Ubuntu Studio and SSD's

[jheron]

I am currentlyrunning Kububtu 17.04 on one partition, and windows 8.1 on theother. The only reason I have hung on to windows up to now is justbecause of one program, Reason, which Wine does not seem to like, and I was reluctant to use Wine anyway. However, the other day Idiscovered Ubuntu studio, and realised if I had that, I wouldprobably not need Reason (although I’m yet to try it, just need tobuy me some blank DVD’s) I like the look of K 17.04 and amwondering if one can upgrade to the Plasma desktop from UbuntuStudio, in the same way one upgrades from the “normal” Ubuntu.

I am alsoconsidering getting a SDD, but I dont want to pay for more GB’sthan I need, so I am just wondering on the minimum I can get awaywith for my root and swap partitions. I did read on the websomewhere before Installing Ubuntu alongside windows to make the rootpartition 50GB (which was 46GB after formatting) and the swappartition 2x RAM (making mine 8GB) But I now realise that 50GB isprobably a bit excessive (I have pretty much all the software Ireckon im going to need installed, and I still have 35GB free) Ihave a feeling 8GB is a bit excessive for the swap partition too, butat the time I knew very little about Ubuntu and just followed theinstructions to the letter.

[oshunluvr]

I'm not sure where you live, but here is the USA and 256GB SSD usually costs less than a 120GB one. You could get a low-end 64GB for about $50, but for $90 you can get 256GB. But - to your question...

...Where ever you got that advise, I wouldn't go back to - 50 GB for a root partition for any Linux install I know of is to waaaaay too large. I've never been able to get any install I've ever had over about 14GB. Assuming Ubuntu studio might be larger than average 20 or 24GB would be max and still will probably be overkill.

A little more discussion about your situation and some suggestions:

An SSD would likely benefit you a lot as music/video editing is one of the use-cases where there's a very noticeable improvement in performance when used as SSD.

You can avoid almost all partitioning by using btrfs file system instead of ext4. Your install and home and even multiple installs can reside on a single partition using a btrfs feature called "subvolumes" where all space is shared amongst the subvolumes but their files are totally separate. subvolumes are mounted just like partitions. This is especially helpful with small devices since you don't have to guess how much space any particular partition will need.

SWAP on the other hand would be, in my opinion, something you would not want to skimp on. I would assume music editing or creation will take a lot of RAM. Swap has a couple other uses besides just "sleeping" your computer so for you, I'd suggest the full 8GB. For example, with 8GB of RAM you can easily move tmpfs (temporary storage) into RAM space. This can be a performance booster, plus at any reboot TMP is cleared so it's more secure and prevents a run-away tmp folder from filling your partition. With tmpfs in RAM, it will automatically use swap space if it needs it - in the background. I have 16GB of RAM and I have tmpfs set to 16GB of space in RAM. tmpfs expands itself as needed so if something I'm doing requires a lot of tmp space, tmpfs automatically grows up to half my RAM size then starts using swap space. Right now, my computer has been up for 14 days and tmpfs is 1.6GB of a total of 7GB of RAM available - so lots of room remaining.

Also, there are other ways to "skin the cat" and still keep Reason if you choose to while running Ubuntu. The first option that comes to mind is to leave Windows on your hard drive and dual boot. Easily done if you add an SSD. Just make the SSD you boot device, let GRUB detect and add Windows to your boot menu, done. Another, preferable method IMO, is to install Windows to a Virtual Machine, then uninstall and remove any features from it you don't absolutely need to make it as small as possible, then install Reason to it. Then you can boot to Ubuntu only but launch Windows and Reason like any other application.

[jheron]

Thanks for your reply oshunluvr, some very helpful advice there. I always thought I had made the / partition too big since I'm currently only using 9GB. I am running a dual boot system using GRUB to detect it, but windows is painfully slow at the moment.

One more question that came to mind last night was could the two OS's share the same swap partition?

[oshunluvr]

Two Linux installations will both use the swap partition, no problem.

[oshunluvr]

Actually - if you're planning on "hibernating" your Linux installs, each should have it's own swap - otherwise not necessary. I've never hibernated a Linux install - it's cleaner, simpler, and quick enough just to shutdown.

[Bings]

Music production software on Linux is about 20 years behind that available on the main two. It's fun to play with out of curiosity, or if you have don't have access to an alternative but you won't get results out of it anywhere near the quality what you can get with Reason.

[vinnywright]

Music production software on Linux is about 20 years behind that available on the main two. It's fun to play with out of curiosity, or if you have don't have access to an alternative but you won't get results out of it anywhere near the quality what you can get with Reason.

realy ,,,,,,,I do not know about Music production software ,,,but I do know that 2 of the premier Video production softwares that the big Movie companies use are Blender and lightworks and run on linux .

VINNY

[Bings]

In the late nineties, a company called Steinberg which was the biggest name in music production software and likely still is, released a format called Virtual Studio Technology (VST). This allowed software developers to make exactly as it's called. Effects like EQ and Compressors as well as virtual synthesizers and you just add a .dll file to a folder and it works. In short, this revolutionised making music on computers and is a standard used by all Digital Audio Workstation software (DAW). The problem is, as you can guess, most don't have native linux version. You can get some working with a bridging software but comparative hassle wise, not even a competition. Hopefully that will change soon http://cdm.link/2017/03/steinberg-br...x-good-things/ Also, good music production software costs money and you're never going to get that in a gratis linux distro.

Also the interfaces with the backend and drivers range from below par to absolutely dreadful. For instance, I have a multi input interface, which uses a software mixer.

In windows it looks like this:


The linux equivalent is this:


Then there is the jack system. Which, to it's credit, provides a level of connectivity between programs that Windows and Mac does not but it's displayed like this:


This interface has been like this for many many years and it's not something that could be touched by anyone seriously wanting to get stuff done.

Bitwig studio seems to be the only professional level software available on Linux, it is priced at $399 plus the headache of trying to get your favourite third party software to work with it. Obviously not included in ubuntu studio though.

I don't mean to be a complete downer, a few talented people could actually make linux into a top class music production platform and it wouldn't even be a massive hill to climb IMO. A lot of people use Laptops on stage as live instruments and the lightweight, customisability and stability of linux I believe would actually be a massive draw if there was more software support.

/rant

[GreyGeek]

$399 for Bitwig isn't too much if it includes AutoTune. My grandson lives in Nashville and produces music for performers. He demonstrated what he does to my wife and I one evening while at our son's house. I asked him how much that software he was using cost and he said "Well over $3,000". He played a raw audio file recently submitted by a performer. As I've said before, that performer couldn't carry a tune in a bucket and his voice was terrible. My grandson then used his magic and that software to make the guy sound like the lead singer in a band with almost full orchestra backup. It amazed me what AutoTune could do. It reminded me of Minilla Vanilla or Ashlee Simpson. But, these days, even A-list singers use AutoTune and lip syncing.

I have simple needs. Audacity does what I need for audio and Kdenlive for video.