REW install on Linux or windows ?

[Markone]

Hi, I’m a new to the forum so…before I can get started I will need to download and learn about REW. I have a laptop with both windows 10 & linux mint 21.3. I prefer linux for most things but are there any benefits / drawbacks (hardware, drivers, etc.) to using one or the other OS ?

Thank you

 

[John Mulcahy]

Audio is a lot easier to configure on Windows, the Linux audio setup can be tricky (based on posts like this one).

 

[phofman]

If you have your device working fine in linux, IMO there is no reason for REW not to work in linux, if you prefer it to windows. Just make sure you disable your audio devices used by REW in pulseaudio/pipewire, and use the javasound alsa output (plughw). If needed to use a PCM device defined by alsa configs (most likely not), you can use the PCM:xxx device in REW.

 

[phofman]

Audio is a lot easier to configure on Windows, the Linux audio setup can be tricky (based on posts like this one).

Well, that thread deals with measuring impulse response at 192kHz with a device which accepts only 48kHz, plus insisting on using pulseaudio javasound driver. That's an extremely convoluted setup.

 

[Markone]

Thanks for the quick response. The more I thought about this the more conflicted I became! Then, after a the third cup of tea I realized that it doesn't matter, I can do both. I have an old lenovo laptop which has removable 2.5" drives so I'll get two clean drives and put linux on one and Windows 10 on the other (The only other software that will be loaded will be that which is required to make REW work) and see which works best. When I'm recording in linux I use JACK Audio Connection Kit with CARLA and CATIA (JACK Patchbay) so I should be able to get something working. One things for sure, it will be a good learning experience and I will do my best to record the steps and result to help others.

 

[phofman]

I would really recommend to avoid jack in the chain with REW. That would make a similarly convoluted chain like the thread discussed above. IMO the jack javasound connector is rarely tested.

The 2.5" drives - 128GB SSDs are almost for free :-)

 

[Markone]

Understood, it makes sense that the less you have in the chain the better.

 

[Tim Dawson]

Hi, I’m a new to the forum so…before I can get started I will need to download and learn about REW. I have a laptop with both windows 10 & linux mint 21.3. I prefer linux for most things but are there any benefits / drawbacks (hardware, drivers, etc.) to using one or the other OS ?

Thank you

If you install on Linux, your platform won't blow chunks :-). Seriously, audio config on Linux is pretty easy (and it doesn't fight back like Win), so pick what you prefer to use.

 

[Markone]

Thanks for that, my daily driver is linux mint but I have a couple of apps that are proprietary and I have to use windows, an exercise in stress management! However it will be interesting to see which is easiest to set up and use. Yesterday I installed REW on Linux mint (Cinnamon) 21.3. No problem, I haven't got a mike yet and still have to learn the basics but the install was painless and was done in less than 15 minuets including the download. I'll do windows tomorrow.

 

[Tim Dawson]

Thanks for that, my daily driver is linux mint but I have a couple of apps that are proprietary and I have to use windows, an exercise in stress management! However it will be interesting to see which is easiest to set up and use. Yesterday I installed REW on Linux mint (Cinnamon) 21.3. No problem, I haven't got a mike yet and still have to learn the basics but the install was painless and was done in less than 15 minuets including the download. I'll do windows tomorrow.

I have some of the same, so have a Win* VM inside Linux with Qemu - boots faster than native, and less likely to do damage if something gets into it. USB devices pass through transparently when I need a USB device based programming tool for my GPS gear, PROM programmers, etc. Best of hoth worlds, and Win is never allowed to touch a physical disk!

For audio, I have a Sound Devices USBPre2 which I use for SMAART and REW, and it comes up instantly in Linux . . . for propritary devices, you can pass the USB device to the VM and use the Windiws drivers. (Heck, with Qemu, I can even snapshot the Win VM, so if an install/patch/upgrade/??? goes sideways, it is trivially recoverable.)

 

[Markone]

Haven't got far with REW on windows because I had trouble with the windows drive, probably because I was lazy and didn't do a secure erase on the disc before throwing windows at it. Try again later.

 

[Markone]

Can someone check me on this please, for the input I’m going to get the recommended mic, minidsp UMIK-1, probably from Amazon but I’m not sure about how best to get the test tones to my system, I am thinking I would use the balanced outputs from my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 to the stereo pre amp ? Thanks