AstralPath

Add Lutris to that list. If anything doesn't work in WINE, try installing via Lutris. My AxeFX's GUI now works flawlessly thanks to an older version of WINE running in Lutris.

I'm running REAPER and some outboard gear GUIs on Nobara Linux with no issues so far. VSTs run thanks to yabridge and Lutris/WINE handles the GUI stuff. I bet you'll be able to migrate without too much trouble.

Weird hill to die on, friend.

No it was not what many would consider a commercial success. My music is a bit niche, but it was a success in its own right. We had label support (non-financial, basically just printed CDs) for our debut release and more than recouped the cost and if we followed up with releases it likely would have had potential to snowball by re-investing the money into the band. We only released digital and CD digipaks of the album, no merch no extra anything and that gave us more than enough for a second release and then some. I just have no use for the music "industry" as it were. Music is not a means to an end for me, its an outlet and I do it on my terms. I don't jive with the industrialization of art in general and I certainly don't want to whittle my relationship with music down to how much money it can make for me. I get it if people wanna commoditize it though. That angle is just not for me.

Indie artists by and large self produce and a metric ton of them do so to an incredibly high caliber. Big tech Spotify man is not wrong, he's just an asshole. A leech, if you will.

In the modern era, that's not exactly true. This number is only relevant if you're outsourcing tracking, mixing and mastering which are all things that can be done in a bedroom nowadays. How do I know? Because I did so myself a number of years ago.

If you're not learning how to do these things yourself, you're simply wasting money or you're rich enough/your band is supported enough to not give a fuck.

The only thing we paid for was album art and mastering simply because I wanted one specific engineer to do it just cause. All in all we paid less than $2k for a full release. We could have paid zero if we did our own artwork and I mastered the album myself which is not exactly impossible for the average person to do.

I get your sentiment, but money is not necessarily needed en masse to release music any more. If you already have your instruments and associated gear, a REAPER license is $60 and you can use the included plugins to create a full professional quality release.

I had a plethora of plugins a while back but I've wiped them from my drive in favor of REAPER's stock plugins, the available JS plugin libraries and a few choice free plugins along with a single drum VST. That's it. I have pro quality mixes and masters with just that.

The days of the studio as a necessity are over. Studio time is a luxury, not a necessity.

I want to end this comment with a big "fuck you" to Spotify anyway because streaming services are cancerous to the music creator scenes.

When was the last time you tested this? My steam library runs great, not to mention everything else that runs on Lutris.

This is a decent point. YouTube is cancer if you don't police your algorithm. If you do (ie: vote on vids, use the "Not Interested" and "Don't recommend channel" options) you get a very clean and personalized feed.

You'll know when YouTube makes changes to their algorithm as you'll suddenly get some unwanted stuff. For example, when any football videos show up in my feed I know YT is making changes so I flag the unwanted stuff when it comes up and within a few flaggings its back to normal.

If you open my YouTube home page its nothing but metal bands, production vids, guitar and drum vids as well as video games, racing, sim racing, science and some other long form content. Its hyper specific to my interests.

I helped pull my buddy out of a bit of a ragebait spiral during covid just by showing him my feed and comparing it to his. He never fathomed the depths that YT would drag him to if he didn't curate his algorithm.

The algorithm can be cancer if you engage with cancer. If you pick your content like you pick your fruits at the grocery store you'll have a much better time.

I didn't disagree with anything.

You're free to sub to whatever instances you want. You seem to be complaining about your own inaction.

Switch the word "meme" for "comment" and apply this sentiment to yourself and you might be onto something.

The only thing holding me back from Linux (Nobara) is that my AxeFX's USB drivers don't seem to work. Losing the UI and USB recording capability is a huge deterrent.

Dense games tend to provide strong rewards for your time. I think its always worth it to tackle a a game like this. EVE Online was one of those games for me back in the day. Dwarf Fortress and Caves of Qud are more recent challenges for me. I'm definitely getting this game soon.