Overbridge in Linux/Ubuntu

Hello, Elektron guys~. I’m planning to buy Analog Heat. My OS is ubuntu. I heard Overbride is only supporting Windows and Mac. Is there any solution? or If I give up Overbridge feature in Ubuntu can I record it via usb?? I hope Overbride support Ubuntu. I think Elektron should support Ubuntu really. Thanks for reading.

9 Likes

My opinion is that it’s extremely unlikely you’ll ever see linux supported. As for recording USB audio, I don’t know for 100%, but I find that very unlikely as well, because I don’t believe the devices are class compliant. They’re most likely going to require proper drivers in order to function. You’re going to have to treat the Heat purely as you would any normal piece of outboard equipment.

If you can live with those constraints the machine is quite lovely!

This is very sad. Elektron Gears are really awesome, but why are they using ugly OSs?? Ubuntu is a real beauty among OSs. They should make drivers and softwares on it. Then Elektron is gonna be the best musical gear. I don’t expect very pretty GUI like on Windows and Mac. At least they should make it possible to be used on Ubuntu system. I don’t understand why such a awesome company Elektron doesn’t make stuff for ubuntu. They should consider it seriously.

10 Likes

What’s Ubuntu’s market share? There’s your answer.

8 Likes

What is it?? You tell me.
As a user using all three platforms, ubuntu is like ferari compared to other arbitary OSs, which I should adapt it on their way to money.

7 Likes

According to netmarketshare.com under 3% for Linux in total, a fraction of which is Ubuntu. So don’t hold your breath.

6 Likes

Linux rocks :woman_cartwheeling:

6 Likes

Next year will be the big year for Linux on desktop. Since 1997.

13 Likes

:joy:

I love Linux (been using it since 1993) but doing audio stuff on it is a nightmare. Having to recompile the kernel to get low audio latency is never fun, and the available software ranges from “somewhat usable” to “total garbage.”

Also I may be wrong but I think the overbridge devices do show up as class compliant interfaces without a driver. It’s been awhile since I first set overbridge up though so I may be wrong. So you may be able to use the usb audio portion at least, but an overbridge plugin isn’t likely anytime soon.

1 Like

Would there be a future for well supported Linux build?
This topic is for grown-ups, so no Mac vs PC crap here, please.

3 Likes

My guess would be no. The trouble they seem to have with making this work on Windows and OSX seems so substantial that it would be really surprising if they included Linux in future updates. But you never know.

I’d certainly like one. I use Overbridge via a virtual Windows desktop when I want to edit kits and so on, but it’s not really the best option for running a DAW at anything like sensible speed. It’d be great to be able to use a native Overbridge VST in something like Carla, especially as Wine can’t handle Overbridge.

A Swedish company is designing new Linux based digital audio system called Elk OS. This could be a nice opportunity…

3 Likes

You realize that virtually no commercial audio equipment has a native linux driver? It wouldn’t be marketable or profitable for companies, and the return on investment (do you know what kind of specialized skills it takes to write a driver? and how much that skill costs per hour? and how much of the userbase uses linux?) is zilch.

1 Like

The latest version of Mint now just recognises my TC Electronic Firewire soundcard with no setup, no config, using the ffado driver linked straight into Pulse audio. All I have to do is select it as an input or an ouput, and it works. Sure, there’s no control panel, but I can live without that.

Of course, making this work for Elektron devices and Overbridge would be a whole different issue, and highly unlikely to happen.

Not to get into Mac vs pc and stuff but I’m just wondering, what is the benefit of using linux/ubuntu in general, In particular for audio applications where from the sounds of it companies aren’t even touching it. Why not just use a Mac or pc?

There are certainly benefits to using an infrastructure that is open to public scrutiny, especially during times when totalitarian ideas are on the rise. Unfortunately, this idea of preserving freedom through openness would require a 100% open infrastructure, not just on the software, but also on the hardware and network level and everything else that is involved in transmitting information. And that doesn’t even take into account the fact that you would either need to have the means and the skills to validate such an infrastructure yourself or you’d have to have 100% trust in others doing it for you. It’s fascinating as a theoretical construct, from my point of view not so much in practice.

3 Likes

There are a lot of initiatives for low latency audio environments running on Linux. I’ve been seeing a lot of Audrino and Rasbperry Pi projects dealing specifically with low latency. I’ve been using linux (Slack / Ubuntu / Redhat / Fedora to name a few) off and on since probably 95 and it just keeps getting better and better. No more re-compiling kernels, the packaging systems are getting more mature and dependencies for mainstream apps are almost a thing of the past. I for one hope that we can have options besides the “big two”. Maybe Wine (windows emulation environment) which recently got a pretty big update might be able to run it with a little bit of fiddling? Any of the fiddling that gets done and shared, helps the rest of the community to get to that next rung on the ladder towards a solid solution.

2 Likes

For me, I don’t need or want to install either of those OSs on a computer that I own unless I absolutely have to, and I only have to if someone insists on my work being done in MS Office; then I use a Virtual desktop that I can switch off when it’s not required. For my purposes, there’s not much that I actually need either Windows or Mac for, so I don’t. Overbridge would be nice, but it’s not essential.

I’ve had no luck yet, but maybe the recent update will help. I suspect it’s the drivers that are the reason why not though.

Reaper is an interesting example of an audio application that’s designed to work fine under Wine, so that’s the version that is offered for Linux users.