How to Build a Free (Except Hardware) Digital Audio Workstation!

Try these on your computer! 

Musix GNU+Linux

This is the first music distro I tried. It features Rosegarden, MusE, and Ardour--which are the 3 most popular Linux DAWs. It includes soft synths, effects, a guitar tuner, and trackers. Last, but not least, it has the Hydrogen software drum machine and LMMS which is to Linux what Reason is to Windows.

Studio to Go!

Studio to Go! - Make Your Music Anywhere

I haven't used this one. However, this cd is recommended by the folks at Rosegarden. I have seen good reviews on the Internet about it. It comes in retail ready box with documentation for about $65 (however, you are ordering from England, so you will be paying in British Pounds.)

APODIO

APODIO is a GNU/Linux platform containing audio, text-friendly, graphic and video tools. It can be used as a live CD or be installed on a partition of your hard disk.

Planet CCRMA

To run CCRMA (pronounced karma)you have to have either Red Hat Linux or Fedora(free)installed on you computer. However, after you go to the CCRMA site and see what is there, You may be willing to go through the trouble.

d y n e : b o l i c -- a free multimedia studio in a GNU/Linux live CD

dyne:bolic 2.0 codename DHORUBA is released, based on the new dyne:II modular core, running a 2.6 Linux kernel optimized for low latency in desktop and ...

I tried this one. It is geared more towards video editing and multimedia creation than music. It has some interesting programs; however. Something Special: If you want to run an Internet radio station, dynebolic has the software you need to make it happen.

Other Important Links for Linux Audio 

Placeses to go to get answers to your questions.

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture - ALSA

An audio library (and kernel level API) for Linux.

To work with audio on a Linux computer, you need to know a little bit about alsa. MIDI, is handled though alsa as well as some audio programs. This program connects your audio program with your sound card or other audio programs. It also connects your MIDI I/O with your sequencer or librarian software.

Go to this link before purchasing a soundcard to make sure it is compatable with Linux. Also, if you are having problems getting something to work, check here first.

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture - Wikipedia

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (known by the acronym ALSA) is a Linux kernel component intended to replace the original Open Sound System (OSS) for ...

More good info on alsa.

JACK-AUDIO-CONNECTION-KIT: JACK Audio Connection Kit

JACK is a low-latency audio server, written for POSIX conformant ... Generated on Tue Apr 27 12:27:40 2004 for JACK-AUDIO-CONNECTION-KIT by doxygen ...

This program is in many Linux distributions. It is slowly replacing alsa as the audio server to use. You can do some very useful connections between programs with this program.

Linux Audio dot Org - Press

The majority of articles on Linux audio have been published online. ... Writers who have published print articles about Linux audio include Alexandre ...

List of Linux audio software - Wikipedia

The Name says it all! You have to check this out.

Boosthardware.com

Someone is making linux based, portable, digital audio workstation and selling them. I don't know how good it is, but you can check it out.

Digital Audio Workstation - Build It: Digital Audio Workstation

You can now build a home audio studio that rivals many pro facilities. We'll show you how to put together a system built from the case up that lets you create CDs as polished as a Nile Rogers or Brian Eno production.

I know this is not specifically about linux audio, but it is a good article on how to build a computer based Digital Audio Workstation. It is a really good idea to build your own computer, from scratch for audio. It will work better and you will get more bang for the buck.