Running Mixcraft 10.1 build 584 in Linux

[cactus-head]

Hi,

I originally was creating a long winded detailed post about how I've been trying to move from Windows to Linux 100% but always stopped by needing certain Windows applications or hardware and the ease of use of Windows. Well, I didn't want to give up Mixcraft - that was something that held me back - and my audio interface doesn't have any Linux drivers. It can work generically in Linux, but it loses a lot of functionality that way.

Good news: I've been able to run and install Mixcraft 10.1 in Wine virtually problem free. My audio interface works, but it is not as managable and the full functionality isn't present in Linux.

I used openSUSE Leap 15.5 as the linux distro with KDE Plasma as the main desktop. I run Mixcraft through Wine.

As openSUSE isn't usually a distro most desktop users use, it may be a little different than you're used to. The main program and system management is handled through an application called YaST which requires root privileges. However KDE plasma and Gnome functions pretty much the same across distros so the desktop experience shouldn't be much different.

My setup very basically is this. A lot of this is default stuff that would be included during installation - but I've been tweaking and adding stuff for months.

1. openSUSE Linux Leap 15.5 installed on a separate bootable SATA SSD plugged into a USB port. I installed it next to Windows but not sharing the main boot record as the Windows drive. This allows the SSD to have a GRUB boot loader installed that queries the computer for all operating systems and lists them to select to boot from; also the drive can be unplugged and moved to another computer and be bootable from there as well.
2. In Leap, I installed a ton of audio and video codecs including ffmpeg. I don't know all of the audio dependencies in Wine, but I just included stuff I would use for anything audio even outside of Mixcraft.
3. Made sure the graphic dependencies for Gnome and KDE were installed. For Plasma that means installing related QT stuff.
4. Installed everything related to Wine through Yast including Winetricks
5. Always install the development libraries as well as the main libraries. In the list on Yast there will almost always be a corresponding development library
6. Install Carla, Alsa, OSD, Jack audio connection kit, ladspa

As far as other audio related stuff, you may need to install more or not. Though I think the main thing is install Wine, Jack, Alsa and Pulseaudio and FFmpeg - and their development libraries. You may need to install lame, OGG, Vorbis, and Flac libraries as well. Again, I do this anyway with any linux installation as I'm always setting up audio and editing software.

a, Add a Mixcraft folder to your Download Folder in Leap
b. Download the Mixcraft installer into Mixcraft folder
c. Right Click on the Installer and choose Open with Wine
d. Follow the instructions. It may ask you to install Microsoft Net C/C++ . Agree
e. Allow the default folder locations for everything

When it is done, it should add shortcuts to your plasma desktop. My experience was that they don't work. Could be my Wine installation. To correct this:

Right Click on a Shortcut > Properties > Application Tab
Delete everything in the Environmental Variables line.

on the Arguments line, add

'/home/[user name]/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Acoustica Mixcraft 10/Mixcraft10.exe'

replace [user name] with whatever the user name is

Be sure to include the single quotes

[cactus-head]

So far most VSTs seem to work copied over to Linux. I think I'll have to reinstall some through wine as the copied version are missing settings and license verification etc. Though I want to be careful of multiple installs so I don't run into licensing troubles.

I've been able to load and playback the example projects. I haven't tried any of my own projects because they mostly use VSTs that I haven't been able to get into Linux yet.

Mixcraft crashed a couple of time when I've been probing the CPU usage with linux tools. The CPU usage display within mixcraft doesn't actually work. It just shows 0% and 100% all of the time.

I have so far only been able to use the Wave settings in preferences so the latency displayed seems really high. There is some way to work with wineasio but I haven't figured it out yet.

A couple of screen shots directly from Linux

MC 10.1 bld 584 Linux.jpeg (329.48 KiB) Viewed 21990 times

MC 10.1 mixer linux.jpeg (348.62 KiB) Viewed 21990 times

[cactus-head]

Here's my assessment, though maybe a bit premature but this covers my general experience with Linux and I have been using it for years:

Mixcraft works - generally. My Audio interface works - generally. They both do not function at the same level as they do in Windows; but they function and I can record and playback, add instruments and effects. I just can't get the audio at low latency in Wine and not have crackling and popping. I have to have the buffers high with latency hovering between 200 and 500 ms It could be openSUSE settings, it could be anything.

Running anything through Wine is going to be a slight downgrade from running it in Windows if the program was designed to run in Windows. That's just how it goes. You have to have a really beefy souped up computer if you want decent performance for any Windows program running in Linux.

And if you have the time and knowledge and the patience to tweak different files and shell scripts and run command line whatever, to squeeze out a little more performance which will still be less that running it in a native Windows environment, then all the more power to you.

I don't want to sound discouraging. It totally works. and if you have a high end computer you could probably get it to work good enough. Another distribution might work better - but I can see where that fact alone makes linux unattractive because of the amount of work it takes to get something to function the way you want.

[cactus-head]

Sorry for bumping my own thread but hopefully this helps someone considering putting in the time to run Mixcraft in wine on linux.

Here's the thing, though Mixcraft itself works pretty well running through wine on linux, not everything else meant for windows will. All of my isotope plugins fail and cause a lockup and a crash. Any VSTs that require special licensing software or methods don't work. That means my choirs, orchestras, guitar VSTis all cant be used. As I mentioned before, my audio interface functionality is limited.

So as I see it, there is no reason to run mixcraft in Linux. In fact, there is no reason to do serious audio production in Linux at all (except cost wise might make sense) because no matter what you use, even linux specific DAWs, the extent of libraries, synths and plugins you'd find in windows just doesn't exist. Linux is also inconsistent with hardware support in general and from distro to distro.

Even if there was a version of mixcraft written for linux, you still wouldn't have access to the depth of windows audio plugins that are available.

You can get work done and even produce professional results, just don't expect to accomplish the same things you could do in windows.

[edjex]

Thanks voor your extensive research. You put a lot of effort in it.
Bottom line for me is, after reading this line in your post "I just can't get the audio at low latency in Wine and not have crackling and popping."
It does not work. Latency is most important to keep it low at most situations.
The reason is wine and the translation of windows software. Therefore the latency will always be higher then native windows.