HOW-TO: FL Studio 9 in Ubuntu (using Wine)
Welcome to my "small" tutorial on how to run FL Studio 9 in Ubuntu.
This tutorial will explain how to install Wine and FL Studio, and then how to get the perfect setup.
I'm currently using Karmic, but all information covered here is also suitable for Jaunty and Intrepid.
If you found anything useful for this, feel free to comment it.
Let's get it started...
Step 1 - Get & Install Wine
If you already have the *latest* Wine installed, skip to step 2. If not, you should know that the installation method depends on your Ubuntu version.
For both Intrepid and Jaunty, you can install the latest Wine by using the official Wine repository for Ubuntu.
To install Wine (on Intrepid or Jaunty) just do:
Code:
wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine wine-gecko cabextract
For Karmic and Lucid, the latest Wine is available in a PPA, but has a different name. (to keep v1.0.1 "stable")
To install it on Karmic do:
Code:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine1.2 wine1.2-gecko cabextract
Step 2 - Configure Wine
1. Activate "ALSA" and "Jack" as audio controllers
First, open "Configure Wine" in apps -> Wine. On the "Audio" tab, set the audio controller to both "ALSA" and "Jack".
This will make possible the use of ALSA Midi while using WineASIO through Jack.
You should note that you will need to start Jack everytime before starting a Wine session.
2. Direct-Access from ALSA
To enable this "direct-access", do:
Code:
echo 'REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Alsa Driver]
"UseDirectHW"="y"
' > /tmp/wine-sound.reg
regedit /tmp/wine-sound.reg
3. Get & Install mfc42.dll and other dlls
Some dlls are needed by some FL Studio plugins (at least 'Wasp' and 'Wasp XT'). FL Studio shows an error when the dlls are not found, so I recommend installing this too.
You can install it by doing: (needs internet connection)
Code:
cd /tmp
wget http://winezeug.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/winetricks
chmod +x ./winetricks
./winetricks allfonts vcrun2005 vcrun2008 mfc42 gdiplus vb6run riched20
4. Use font smoothing
Usually the "Fruity" fonts used inside FL Studio aren't properly displayed. This can be fixed by activating font smoothing in Wine.
To do it:
Code:
echo 'REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"FontSmoothing"="2"
"FontSmoothingGamma"=dword:00000578
"FontSmoothingOrientation"=dword:00000001
"FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002
' > /tmp/wine-fonts.reg
regedit /tmp/wine-fonts.reg
5. Activate the OGG Vorbis codec
FL Studio compresses it's wav files using a OGG codec (usually installed together with FLS). But, for some reason, Wine doesn't install it properly.
So, to fix it, just do:
Code:
sed -i 's/\[drivers32\]/\[drivers32\]\nMSACM.vorbis=vorbis.acm/' ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/system.ini
Step 3 - Get & Install WineASIO
WineASIO is an ASIO driver for Wine, but outputs all sound to Jack. It's a smart way to combine low-latency ASIO and Jack technologies.
First, download wineasio:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kxstudio/files/DEBs
Then you can open the deb file you've just downloaded and click "Install".
Just one last thing - do:
Code:
regsvr32 wineasio.dll
This will register the dll which will make applications see 'WineASIO' as a ASIO driver.
Step 4 - Setting up Jack
In order to start Jack, you could do it in a terminal... or using a GUI interface. The GUI is called 'Jack Control' and you can install it by doing:
Code:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qjackctl
It will be available in apps -> Multimedia
Click on the "Setup" button. I recommend changing this settings:
1 - Disable 'Realtime' (Will not work with wineasio!)
2 - Enable 'Soft Mode' (better handling of overruns)
3 - Force 16bit (unless you need 32bit for a specific reason)
4 - Set 'Periods/Buffer' to 4
You can leave the rest as it is.
If for some reason you can't hear sound, on the QJackCtl GUI, click the "Connect" button, then:
1 - On the left side, click on the line that refers to Wine/Jack
2 - On the right side, click on 'system' line
3 - Click connect
This will activate the connection and you should hear sound now (the same thing can be done to send input to FL Studio)
Step 5 - Download & Install FL Studio 9
Download URL - http://demo.flstudio.com/
To install it, just double click on the file or right-click on it and choose to open it with Wine.
ASIO4ALL will not work, and I recommend to disable the option to install it when installing FL Studio.
If you use other Linux music applications that support VST (like LMMS), I recommend the option to install the FLS VSTi (but not the DX/DirectX plugin). This VST will allow to use FL Studio as if it was a regular VST plugin.
If you just use FLS for making music, I recommend not to select that option, as it will give 2 warnings every time you recheck the plugin database
Another thing - when installing FLS9 you will got some "access control list" errors. Just click OK and the installation will proceed (this is a minor issue, the installation will NOT be affected)
Step 6 - Final settings
First of all, set the FLS audio driver to WineASIO!
There some FLS settings that may make it run faster under Wine. I recommend to disable the splash screen and any smooth stuff set in the FL Studio settings.
Be sure to UNCHECK the multiple processor check-box. Wine has some problems with multi-threading, making FLS more slow when enabled.
Unless you have a MIDI keyboard, another thing to do is to disable repeated keys (very annoying when using a regular keyboard in FL Studio).
The method for doing this may vary depending on the Ubuntu version, but usually there's a setting somewhere in the keyboard preferences.
If you haven't registered your FLS version yet, you can open the "Registry editor" (Alt+F2 and type 'regedit'), then you can import you FLS Regkey.
The FL Studio company, Image-Line, as modified the regcodes encryption - which allows Wine users to pass the "stack overflow" bug present in FLS8.
But some IL VSTs crash Wine sometimes. I advise you to use internal plugins as much as possible.
Step 7 (Optional) - Midi input/output
The first thing to do is to check if your MIDI Keyboard works. It should be working before starting FL Studio.
If you need Jack-MIDI, use the tool "a2jmidid" to bridge between ALSA and Jack MIDI.
Make sure you selected both ALSA and Jack as audio outputs in Wine Configuration!
You should start/enable your MIDI stuff before starting FLS;
It will then appear in FL Studio MIDI section, really!
Step 8 (Optional) - Using Jack for ALL applications
--- This is optional and thus not required for running FL Studio ---
-- KARMIC --
As you might know, Jack is not included in the main Ubuntu repos (it's universe; community maintained).
For that reason, most of the important stuff does not have Jack support.
BUT, if you're using karmic (and not PowerPC), there's a PPA containing the exact same packages available in Ubuntu, but with Jack support enabled.
If can install all the packages by doing:
Code:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:falk-t-j/jack4karmic
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-module-jack
Download the pulse-jack deb and install it:
http://ppa.launchpad.net/falk-t-j/lu.../p/pulse-jack/
After Jack starts, you can just do:
That gives you the possibility of listening to music or playing games while still running FL Studio.
--- LUCID ---
Just install the pulse-jack deb and run "pulse-jack" after Jack starts.
And... that's all
Thanks for reading my How-to. I hope it was useful
(Comments are welcome)
Adv Reply
- sorry for the sarcasm.
Originally Posted by tanfkap
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