I used to create songs in FL Studio when I used Windows, but now I have switched to Fedora. Does FL Studio run well via wine, or I should better pick a Linux-native DAW? How do I handle Windows vst3 plugins? It is possible to switch to native Linux solutions, but I would actually like to preserve my regular workflow within FL. Any relevant tips and advice are welcome
Bitwig is the best native software I could find for myself - it’s similar to ableton in some ways, but different enough to be unique.
You can also use yabridge to run most windows plugins (including kontakt)
Reaper is the DAW for audio-engineers that is well supported on GNU/Linux.
FL Studio can works well with Wine or VM but its plugins are another story.
A few WebApps worth knowing (might not suit heavy usage):
There is also LMMS but this is more for small hobbyst rather than serious work.
You might wanna try running in a VM or WinBoat and maybe it’s worth asking on the CrossOver forum to see how well things run with CO.
To expand upon the point of running Windows VSTs in Linux in FL via WINE, teh initial setup is very, very tedious, as you have ot install all the essential windows dependencies/bloat in order to make all of them run. off the top of my head i can think of .net framework and visual c++ (yes, you will need to install most.all of them, takes quite a while you cna imagine). and enve after that, once you have all your VSTs working (or most of them), one odd WINE update can either cause the GUI of a plugin to not render, leaving you to either go in blind or control the plugin by browsing its parameters (which pray the dev has made them automatable), or less likely but more devastating it just won’t work anymore, either by instafreezing your daw, or straight up crashing it. had that happen with Spectral Compressor, it will forever be missed. Lucily subsequent WINE updates can fix the UI break issue, but it’ll feel like forever until that update lmao
TLDR if you can deal with maybe a few of your plugins breaking, hopefully getting ifxed after a WINE update, and a chance that one or two plugins just don’t run (classic WINE jank), it’s pretty much smooth sailing cause FL actually runs pretty damn good in WINE, i’d say shockingly close to native. Only things that don’t work for me are the WebView rendered stuff (like diagnostics and gophr but i don’t use gophr. A friend of mine got diagnostics to work by installing dotnet and webview2, i already had them installed and it didn’t work). WINE can vary from system to system.
I would suggest giving native DAWs a solid try, if you find something that clicks staying on the native Pipewire/JACK system is so much nicer than window’s, on top of the inevitable emulation/translation jankiness. Bitwig and REAPER are the big ones, but depending on your workflow/focus you can find other alternatives. There’s also a bunch of native “digital audio gear” that is pretty sweet - check out Cardinal!
Windows VSTs can be tricky, always check if there is a native Linux release, otherwise you will have to run it through some compatibility layer and pray your divinity of choice, although you should have a good number of guides available. I suggest checking out some of the native alternatives here too, for example I use LSP plugins for compressors, EQs, and adjacent things
I’ve never used FL but I’ve seen people mention they’re had success with it on Linux.
This guide looks legit.
https://linuxvox.com/blog/flstudio-linux/
When I first started with audio production it was with Audacity. When I realized it wasn’t the best way to record an album I switched to Ardour. It was compared to Pro Tools a lot at the time and I don’t know how similar they are but I loved using it. When I started working with some new people I switched to their preferred DAW, Reaper. Now I basically only use Reaper because it’s easier for some of the people newer to production. Ardour is still amazing and I think you should try them both and see which you like more. Maybe you can get FL working well but I think it’s better to use something that runs native so you can support the orgs that are producing software for Linux and so eliminate some headaches.
I use native plugins as much as possible but sometimes a collaborator will use something meant for Windows and Mac only. What I do is install the plugin with WINE, using default paths, de-selecting any bullshit I don’t care for, and then run a command to sync the plugins,
yabridgectl sync. Sometimes plugins don’t work perfectly because of missing fonts or whatever but there’s a lot of advice on the project page for individual plugins. I’ve had pretty good luck so far but currently there’s a rendering issue I’m waiting for an update on. Mouse clicks are offset for some reason. It’s probably fixed by now in the stable version. It’s been a month or two since I’ve checked on it since there are plenty of native and built-in plugins within Reaper.FL studio runs well in wine. VSTs are hit-or-miss whether they work but you’ll be fine with it on wine it runs great.
Are there any performance issues with FL on wine?
Not that I’ve encountered. It used to be pretty janky but these days runs as well as on Windows.
The liste of what DAW you can try :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_digital_audio_editorsThe one I tryed is LMMS, and it’s compatible with nearly all vst plugins I used.
Best native Linux DAWS if you want to try:
- Bitwig - Like Ableton but better (paid, proprietary)
- Renoise - Tracker focused (paid, proprietary)
- Reaper - Clunky but very capable (cheap, proprietary)
- LLMS - Very simple daw (free, libre)
- Ardour - Full featured but rough around the edges (free, libre)
- Bespoke - Modular workflow, supports VSTs (free, libre)
- VCV Rack - Modular workflow, VCV modules only (free, libre)
All the paid daws have free demos.
FWIW I also release all my plugins with native Linux builds: https://replicataudio.com/
Got some cool new stuff coming out soon. HMU on discord and I will give you free copies (applies to anyone reading this comment).
I’ve tried getting FL Studio to work multiple times but keep running into little issues. Tried Bitwig but can’t get the workflow down since it’s too different from FL. Unfortunately the best way for me is to dual boot since I don’t want to spend time fixing broken settings when I want to produce. Sadly it’s the only thing keeping Windows on my PC.
I’m considering running FL on windows inside QEMU KVM. But I’m not sure if QEMU supports booting windows…
I’ve heard of performance problems trying to produce in a VM so haven’t tried that, but if you try it and it works let me know because I’d love to stop dual booting.
I’ve been running fl studio thru wine for the past couple years and it works pretty much the exact same. If you already own a copy i’d recommend trying it before buying some different software. Your biggest issue might be running vst’s, I was using only stock plugins until last week when I got yabridge set up and am using vital a bit now.
btw i’ve seen many vsts actually running as dlls in fl. is this solveable with wine or yabridge?
I’ve had some pretty serious issues with usb audio class compliant hardware and linux. I’m not sure if it’s a pulse/pipe/alsa issue and i don’t care. I shouldn’t have to debug dmesg just to record audio.
Reaper and Bitwig work great, otherwise.
SunVox is a really cool piece of software. Tidalcycles and Strudel seem pretty goddam dope as well.
Unless you’re fully committed to Fedora, why not give Ubuntu Studio a try? It’s fully kitted out for audio production, video production, and graphic design with ubuntu base and KDE. All the software amd codecs you need is preloaded and ready to go right out of the box
