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I hope this is the proper place to ask this - The UbuntuStudio subreddit recommends not using them for this type of support and pointed me this way.

I do music production. About five years ago, I tried Ubuntu Studio, and I had a ton of trouble getting midi set up, and problems with Ubuntu ever recognizing the USB interface I was using at the time. I really want to make the change from Windows due to it being a privacy nightmare, but I don't want to have to spend three weeks (like last time) trying to make things work that end up never doing what they should do.

If it matters (and if there are others here using similar equipment that can offer advice/etc), my primary midi device is a Nektar 88 LX and my interface is a 2nd generation Scarlett 18i20.

Thanks

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  • How long did it take you to get used to Windows? The only way to get used to a foreign OS is by learning. This question is going to get closed on this site too... it is asking for opinions. What you can do is install a dual boot or a virtualbox with Ubuntu in it and then ask questions about issues you face in getting it to work. Then we can check for error messages and the like. USB devices generally just work as the driver is generic. Loads of people use studio to make amazing stuff. Just takes some time. Probably a day or so to get it all working but more than 3 weeks to get used to it all.
    – Rinzwind
    Mar 25, 2020 at 13:31
  • Since you already know where your pain points were last time, you know what to try first.
    – user535733
    Mar 25, 2020 at 15:42

1 Answer 1

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The new versions are significantly more beginner friendly than in the past. Jack2, Pulseaudio and ALSA are preconfigured to work together and the audio configuration application (called Ubuntu studio controls) has an audio setup dialog where everything is easy to reconfigure and restart.

In the past and in other distributions I used custom shell scripts for such things, here it just works. Carla is included and set up so that you can visually connect hardware devices, inputs, outputs and virtual plugins.

There is a nice handbook that can get you started, you can look into it and see how things are setup. - https://ubuntustudio.org/audio-handbook/ (the link is visible from the official web-site homepage)

The only thing you need to check is if the specific hardware you have or that you want to use in the future, works at all under linux. For this I would recommend checking the forums on https://linuxmusicians.com/ (where there is already a recent discussion on Scarlett 18i20) and also the http://opensourcemusician.com/index.php?title=Main_Page (and the freenode IRC channel #opensourcemusicians linked from the website).

In the end, you can always check if you like and if things work before installing, by running it live from a boot-able USB stick (or DVD if you prefer). Just download the latest official version from https://ubuntustudio.org/ and use the standard procedure to create a boot-able stick describet at https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows. Currently the pre-release version 20.04 due to be released in April is under wider testing, check https://ubuntustudio.org/2020/03/ubuntu-studio-20-04-testing-week/ on how to get it.

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