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cayenne8 revealed:

So far, I'm voting with my wallet....I encourage anyone that can to also do so.

Avid Corporation's Pro Tools is the standard DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in the recording industry. Every professional recording studio uses it, because their customers demand that they do so.

Avid decided more than a decade ago that renting, rather than selling, recording software would be their model - and, like the Adobe examples listed in TFS - they've stuck with it ever since. And their license fees are not cheap. Like, at all. To frost the feces cake, most major makers of audio processing plug-ins have adopted the same strategy. All of which, naturally, makes running a commercial recording studio a hideously expensive business, given how much it costs to design and build one, and how much the necessary hardware (professional-quality microphones, for instance, start at around $1,200 and go way up from there) adds to the start-up expense.

That's why, for my home studio, I chose to go with Reaper, instead. Justin Frankel, the lead developer of the seminal WinAmp music player founded the company that makes it after AOL bought (and promptly forgot about) WinAmp from him for gazillions of dollars. He's publicly stated that the price of Reaper ($60 for private use) is purposely set low to make it affordable for everyone, since he's already rich enough to afford not to gouge his customers - so the cost is just high enough to pay the development team to keep working on the product.

Reaper kicks ass. It's just as capable a product as Pro Tools - and, once you buy it, it's yours. You get no-cost upgrades through the entire major version you bought. And the next one, as well. It's compatible with all the major plug-in formats, and it comes bundled with a whole bunch of them (including VSTi's) at no additional charge. It's WAY more configurable than Pro Tools, it uses very little RAM, comparatively speaking, and it's scriptable up the wazoo.

Oh, and there's a Linux version, as well.

I didn't mean this post to be a Slashvertisment, but I guess it turned into one. Sorry about that. See, my point is that there's a pro-quality alternative to what is practically a software monopoly in the audio recording world, too. And it doesn't require you to compromise on functionality or power.

Fuck rent-seeking. And fuck rent-seekers ...

(Posted as AC only to keep from undoing prior upmods in this thread.)

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Check out my novel ...

I still use it. It's fast and doesn't contain much of the junk there is out there today, and I don't need a full blown application to sync my music.

The original developer, Justin Frankel went on start a new company "Cockos" ( http://cockos.com/ ) after leaving AOL to develop a professional multi-track digital audio workstation named Reaper ( http://reaper.fm/ ).

Here's his personal site on his updates:
http://1014.org/

Reaper's window's only (although it runs on Wine), but lately he's been working on porting it to Linux, in a world where digital workstations are for the most part, Mac and Windows only. Audio drivers for professional-grade analog-digital audio interfaces are still lacking, but having a pro-grade application is a start. Plus he seems to be linking Valgrind a lot, which is helping him detect memory leaks easier.

No free beer, no free cost: Reaper But it really whips the llama's ass!

Seriously! It is available for OS X and Windows, is shareware and comes with a two way license model. Both licenses are the same, full-featured application, but one is for amateurs (US$ 60), the other one is for professionals (US$ 225). It's constantly supported, updates just fly in, community is great, both in size as in character.

It is being developed by Justin Frankel, who also created WinAmp, SHOUTcast, Gnutella and the Nullsoft Installer (NSIS) and his company Cockos.

I understand, that the question was about a Linux solution, but as far as I know, for professional audio-work, you have only two chances: Steinberg, Logic, etc. or Reaper.

The Reaper is not open source, but comes in a free flavor. I'd recommend an x64 os, as lots of ram is a very good thing for projects as they grow.
http://www.reaper.fm/

Making high-quality music used to require investment. Expensive instruments at a minimum - but if you didn't want to sound like Kenny, you'd also need high quality microphones, sound damped recording studio, mixing desk, specialist technician to operate it and several high-end recorders capable of syncronised operation.

Actually, that's largely been a myth since the advent of consumer grade, multi-track tape recorders.

For instance, the Sublime album Robbin' The Hood was recorded exclusively on a 4-track tape machine, and it sounds awesome. The problem, however, comes in with mastering the tracks. Not sure how they managed it back in the early 1990's (I'm guessing they went to one of those expensive studios), but the solution today is as simple as downloading a free copy of REAPER and learning how to use it. If you don't mind spending a fair amount of cash, there's a plethora of other DAW options out there; I'm a fan of Logic myself.

Hell, I bet dedicated audiophiles could probably come up with studio quality stuff using nothing more complex than Audacity.

Ask all the shareware developers that made money without it. It's been normal to NOT DRM your software for longer than you have been alive. Worlds best audio program, http://www.reaper.fm/ Reaper, is released 100% functional trial version and the paid version removes the Nag screen.

get off your lazy butt and research what works.

My friend and I were just discussing this very thing last night over beer. There needs to be an open source multitrack audio container format that supports DAW settings and operations. I suggested he talk to the engineers at Reaper

http://reaper.fm/

and CC the archivists at the Internet Archive

http://archive.org/details/audio

You have overlooked one large difference: I can scare up a used piano on Craigslist for nothing, and still make it sound great with lots of training and a bit of tuning. (Seriously, a remarkable number of pianos are given away all the time). Acquiring all of these painstakingly recorded samples, the software to compose with them, and the hardware to translate them into actual music costs a great deal of money.

Actually, a nice piano sample can be had for $50 (about half that if you buy during a sale). Minimally, these samples can be played for free with Linuxsampler. There are free DAWs, but Reaper can be had for $60 and is truly excellent. Going all out with the software library and buying something like Logic Pro or Komplete will set you back $500, and will include thousands of high quality instruments.

The MIDI keyboards themselves range from cheap and portable for $100-200 to hammered-action full digital pianos. My Yamaha P-85 is hammered action and can be had now for $500. It comes with a perfectly respectable couple of pianos built in. In the end, you can get set up with hardware and software for well less than $500 and have many really nice instruments, or spend about a grand and have a truly great setup.

I really, really disagree that traditional pianos are in any way cheaper on average than digital ones. That used piano for "nothing" on Craigslist will either not sound particularly good, or will at require quite a bit of work in moving/tuning, etc. I love playing real pianos, but I have neither the money nor the space for a nice one at the moment.

Art is rapidly becoming more about using your credit card than using your hands. At the same time, the compensation for those with the ability to create it keeps shrinking, because of the ease with which the results can be duplicated and distributed.

Here you seem to be conflating music creation with music consumption. First of all, I really think the barriers to entry for music have fallen, not risen. Anyone with Garageband and a $100 MIDI keyboard can compose nice music, if they have the talent. As for compensation for those who create music or other art, supply and demand applies. If the barriers to entry and redistribution fall, then prices will likely fall too. Yet I see plenty of very small artists who make their living playing live in small venues and selling their CDs without a label; for many of us though, music/art/photography is a wonderful hobby, not necessarily a day job. These new digital tools make that both easier and more affordable.

Reaper actually *officialy* supports WINE. From http://www.reaper.fm/download.php : "Windows (32-bit): Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/7 or WINE (limited support for W98/ME)."

REAPER already lists Wine as a supported platform.

Hopefully I'm not drifting too far off topic here, and forgive me if this comes off like a big advertisement. Maybe not what the poster was asking for, but maybe it's helpful for somebody.

I think the first rule of recording outside of a studio (speaking as an audio engineer who works in a studio) is to accept that your recordings will not sound like they were made in a studio. I think the second rule is there's nothing wrong with that. Though the majority of great recordings thus far have been made in a studio environment, I am periodically surprised by recordings made in less than stellar conditions that sound fantastic. This is a subjective art. You probably won't be making Steely Dan or Alan Parsons records, but Jason Falkner, Jack White and even Bruce Springsteen have made some great sounding stuff under less than ideal recording conditions and environments.

Here's some starter ideas.

Software: REAPER = $50 (Free until you can afford to pay for it, basically)
Interface: M-Audio FastTrack USB = about $100
Microphone: Shure SM58 = about $100. If you don't have any room treatment (loosely "soundproofing") then this mic will be your friend. It sounds pretty good on most things from voice to instruments, too.
Subscription: TapeOp - Free one year subscription (trust me...you'll want this)

Don't forget a couple cables for your mic and instrument if necessary. Plug in your instrument of choice and have fun. Experiment with where you put the mic until you like the sound of it (and DON'T LET YOUR METERS GO INTO THE RED!) Pay close attention to how your choice affects the sound of the overall mix as you add tracks. Don't be afraid to experiment with software, sound or equipment. Remember, though there are good techniques, the only right techniques are the ones that sound good to you.

Also get onboard a good site like Gearslutz and read, ask and engage.

Most importantly, use your ears, pay attention, try to mimic things you like from other people's recordings and LEARN from doing it. We're all geeks, damnit. Isn't that how we learn to do everything?

That'll be 5 cents, please.

Reaper is amazingly tiny for what it does. Justin Frankel wins.

A complete DAW, with various plugins, in an installer of about 2.5 megabytes. This is not limited-use or cheap-ass software, either. The sound is phenomenal, and the plugins are useful. How do they do it? No legacy code. A complete start-over from scratch.

http://www.reaper.fm/

I submitted this a looong time ago....

Justin Frankel, you know, wrote winamp? Sold Winamp? Well, he wrote this program called Ninjam that allows folks to collaborate music in psuedo real time.

http://www.ninjam.com/

He also wrote a DAW (digital audio workstation) called reaper.

http://www.reaper.fm/

as well as a programable software DSP called Jesusonic

http://www.jesusonic.com/

This all started circa 2004 or so. Justin has set up some public Ninjam servers, and everything played on these servers is released under the Creative Commons License...

http://autosong.ninjam.com/

Point being, I probably submitted this quite a few times over the years. Don't understand why slashdot would ignore a story about someone who pretty much revolutionized how we listen to music. Time for slash to get new editors again.