Thursday 20 June 2013

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!

Saturday 15 June 2013

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

Thursday 13 June 2013

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/