“This PC is basically my life” screams leave well enough alone. I wouldn’t even set up a dual boot on a machine I depended on to make my living. If you do, make sure you’ve got everything backed up before you start. Nothing should go wrong, but that’s a very different statement than nothing will go wrong.

If you want to start using linux I’d recommend you buy a cheap second computer and start there. You can safely experiment as much as you like without risking your professional set up.

I think I’m gonna grab an old external USB drive and live boot from there and test things out

Just keep in mind, in such a case, that your performance will be quite reduced due to limits on I/O. When you have Linux on a real drive - especially a striped RAID, the system is blazing fast. It’s a substantial difference you should keep in mind when evaluating.

I’m going to second the comment to leave well enough alone. Do NOT mess with your machine if its what makes you money.

I know you commented you don’t have funds for a second computer to test with but that really is the best step for you.

This is especially regarding some of your other details. You are not in for a quick and smooth transition (sorry to say).

VSTs are “sort of” supported on Linux. Basically they’re not and there are work arounds that I haven’t done using wine for compatibility.

I run a virtual machine for the windows software I am reliant on. So basically my Photoshop etc I use Affinity in a windows VM and it works fine. Depending if you get intensive with your work you might need a lot of resources or experience lag. But for the most part it should be fine. Look into virt-manager for your VM if you want to go that route.

Besides the VST issue, audio recording will probably give you additiinal problems. I haven’t delved into it because he rabbit hole went too deep for me, but from what I’ve read there tends to be issues with audio in VMs (tremendous lag for one).

But all that being said, there should be a solution for all of your needs. It probably won’t be straight forward though given your use cases. I don’t want to sound negative with my warnings, I just want to make sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot with your work.

There is software for all your uses on linux, but I would start by using those apps on your current setup to get used to the workflow.

Changing from windows to linux can be really tough but it can be made a lot easier if you are already using programs that work on linux before you switch.

You could acquire a pretty cheap PC for Linux it runs on a potato. Try an electrical scrap heap nearby that you can fossick from or a friend with an old, unused system in storage (even a cheap $20 retro PC from your local marketplace?) to acquire an old retro system. You might not even need a new screen depending what connections your existing screens/TV has and if you could use a cheap adapter and cable from the thrift store.

Linux runs on basically any retro PC and laptop excluding some annoying wifi chips that need planning before the install if you don’t have ethernet. Some really old tech may also require specific distributions that still offer support too.

Machines with a 32bit CPU you will want to confirm beforehand if your chosen distribution still offers a supported 32bit install image and retro PC’s with obscure expansion cards that perhaps were never supported. This is likely moving into vintage collectors territory though and you would have to be pretty lucky now to find a machine like that super cheap and working.

I suggest having two separate hard drives rather than dual booting