There are many magnificent people doing great work on Audio in Linux, but the whole eco-system for Audio production, by which I mean, people attempting to work with and to develop Digital Audio Workstations, Virtual Effect and Instruments Plugins (using the VST format, or some other similar plugin architecture) and other similar software, have found is a very difficult thing to get right, and very easy to get wrong.
Neither PulseAudio nor Jack are the right solution for DAW users, and there really isn't a unified audio API solution for Linux that really does what DAW users need. Recently I ran into an excellent podcast interview with the lead developer of Ardour, which is an amazing free/libre open source Digital Audio Workstation. I recommend listening to it:
http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/podcast-ep-003-paul-davis-on-fixing-big-linux-audio-issues
I'm keeping a bookmark around for the "libregraphicsworld.org" site because it seems like a fantastic resource. The podcast is available in audio format plus a transcript. The whole thing is recommended, and I'll assume you've read it, or that you don't care, and will not reproduce its content.
What I want to comment on is one aspect of what Paul Davis says. If I was going to contribute to an open source project in my spare time right now, Ardour is one project I would definitely be interested in helping with, but also, I would like to increase the number of high quality VST audio effects, instruments, and other plugins for Ardour and other DAWs that exist.
What I want to do is attempt to conceptually map the problem.
Unrealistic GOAL: How could a Linux box become as useful as a Mac, for professional audio? Feature parity with, say Cubase 10 Pro with its pitch correction and production features, plus Izotope RX8, plus say, something like Komplete 13, with its hundred-gigabytes of multi-sampled pianos and strings, and world class effects and instruments.
Altered (Semi-Realistic) GOAL: How could a Linux box become almost as useful as a Mac, for professional audio, for at least some people, especially people who don't have the money and can't afford Windows or Mac and commercial DAW and VST offerings?
What is needed:
1. Top tier driver support for specific audio interfaces from RME, Arturia, and about 200 other audio interface manufactures. Not just some generic class compliant drivers.
2. Full support for onboard DSP processing resources that live inside these audio interfaces.
3. Really great thunderbolt, and modern USB performance.
4. A realtime friendly Linux Kernel which does not introduce latency.
5. A complete set of tools to find out where latency is creeping in and make it possible to reduce and remove those sources of latency.
6. Reference Audio grade realtime performance comparable to Mac OS X.
7. Some Move Towards Feature parity. I think the most critical thing is a reference quality sampler platform, something that is open source but which can replace Falcon, Kontakt, and Halion as an open source sampler VST. Are open source people going to build a really high quality free Piano sample library? Even if the VSTs become free for high quality sampler VSTs, will multi gigabyte piano sample libraries ever be free? After that need has been addressed, I believe decent mastering tools, and good pitch correction tools will be the next biggest thing that the Ardour-on-linux DAW user will miss.
Considering the value proposition of Linux in 2020, in the professional audio world is like considering vote share in 2020, for a third party candidate in the US election. It's not even funny. There's Mac, and there's PC, and then, there's (for home hobby toy use), Linux. That's just not changing.
Meanwhile, I believe that folks like Paul Davis and the rest of Ardour team are doing amazing things and I plan to help out where possible, and when I have some time.
Other AMAZING open source things are happening. There's the VCV RACK.
There's MOD DUO, there's the JACK project. Want to build an open source effect rack system or guitar pedal, with full featured delay and reverb processing, running on a raspberry pi? The open source world has got you. There are many really interesting sounding VST instrument plugins too, although you can build your own audio and instrument plugins, really, with VCV rack, and a bit of dragging around of some virtual audio cables.
The future of AUDIO on Linux is going to be amazing. the future of DAW software, maybe slightly less amazing.
The thing is, maybe Ardour (with a supported interface) is going to be great. Once Ardour, and Mixbus (which is based on Ardour) get VST3 support, Ardour on Windows and Mac will be become interesting again.
