Welcome to the newbie page of the LinuxMusicians wiki. This part of the wiki is meant to help you make a successfull start with Linux as your audio workstation and musician's tool. We will use some external links for further information. On the right site of this page you see a table of contents so you can go to the chapters which you're interested in and skip those which are less interesting for you. There's also a search function above it. If this page does not provide all the answers to your questions, you can always ask a specific question on our forum. For more support options (e.g. IRC and mailinglists) check this page. Don't hesitate to ask!

1. Linux is safe, stable, easy to work with and free!
2. Great professional grade, free audio software for recording, editing, midi, sampling, drumming and much more!
3. Lower latency than on Windows or OSX, plus more configuration and optimization options.
4. Great options for connecting multiple computers (also Windows and Mac) and syncing audio over the network (NetJack).
5. Great support by the Linux community and other audio/music focused Linux groups, in many different languages!

• Ardour Digital Audio Workstation.
• Qtractor Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer.
• MuseScore Music notation and composition software
• LinuxSampler sampling with SFZ and GIGA files.
• Open Octave Midi is a Linux based DAW designed to give musicians the tools needed to make composing on a computer possible, and even fun!
• Guitarix is a virtual guitar amplifier for Linux.
• Mixxx DJ tool.
• Calf audio plugin pack high quality open source audio plugins for musicians.
• Audacity sound editor
• Hydrogen drummachine
• Yoshimi Improved version of the famous Zynaddsubfx synth

These are just a few examples, more at apps.linuxaudio.org Not sure if a tool you need is available or don't know which one suits your needs best? Ask advise and user experiences on the forums or mailinglists!

Next to the many free open source audio software on Linux, there is also commercial audio software available for Linux. Some examples are:

• Harrison Mixbus
• Renoise
• LinuxDSP
• EnergyXT
• Pianoteq
• Loomer
• DiscoDSP
• Guitar Pro
• Bitwig Studio

More on commercial software and VST plugins here. Our efforts on our support channels (forum, WIKI, IRC), is, as you'll understand, focusing mainly (but not exclusively) on the Free and Open Source software. For support on commercial software, we'd suggest you to go to the particular software support service offered by the companies.

Many people wonder if their (audio) hardware is supported by Linux. The quick answer is that there's a good chance that it does. When you start working with Linux it's always good to do a little Googling (or Scroogling), and that'll likely tell you if it is supported. Most hardware is actually supported by Linux, because of lots of work from the Linux community. In addition, more and more companies are making hardware drivers for Linux and selling computers with Linux as the default operating system (e.g.Dell, Asus, HP, IBM, Novell, Sun and interesting for a audio pc eracks/STUDIO and more.)

Here You can see which soundcard, firewire device or other audio hardware is supported by Linux. Your hardware not on the list? Then you can ask at our forum or post a message on the LAU mailinglist.

For newbies it's highly recommended to start using a optimized Linux distribution for proaudio or multimedia. Then you don't have the trouble of doing all the specific configuration needed for proaudio yourself. Which one is the best? Hard to say, for every individual there is a best distro… Tango Studio and AVLinux seems to be popular these days. There is a Live cd available for both distributions, so you can try it without installing. There are other great proaudio distributions also! For support with installation, ask on the supports channels of the specific distribution or our forum.

• Much of your success depends on your hardware, make sure you buy (audio) hardware which is supported on the Linux platform!
• For advanced users who want to optimize their favorite distro for proaudio usage, see the system configuration page.

When you have your Linux Proaudio Distribution installed, it's important to know JACK (Jack Audio Connection Kit). JACK the professional sound server daemon on Linux, that provides real-time, low latency connections for both audio and MIDI data between applications that supports JACK.

Some good points to start:

• Video Tutorial: JACK Audio Server: Basic Explanation, Install, and Setup
• Friends Of JACK Article about JACK in LinuxJournal.
• Youtube channel of Linuxaudio-user AutoStatic
• Youtube Channel of Linux & Ardour user Kris (metalx1000)
• Ardour Floss Manual
• Linux Homerecording Blog Making noise with Open Source!
• The OpenOctave Project WIKI
• Dave Phillips writing for Linuxjournal.com

Linuxaudio is great, make sure you get the best out of it. It's impossible for us to keep the documentation up-to-date. So little annoying issues with a (combination) of certain software, are not documented and might cost you way too much time. Therefore, it's highly recommended to join one or more support channels, so you know what's going on in the world of Linuxaudio and are able to ask support for issues you're confronted with. Join our forum, the Linuxaudio mailing-list (LAU) or the support channels of the distribution you use (forum or mailing-lists). For most people it's the only way to find a pleasant workflow on Linux and get the best out of it! Do it!