About Gentoo Studio

Gentoo Studio is an actively maintained, source-based, 64-bit desktop real-time Linux audio production system based on Gentoo Linux. It is designed to allow users to have a broad range of audio applications out-of-the-box, and to allow a high level of customization not generally available to other Linux audio distributions – or to Windows or Mac, for that matter. An advantage of having Gentoo as the base for this distro is its package manager, Portage, which has a system of enabling/disabling compile-time options for applications. This means application binaries can be tailored to the user’s computer hardware and the user’s needs. This in turn means more efficient use of the computer’s resources, which is always helpful to running real-time audio applications.

While Gentoo Studio is not a commercial product – it is free – it is absolutely intended to be a full-fledged, professional audio production system for musicians, composers, audio engineers, computer music programmers, and anyone else needing an audio production system.

There is a sticky in the Multimedia section of forums.gentoo.org. (FGO.) Please post there if you need help or have any questions.

Before beginning an install, please make sure you are using a machine that does not contain any data you wish to keep, and that meets the following criteria:

  • 64-bit architecture. 32-bit installs are not supported by Gentoo Studio.
  • A modern, multi-core processor.
  • High-capacity hard disks with a rotation speed of at least 7200 RPM and/or solid-state drives.
  • As much RAM as you can manage.

Gentoo Studio comes with the following applications:

app-admin/syslog-ng syslog replacement with advanced filtering features
app-editors/nano GNU GPL'd Pico clone with more functionality
app-portage/cpuid2cpuflags Tool to guess CPU_FLAGS_* flags for the host
app-portage/eix Search and query ebuilds
app-portage/gentoolkit Collection of administration scripts for Gentoo
app-portage/smart-live-rebuild Check live packages for updates and emerge them as necessary
app-portage/ufed Gentoo Linux USE flags editor
dev-vcs/git Stupid content tracker: distributed VCS designed for speed and efficiency
gnome-extra/nm-applet NetworkManager connection editor and applet
media-plugins/adlplug FM synthesizer plugin based on OPL3 sound chip emulation
media-plugins/alsa-plugins ALSA extra plugins
media-plugins/artyfx Plugin bundle of artistic real-time audio effects
media-plugins/bitrot A set of LV2 and LADSPA plugins for glitch effects
media-plugins/calf A set of open source instruments and effects for digital audio workstations
media-plugins/deteriorate-lv2 A set of plugins to deteriorate the sound quality
media-plugins/distrho-ports Linux ports of Distrho plugins
media-plugins/dragonfly-reverb A set of free reverb effects
media-plugins/fabla LV2 drum sampler plugin
media-plugins/opnplug FM synthesizer plugin based on OPN2 sound chip emulation
media-plugins/sorcer Polyphonic wavetable synth LV2 plugin
media-sound/a2jmidid Daemon for exposing legacy ALSA sequencer applications in JACK MIDI system
media-sound/alsa-tools Advanced Linux Sound Architecture tools
media-sound/alsa-utils Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Utils (alsactl, alsamixer, etc.)
media-sound/amsynth Virtual analogue synthesizer
media-sound/ardour Digital Audio Workstation
media-sound/audacious Lightweight and versatile audio player
media-sound/audacity Free crossplatform audio editor
media-sound/bristol Synthesizer keyboard emulation package: Moog, Hammond and others
media-sound/cadence Collection of tools useful for audio production
media-sound/chuck Strongly-timed, concurrent, and on-the-fly audio programming language
media-sound/din a software musical instrument and audio synthesizer
media-sound/fluidsynth Software real-time synthesizer based on the Soundfont 2 specifications
media-sound/frescobaldi A LilyPond sheet music text editor
media-sound/hydrogen Advanced drum machine
media-sound/jack-rack JACK Rack is an effects rack for the JACK low latency audio API
media-sound/jack2 Jackdmp jack implemention for multi-processor machine
media-sound/jamin Audio mastering interface for JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK)
media-sound/linuxsampler Software audio sampler engine with professional grade features
media-sound/lmms Cross-platform music production software
media-sound/luppp Live performance looping tool
media-sound/musescore WYSIWYG Music Score Typesetter
media-sound/new-session-manager A tool to assist music production by grouping standalone programs into sessions
media-sound/patchage Modular patch bay for JACK-based audio and MIDI systems
media-sound/pure-data Visual programming language for multimedia
media-sound/qjackctl Qt GUI to control the JACK Audio Connection Kit and ALSA sequencer connections
media-sound/qmidiarp Arpeggiator, sequencer and MIDI LFO for ALSA
media-sound/qsampler Graphical frontend to the LinuxSampler engine
media-sound/qtractor Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer written in C++ with the Qt framework
media-sound/rosegarden MIDI and audio sequencer and notation editor
media-sound/terminatorx Realtime audio synthesizer allowing you to 'scratch' on sampled audio data
media-sound/timemachine JACK client record button remembering the last 10 seconds when pressed
media-sound/tk707 An 7x7 type midi drum sequencer for Linux
media-sound/vmpk Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard
media-sound/yoshimi Software synthesizer based on ZynAddSubFX
net-misc/dhcpcd A fully featured, yet light weight RFC2131 compliant DHCP client
net-misc/networkmanager A set of co-operative tools that make networking simple and straightforward
sys-apps/usbutils USB enumeration utilities
sys-boot/grub GNU GRUB boot loader
sys-kernel/genkernel Gentoo automatic kernel building scripts
sys-kernel/linux-firmware Linux firmware files
sys-kernel/rt-sources Full Linux 5.15 kernel sources with the CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT patch
x11-base/xorg-server X.Org X servers
x11-misc/lightdm A lightweight display manager
xfce-base/xfce4-meta The Xfce Desktop Environment (meta package)
xfce-extra/xfce4-alsa-plugin Simple ALSA volume control for xfce4-panel
xfce-base/xfce4-power-manager Power manager for the Xfce desktop environment

Not supported by Gentoo Studio:

32-bit installs Only 64-bit architectures are supported by Gentoo Studio.
Gnome/KDE Monolithic desktops are resource hogs.
JACK1 Does not support multi-processor machines.
Pulseaudio Gentoo Studio’s audio system centers around ALSA and JACK. Use Pulseaudio at your own risk.
Screensavers Screensavers interrupt sessions and consume resources. If you need to leave your session unattended for a while, manually turn off the video monitor if you are concerned about it.
Streaming servers/radio stations Running a server of any kind is beyond the scope of Gentoo Studio.
Virtual machines Running a digital audio workstation in a VM is not a good idea.

Gentoo Studio was created by Audiodef out of love for Gentoo, music and audio. All of his personal works of music are done using Gentoo Studio. Gentoo Studio has existed in and evolved into various forms since 2007.

Fine Print

Gentoo Studio is not an official project of the Gentoo Foundation. This site is maintained by Audiodef. The Gentoo Foundation bears no responsibility for the content of this site. The Gentoo logo and Gentoo name are used according to the licensing guidelines set forth by the Gentoo Foundation. The name “Gentoo” and the “g” logo are currently trademarks of the Gentoo Foundation, Inc.The “g” logo in the background is a variant of the “Ripples Gentoo” logo found at http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/artwork/artwork.xml. This logo was modified under the CC-BY-SA license under which the Ripples Gentoo logo was published.