Linux: Redirect audio streams for multitrack recordings with PipeWire

In the age of affordable USB audio interfaces, the financial as well as the technical inhibitions are getting lower and lower for budding music producers. Linux users can also produce professional multitrack recordings – and only with open source tools.

In order to break up the audio signals and work with low latencies, better recording programs under Linux usually require the interfaces of the sound server JACK. But getting him to cooperate has driven even some experienced Linux users to despair or simply proved to be unwieldy in everyday life. Fortunately, the sometimes tedious configuration of the audio system to the special needs of recording is now a thing of the past. Because the multimedia framework PipeWire replaces competing audio systems and comes with its own JACK implementation. And where you used to have to use a real-time kernel for complex audio productions, today the standard kernel of a common distribution such as Ubuntu is sufficient, as it reacts quickly enough. In addition, many USB devices are compatible with Linux. With an appropriate USB audio interface, you are ready to start multi-track recording within minutes.

In this article we explain what PipeWire is and how to set it up. We will also show you how to route the sound output from any application to the recording software as an audio source. The glossary provides an overview of the terms.