LMMS Turns Your Desktop Into A Music Sequencing Monster

The GUI looks a lot like the Line 6 brand of recording software. Very eye pleasing.

The GUI looks a lot like the Line 6 brand of recording software. Very eye pleasing.

Woot, free sequencer!

I have used Reaper in the past. It's a wonderfully full DAW. It's free for evaluation purposes. It's only 50 bucks for non-commercial. But it's an awesome tool and is updated regularly.

www.cockos.com/reaper

Dan Atwood

There's a good linux distro that makes your box do this kind of thing called 64 studio.
[www.64studio.com]

@Dan Atwood: Have you tried LMMS? (I haven't.) Is it substantially better than LMMS?

And are either of them easier to use or better than Apple's Garage Band? I know GB's a Mac product, but I have both Windows and Mac available to me, so am willing to try something new and different for a change, if it works better.

TheStephenRay

Anybody have a suggestion for a good free synth, and/or some kind of keyboard?

DIYguy

Im partial to the audiotool: [www.hobnox.com]

Definitely not as full featured, but it's fun for messing around.

@fredygamer: And there's also the Ubuntu flavoured Ubuntu Studio distro.
[ubuntustudio.org]

schmappel

Sweet program!

Wow, this does bring me back to college and tinkering with FruityLoops. Nice app.

jonny6pak

This might be a good opportunity to plug my music...

[www.facebook.com]

no..? well i gave it a shot..

@DIYguy: lots of free and commercial synth and effect plugins listed at KVRAudio.com.

Synth1 is a classic favorite. Most of the stuff by Krakli is good free stuff.

As for a keyboard, the Korg Nanokey is cheap and very compact. It doesn't have a great feel, but for testing sounds and noodling a bit and entering stuff into a sequencer it does the job.

Crashproof

Can anyone vouch for linux support of midi controllers? A lot of them are usb now, so I would think you would need device-specific drivers for most of the new toys coming out. How do individual companies do? Korg, M-Audio, Novation, ect?

SamburgerHandwich

@Crashproof: I will definitely be checking out some of the free stuff on that site when I get home. Thanks for that info (and thanks DIYguy for posing the question)!

CnEY

Personally, I couldn't figure out LMMS for sh!t. I was used to Adobe Audition(until I was forcefully switched to linux). I learned how to mix songs with Audacity(so tedious), and use Hydrogen for drum beats. I even Tried Rosegarden and Traverso, never work out like I need them to.

@DIYguy: If you want a MIDI keyboard/controller but you want it to be free, you can try BOME's mouse keyboard. You'll need a virtual MIDI driver on your computer. Google! =D

josephers

@SamburgerHandwich: I can't speak for midi controllers specifically because I don't have one, but generally, USB gear has better Linux support than Firewire does. Your best bet is to google your preferred gear with "Linux" or "Alsa" in the search string. Official support from most companies is usually non-existent, but there's a budding community of Linux audio enthusiasts among which some may have the same gear as you and found a way to make it work. Mac or Windows are still your best bets for pro audio though if you want it to "just work", though sometimes you might be surprised.

@TheStephenRay: i don't think that something can be better than itself.

mfusion

Can't wait to check this out. Very excited to see more music-related apps in these pages.

caputo737

Nice app.

For those looking to do more, check out [freemusicsoftware.org]

So many free and good virtual instruments and fx plugins out there.

Drunkard

will check it out...but FLStudio is my fav by far!

mricyfire

Nodal (PC/Mac) - Build midi-generating Nodal networks ([www.csse.monash.edu.au]). One of the few "generative" MIDI apps that lets you produce stuff with a bit of structure. I find most seem to end up being too random/noisey, this one you can actually produce complex beats/rhythms/etc with.

Midi-Yoke (Windows) - [www.midiox.com] - Virtual midi-routing. Want to route Midi Notes from Nodal to Abelton or your favorite audio app/VST? you'll need to use this.

dbGlitch (VST/Windows) - [illformed.org] - Glitch plugin, add delays, time-stretch and other glitch-type effects to audio signals.

Buzz Machines (Windows/free) - [www.buzzmachines.com] - Initially the developer lost the source and things came to a bit of a standstill, but seems like the original developer is back on the project. Pretty neat modular-tracker. Lots of sounds/effects and a solid community around it.

tugger1982

I used FruityLoops awhile back and enjoyed it but got busy with other projects. One of the great parts of that program was the extensive synthesizer support. Anyone know if this project has similar offerings?

Will install this at home, for sure.

olinbg

Now that I've bought my first guitar, I've been scouring for music software, even stuff I wouldn't have much use for now but might in the future.

I never could get used to FL; it just seemed so convoluted. Hopefully this will have a less steep learning curve. AND IT'S FREEEEEEE!

CajunGuy

@Dan Atwood: Reaper is amazing, there's no doubt about it. I've used Pro Tools and Cubase professionally for years, and I've been so impressed with Reaper that I now use it exclusively. The user community is top notch, and the new version 3.0 beta is incredible... it's well worth a look!

Kyle Means

It's also available as a Portable App: [portableapps.com]

For the hundredth time -- 'free download' 'free software.' Anyone who's searched for a freeware program to do some thing they want to do will get bollixed up in that.

This is freeware. Yay. But please, call it 'freeware,' or 'free software,' or 'open source,' but don't term it a 'free download.'

I tried it and liked it also it was free!

Reese Mitchell

@SamburgerHandwich: I had a USB Korg work pretty well for me using Ubuntu. I don't remember a lot of details, though - haven't messed with it in a long time.

Will Hobbs

@SamburgerHandwich: I've got a Korg Nanopad and Linux turned out to be the easiest OS to get it working on (since there was some free software that supported it, and the supposedly free software that comes with the thing is actually just a plug-in for commercial software). Windows, OS X, and Linux all recognised the device with no problem, though - it just appears as a USB MIDI device the moment it was plugged in, no driver necessary (although you need a PC or a Mac to run the profile editing sofware).

Kludge

i tried this a while back and had a hard time with the output. i think jack and alsa didn't want to play nice or something. i'll give it another go.

victorhazzard

a couple questions:

i'm on ubuntu hardy and would like to use 0.4.x without building from source because i'm a stupid lazy bastard. any deb packages out there?

anyone know a simple straight-up no-frills drum machine for linux? a lot of times i just want to make a simple beat to play against and maybe a little gui that makes me feel like i'm making beats the old fashioned way.

victorhazzard

@olinbg: I played around with (much) older revisions of LMMS, and even was on the dev team for a short while. The answer is yes. I'm not sure how close they've gotten to VST support--it's in the to-do list, but last I checked, it wasn't there yet. But you'd be surprised at the built-in generators. If you're used to FL, you'll take to LMMS like a fish to water.. It only takes a few minutes to learn a few keyboard shortcuts and get used to the interface, and then you'll cruise.

masskonfuzion

I've had some success with "Violet Composer"

[buzz-like.sourceforge.net]

Brian J Ackermann

I just downloaded this on Windows, and I don't know how to get the sound to work. I can't hear any sound on my system. I don't know how to configure the settings for SDL on the Audio Settings tab. Does anyone know what I type in the "Device" text box.

SilverDrake11