Hi everyone,

I’m getting fed up windows and want to switch my laptop to linux. My laptop also doesn’t meet windows 11 standards so I figured nows a good time to switch. I don’t do a whole lot on my laptop, but there are some programs that I do need to use. I have an E drum kit and right now I use reaper and Steven slate audio center to play and record my drums through my laptop. I looked at reaper, and I see linux options for download. But for Steven slate , I only see windows and Mac. This is pretty disappointing and so I figured I ask to see what would work for me.

I was going to go with Ubuntu, because it seems to be the most user friendly and has good support. I also use mullvad VPN on my laptop very frequently, which was another reason I chose Ubuntu.

Any help is appreciated. I’m willing to look at other distros too if there is one that better fits my needs.

EDIT: I have successfully migrated to linux mint and have reaper working with yabridge. Thanks, everyone, for your help and suggestions!

  • the_weez
    8·
    6 months ago

    If you don’t mind paying for it, Bitwig is probably the best that officially supports Linux. There are also ways to run windows VSTs in wine on Linux. I’m no pro, but I love Bitwig, it has boatloads of cool stuff. Reaper also supports Linux. Ubuntu is fine IMO, I think there is a spin that’s specific to audio workloads that might be nice for a beginner. I use Arch at home but I use Ubuntu for work, it’s pretty nice these days.

    • WeebLife@lemmy.worldOP
      3·
      6 months ago

      I wouldn’t mind paying for a program. But I’m wary of paying for programs because companies these days change their policies and make their services subscription based, and when that happens they gradually increase the price. But I will check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

      Does that program come with drum samples? Or would I have to get that separately?

      • catharso@discuss.tchncs.de
        6·
        6 months ago

        bitwig studio comes with tons of samples. it’s a fantastic daw.

        there’s a reason a lot of ableton users switch over to bitwig.

        reaper is also very good, but a bit clunky for edm/techno/etc.

        • WeebLife@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          6 months ago

          Bitwig is pretty sweet, but definitely more than I need right now. I was able to get my kit to register in reaper so I’ll probably stick with that for now.

      • the_weez
        1·
        6 months ago

        Bitwig comes with so much that I can’t remember if they have drum samples or just machines or both. I highly recommend you try the free trial to see if you like it before you buy.

        • WeebLife@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          6 months ago

          I checked it out and it is a more than I’m needing right now. I’m not an audio guy and bitwig is a little over whelming.

          • the_weez
            1·
            6 months ago

            Totally understandable, it has a lot going on and if you already know reaper it might be good to stick with it. Good luck!