How to Set Up Linux for Sound Design in 2026
- nikolalkc
- 5 days ago
- 12 min read
I switched to Linux. Fully. No dual boot, no safety net - I wiped Windows off my system drive, installed Linux Mint, and didn't look back. As a sound designer with specific software needs, I expected this to be painful. What I found instead was something more nuanced: a lot more works than you'd think, and the stuff that doesn't work is worth understanding before you take the plunge. This is my honest overview of the whole process with tips and resources included.
Why Leave Windows?
The short answer: Windows 11 pushed me over the edge. The longer answer involves unwanted AI integrations, aggressive telemetry, a UI that keeps hiding the controls you actually need behind dumbed-down menus, and a general sense that the operating system is increasingly working for Microsoft rather than for you.
Beyond the frustration, there was something else. As a sound designer, I'm also a game developer and an artist - and I want to see creative people succeed with tools that aren't at the mercy of corporations who can change the rules retroactively at any time. Moving to Linux was, in part, an exercise in reclaiming digital sovereignty.
My mental bar was deliberately set low. I told myself: I will never play games again on PC. I won't do music making at home. I accept these sacrifices. That mindset actually helped, because what I discovered was that the reality was far better than the expectation.
Linux Mint: The Right Distro for the Job
I chose Linux Mint specifically because it's the closest thing to the Windows experience I found in the Linux world. There is taskbar, start menu and system tray - familiar territory. The file manager has tabs, bookmarks, hard drive shortcuts. System settings are consolidated and sensible. The whole experience is smooth in a way I didn't expect.
Installation itself is straightforward. You'll want to get comfortable with the terminal - not deeply, just enough to know how to list a directory, run a sudo command, or create a folder. If that feels intimidating right now, it won't after a day of use.
My approach was to back up everything on my non-system drives, clean the system drive, and install fresh. For the rare Windows-specific testing I still need to do, I have VirtualBox running a disconnected Windows 10 instance. That's it. That's the only Windows footprint left.
The App Ecosystem Is Surprisingly Complete
Here's the software rundown for day-to-day life:
Office: OnlyOffice handles Word docs, spreadsheets, and presentations and pdfs. It opens and saves Microsoft formats without drama. It's not a perfect replacement for everything, but for the documents I actually need to deal with, it does the job. No Microsoft 365 subscription needed.
Browser: Firefox with DuckDuckGo, with some experimentation with Mullvad Browser and Mullvad VPN for privacy. So far, only good things to say.
Recording: OBS is detecting microphone input, desktop audio, and webcam — recording at 60fps without complaint.
Games / Steam: Valve's Proton has done genuinely impressive work. The majority of my Steam library runs on a machine that's over five years old with a mid-tier GPU. The exceptions are titles that use kernel-level anti-cheat (more on that later).
Developer tools: VS Codium (the de-telemetrized VS Code fork) works great for script development. GitHub Desktop runs natively as if nothing changed. Slack, Zoom, and VPN tools work without issue.
File search: Everything from Void Tools has a Linux equivalent called FSearch - it indexes your filesystem and finds files just as fast.
Cloud storage: Nextcloud replaces Google Drive.
Music programming: SuperCollider is there if you want to go deep on programmatic synthesis.
Audio Routing on Linux: The Big Topic
This is where most sound designers will feel the friction, and it's worth understanding the landscape before you start. A solid deep-dive reference on the full stack is at blog.rtrace.io/posts/the-linux-audio-stack-demystified.
Linux has accumulated several audio systems over the years, and they all still coexist:
ALSA is the low-level layer - direct hardware access, the foundation everything else builds on. JACK historically lived on top of ALSA and was the standard solution for professional audio work. PulseAudio was a higher-level consumer audio server that ran alongside JACK for years, creating a fragmented landscape. PipeWire is the current standard, active by default in Linux Mint, and its goal is to unify all of the above - handling consumer audio, pro audio, and JACK compatibility simultaneously.
To check which sound server is currently active on your system:
inxi -A The tool you use to visually manage PipeWire's routing graph is QPWGRAPH - install it from the software manager, as it's not included by default. This is your patchbay. Different applications appear as PW (PipeWire), ALSA, or JACK nodes in the graph. While they should all be able to talk to each other, in practice you'll sometimes need to understand which protocol an application is using before you can route it correctly.
The REAPER settings reset problem
A specific gotcha worth highlighting: whenever you open REAPER's audio preferences and click OK - even without changing anything - it reinstantiates REAPER's audio connection directly with ALSA at the low level. This breaks any PipeWire connections you've established in QPWGRAPH. I once continued recording a video for 15 minutes without realizing my audio routing to OBS had silently dropped because I'd clicked OK in preferences. Check your QPWGRAPH connections after any audio settings change.
PipeWire fallback
If you hit persistent sound issues after a system update or configuration change, Linux Mint documents a path back to the older PulseAudio server:
apt purge pipewire pipewire-bin
systemctl enable --user pulseaudio
sudo reboot There's also a documented path back to PipeWire from the Linux Mint forums if you need to return. It's a useful escape hatch to know about even if you never use it.
My strong recommendation throughout all of this: start a notes database from day one. Every time you hit an audio routing issue and solve it, write it down. I use Obsidian. There are so many of these small discoveries that you will forget them immediately. I have a dedicated section for Linux audio in mine and still reference it regularly - often for things I solved months ago that I have no memory of solving.
Audio Hardware: The Class Compliant Mode Solution
Traditional audio interface drivers don't exist for Linux. Manufacturers build their drivers for Windows and macOS. Some companies have announced Linux support, but most haven't delivered yet.
The workaround for RME interfaces - the Babyface specifically - is Class Compliant mode. This is a limited hardware profile that the interface exposes without any drivers, and Linux detects it automatically over USB.
To enter Class Compliant mode on the Babyface:
Disconnect the USB cable
Hold SELECT + DIM simultaneously
Reconnect the USB cable
"CC" will appear in the LED display
Once connected, Linux sees the device immediately - no driver installation, no configuration needed.
One useful hardware routing trick while in CC mode: you can copy channels 1/2 (main outputs) to channels 3/4 (headphones) directly on the device. Press OUT → select CH1/2 → press SET → press SELECT. All three output LEDs should illuminate. This lets you monitor through headphones without TotalMix.
The main tradeoff is that TotalMix is completely unavailable in CC mode. In practice this leaves two stereo outputs and two microphone inputs - which covers everything needed for a home setup. If your workflow depends on complex TotalMix routing, plan around this before switching.
CC mode was originally made for iPads. There is a TotalMix app for iPad, however, I'm still not sure if this can be utilized to save routing settings for your Linux use.
REAPER on Linux: Mostly Great, With Caveats
REAPER works. It opens quickly, the core workflow functions properly, and with my custom config it's productive. But there are friction points worth knowing about upfront.
Installing REAPER
Download the Linux version from the REAPER website - it unpacks as a folder containing an install-reaper.sh script. Run it and you'll be presented with options. Choose what suits you. You can also run it directly from there, without installing.
After installing, add Linux-native binaries for SWS Extensions and ReaPack separately - both have Linux builds and work correctly. From within ReaPack you can then install ReaImGui, Lokasenna GUI, and js_ReascriptAPI, all of which function properly.
Custom launcher for multiple configs
If you run multiple REAPER configurations (for example, one for sound design and one for music production), create a custom .desktop launcher file that points to a specific reaper.ini:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon=/path/to/your/icon.ico
Exec=/path/to/REAPER/reaper cfgfile reaper.ini
Name=My REAPER Config Place this file in ~/.local/share/applications/ and pin it to your panel from the start menu. Each launcher can point to a different config file and carry a different icon, so your setups stay cleanly separated.
Python scripting
If you use Python scripts in REAPER, you'll need to point REAPER to your Python library. First check what version is installed and where the library lives:
python3 --version
whereis libpython3.12.so On a standard Linux Mint install this will be at
/usr/lib/python3.12/config3-12-x86_64-linux-gnuPoint REAPER to that path in Preferences → Plug-ins → ReaScript.
Video playback (FFmpeg)
REAPER on Linux can use VLC or FFmpeg for video playback, but getting it to actually find FFmpeg requires a specific older build — the standard package from apt doesn't work correctly with REAPER's decoder. The solution that worked for me is a script that installs the right version:
wget https://landoleet.org/old/old-ffmpeg-debian.sh
chmod +x ./old-ffmpeg-debian.sh
./old-ffmpeg-debian.sh After running this, REAPER's "Show decoder information" dialog should confirm it found FFmpeg. If it shows VLC as not found despite having it installed, the FFmpeg route above is the more reliable fix.
Forum threads:
UI and Scaling
Text buttons in custom toolbars are a particular problem at normal scale - they can become nearly unreadable. You'll either learn to avoid text-heavy toolbar buttons or find a ui scale value that's an acceptable compromise for your screen.
You can scale REAPER's interface by editing reaper.ini directly - add or modify this under the [.swell] section:
[.swell]
ui_scale=1.5 This scales the whole interface to a readable size, but you might not enjoy that screen space is smaller.
The practical recommendation: stick to the latest default REAPER theme rather than older community themes. Non-DPI themes either go blurry or render with visible artifacts when scaled. The built-in Theme Adjuster is genuinely powerful for customization and is designed with scaling in mind - it just requires some investment to set up the way you want.
Full Screen and Window Behavior
True full screen in REAPER doesn't work cleanly with a visible taskbar — the bottom of the REAPER window gets clipped. The fix is to set the taskbar to auto-hide in panel settings, after which REAPER's maximize window mode fills the screen correctly.
Undocked REAPER windows have a persistent habit of opening on the wrong monitor, defaulting to the leftmost screen regardless of which one you've set as primary in display settings. This is genuinely annoying when a plugin window appears somewhere unexpected mid-session. No clean fix for this yet - it's one to be aware of rather than plan around.
VST Plugins: Yabridge Is Your Friend
Plugin support will depend heavily on what your workflow is built around, so go in with a clear picture of your dependencies.
What works natively on Linux: VST/VST3 builds are increasingly available — AirWindows ships a Linux VST package, Surge XT works excellently, and the CLAP format is well-supported and growing. REAPER's entire built-in plugin collection (ReaEQ, ReaComp, ReaVerb, all JS plugins) works perfectly.
For Windows-only VSTs, the solution is Yabridge, which wraps Windows plugin binaries through Wine and presents them to your DAW as native Linux plugins.
VST3 plugins under Windows are always installed to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, and you can use:
yabridgectl add "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Common Files/VST3"to add that directory to yabridge.
Finally, you'll need to run yabridgectl sync to finish setting up yabridge for all of your plugins. After doing so, your VST2, VST3, and CLAP plugins will be set up in
~/.vst/yabridge
~/.vst3/yabridge
~/.clap/yabridgerespectively. Make sure your DAW searches ~/.vst, ~/.vst3, and ~/.clap for VST2, VST3, and CLAP plugins and you will be good to go. This is how I got FM8 working.
That said, the practical approach is: use natively available plugins first, bridge what you absolutely need, and accept losses on the rest. For sound design work that already leaned heavily on REAPER's built-in processing, that tradeoff is workable. Your experience will depend on how deep your Windows plugin dependency list runs.
MIDI Setup
My ALESIS V25 MIDI keyboard works - pitch bend, modulation, automation, all functioning correctly in REAPER. PipeWire handles MIDI routing in the same graph as audio, so QPWGRAPH is your tool for connecting MIDI devices to DAWs just as it is for audio routing.
If you need ALSA MIDI devices to appear as JACK nodes for older tools, a2jmidid handles that conversion. Hopefully you will not need this and your midi hardware will work automatically.
For ALSA-to-JACK MIDI conversion - useful if you need MIDI nodes to appear in QPWGRAPH or are working with older JACK-based tools - install a2jmidid and run it with:
a2jmidid -e This exposes ALSA MIDI devices as JACK MIDI nodes you can connect in the graph. Stop it with CTRL+C in the terminal, or killall a2jmidid if the terminal is closed. In REAPER's JACK settings, disable both "Auto-connect jack audio channels to hardware" and "Auto-connect jack MIDI channels to hardware" - letting QPWGRAPH handle connections explicitly gives you more control and fewer surprises.
Bitwig on Linux
Bitwig runs natively on Linux and works well. You can run REAPER and Bitwig simultaneously and route audio between them via PipeWire — though doing this while also recording OBS at the same time will stress the audio system. Be aware that reinitializing audio settings in either DAW can break active PipeWire connections, for the same reason described in the REAPER section above.
Wwise on Linux
Wwise doesn't have a Linux version, but there's a workable path.
Install the Audiokinetic Launcher inside a Windows VirtualBox VM
(Launcher does not work well through Wine)
Install your target Wwise version there,
Copy the installed Wwise folder from the VM to your Linux filesystem
Run it through Wine.
It works. Using Grim Sync on Linux will be covered in the next article.
Virtual Box Issues
Speaking of VirtualBox: if you hit this error when starting a VM on Linux:
VirtualBox can't operate in VMX root mode. Please disable the KVM kernel extension... Check whether KVM is loaded and creating a conflict:
lsmod | grep kvm Unload it for the current session:
sudo modprobe -r kvm_intel To disable it permanently, create /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-kvm.conf containing:
blacklist kvm
blacklist kvm_intel Then run sudo update-initramfs -u and reboot.
System Tweaks Worth Knowing
Automounting NTFS drives: Hard drives formatted for Windows won't stay mounted between boots by default. Open the Disks utility, select the partition, go to Edit Mount Options, uncheck the defaults, and enable "Mount at system startup." Good reference guides for this are at thelinuxcode.com and baeldung.com.
ALT+drag window move: Linux Mint uses ALT+drag at the OS level to move any window. This completely breaks REAPER's ALT key modifiers - any ALT-based action (razor edit, whatever you've mapped) instead starts moving the REAPER window. Disable it in System Settings → Windows → Behavior → "Special key to move and resize windows" and set it to none.
GPU monitoring: AMD GPU users won't find official software here. Open-source community tools for monitoring and tweaking GPU parameters exist - you'll need to find the one that matches your specific card.
System updates: The update manager shows up, you decide when to install, it never forces a restart or interrupts your work. You're in full control - a genuinely pleasant contrast to Windows.
Multi-monitor window moving: Right-click any window's title bar and there's an option to move it to another monitor. Something Windows users have requested for years just exists here by default.
Themes and customization: Linux Mint supports full theme, icon, and cursor customization. The same philosophy that makes REAPER's theming system appealing applies at the OS level - you can make it look exactly how you want.
What Doesn't Work (Yet)
Kernel anti-cheat games: Call of Duty, Battlefield, and other titles using kernel-level anti-cheat won't run. Proton can't work around this.
Full screen REAPER without workaround: Use the auto-hide taskbar approach described above.
REAPER window placement on secondary monitors: Undocked windows default to the wrong screen. No clean fix currently.
Non-DPI REAPER themes: Older themes look bad at scale. Stick to the default modern theme and use Theme Adjuster for customization.
Native Instruments: Very difficult to get their launcher to work on Linux. Converting individual VSTs through Yabridge does work though.
The Mindset That Makes This Work
The switch to Linux for audio work isn't painless, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. What it requires is a genuine tolerance for a learning curve and a willingness to spend time understanding how your system actually works. The payoff is real: an OS that doesn't work against you, audio routing more flexible than anything Windows offers once you understand it, and a workflow not dependent on big-tech deciding how you get to use your tools.
Start with Linux Mint. Keep a notes database from day one. Get comfortable with QPWGRAPH. Understand your audio interface's class compliant mode (if it has one) before you switch. Go in expecting to spend time on setup - then be pleasantly surprised by how much already works.
Next up: Using REAPER, Wwise and Unreal Engine on Linux. That's where the actual sound design pipeline begins.
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