Kenneth Bourbon (@KennyBourbon)

Linux music: Bitwig is on sale! Admittedly, I hadn't been using Linux for production lately, but that's only because I have a bunch of long term projects that were started in Windows and I didn't want to risk messing them up in migration. I check in once in a while and Reaper + RME Babyface + Focusrite Claret 8pre + iConnectivity Midi4+ works beautifully - all 12 channels in and out with very low latency. I've also verified that a project started in Reaper on Windows can be opened in Reaper on Linux with no issues save for third party plugins that aren't available on Linux. And that's the rub. Commercial plugins just aren't made for Linux. But after Waves tried to go subscription only, though they backtracked, I was done playing that game. The two big factors preventing me from fully switching over are Ozone 9 and lack of decent orchestral sample sets ( I have no interest in scouring substandard sfz files and compiling my own sets). This is where Bitwig comes in. I've been watching it since it's release with much interest. I have the full Ableton suite, which is great, especially for electronic music and hashing out ideas, but can still do linear production just fine as well. Bitwig, having been created by former Ableton engineers, shares a lot of the same concepts. However, it has a dedicated Linux build with some pretty great processors in addition to full featured samplers, virtual synths, and an advanced modular structure unlike any other DAW. With the summer sale I thought I'd go ahead and download the demo. First, it wouldn't install on my system. Learned it didn't work with my version of Ubuntu Studio. Then I couldn't update Ubuntu Studio because my version was out of support. I had to completely reinstall the newest version of U.S. overwriting my old version and losing all my hard won audio settings. Back up and running, with JACK driver, the whole system worked with Reaper out of the box. Sweet. Finally got to install Bitwig and was ready to dig in. It did not go as well as Reaper. Using JACK audio I could get my RME working, but when I choose my input from the midi interface it would crash the audio. I'd restart my audio and it would lose my midi input, rinse and repeat. I spent five days (of my 30 day trial) changing settings, rebooting, changing more settings, rebooting, forgetting what settings I changed, etc. Finally, I shut down JACK and just went with the ALSA driver, generally thought to be inferior to JACK, and though I've seen many forum posts indicating success with JACK, for me ALSA saved the day. I think there was some conflict with having separate audio and midi cards, but it worked with Reaper, JACK should be able to aggregate multiple USB cards, and I was using the A2J bridge. So who knows, but I've got it running with ALSA at 64 sample buffer, 24bit/48khz With 2.5 ms latency. Booyah! So my verdict after a couple days of stress testing with all audio inputs and outputs, multiple midi outs, and a few virtual instruments for good measure, is pretty damn nice. Does it offer me enough more than Reaper to drop $300 on it? Not sure yet. I don't think I can download the orchestra kits with the demo, but I may have been looking in the wrong place. Judging by the grand piano sample kit, though, the potential is certainly there. So Linux is really starting to come into it's own as a rival to the big two for audio production. I mean, it's there. It just needs more commercial plugin developers to recognize that