I recently switched from Windows 11 to Linux Mint on my Samsung Book 3 because I was frustrated with how slow the updates were making it. I'm really enjoying the speed of Mint so far! I primarily use my laptop for music production and sound engineering while I'm on the go or in other studios. On my desktop, I use FL Studio, but I'm looking to explore different DAWs on my laptop to mix things up a bit. I've installed Tracktion for now and I'm just testing it out. Any advice or recommendations for DAWs that work well with Linux Mint, especially in getting VSTs like autotune to function?
5 Answers
SunDAW to SaturDAW!
I've been using Reaper, and when I had Mint, I installed a low-latency kernel which helped a lot. It’s been a while, so make sure to check if that's still necessary. Depending on your workflow, you might find Bitwig to be a better fit than Reaper. It's worth doing some research to see what meets your needs best.
There's an Ubuntu version specifically designed for audio production that uses Ardour as the primary DAW. If music production is your main focus, you might want to consider Ubuntu Studio instead of Linux Mint. It could save you a lot of time setting up everything correctly for audio work. Check it out at [Ubuntu Studio](https://ubuntustudio.org/).
I've heard great things about Bitwig, Reaper, and Ardour. If you're looking for options, you can check out this comprehensive list of DAWs: [Digital Audio Workstations on Arch Wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_of_applications/Multimedia#Digital_audio_workstations).
If you're looking for something similar to FL Studio, definitely check out LMMS. It was designed as an alternative to Fruityloops and it's free and open-source. Other solid choices are Bitwig, Reaper, and Ardour. For your existing VSTs, looking for guides on how to get them working might help, but you should also explore native plugins like this one I found: [x42-autotune](https://x42-plugins.com/x42/x42-autotune).
LMMS seems like it should be an easy switch for me, thanks for the tip! About the VSTs, I’ll give that plugin a try, and I'll also look into yaridge.