Waveform pack and Bitrot plugins

Another super cool contribution Vesa V (diiz) has made to the community is a pack of waveforms. Like he himself says it: "They add a bit more interesting variation to the already powerful triple osc!". With this pack you can get new sounds people don't yet connect with Triple Osc so you would be pioneering, in a way. Also remember that you can make your own waveforms and load them into LMMS!
Download link in the original forum post:
https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/lmms/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1083

My friend Greippi has made this unbelievable cool set of four glitch effects. I really enjoy the tapestop, reverser and stutter. Those is effects I can use in almost any song, doesn't need to be a glitch song. The crusher however I don't use a lot. Maybe you do? These effect also work good with Live performances.
Download and instructions on this page:
https://github.com/grejppi/bitrot/wiki/The-Bitrot-plugins

Introducing LMMS search

--->

Remember having browsed through an overwhelming blog archive looking after old posts you remembered seeing, or how messy it was to find all the posts about one topic? Well, now it can all be done in a groundbreaking new way.

Introducing The Search Field (powered by Google). With just a word you can get multiples of tens of posts. You can find the post you wanted in just a few seconds. Simply type in a word in the search field and click, yeah, you guessed it, the "search" button. And brace yourself, it gets better. I have added the LMMS forums, LMMS-devel mailing list, the LMMS wiki (+ github) and all LMMS blogs I could find into this mega-LMMS search engine! You are of course given options to narrow the search.

Slogan: With The Search Field, you get just what you want to find.

Have fun. I mean. Effective searching.

The most useful effects (for me so far)

1. Reverb. When you are trying to do realistic instruments with freeware, its crucial to tweak them. I quickly found out that with reverb everything sounds better. The amount of reverb you need vary greatly from instrument to instrument, it can be overdone and it is a little more difficult to master with reverb. There are already different kinds of reverb plugins in LMMS. My favorite is "2x2plate" but isn't always what one need. "Calf Reverb" is the one I recommend. "TAP Reverberator" is very interesting with its comb filter, but does only fit in rare occasions.

2. Amplifier. For you new users out there. This is an effect which works like the volume. Instead of adjusting each tone volume, then set the instrument volume to 200%, then set the FX-volume to 200%, you can just decide to amplify the signal with 6. There are already amplifiers in LMMS.

3. EQ. Producing the desired tone, that tone you have in your head, isn't easy at all. When you almost have the perfect instrument you definitely won't ruin it by randomly tweaking every knob and see what it does. Sometimes adding a simple equalizer is all you need to make the tone crisper, softer, hollower, shallower or whatever you like. I like to use "C* Eq2x2" a stereo 10 band equalizer. When you are going to master "Spectrum Analyzer" also comes in handy.

4. Peak Controller. When you want more punch in your beat or have reached the stadium of mixing, the "peak controller" effect is what you need. It automatically lowers a sound because of the levels of another. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wVQOVCzVrc

5. Stereophonic Matrix. The big secret. Panning is crucial to make your song alive and hear like a high quality song. For placing instruments in the 360 degree sound field around your head I often use the "stereophonic matrix". I also use it to spread sound out, make it wider.

6. Wideners. "StereoEnhancer effect" is perhaps the simplest. I consider all the different chorus effects as wideners too. Phasers pan sounds forth and back like a lfo in addition to giving the sound some kind of depth. "Calf Phaser" is the one I use the most. "Tap Stereo Echo" is the best widener after my opinion. When you activate Cross Mode and/or Haas Effect and turn the delay enough down it feels both in right and left ear, everywhere!

Robert M. Zimmer (LMMS Artist)

Listen to Robert M. Zimmer

Silently sneaking in on me from USA and suddenly hitting me in the head with this amazing glitchy electrosong. That's perhaps the best glitching I have heard in LMMS! His songs feels somewhat similar to the lmms artist greippi, probably because there are so much different sounds in Zimmers songs which I personally aren't used to hear LMMS produce. That's also why I find his songs enjoyable.

In addition to the always surprising sounds, instruments and beats, the buildup vary a lot. There are a lot of repetition though, so it continues to be highly interesting. He often build his songs with fascinating drums and really (really, no kidding) catchy melodies (really catchy after my opinion...) on top of a simple but also captivating baseline. You must like raw and hard synths, and mechanical and repetitive melodies to fully enjoy Zimmers electronic music. The tunes might sometimes border the line between electro and hardstyle after my opinion. You could also call it groundbreaking, I guess. What is a hard fact is that you now got 21 more songs to hear!

Robert M. Zimmer on Soundcloud

LMMS workarounds

Comment with your workaround and I will update the post!

• Stopping reverb in the middle of a song sounds like a sudden cut/stop. Fix: Automate the W/D knob to 0 over time.

• Automating an instrument track on/off doesn't save for the next time. The connection becomes broken. Fix: Automate an FX-channel on/off instead or the instrument volume. If it is crucial to you, remember that you don't have to redraw the automation curves, just CTRL + drag the controls to the automation.

• VST effects stop working properly. Fix: Save and quit LMMS. In Windows go to the task manager Ctrl + Shift + Esc. End all the processes called "RemoteVstPlugin.exe". Open LMMS and then your project again.

• Pops and/or clicks in the beginning of a note. Set the attack value higher. 0.1 for example. For the VSTs pops and clicks, Tres wrote a script to automate the "high priority" setting, which could help considerably. http://tresdev.blogspot.com/2013/03/fixed-vst-popsclicks-in-lmms-win7-x64.html

• Too little CPU crashes LMMS. Fix: 
1. Export instrument tracks as wav and put them in again with the sample track.
2. Automate the VST effects off when not in use.
3. Buy more ram and put it in your computer.

• LB302 plays a long tone when detuning. Fix: Add a very short tone just after the detuning, you won't hear it.

• The GLAME highpass filter glitches when the automation reach 0. Fix: Turn it off in that exact moment by automation.

• When exporting some of the automations turn all yellow. Fix: Save project and open it again.

Entropy v. 1.0 (Not my theme)

UPDATE: New version available: http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=show&file=4605

I want to give a shout out to the theme Entropy v. 1.0 by Vesa V (diiz). Go to the download site by clicking on the image.

Image of Entropy by Vesa V (diiz)

I think it is the best theme for LMMS so far. It is really well made. All the icons seems to be made from scratch and it all fits very well together. It is clear that a lot of work has gone into making this theme. Although it is the best theme, it can be easily improved on some points. I admit that this is the first theme I will give constructive criticism to, but only because it is the first theme I actually think can turn out better than the default one.
- The text size is too small, even smaller than the default theme. It doesn't save so much space for small screens, and for large screens it is nearly impossible to read.
- The blue numbers are too dark (bpm-number)
- The Beat&Bassline editor pattern field is too dark. There is really hard to differ the light grey patterns from the dark grey.
- Hard to understand when the the loop-point-button and the auto-scrolling button is on.
- The blue level lights in the FX-mixer have too narrow space. It feels like less width than the default theme. Watching the levels is crucial, and the FX-mixer window cannot get any larger, so we need to have nice and broad level lights.
- The icons could be left unchanged, just thought I would mention that i don't think the save button look as a floppy disk at all. That is a world standard. The icon now is after my opinion too complex.

artlu (LMMS artist)

Listen to artlu

OH MY! Artemis-Daren Clark Austin is a genius. Chiptune, dubstep, house, electro. He is a gamer and label his songs "game" 90% of the time, but who cares what genre it is as long as it sounds amazing! I really like that it seems to be a hidden melancholy in all of his songs, it is beautiful. There is nothing hard style with this. It is plain awesomeness. I guess it sometimes could be too calm and beautiful for some people, but the good drumbeats complete the tunes in a such way that it just has to be interesting for most people.

The atmosphere in his songs seems to describe a barren, hostile, deserted environment in outer space. A lot of nice echo, long tones from background pads, a very cool arpeggio sound sometimes sliding (I think he use Nexus VSTi for this now), sharp and rough synths (often glitching), other mechanical sounds and then he tops it with the drumbeat which never fails. Although it seems like very calm music, it is made in a very creative way and actually pretty exciting. Mastering and mixing could sometimes be better, at the same time he is so much better than me... AMAZING

artlu on Soundcloud

O.C. Sha (LMMS Artist)

Listen to O.C. Sha

French Polynesia has at least one good LMMS producer: O.C. Sha. He is relatively new in the game of music making, still he has risen to be one of my favorite LMMS composers in the single month it took him to start with LMMS and produce 8 tracks. I have wanted to write about this artist for a long time, but I also wanted to give him time to release another song. Now he has, and he is better than ever.

He basically makes house, electro and moombhaton which he also describes his music as. He has his own style, and you will probably learn to recognize it. Just gotta love his characteristic wubs, they really fit the rhythm. When he tops it with short attack on his sounds it actually makes me want to dance! The drumbeat, which I guess is moombahton style, amplifies the party mood. Fat synths and LB302 are common sounds you will hear. I think he does a really good job when it comes to mastering and mixing on his latest tracks. If he continues to improve so fast, he could perhaps become the most popular LMMS user in the world already the next year...

O.C. Sha on Soundcloud

Mastering

Until this point, I have produced my songs in LMMS to the very last bit, also done the mastering in LMMS. When I tried to master with Audacity and its built in compressor and leveler I couldn't reach the level my LMMS-mastering was at without messing up.

Today though, with my latest song soon to come out, I matched the sound level from LMMS in Audacity. So I could now choose which one I would want to use. 

The top waveform is mastered with Audacity, and the bottom is pretty unmastered LMMS, I would definitely worked more with it or lowered it a bit you see. So basically this picture gives me a very good reason to master with Audacity, a lot less peaking! 

One could probably achieve less peaking and the same level in LMMS if one added limiters and/or compressors on the master in addition to a lot of tweaking. However exporting a sound with low levels to Audacity and then amplifying, leveling and compressing seems to give me better control over the peaking. One can immediately see when it is going to peak. UPDATE: Leveling is only limiter and compressor combined, so using only the compressor is a better alternative.

With that said, although the bottom waveform seems like distortion all the way, I cannot hear so much distortion because of peaking in the LMMS version. So it isn't that bad, and again, I had only worked a small amount on the mastering in LMMS.

D3ATH STR0K3 (LMMS Artist)

Listen to D3ATH STR0K3

Like Smallvirgin D3ATH STR0K3 uses LMMS mostly as sequencer 1. He also makes use of Audacity to edit the sounds. Still it is LMMS, and the tunes are awesome. With over 550 followers on Soundcloud and over 3000 views on the most popular video on YouTube D3ATH STR0K3 is already well known, but maybe not so famous in the LMMS community. His real name is Malik Walker and he is from the US.

The songs keeps a really high quality after my opinion; loud kicks, bright cymbals and nice high, mid and low frequencies. He produces within the genres pop, RnB and hip hop. In addition to these I would say that some of his songs are close to being ambient, the only thing which differ is the drumbeat.

The songs is supposed to sound sampled; a little glitchy and very repetitive. My personal opinion is that this is awesome, you are allowed to disagree. Not every song of his is like that though, so I bet you can find something you like. A benefit with sampling is that you then easy can include singing in your song. Songs with vocals are definitely more interesting for most people.

D3ATH STR0K3 on Soundlcoud
D3ATH STR0K3 on YouTube

LMMS or not, that is the question

Have you ever thought about that all sounds, effects and transitions in a song made in LMMS, could come from anywhere? Even if the author clearly states that it is made in LMMS, it could be that no sound actually was produced by LMMS! What does it mean when the artist say that the song was made in, by or with LMMS? This article is discussing where we could set some limits.

Made in LMMS is a common description on Soundcloud and YouTube... if you follow a lot of people who use LMMS. What exactly does the term: "made in LMMS" mean? That greatly vary from artist to artist because there is not a clear definition of that term, and thus we can't always know the exact meaning.

As I see it, we can divide into three main groups.

1. Songs which are produced only by using native LMMS. The sounds in these songs are only produced with the plugins, instruments and samples inside LMMS and can be shared on the lsp without a problem. This does not include the use of the plugins Sf2 Player, PatMan or VeSTige because you will have to download other files to produce sound with them. Downloading presets (xiz, xpf) and use them in your song also qualifies as native LMMS because you could have created them yourself.
1. Songs which sometimes are called native LMMS. What could be debatable is if you are allowed to master with downloaded VST(fx) or another program. All of the sounds you hear is still produced by LMMS, but the mastering plugins can be downloaded or it could be done by another program. If it cannot be shared on the sharing platform, I would not call it native LMMS. So if you use downloaded VST's the song fits into the next category.
2. Songs which are produced in LMMS. The sounds and effects in these songs can also be produced by downloaded VSTi's, soundfonts, pat files and samples. You can also master with downloaded VST(fx)'s.
1. If we look at the adposition (preposition) used in this term; "in", it would actually mean that it still is wrong to master in another program if you want your song to use this term as description. However a lot of people use this term anyway. Good arguments can be: It is the music which is important and that is already produced by LMMS, the program only makes the music better/louder. Or: What should I call it then? And that is a good argument/question, for my next group does not necessarily fit these songs.
3. Songs which are produced with LMMS only as sequencer. This means all the sounds come from other sources. It is quite rare to use LMMS without using BitInvader, Kicker, LB302, Mallets, Organic, FreeBoy, SID, TripleOscillator, Vibed or ZynAddSubFX, especially when you think of LMMS as a music making software for computers, but of course it happens! A band could easily use LMMS only as editing software and sequencer if it chose to use LMMS. It would be a bad idea, cause Ardour is so much more fitted for purposes like that, but LMMS together with Audacity could do it. Horror scenario: A guy on FL-studio could make a song, then export the drums, lead, bass and effects and organize it all back together in LMMS just to use the words "made in LMMS". Of course that would be wrong use of the terms, but I don't think he would care. And in the end, all DAW's are music sequencers.

To be safe stick with: "made with LMMS", "I use LMMS", "LMMS".

Paul-Kane (LMMS artist)

Listen to Paul-Kane

From Canada this man have rolled out some of the best songs I have ever heard LMMS produce. He must be the happy-tune-king! In many different (happy) genres such as nu disco, house and electronic he succeeds and make fantastic songs. This man truly understands that it is on a computer he makes his music, and therefore it should sound like electronic. Nothing wrong with that, it is definitely the opposite. It is beautiful like hell.

Reverb, off-beat, raw bass, fade-in intros, different genres. What makes his songs so awesome? Well... everything! There is not one song by Paul-Kane i don't like... The scales, chords, sounds all make me think that he is a professional composer in disguise. One thing he actually is; a member of the LMMS artist-group Avelocity, so check 'em both out.

Paul-Kane on Soundcloud

LMMS fraud

UPDATE: Before reading this post be aware that I was a little wrong. LMMS have a GNU (General Public licence). http://lmms.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Licensing. As you can see from the link the GNU GPL allows commercial distribution by anyone. "For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights." - excerpt from GNU GPL. Everyone can sell LMMS or modified versions of it, as long as they at the same time inform about the original licence and that the source code, original I guess, is freely available.

The reason I still believe this guy is selling LMMS illegal is because he doesn't fulfill all the criteria. He does not provide information on where to get the source code. The seller states at the bottom: "Any reproduction, duplication or resale of this item is strictly prohibited", but Wikipedia says about the licence "When someone distributes a GPL'd work plus his/her own modifications, the requirements for distributing the whole work cannot be any greater than the requirements that are in the GPL". He is not allowed to change the licence. There is also many obvious proofs of him not wanting anyone to recognize the software, which aren't against any law, but is suspicious after my opinion.

ORIGINAL POST:
"Someone is selling LMMS on ebay" I read on the forums. Not another one, I thought and opened the post in a new tab. The post, written by digitalundernet, included two images of the old LMMS 0.4.10, and digitalundernet wrote: 

"I found this last night while looking for a digital recorder. It angers me to see people selling open source software in such a way. Look at this screenshot from the LMMS SF page and the one they use."

The pictures was actual identical, except for that the last one had a watermark "SF Software Solutions" on it. It angers me that they sell LMMS too, I thought while scrolling down the post, and then found the link to the eBay site where I could buy: "PROFESSIONAL MULTIMEDIA STUDIO. MULTI CHANNEL SEQUENCER, LOOPS, EFFECTS, MIDI". Owallgreen was the only one who had made a reply at that time and he explained that it was truly awful and that the subject actually had been discussed on the forums before.

On the eBay site my frustration grew. It was kind of cheap, but 17 watchers! And 27 sold!! That bastard is going to pay for this. I looked around on the site to see if I could ban him or rate him down (I have never actually used eBay), but, like the last time I visited eBay because of someone selling LMMS, I did not find anything useful to ruin this guys reputation. No rating buttons, no comment field and no ban button. To the right I however found a text box where I could see that the seller was top-rated and 98.8% of the feedback was positive:

"I am unhappy with my item. What should I do?
If you are unhappy at all with any of our products please avoid leaving negative feedback and ratings and instead contact us through eBay messages..."

I also found a link to the SF Software Solutions Store. That LMMS was not the only open source project they packed up and sold, like digitalundernet also had written, got confirmed when I scrolled down and saw "3D ANIMATION & MODELING SOFTWARE CREATE MOVIES GAMES REAL-TIME SCENE RENDERING". It was Blender. On the box it actually read Blender 3D. I felt so bad. "Pro Drum Machine Beat Beats Music Generation Software. Create Awesome Drum Loops" was the disgusting name of Hydrogen.

I was sick and tired. I went back to the LMMS eBay page. There I scummed through some text until I saw a video with a black theme. Hmm. Not a theme I had seen on the lsp, and it could not be one of them either because the FX-mixer was black, which was only possible through changing the code. I had, though, seen this theme somewhere before with its blue FX-lights, probably on YouTube. So how the hell had this video ended up here? Had they added their logo on top of an illegal downloaded YouTube video? In that case I was so going to ban their ass out of there again.

As it turned out, two videos found themselves on the LMMS eBay page.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FaYTurte81c#at=22
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-0dNR2iXk3c#at=171

The one with wobbles was kind of famous actually. Originally: "lmms-dubstep-wobble-demo" by SuperLinuxAudioGuru. And don't you think SuperLinuxAudioGuru had made the dark theme too? Poor guy had no clue that someone used his material to sell illegal copies of LMMS.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kkvr2lCSa4
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QtMHodSQvg

Mikobuntu is SuperLinuxAudioGuru. Should I tell him that someone uses his videos so he can ban those videos? Probably... but NO. It is up to you! You people who read my blog! Tell mikobuntu or ban the videos yourself! Justice will be made!


If there is one thing you should learn from this, it is that you should investigate the program before buying it. If you cannot find anything on the name, that should be strange in itself... Try searching for synonyms and similar software, you might find exactly what you weren't supposed to find. Also search for plugins in the software (TripleOscillator, ZynAddSubFX) and words you find in the pictures. They usually don't take the time to change the name of parts of the program, and thus pictures will show the correct names.

Top LMMS songs all times!

Welcome to an unofficial list of the top songs in LMMS universe.

Update: Because I suspected spamming I have corrected the voting number on Dubstep age by Locomatt. Those 8 of you who voted on on this song in the time period from 04/08/2013 17:19:37 to 05/08/2013 12:33:30 may identify yourself in comments below.

Do you think another song should top the list? Then you can do something about that. Vote! If you have several favorites choose everyone. Do you know about a hidden LMMS diamond? Do you have another favorite LMMS song?
Two rules:

1. You cannot add a song you have made yourself. 
2. The song has to be made or remixed in LMMS. 

Suggest songs (title and artist) in the text field of the poll or add a comment to this post. When I update the list with your suggestion I will give that song the 1 corresponding vote.

Vote!

The list updates approximately every minute.

D&D (LMMS artist)

D&D produces music in the genres electronic, Drum and Bass, dubstep, trance and probably everything in between. Synthezisers often show up to create a raw or mechanical feeling. His DnB tracks are good! Vocals combined with chords and melodies in his songs could be mistaken as songs by a famous DnB artist. The fast tempo feeling with arpeggios creates excitement and drives his tracks forward. No calm House music this time, oh no! Fat synthesizers and trash guitars are common sounds in D&D´s songs.

Except from the track "Skytracker", "Contrast" was the last LMMS tune from him before moving to FL, I think.. Check with the lsp (first link below) if you are unsure about the production software used.
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=browse&user=dawid123
https://soundcloud.com/dawid123d
https://www.youtube.com/user/dawid12301d

The hidden LMMS world 2

Recently I have found so many good LMMS artists, that I could have written for a whole year about them in single posts. However within that time just as many new good artists would probably showed up. And thus I bring you a new list right now! Check out the first list.

Filterswept is one of the gods. He does not use LMMS anymore though, half god it is. Apart from "Redemption" everything released before and including "Helium" on the soundcloud site is gold for us LMMS fans. To be 100% sure it is LMMS, listen to his tracks on the lsp (LMMS sharing platform).
https://soundcloud.com/filterswept
http://www.youtube.com/user/Filterswept
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=browse&user=Zakarra

KaplooeyRaRa. Ahh, no other songs bring tears to my eyes. Beautiful, outstanding, passionate. Synths were there from the beginning, and the harmony is overwhelming. Lately he released house too, songs with a little faster tempo.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyvnMtCfDT93UPYbgBvBPB9y98AlRHB93

MaDDog started out with trance and techno it seems. For the moment releasing orchestral and classical music. Calm and chilling, sometimes happy and funny. I found one amazingly scary and thrilling electronic song called "Evil". And hey, she is Finnish! In other words: quality.
https://soundcloud.com/maddog-15

Jah Sales created a few songs, and then took a vacation he never came back from. Anyway his music is very calm with piano, pads and violins. Very emotional. It could easily help you to sleep. It is a shame that he does not produce anymore. Also Jah Sales is the man behind the most realistic Firefly sound in LMMS up until this date. The lead sound in the song Fireflies by Owl City. Three very good LMMS artists: Red 7, Qwertygiy and raptor980 have made covers of this song, but none of them was even close compared to Jah Sales´ synth (Qwertygiy did not try reproduce the sound). So creds to Jah Sales for that. I reckon these artist haven´t even watched the video even though it was released before anyone of them tried. A sad example of how far apart and closed the LMMS world once were.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jahdgreat

Mangofrango 101 seems to be dead too, but dead people apparently make awesome music. It is a fine mix between electronic, ambient and lounge. Tons of reverb with up-beat tempo. Exiting and calm at the same time. Guess there have to be a lot of contradictions when you are dead and alive at the same time. After my opinion this is among the best music in LMMS.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Mangofrango101

Notice that Farbro does not only use LMMS, but only freeware at least. On this YouTube channel it is only his LMMS songs and of course on the lsp. Very interesting songs and sounds, ambient and chill in addition to some real groovy house and techno tracks. He definitely qualifies as one of the best.
https://soundcloud.com/farbro
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=browse&user=affe
http://www.youtube.com/user/Urghel

Jernemies' Mac died, or maybe I misunderstood that title... However I will keep the sentence. His music career came to a stop on Soundcloud with that dead Mac, however on Newgrounds and on the lsp many fresh and brilliant songs can be found. I like most of his compositions, they always take surprising paths! He rarely loop throughout the whole song which keeps my interest.
https://soundcloud.com/jernemies
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/?action=browse&user=Jernemies
http://jernemies.newgrounds.com/

TRoniX is good. People called him pro after his second song. He makes party style trance, electro and house. Many of the songs are also available on the lsp, then you get to see the magic, not only hear it.
https://soundcloud.com/tronix-4
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=browse&user=TRoniX

Usereg has some funky chords. House can be funky, at least french house. House is electronic, right? He now uses Ableton, "A moment before you fall asleep" was the last LMMS track from him :-( He was very good! UPDATE: He uses LMMS again.
https://soundcloud.com/usereg


That´s it for this time. Don´t you worry, I still managed to save many good artists for later! You have a lot to look forward to.

Night theme

Download from the lsp: http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=show&file=3976
Download ZIP



Under the name Mix the theme was developed. As the name slightly suggests, this would be a theme made up of other themes. I wanted to take the best out of each theme and combine it to a super-theme. And by request I also decided to make a theme for the night. Thank you shashikant bohat, which has created a numerous of themes, for finding ways to customize a little bit more. Without you this would not have been possible. *tears

Pictures:

I recommend using this handy little program for making theme installing super easy! The hatch is that it only lists the last ten themes on the lsp. https://github.com/kmklr72/LMMS-Theme-Installer/downloads
Press this text for a guide on how to start the program

Exprimamus (LMMS Artist)

Listen to Exprimamus

What is the core of exiting music? What kind of music makes you body shake and produce adrenalin? Epic orchestral / cinematic music! We are talking about music good films depends on... to be good. And Exprimamus use LMMS to produce music like this! Actually he uses a lot of free soundfonts and VSTi´s too for the moment, unlike Radiarc. Exprimamus has officially passed Radiarc in the genres: epic orchestral and cinematic music!

The sound quality might be a tiny bit worse than Radiarc´s sounds sometimes, nevertheless very high on the scale. Exprimamus keeps an overall high standard on all of his songs. The violins are clear and bright, the cellos passionate and the drums so epic. From what he has produced so far he seems to be the new Hans Zimmer. The soundtracks is thrilling and exiting, and the scales he makes use of really amplify the feelings and the  mood.

Oh damn, LISTEN! Who said that LMMS worked best for techno? It might have been me.... I take it back! Orchestral music seems to be achievable in such a high degree.

Exprimamus on soundcloud

UPDATE: Exprimamus now uses FL-studio.
In total he published 34 songs on SC made in LMMS and with only free downloadable plugins.
"Goodbye (lmms)" was the last one.

LMMS video tutorials

UPDATE:
The LMMS wiki now has a larger and better organized link heaven for you! http://lmms.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Video_tutorials

OLD POST:
What is crucial for, I guess 90% of the LMMS users, is the video tutorials. We got a manual; check, a wiki; check, and a forum; check. The question is: Who the hell cares? As previously written 90 % of the community are probably not going through any of these resources, if they even know these exist. Therefore I present to you: Good video tutorials about LMMS!

If you are a beginner you do a search on youtube and watch one or two videos about the basics. Normally the title is: "Learn how to create your own music for free"... All of these are OK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txzJEoj5wC0 LMMS setup in Windows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzT4X8vweaE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFomRRDkv84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJm9onyg5lM

A broad audience agrees on that Lazerblade has the best videos. He covers a wide field and is thorough. On this date he has made two "seasons" of videos. You have to have a basic understanding of LMMS and music theory to keep up with his videos. He don´t call it Advanced LMMS for nothing. Start with season 1!
http://www.youtube.com/user/lzrbld

Metalx1000 has made videos too. Beginner friendly I would say. The easiest way to find his videos is visiting his homepage and use the search field there.
http://www.youtube.com/user/metalx1000
http://www.filmsbykris.com

Bryce Colson now uses FL Studio but his tutorials remains and they are good. He got 6 videos (drum related) and more on his website. On his website he covers some of the same topics some others. His videos do not cover very much basic LMMS (a little bit of course), but instead focuses on creating good music.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4A2DD59735BB128F
http://brycecoulson.com/linux-multimedia-studio-tutorials-lmms/

And then there are the rest of them. There are quite a few others who have made tutorials, but not quite as basic as the ones above. A search on YouTube is faster than checking everyone of them, but these might show you some interesting tips and tricks.
http://www.youtube.com/user/bearsoundz
http://www.youtube.com/user/pauljs75
http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperLinuxAudioGuru
http://www.youtube.com/user/LMMSdude
http://www.youtube.com/user/lmmsuser

Add links to other (good) tutorials in comments below!

The mysterious Smallvirgin case

It was a cold and dark winter evening. As usual I sat by my computer and dug even deeper into the LMMS world. It was then, I saw it, on Soundcloud. The text read "Smallvirgin2". I clicked it and the browser opened the profile page full of LMMS material. At the point it was the best music made with LMMS I had ever heard. Then I noticed that Smallvirgin2 was followed by a certain Smallvirgin3... (War shout) AAAAAHH! It was a matter of seconds before I had subscribed to both of them. I calmed down, and as it turned out, I was right in subscribing. Smallvirgin3 had even better sounds than number 2. Smallvirgin3 was not followed by any Smallvirgin4, and that was fair enough, cause I spent weeks listening to all the songs.

- https://soundcloud.com/smallvirgin2

Norwegian Winter

- https://soundcloud.com/smallvirgin3

A logical thought struck like lightning another night: Where is the original? I threw myself into the chair, and at the third attempt I did not fall off. I scraped some ice from my computer - Norwegian winter - and fired it up.

I was right. Again! And I swear I listened to the sounds on this page too! They were not bad at all. "You can hear that this was an early stage", I thought that time. However I am personally far worse today... Some days later I eventually thought: "Something stinks". The smallvirgins were from France, and they all quitted making music around the same time. I began to think that they all were the same person, and just enjoyed playing with our heads...

You might think I am crazy, mohaha, but I´m going to prove otherwise! From the soundcloud profiles we get these few facts: Smallvirgin is occupied in Paris (or near Paris... I would have chosen a big city near me too...). Smallvirgin2 lives in the commune Ivry-sur-Seine just southeast of Paris. Smallvirgin3 has chosen a big area the region Île-de-France, this region includes Paris and thus Ivry-sur-Seine. Strange, eh?

Previously I wrote: "I swear I listened to the sounds on this page" when writing about Smallvirgin´s soundcloud profile. That is because a hot summer day the page suddenly was empty. Now, I am pretty sure I listened to this artist´s sounds. How could an artist with no sounds get 48 followers? EXPLAIN THAT DOUBTERS.

- https://soundcloud.com/smallvirgin

That´s when I had enough. I let some people know that I had decided to investigate the case, just in case the smallvirgin-killer decided to do something drastic, and started the investigation. I had done some research before and basically continued from there. After 3 seconds I was finished. A quick search on youtube had brought me to what appeared to be the smallvirgins youtube channel. DUN-DUN-DUUUN! I had not tried that before

I discretely sent a message, and 14 hours, 13 minutes and 43 seconds later (brace for impact) I got da Bomb. And by that I of course mean a message in return. As it turned out, I was right. Again! For the third time :-D Marvelous. Smallvirgin said that, yes, those were his previous accounts. He moved on to youtube when the third soundcloud-account reached the limit of a free account. So he´s alive! I´m alive too. End of story.

And now a tiny review of Smalvirgin, who I assume called himself Thomas for a reason. The newest songs are amazing, however most of them are remixes or Smallvirgin sample beats as he call them. Nevertheless they are beautiful and he has proved he can make his own songs too. Look for the [Smallvirgin Intrumentals] -text for original compositions (or anything which excludes remix and sample). He has made songs in many different genres, but the smallvirgin sound is always there, just like with the David Nimmersatt sound. So ambient is a description which mostly fits.

We are talking a couple of releases or more every month, so hurry up subscribing!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Smallvirgintube

David Nimmersatt (LMMS Artist)

Listen to David Nimmersatt

David Nimmersatt is his name and he sure loves his reverb! Artists might not dare to add heavily with reverb  on their music because it could be too much, and people are definitely going to complain, but this brave fellow does not fear it, and he has nothing to fear. It seems like he easily keeps within scale even when there are some tricky portamento going on.

Sometimes strange music, but never out of tune and it is extremely interesting. Maybe that is the German way? His sounds is for me the sounds of calm LMMS. It is THE calm sound! Aaaahh so chilling. Here we got an artist who is not even trying to fail in dubstep, hardstyle, techno or trance with LMMS. Why would he when he certainly knows what he is doing and it sounds good? Ok, he actually has released a hardstyle track - according to himself - but I am sorry, even that turned out beautiful. Piano, synth-strings and background-pads are common sounds in his compositions. Drums keeps the tempo.

What kind of genres can we push on him? Ambient and house maybe. Lately his tracks have gotten a more house feeling and better mastering. That is an example of improvement, and we all like improvement! David is constantly producing and he often gives away the project files on the lsp. So be sure to check him out there too and maybe learn something!

http://davidnimmersatt.blogspot.de/

Spade (LMMS Artist)

Listen to Spade!

The young and promising Adrian Cardwell, known as Spade, is already quite known I would say. 75 followers on Soundcloud is more than most amateurs can brag about. With his own official site already up together with a own Facebook site, he seems successful so far. And the music is of the highest quality I must say, and of course it is the music we care about.

On his soundcloud site he has said that he does not keep within one genre, but tries them all. I would say he - at least on the current date - is mostly mixing and making electronic music. Also dubstep and house is two fitting genres. He uses a lot of catchy rhythms and melodies, which I guess is what describes good music... Sounds and instruments which often are heard in the songs from this genious are: synths, piano and house-drums.This is not noisy music. It is sometimes calming even with drums, and Spade definitely has managed to keep the tunes beautiful and controlled. Dubstep could be somewhat messy, but I think Spade has a strict order in what old people would call chaos with bad telephone sounds (dubstep).

Many of his tracks is so good that it is hard to understand how this could be made with LMMS, but he states that it is just pure LMMS. He is just as good at mixing as Macrowave, or better, and Macrowave uses Ardour! If someone is going to get famous making music with LMMS, this guy right here is very close, at least with his music. Now go listen to his tunes before he moves on to Ableton or Logic .

http://spadeofficial.com

LMMS 0.4.14

The new version of LMMS comes with a bunch of new features and improvements. About time, some of us might say, it has been over a year since the latest release. Now the final version is here! I haven´t really got around to make use of all the features yet, but I´ll throw my opinion at you anyway.

A feature I personally like is the auto-naming of soundfonts and VSTi´s. It comes in very handy if you have a file and you don´t remember which soundfont or VSTi you used. Of course it also means you don't have to name all your different tracks strange names... At least my tracks often got some weird names. A strange thing I found was that if I opened old tracks made in 0.4.13 the names I had given them was overwritten by LMMS. Not a big deal, I ain't working on them no more, however if I were it would definitely be a problem. So I suggest finishing all songs in 0.4.13 before going to 0.4.14.

I am not the best guy in the world when it comes to mastering, perhaps less successful in mastering is more fitting.I have never tried to master a song in another program (Audacity, Ardour), which probably is the best thing to do, and so I have yet to actually need the feature "Export Tracks". I have tried it once, it worked, and so I guess it will be well accepted by many of you, and me in the feature.

The auto-save feature could be nice, but I have also experienced that LMMS crashes when saving in the middle of a play, and thus I have learned to save regularly and not in the middle of a play.

Just to get this article out before 0.4.15 arrives I quickly finishes now. I got the Hydrogen import to work, and I have used Hydrogen before. I somehow find that it is easier to produce good drum patterns in Hydrogen, and so with an easy import to LMMS this is getting really interesting.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/lmms/files/lmms/0.4.14/

Radiarc (LMMS Artist)

Listen to Radiarc

Radiarc is a LMMS artist with amazing music! Guess I like his songs because they are what one in the past would call classical, but nowadays we just tend to call them epic... He himself describe it as cinematic and orchestral, and if you have ever watched a thrilling movie, you know what kind of music Radiarc are capable of making.

Piano, strings (violin, cello) and epic drums are three sounds you will find in most of Radiarc´s music. The style is very often a calm combination of these and other sounds. Even though the music in most cases is beautiful and chilling, look up for the exiting changing in style which could happen in the middle of a calming phrase! WOW, it is both exiting and beautiful at once. Also electro can be found in his archive. If you ask me, it is too good for just being experimental.

He has made a lot of songs, so you will have a lot of amazing material to listen to. And the masterpieces continues to pop up! With a tendency of releasing one song every week, you should start listening right away...

Radiarc on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/user/PCHU13

The hidden LMMS world

Now I will give you music tips and inform you of LMMS artists which make great music!

I must say, LMMS is not widely known, and it was not easy to discover either when I looked around for a great program to produce music with. Then when you find the homepage, forum and wiki, you have a good start. However my searches on youtube (or soundcloud) after good examples of LMMS music rarely gets me anywhere.

Because I couldn´t find much good LMMS artists and music easily when I began with LMMS, I will give some links
here:

Janne Sinisalo Skiessi is after my opinion one of the best. Pleas notice that every Finnish guy is an expert at music. He has done a lot of small pieces which are uploaded to the lsp, and I think nearly all of it is gold.
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=browse&user=Skiessi
Current name on soundcloud is syntask.
http://soundcloud.com/5in3

http://soundcloud.com/xreddor
Xreddor is the old name Stakeout Punch used, so basically his old music. After my opinion they "both" have a lot of good music on their channels.
http://soundcloud.com/evanhroberts
https://soundcloud.com/stakeoutpunch

The different artists I have found usually have one kind of style (techno or trance), but shovonrahman showed me a completely different style. House music. And it was not that boring music which lasts forever and is made with FL-Studio, not at all. This was truly beautiful.
http://soundcloud.com/shovonrahman
http://www.youtube.com/user/shovonRahman

Red Ambassador has some extraordinary songs and ways of using LMMS. Just gotta love his special ways of creating a calm and still fast song with up-beat.
https://soundcloud.com/red_ambassador

Second Flight has really grown the last year. The latest songs struck me in my heart, so I had to heart back.
http://soundcloud.com/qbgeekjtw

Raptor980 Music on soundcloud have some nice beats and interesting sounds it is worth checking out. Also good covers.
http://soundcloud.com/thekindredcollection/

Macrowave is a fairly good producer (understatement) of decent music (understatement). He continues to improve his skills and are now also doing live dj-ing. He must be the king of mastering and electronic in the LMMS world.
http://soundcloud.com/macrowave

Squatro is another finnish magician (Aatro Pakarinen). Sometimes calming sometimes catchy music, and aren´t that exactly what we all love? Maybe my favorite LMMS artist. Reminds me of that simple is THE BEST.
https://soundcloud.com/squatro

Dawid Dziedziak from Poland still make some decent music with LMMS, but beware of the FL songs he also produces :)
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=browse&user=dawid123
http://soundcloud.com/dawid123d

Avelocity is a project between a few LMMS artists which can only get better and better. So be sure to keep an ear on them.
https://soundcloud.com/avelocity




New posts with yet unknown fantastic LMMS artists can be found on this blog! There gets more and more LMMS artist and we all grows better and better, so whenever I have time I have a lot o artists to show you.
PS: Also notice that some of the artists might fall into the dark side (FL-studio), but I will probably not remove their names if that happens :).

Rubin and topaz theme

Building on my last theme, this theme have still been updated with some new colors and icons.

Downloadable from the lsp: http://lmms.sourceforge.net/lsp/index.php?action=show&file=3056
Download (zip)

I recommend using this handy little program for making theme installing super easy! https://github.com/kmklr72/LMMS-Theme-Installer/downloads

If you do not like an element in the theme, you can find the corresponding icon and switch it with any icon you like from other themes. I am also open for requests regarding color and icon style. For example a white theme with futuristic colors?