my windows machine as well.  Effectively making a Linux Sound Module, or something like that. 

I can then use the great Linux sequencers to drive a windows only synthesizer.  Or I can use its Real Time capabilities to plug in an instrument and use it as an effects box.

Of course this breaks the whole all-in-one concept and your projects will become scattered not just across multiple programs, but across multiple OSes.  It's still manageable. 

Because of my set up I've never had a need for VST adapters.  Also Linux has some excellent "VST-Like"  instruments that can create any kind of sound you can thing of (like Csound.)  They just use different technologies that can get confusing (i.e. ladspa, lv2, dssi, etc.)

As far as I know a 32 bit system can manage up to 4 gigs of ram on Linux.

JACK is the ASIO equivalent for Linux.  If you're talking about accessing the sound card with low latency.


Hope that helped in any way,

Miguel

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 5:52 PM, JiNN <jinnproduction@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi everyone,

   I have recently been thinking about going to linux on my DAW. I currently use fruity loops and run a winxp pro sp2, with a bunch of VST.
There have been a couple of issues which made me try to seek another O/S for my audio. Number one is that I like to run a lot of VST, and
I also like to have my project from sequencing to pre mastering all in one project. This, of course means a lot of CPU since i try to do as much
as possible without rendering it to .wav and back, since this takes time, especially for little changes when mixing. Another issue is the
windows 2gig ram application limit. I hit this a couple of times and was left in a dead end as to what to do. Vista is probably out of the option right
now since I hate how much garbage is in there and how much cpu it needs just to run. So I am thinking to switching to linux, but would like to
ask a couple of question. If someone can spare a couple of minutes and pass your opinion on these subjects/questions, i would appreciate it very much.

1) How is VST adaptors for linux? I was reading there a couple of them. Has anyone had trouble with them?

2) I assume linux is a lot better with RAM than windows, and was curious if there are any people who are on this list
   that actually switched over and could tell me if they really could "do" a lot more in linux with the same hardware specs than in windows.
   Does linux have some sort of application RAM limit?

3) What is everyone's favority sequencer for linux? I know there are a couple of them. Which one is your favorite?  

4) I have never used linux before. Would it be better for me to install linux first and after im comfortable try audio on it?

5) I assume there are DirectX adaptor also. Correct?

6) Audio drivers? I currently own the t.c. electronic konnekt8 audio interface and going from whats on the website they
   dont have linux drivers? Could i use AISO4ALL? I used those drivers on windows with no problems before, anyone have
   any problems with them on linux?

I guess this is all for now. There are many more questions which i have, but i will do the research for those. If someone can also
point em to some good resources on the web on linux audio i would def appreciate it.

Thanks
Mike


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