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@ Nëïgsëndöïg Cöcülës
2025-06-04 18:09:31This one is rather straightforward today, as I wanted to write something on the software I personally use in my day-to-day musical composition deal, depending on what needs to be done. I want to go a little in depth in this regard, so bear with me on this one.
For the first stop on this libreware-riddled pilgramage, the operating system.
There are two I'll be mentioning: one for beginners, and the one I use on a day-to-day basis (my daily driver).
- Linux Mint
- Fun Fact: This was my longest-running daily driver for a while (over a year or two and some change) before I switched to my current one (based upon Arch, an advanced distro)
- Beginner friendly (based upon Ubuntu, Debian if using LMDE)
- Usually works OOTB when it's set up for music production (with some exceptions on some software)
- Versatile multimedia distribution (gaming, music, art, creative writing, etc.)
- Software is old, but the distro is rock-solid.
Linux Mint... the classic choice for a popular distro aimed at GNU/Linux beginners. It's the most popular of them all, especially when it comes to Snap-free protest distros (Pop_OS! is another one that's Snap-free), and the most popular in general. It's a general-purpose OS aimed at easing beginners into Linux, and the wider FLOSS community (FLOSS is an acronym for Free/Libre Open-Source Software) of software made available using licensed like GPL, MIT, MPL, Apache-2, BSD, WTFPL, and many more of the like.
I would personally recommend the Debian Edition (LMDE) and use the Debian Testing repositories if you want up-to-date software, and not bleeding edge for APT (the package manager in Debian and Ubuntu). It will be much easier to learn how to add software repositories with a couple commands in the terminal that way, and this knowledge will transcend if you decide to move to vanilla Debian. However, if you want the Cinnamon Desktop Environment, Linux Mint is a good choice, as its developers are behind Cinnamon (It has the looks of Windows Vista, which is why it's so familiar for those switching from Windows). However, there isn't too much software in the Mint, Debian and Ubuntu repos, which is a bummer (you can just find community-maintained repos or build software from source if you have the know-how).
- CachyOS
- Fun Fact: It's my current daily driver (if you couldn't tell by now).
- Arch-based distribution focused on content creation (vibe emanation as some Nostriches call it), gaming and other multimedia work
- Optimized repositories depending on the CPU architecture family (I have V3 repos enabled, since I use a CPU that supports V3)
- Bleeding edge of software packaging
- Packages (both official and community maintained) out the wazoo (80k+ packages in the AUR [Arch User Repository], with some AUR packages in binary form thanks to the Chaotic AUR repo)
CachyOS... the gamer's Arch that even beats out the likes of EndeavourOS and Garuda Linux (both Arch-based gaming distros). This is thanks in part to the optimizations made to vanilla Arch (especially the optimized repositories based upon what CPU you have installed) among many other things done to it under the hood. However, while it is fantastic for gaming, the other multimedia performances are quite a sight to behold, especially since anybody worth their salt is using almost exclusively FLOSS to make things easier for yourself to escape the grasp of incompetent fools that we call politicians. Using Linux, FLOSS and GrapheneOS (the only acceptable AOSP ROM) will help you kickstart your journey to privacy, security and proper OPSEC protocols so you don't get sucked into the proprietary software matrix (which I explained in this article).
As a Linux user with almost 5 years of experience, it's hard for me to go back to proprietary stuff. After all, with the advancement in weaponized and centralized AI on the rise, I wanted to seriously get myself out of that (which is why I used almost exclusively FLOSS for the past 4+ years). Enough about that already, let's get into the software required for you to make music... oh wait, I'm talking about myself here. Whoops....
Now that the operating system is out of the way, let's get into the actual software I use to make music:
- Ardour (DAW)
- x42 Plugins (General Purpose Plugin Suite)
- LSP PLugins (General Purpose Plugin Suite)
- Sfizz (SFZ player)
- Dragonfly Reverb (Reverberation Plugin Suite)
- DeBess (Airwindows De-Esser)
- Noise Repellant (Noise Gate)
- Guitarix and GX Plugins (Guitar Pedalboard Simulation)
- Vital (Synth Plugin)
- Surge XT (Synth Plugin) [Unused]
- EQ10Q (No longer usable)
- CALF Plugins (No Longer Usable)
- DSK SF2 (I used this due to ACE Fluid Synth acting like a turd)
- DR-84 (Proprietary Drum Machine Plugin [Winblows])
These are the primary pieces of software that I use to make music on Linux, with the description as shown above. This article would be too long anyway if I were to explain them, so I'll leave that here.