The perfect ubuntu/linux jack audio setup

Ok. So I will share my current top notch setup of my Ubuntu audio processing laptop. It consist mostly of free opensource programs

Here is what I got:

Sequencer: seq24/seq42

There is some different sequencers to choose from. You can (I rather don't) use Rosegarden, Qtractor, or some other very ambitious software as sequencer. But to me the best alternative is the simple seq24 sequencer, and alternative the fork project seq42. The difference is that seq24 is specialised more to live performance but seq42 is specialized for making non live tracks. seq24 is in the standard ubuntu repository:

sudo apt-get install seq24

 If you wan't the seq42 however, you need to compile it for your self. (It is not very difficult. There is instructions in the code folder)

Synths

I havent decided wich synths to use yet. But I have tried these with good result:

Amsynth

Pianoteq - i looked for a long time for a good piano synth. This is what I got. I runs both on windows and linux I've heard. But the application I have seen is using the vsthost on the windows version. Note that it is not free like the other applications

vsthost

For running vsti:s in ubuntu. Works well, but as far as I know it does not save the state of the vsti-plugin. If you need something 

sudo apt-get install vsthost

Qjackctl

It is kind of a basic application for jack audio. Actualy I am not very found with the interface, but if you need to change some connection it is allways there for you.

sudo apt-get install qjackctl

Hydrogen

A very nice drum machine.  The best I have tested. There is not much to say. It works! And I prefer the standard drumset so much so I do not even have to configure it to start playing.

sudo apt-get install hydrogen

Gladish

This is what makes it all fit together. Gladish is a graphical interface for the ladi session manager (ladish), that handles. It took me a while to find this blog, that explains how ladish works and how to use it. It was the piece i was looking for for so long. Finaly, I did not have to launch all the programs manualy but could save it an launch it with a simple command. Wonderful

sudo apt-get install gladish

Timemachine

For recording. Can be reset to automatically record when you start playing.

sudo apt-get install timemachine

Fast install

If you just want a lots of cool programs. Just run

sudo apt-get install amsynth gladish qjackctl hydrogen timemachine vsthost seq24

And you are ready to go!

If you have any questions of how to use any of it, please write me a comment.

Fixing dbus related problems in jack [Solved] :)

I finally found it! I had a lots of annoying problems with jack (the performance audio system for linux) when it had crashed. It did not want to start again. The only informative i found in the error message was that there was some problem with the "dbus" (I still don't know what the dbus is doing, but it must be something important). Then i found this article.

The solution was so simple: you just go

killall -9 jackdbus

in your terminal and then its only to restart the jack daemon again. Perfect

--Edit a bit later--

Okay, that was not the solution to everything apparently. After a while the sound stopped work any way (for all other programs than jack-programs). So i wanted to restart the audio in some way. I found this article. Naming a way to find witch programs that used the audio:


lsof | grep pcm




Witch listed all programs using the audio. To my surprise it was jackd. (I didn't think i had started it at all!) so i just did

killall jackd

And everything worked again. Magic!

About Openbox - the winner of it all (I really hope i don't have to write anything more about this)

So. I thought i liked Cinnamon better than dash. Apparently I was wrong. Cinnamon was also very slow.

Anyway. I tested Openbox for performance. I noticed that there was nothing. (No panels no way to start up programs) And i realized that I liked it. I always uses gnome-do to start programs, guake to do terminal stuff, and some random method to see witch programs are open. For the latest problem i found that docky was the right solution. And then with autohide i didn't have to see anything of it when i do not use it. The best of all: It is fast. Very fast compared to gnome, or Cinnamon (maybe cinnamon is using gnome, i don't know).

Worth noting is that you need xcompmgr to enable compositing.

My desktop, showing docky and guake

I noticed that you need to make your own ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh script. Here is mine

---

#För att starta effekter
xcompmgr -cfF -t-9 -l-11 -r9 -o.95 -D6 &

#För att knappar och sånt ska se ut som ambiance
gnome-settings-daemon &


#För att byta plats på copslock och escape
setxkbmap -option caps:escape &


gnome-panel &



---

And then you need the programs installed. To install them run this in your terminal

sudo apt-get install gnome-do xcompmgr gnome-panel docky guake
Now i hope this is the last time I ever have to write anything about my desktop configuration... Please write a comment if you have any thoughts about improving performance or usability