How to install the Waveform Free audio workstation on Linux
Do you need a good digital audio workstation on your Linux PC but don’t want to spend a lot of money? Check out the Tracktion Waveform digital audio workstation. It works very well on Linux, and is free to use for personal use provided you create a user account! Here’s how to get it working.
Ubuntu installation instructions
On Ubuntu, the Waveform audio editor works very well. The reason? Tracktion specifically targets Debian-based Linux operating systems like Ubuntu for their software. There isn’t an official package for any other type of distribution.
Download Waveform
To start the installation process, head over to Tracktion.com, and create a new user account. You need to have a user account to use Waveform, but you’ll also need to create an account to download the Ubuntu release of the software.
Once you’ve created a new account on the Tracktion website, go to the Tracktion “My Downloadable Products” page, and click on the download button for Linux under the “Waveform 11” section. Alternatively, download Waveform to your computer directly through the Linux terminal with the wget command.
To use the wget command, pen up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, enter the command below.
wget https://cdn.tracktion.com/file/tracktiondownload/waveform/11039/waveform_64bit_v11.0.39.deb -O ~/Downloads/waveform_64bit_v11.0.39.deb
Install Waveform
After downloading the latest Waveform to your Ubuntu PC, use the CD command to move the terminal window into the “Downloads” directory.
cd ~/Downloads
Inside of the “Downloads” directory, you can install the Waveform DEB package on your Ubuntu PC with the apt install command below. Keep in mind that this installation may take a couple of seconds to complete if it has to download dependencies required to run Waveform.
sudo apt install ./waveform_64bit_v11.0.39.deb
Now that you’ve installed Waveform on Ubuntu, launch it by looking for “Waveform 11” in your app menu. Then, once the app is open, click on the “Unlock” button that appears to register the product. To register your free version of Waveform, enter your Tracktion account information.
Debian installation instructions
Waveform works on Debian as there is a DEB package release on the website. To start the installation, head over to Tracktion.com and create a new user account. This user account is important, as you will need it to register your free license after the installation is complete.
Download Waveform
After creating an account, go to the “My Downloadable Products” page, find “Waveform 11” and click on the “Download” button underneath the Linux icon. Alternatively, open up a terminal window with Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard, and use the following wget command to grab the package directly.
wget https://cdn.tracktion.com/file/tracktiondownload/waveform/11039/waveform_64bit_v11.0.39.deb -O ~/Downloads/waveform_64bit_v11.0.39.deb
Install Waveform
Once the package is done downloading, run the CD command to move from the home directory (~) to the “Downloads” directory where the Waveform DEB package is.
cd ~/Downloads
Inside of the “Downloads” directory, you’ll be able to install the software via the dpkg command. Keep in mind that when the dpkg command runs, you may see errors. These errors are dependency issues and are easily fixed.
sudo dpkg -i waveform_64bit_v11.0.39.deb
To fix the dependency errors, use the apt-get install -f command or, follow this guide here.
sudo apt-get install -f
When all dependency errors are taken care of, launch Waveform on the Debian desktop. Agree to the user license, and click on the “unlock” button. Log into your Tracktion user account to register the product so that it is “unlocked” for unlimited free use.
Arch Linux installation instructions
The Waveform is available for Arch Linux through the Arch Linux user repository. This method of installation is not official, but it does work just fine. To start the installation process, head over to Tracktion.com, and create a new account on the website. Then, open up a terminal window and use the pacman -S command below to install the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel
After installing the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages, enter the commands below to get the Trizen AUR helper application set up on your Linux PC. Trizen will make it possible to get Waveform working without any tedious manual configuration required.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git cd trizen makepkg -sri
Now that the Trizen AUR helper is installed, you can easily set up the latest Waveform app on your Arch Linux PC with the following trizen -S command.
trizen -S tracktion-waveform
Once the Trizen app is set up on your Arch Linux PC, launch it. Then, accept the EULA that appears on the screen, and click on the “Unlock” button. Enter your Tracktion account information to register the program so you can use it for free.
Fedora/OpenSUSE
Sadly, Waveform is unavailable for both Fedora Linux and OpenSUSE Linux, as Traction did not release an RPM package for the app. That said, if you really want to use it, it is possible to convert the DEB package to an RPM by following this guide on the subject.
Be warned that converting Waveform to RPM from DEB may not work 100% of the time. Try at your own risk!
