semi pro recording studio. possible?

[sdjeffmint]

So here goes....

a couple years back I put together a pretty nice recording studio. I have a fairly nice homebuilt with 4 gigs Ram, an overclocked quadcore, ASUS about a Terabyte of storage spread over 2 HDs, Dual video cards w/ 1 monitor each and some other stuff. I'm using An Akai MPK49 controller and a Firepod IEEE interface, and a few other knick knacks. Those are the key components. I run SONAR Producer and FL studio, as well as a few other small programs. This computer is internet enabled but I only turn the card on for updates. I can't remember the specifics right now, this post is an impulse.

This computer was put together during the beginning of the while Windoze Vista thing. I did my research and pieced together a system that would be powerful enough to run everything and Vista. Or so I thought. I run a lot of tracks of uncompressed audio at once and I like to keep 2-4 apps open over both screens.

It became clear quickly that no matter how I tweaked Vista It kept bogging down. So I gave in and installed XP. Problem solved but my hardwares potential won't be fully realized under XP. When 7 came out I learned I would need to upgrade my mobo and memory.

Soooo, long story short, Are there any open-source, GNU apps that are equivalent to SONAR, FL Studio, Pro Tools, Tractor and so on? And where could I find drivers for my audio interface and controller? I can't afford any speed penalties. I don't mind getting my tech hands dirty but I'm a little afraid of code.

Oh, 64 bit everything is preferred. But if it's not possible, so be it.

Thoughts?

[dfx]

There's a special distibution for that kind of needs: puredyne

You can also use the list of applications as inspiration to install the desired one on Mint

[rlindsey0]

You might also look at Ubuntu Studio and the distribution that Indamixx sells (Transmission). Really, there are a lot of the same apps, but the way the distro is tuned and assembled may differ. And not all FireWire interfaces are supported; you should look at ffado.org to see if yours is.

http://ubuntustudio.org

http://www.indamixx.com