I’m a professional instrumentalist and I’ve begun tinkering with digital audio production , hoping to start a side career composing digital music.
I’ve been working with Linux in general for over 15 years, and I’d like to stick with it, but I’m wondering if its actually viable in the professional world. It seems like most professionals are working with Ableton or other commercial software. I’m learning and working with Ardour, which seems great, but I wonder if I shouldn’t be investing my time in software that will be more useful longterm.
Anyone here have thoughts/experience with this?
So much depends on your workflow, hardware, and work requirements.
I personally think you should figure out those things first and then see if you can achieve that with OSS.
If the workflow of Ableton is what you need or prefer then I would say just switch now and use that. Some style of music appears easier to produce with Ableton. Clip launching, loops, that kind of live DJ type stuff.
If you’re looking to stick with the Pro Tools style workflow then I think you should stick with Ardour. Their documentation used to say that if you didn’t know how to do something and it wasn’t in the manual then just look at the Pro Tools docs.
My background…
Back in 2008 I started off fresh. Only knowing how to use Audacity and switched to Ardour because it was too hard to get a decent mix when all you can do is destructive editing. I switched to Reaper for MIDI work two years ago but I still export from that and finish tracks off in Ardour because I prefer the mixing and mastering process in Ardour. It’s just more familiar and I can get what I want faster.
Sorry if I assume you’re less experienced than you are. It seems like you’ve got an insane amount of musical skill but you’re new to the recording aspect.
If you’re just getting started in audio production then I think the most important thing you can do is learn the general concepts. How you do implement these in various DAWs might be a little different but most likely you’re going to be using the same concepts (compression, sends to reverbs, bussing, etc), plugins, the same hardware, and all in the same room. Basically, I don’t think the software you use is the largest factor in the potential for your music. Composition > performance > sound treatment > recording quality > the other stuff.
One thing I can say for sure is that if you’re going to be recording MIDI data in Ardour you’ll probably not have a great time. I used to think it was fine until I tried Reaper. There probably have been some improvements to it since I’ve used it last and I know they added a clip launch feature to be more similar to Ableton but I just don’t think that’s where Ardour shines (which is tracking, mixing, and mastering).
Also, if you ever need help with Ardour you should stop by [email protected].
Hey thanks! I’m indeed an absolute noob when it comes to digital production. I have some experience with Audacity, but only on a very basic level. I have absolutely no idea yet what my workflow is yet or what I need. I have a laptop that is not optimized at all for audio production, but seems to work for now. I guess thats what drew me to Ardour. Free software plus a cheap MIDI keyboard to just get started. I don’t want to be the guy who invests thousands in equipment that I don’t know what to do with :)
My goal is to create music for video games. For now I’m getting to know Ardour, using synthesizers, automation, filters, etc. to come up with my own tracks and loops for video games that don’t exist yet. Once I feel more comfortable with the technology I’ll start reaching out to developers, try and join some game jams, and see if I can start my first collaboration. I’m not interested in doing any live performance at this time.
Thats what I was thinking as well. First learn the basics, which I probably can apply to any DAW when I’m ready.
That is indeed all I have been doing, and I also thought “its fine”. According to unfa (Youtuber), the newest version of Ardour has made huge improvements to MIDI recording, but at the moment, the previous version is all I know. You mentioned Reaper, which I’ve heard of, and maybe thats a better place to start if all I’m doing is MIDI (for now). The license is not that expensive.
Looks like a ghost town at the moment, but I joined!
Definitely check out Reaper just as a comparison. The license is essentially free and you pay to get rid of the nag screen. It doesn’t prevent you from doing anything…ever! I used it like that for the first week until I realized how much I liked it. Reaper and Ardour together are fantastic.
Nice! There are so many good free virtual synths out there. If you have a MIDI controller/keyboard with plenty of knobs you’ll have a blast. We were just talking about the best free synths the other day…
Vital, Surge XT, Viking VK-1, Odin 2, TAL U-No 60. Synth1, Helm, Vital, dexed, Cardinal/VCVRack
I’ve tried most of these. They’re all cool for their own reasons. I personally like the modular stuff (VCV) because you can make generative patches that change over time without really having to do anything. Just fiddle with the knobs and pretend like they’re too hot to touch :D
I’ll add the Ardour lemmy to our sidebar, thanks!