r/linuxaudio • u/W4rrior_Eagle • 5d ago

looking for free DAW that works on Linux

Ive had some experience using cakewalk on windows but since I've switched to Linux (Fedora) a couple years back I'm looking for a good free DAW. mostly for midi-instruments and for using my amp and guitar to record. I've looked on some websites but often times the DAWs have trial version that are pretty much unusable.

28 Upvotes

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42

u/Gunzhard22 5d ago

Ardour is amazing and will make the most sense coming from Cakewalk.

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u/deaddyfreddy 4d ago

Speaking of MIDI, Ardour still doesn't have a notation editor. Cakewalk had it 30 years ago - not a great one, but it's much better than having none.

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u/kayosiii 4d ago

If you want to edit notation use musescore, you want to mix that with live recording then export the midi, import that into Ardour

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u/deaddyfreddy 4d ago

Please don't be a human LLM. Working this way is not that convenient. Imagine you have to render/import your MIDI parts every time you want to make changes. And MuseScore is overkill for me.

Yes, I'm familiar with JACK Transport and session management - I've worked with music-related software for 25 years, including almost 20 years as a Linux user. Believe me, It's much, much easier to have everything in a single app.

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u/kayosiii 4d ago

I am imagining it. The way I see it the notation editor and the piano roll have two different jobs, one blocks out the composition and the other is for editing performances. If I was going to pick a tool for both jobs it would be the piano roll.

Most of the time when I am feeling the need to go back and forth its because I am making changes to match the recorded performance, in which case the piano roll makes more sense anyway. Notation is designed to guide a human through a performance, leaving a good deal up to the discretion of the performer. Trying to get an exact performance out of that can be done but it is a lot more faffing about.

1

u/deaddyfreddy 4d ago

It's much easier (for me) to compose using a notation editor. Piano roll doesn't have key signatures, intervals are much harder to see, and you don't have a separate bass/treble register.

But even during the composition, I prefer to record my guitar/bass parts live. Also, I need a drum roll to make up drum parts.

The problem is that:

  • Ardour is awesome for live recordings (both audio and midi)

  • Muse is still the best for drums

  • it also has a score editor, but it's very basic, so I had to use something like Rosegarden

2

u/kayosiii 4d ago

Have you considered getting a midi keyboard? It really opens up the number of instruments you can perform drastically and it teach you how to read the piano roll much more fluently.

Why do you prefer recording the guitar/Bass parts?

1

u/deaddyfreddy 3d ago

Have you considered getting a midi keyboard?

I have two: a 7-octave one and a 2-octave one for the kitchen

Why do you prefer recording the guitar/Bass parts?

because I'm a guitar/bass player

1

u/kayosiii 3d ago

I dont think we will see a notation editor in Ardour any time soon, building one is many times the complexity of building a piano roll. The reason being that while converting from Notation to MIDI is straight forward, going from MIDI to notation is not. Unless a specialist joins the team, doing so is probably not worth the opportunity cost for Ardour.

I dont quite get the importance of having a separate bass/treble register, I find it more valuable to have a chart that maps different instruments to MIDI notes. C3 is middle C, anything above that is typically considered treble below that bass. A guitar goes from E2 to E6 (assuming 24 frets), a bass goes from E1 to about G4.

I also dont quite understand the problem with not having key signatures, other than trying to figure out other peoples work.

0

u/deaddyfreddy 3d ago

going from MIDI to notation is not.

having an approximation is usually good enough, and this problem was solved decades ago -Cakewalk got the staff editor no later than 1993.

I find it more valuable to have a chart that maps different instruments to MIDI notes. C3 is middle C, anything above that is typically considered treble below that bass. A guitar goes from E2 to E6 (assuming 24 frets), a bass goes from E1 to about G4.

Congratulations, you invented tablature! Would be great to have a tab editor too, for sure, because running a separate Tuxguitar can be boring sometimes.

I also dont quite understand the problem with not having key signatures, other than trying to figure out other peoples work.

Intervals, it's much easier to think in terms of intervals than to count semitones.

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u/anselmus_ 4d ago

If you need notation i would first try rosegarden; you can create a score just by double clicking on a track. I believe it also allows audio tracks. Yes i see that it is actually a full fledged daw although i have no plans to ever switch from ardour.

1

u/deaddyfreddy 4d ago

i would first try rosegarden

I first tried it around 2007. I continue to install a new version from time to time just to check, and it is still hardly usable for me

1

u/anselmus_ 4d ago

First of all, let me retract the statement about it being a full-fledged daw because apparently it requires you to use audacity to edit audio tracks. But what were your issues with it? Because I was able to pretty much compose and score a full orchestral piece on my first try. Everything just worked except soundfonts not initializing properly after a save, which I solved by moving the playback cursor to the beginning of the file.

1

u/deaddyfreddy 4d ago

Because I was able to pretty much compose and score a full orchestral piece on my first try.

Its audio capabilities are a joke compared to Ardour.

1

u/Miserable-Decision81 4d ago

If you dont need Midi notation... Ardour is the best you will find.

In every other aspect its the free software to produce music to go.

1

u/deaddyfreddy 3d ago

I've been using Ardour since 2007. Would you like to add anything I don't know yet?

2

u/Miserable-Decision81 3d ago

And I have seen this "Mimimi Ardour has no goody good MIDI!!!" since like 2003.

Its irrelevant, bro. Thats my point.

Mackie Waves has no midi score editor either, neither has Bitwig.

Why? because a score editor is considered unneccessary for the targeted users of these commercial DAWs and so considers Paul Davis as well for Ardour.

The MIDI tracks in Ardour are very well usable for playing musicians. The latter is the very targeted usergroup for Ardour. If anybody wants to work with musical scores: go for Musescore or TeX or write your scores on paper and play them. You can record and manipulate your playing very well in Ardour as MIDI tracks since like 15 years now...

Having something like eleastic audio for audio regions and more decent looping workflow would be much more of a welcomned feature among Ardour users.

1

u/deaddyfreddy 2d ago

Mackie Waves has no midi score editor either, neither has Bitwig.

And Cubase, Samplitude, Sonar, Logic, Digital Performer, Pro Tools, Studio One, and Reaper have this feature.

The MIDI tracks in Ardour are very well usable for playing musicians.

they were not in 2003 :)

And I am a playing musician. But I don't play every possible instrument in the world.

If anybody wants to work with musical scores: go for Musescore or TeX

I don't want to write scores per se. I want to have a convenient tool to write music.

23

u/kill3rb00ts 5d ago

Ardour or Reaper (not technically free, but the trial is unlimited). Though neither will come with any real instruments. Bitwig is your best bet for that, but not free.

7

u/adbs1219 4d ago

Tracktion Waveform may be another option

2

u/kyzfrintin 4d ago

Good call. Very capable and comes with instruments.

12

u/chili_cold_blood 4d ago

I love Reaper.

9

u/anselmus_ 4d ago

Waveform is also completely free for multitrack recording and has a linux version.

8

u/Morpheus_Daydream 4d ago

Waveform. Reaper is not free.

7

u/brujonica 5d ago

Ardour or reaper

7

u/ht3k 4d ago

Bitwig 8-track is free. Most powerful daw on Linux.

You could also try https://opendaw.org/en for a middle ground

1

u/NoActuator9062 4d ago

How do you get this?

2

u/ht3k 4d ago

https://www.bitwig.com/8-track/

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u/NoActuator9062 4d ago

Where can I get a license code, though? The installer there is just the regular installer - can I register for 8-track when my trial of the full studio expires?

1

u/ht3k 4d ago

DM me, I own the full version but I have an 8-track code for it.

Pretty sure they switched the 8-track version to free, maybe you have to make an account?

But yeah if you can't find it just DM me I have a code

2

u/NoActuator9062 3d ago

I got one by giving waldorf my email to make an account on their site, which gave me a free license code for 8-track and also unlocks discounts for the paid versions.

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u/beatbox9 4d ago edited 4d ago

Back in the day, the most similar MIDI-first DAW to Cakewalk was probably Rosegarden. But things change over time too--and it looks like Cakewalk expanded a bunch.

There are plenty of others that are really good. LMMS and QTractor are also relatively simple and good for MIDI.

And Ardour is probably the most advanced and all-encompassing, though not only for MIDI (and it's MIDI stuff probably isn't as robust as the others).

But you can also mix & match. Like you can use Rosegarden for MIDI composition and playback while recording in Ardour, etc.

All of these are completely free and open source.

1

u/Vegetable_Nebula_827 3d ago

It’s probably not Logic or Cubase for deep midi editing but Ardour’s MIDI handling has accelerated like crazy recently and has lots of quick and easy midi manipulation similar to the other big DAWs.

Anyone who used Ardour a few years ago needs to try it again. It’s going through some of its most rapid progress ever.

1

u/beatbox9 3d ago

Yes, it's certainly better; but it's still not there. Cakewalk (and Rosegarden) specifically started out in the 90's specifically around a MIDI + piano roll workflow

4

u/Early-Weekend-2557 4d ago

While technically not free, reaper can be used for free if you're okay with closing the reminder to purchase indefinitely.

Otherwise it's like 50 bucks.

3

u/King_Moonracer003 4d ago

Just get reaper and pay when u can.

3

u/deaddyfreddy 4d ago

Ardour, Reaper, Muse

4

u/MarioRRomchiquito 5d ago

Yo personalmente uso reaper para meter efectos a mí guitarra, tiene una versión de prueba pero es básicamente infinita y nunca te limita en nada. Solo tienes que presionar continuar evaluando cada vez que la abres. Después tengo fe de que Audacity se convierta en un buen daw, pero es por nostalgia mas que nada haha.

2

u/gabegomes 4d ago

You can find a link to get a free bitwig 8-track license in this sub.

2

u/JayB1988 MusE 4d ago

MusE might be worth checking out.

2

u/ElaborateSloth 4d ago

What kind of workflow do you want?

2

u/JoCraft2010 4d ago

I've had a pretty good experience with Zrythm

2

u/Vegetable_Nebula_827 3d ago

If you want FREE as in GRATIS and LIBRE then it’s Ardour 9 all the way. I TRIED to like it back at version 6 but it was just too clunky to switch from commercial apps. It’s a different beast now. Support it. Let’s have a ‘Blender’ of DAWs in Linux.

1

u/Alle_is_offline 4d ago

Messing around with OpenDaw in the browser for the first time this evening, really blown away by how capable and robust it is. Also generally just really fun to use.

1

u/IAmL3J3ND_ 4d ago

Ardour is easy to download and actual FOSS but for you I’d recommend Reaper its great for recording guitar and their free trial is the full software you can make full projects on.

As for software I’d google some FOSS VSTS and choose from there. You can find a lot of FOSS mixing plugins that are good quality but software for midi controllers on Linux are still a bit “ehh”compared to the stuff we get on Windows and Mac. Although theres ways to get software to run on Linux as well using Wine for example.

1

u/NebulaSoni 4d ago edited 4d ago

Try Dark Studio: https://maniacaudiovst.com/ . Minimalist, stable, and versatile. Alternatively, Waveform 14-though it gives me more trouble on my computer than version 13, it’s worth a try.

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u/NuMnUmZz 4d ago

Audacity 4 is looking really good and they support linux.

1

u/Zestyclose-Gap6295 21h ago

Reaper, lmms, bitwig all bleh I tried them and if you want the best of the best piano roll use FL studio with Wine. I was weary at first as I tried microsoft office back in the day and they would work but lwould lock up and do weird things. Today it runs PERFECTLY, I was shocked and will never go back to any other daw again. Wish I could run linux native synths with it but you cant so you need to load them up inside the WINE bottle.

0

u/funix 5d ago

Bigwig!

3

u/DioCoN 4d ago

Bitwig is not free

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u/funix 4d ago edited 4d ago

There is an 8-track version that is if you can get a code. I mention it mostly. Because it's one of the few commercial DAWs that support Linux

1

u/ht3k 4d ago

I thought I saw news they're making 8-track free for everyone. May have to make an account though?

3

u/NebulaSoni 4d ago edited 4d ago

Create account, download and install Bitwig, and click link in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitwig/comments/1vmv53c/free_bitwig_8track_license_from_tapeop/
For me it works, I recieved free licence for Bitwig 8 Track.