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The best FOSS software for producing music? (piefed.social)
submitted 4 days ago by zimno@piefed.social to c/musicproduction@sh.itjust.works
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In the past when I had Windows I was making beats in FL Studio and sometimes mix in Reaper. I didn't have advanced skills but I knew how to use these tools. For right now I'm Linux Mint user and I'm looking for something open-source. I think that good choice for me will be some kind of tracker because I want to sample. What you use and can you recommend? I also need good learning resources for this tool, because as I said I'm amateur.

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[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Honestly keep using Reaper at least occasionally, it is the most no-nonsense professional software I have ever used and it works great on Linux. Cockos deserves your money and it is an industry leading tool!

Otherwise I would recommend LLMS.

For a leftfield option check out Supercollider!

https://supercollider.github.io/

https://doc.sccode.org/Help.html

Supercollider is an elegant extremely mature open source audio programming language, it is a programming language true but it comes with a nice IDE and there are MANY plugins with GUIs that you can download and try, the point isn't really to code so much as put all the tools of a DAW straight into your hands.

[-] cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago

Supercollider looks cool, I'll need to check this out!

[-] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Code can absolutely be intimidating and a creative block but on the otherhand a 440hz oscillator in Supercollider can be triggered with

SinOsc.ar(440, 0.6);

[-] MonkeBizNES@lemmy.cafe 9 points 4 days ago

I've heard Ardour is great but has a little bit of a learning curve. Once you get comfortable with it, it should work as well as any other DAW and its completely FOSS

[-] zimno@piefed.social 6 points 4 days ago

I tried Ardour but it's UI is terrible and ugly for me. I miss that perfect piano roll from FL Studio... Of course Ardour have great reviews.

[-] MonkeBizNES@lemmy.cafe 4 points 4 days ago

Yeah I've heard Ardour can be a bit difficult for new users for sure, which is frustrating because it's probably the most well respected FOSS DAW out there (or at least the most professional).

You might also try LMMS or Bitwig studio

[-] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Have you considered LMMS? I think it's exactly what you're looking for. Extensive manual, free, open source, made for Linux, focuses on doing the basics well

[-] zimno@piefed.social 4 points 4 days ago

Yes, but I heard bad opions about it in the past, don't remember where. Are you using it?

[-] eezeebee@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 days ago

If you are coming from FL it leaves a lot to be desired, but it's the most similar I've seen. Definitely worth a try.

[-] emb@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

It's very much easier to use than ardour. Makes it very simple to open the piano roll and draw in some midi notes. Includes a decent amount of default samples and presets. It was good for my know-nothing-hobbyist use case. Between tutorials and the manual, pretty figure-out-able.

Ardour by contrast seems more focused on recording live instruments. I'm sure it's high quality stuff, but trying to do basic things just feels obtuse.

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 days ago

I haven't used it but have heard good things in the past year or two.

[-] Vinny_93@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I'm not using it but since it's free you might as well give it a go. I've heard excellent things about Bitwig in Linux and even took it for a spin. It was nice, but no better than on Windows.

Myself, I used to use Reason on Windows, these days I'm DAWless mostly.

[-] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I've used Ardour. It works and Unfa posted a lot of really good tutorials, but even after about half a year of using it, the clunkyness (especially for workflows that focus on samples and programming synthesizer plugins rather than recording real instruments) never really went away for me. I'm using Bitwig now, which is not open source but works great and has a good workflow.

[-] N00oo@feddit.org 2 points 4 days ago

BespokeSynth isn't very professional but the most funny Audiosoftware I ever saw!

this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2025
30 points (100.0% liked)

Music Production

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