The art of noise

Have you heard about white noise? You probably have. Imagine a piano which have one key for every Hz, if you press all the keys at once, the noise will be white noise. Now I have assumed that each key plays at the same volume. Have you heard about pink noise? Brown noise? There is a whole color spectrum describing noise! This wikipedia article was fun to read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise

What to do when the software claims it has support for unlimited FX channels?

Check it of course!

Approved, so far...

LMMS workarounds 2

Did you know that a user can adapt to a bug / misbehaviour / unfinished function in three ways? They are called fitting, agument and workaround. I bet you all have heard about the last one, though your definition of workaround is probably not correct. That was the case with me, at least.

According to Les Gasser.

• Fitting: From the word fit so you can probably guess the meaning. It is when the users adapt to the progam error by changing his own habits. Example: If an internet program is slow in the middle of the day, you simply figure out to use it mornings or evenings instead. In LMMS using fewer CPU demanding instruments could be an example of fitting.
• Augement: Again, the meaning of the word is hinting to what it means. It is when a user adapt to a program by doing extra work. Example: If a program give you wrong calculation 1% of the time, you can run it twice and see if the result is the same, cause if it is, it is 99.5 % chance it is the correct result of the calculation. In LMMS the augmenting technique have been widely used, actually you can not yet copy several patterns, you can however open a text editor and do it.
• Workaround: From working around. This means that the user adapt to the program error by using the program in a way it wasn't designed for, or use another program instead. From my experience workaround occurs much rarer than fitting and augmenting, but it is more common in use because the term is wrongly used about users adapting to bugs in general. Example: LMMS, see below.

Notice the text?! Not the regular one.

Note containers clearly wasn't meant to write text, but dividing your project into parts in LMMS hasn't been easy cause there aren't any dedicated function for it. So in that case some users have come up with another way of dealing with it. I have also seen text written with B&B squares, they managed to get the squares small by using the function in LMMS where you hold down CTRL while dragging up or down on a blank track area.

The text as seen in the Piano Roll.
Notice that the user have turned the volume to 0.

Other examples of workarounds in LMMS is when you use other programs, like Audacity, for some parts of your song production.

So the bottomline of this text, the last workaround post, was completely wrong use of the word workaround.

Dubstep in LMMS

So I know a lot of people are wondering if dubstep can be done in LMMS, yes it can. I usually provide a link to those guys too, so if you are searching the internet here are some good

• https://soundcloud.com/cubiicle/cubiicle-grenade-original-mix
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLZSeyd4-TQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZXfaKlkyyQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-ZuSw5vlfM
• https://lmms.io/lsp/?action=show&file=6138

Yeah, so this blog is all about promotion of good LMMS music and artists. Use the search bar to find more music made with LMMS!
PS: Genres are the same as licences, a hell. You can quote me on that. Who cares if the tunes cannot by definition be classified as dubstep? Yhey are dubby enough in my opinion, and frankly few knows what dubstep is defined as, and even fewer can tell the difference between dubstep and twostep, complextro and so on... Or are they subgenres? Oh well, a hell.

Free Software FTW

I got a sudden urge to write strong opinions. Expensive music program, go fuck yourself. I think I have settled on a vision about music and software I found really nice when thinking about it just now.
Quote my brain:

Everyone, poor and rich, as long as they have got a computer, they should have the same opportunities to use their creativity to express themselves musically.

This is not really a ground breaking thought, still, think about it. Seriously, don't read more, stop and think about what this ideal would mean and perhaps how it fails. I just thought about it (good thinking me!) and came to the conclusion that this vision is partly fullfilled. It exists many programs and devices that you can make music with and you don't need any expensive equipment. You can of course play an instrument, but we are talking electronic music production here, or else we wouldn't be here?

Also the reason we are talking electronic music production is because at some point in the process every popular song today must have been trough a computer in its making, and often most of it has been created on the computer. So in that case, you and I should have the same percentage chance of creating the next hit with a free music program, if we are somewhat decent producers of course. Point is, you don't, I don't, and no one can create the next hit in one program which is open source because there are no good enough softwares. Or so it seems, it could also be that when you get good enough, even though the programs you use are enough, they aren't enough...

A creation in a free program should be able to become just as good as a creation in an expensive software would.

I know I am writing about this like a human right, but for me, it seems unfair that some people can become famous if they got the money, at least in the music business, because people of the world cannot listen to noise and call it music. The unfairness lays, as usual, in that some people is actually better at making music than others, but they don't have the chance or money to do it even if they want. This is practically an impossible thing to correct, but I am making an effort through LMMS. Laying the basis with a program that could evolve into a decent competitor to FL studio on the areas sound and compositon. Audacity could be the mixer and mastering tool, although I feel both have a long way to go before matching any commercial software.

Ambient Blue is dead, just dead

He doesn't use LMMS, he just makes music he could have been making in LMMS, inside Ableton. Way to go.

Improved search field

I have now updated the search engine with all the new links I could find. For those of you who didn't knew, LMMS have a new place for its forum. I also gave you a lot more control over the search by adding more labels. See the picture:

Facebook search doesn't work, you say? Well, I added it anyway.

If you want to use this search engine (powered by Google), I will happily share the needed code so you can have it on your site.

New name on Program = New name on blog

Since the name of LinuxMultiMediaStudio now has changed to LMMS, my blog name has also changed. The most important to notice is that the link has now changed, so there will probably be a lot of dead links out there. If you could help telling people that there is a new link, that would be cool!

Second Flight is incredible (LMMS artist)

I have written about him before, so I should perhaps write about another artist, but I have listened to this song of his, Timepiece https://soundcloud.com/second_flight/timepiece 20 times or so, and the same goes with many of his other songs, because he simply creates outstanding music! I will rate him the best LMMS artist at the moment! And he is a steadily holding that position now. With the track Pendulum https://soundcloud.com/second_flight/pendulum I got completely dazzled, and since then he released many tracks, some of them just as amazing. Solar Eclipse https://soundcloud.com/second_flight/solar-eclipse-original-mix , Imperfection cover https://soundcloud.com/second_flight/imperfection-bootleg , and then we are back at Timepiece.

His music got a common "denominator" like most artist have. And I really love the special Second Flight sound! It is bright, happy and always interesting. Arps and many details helps too, when you try to make your song interesting, and he knows that. However without a catchy melody, bass, lead and composition, it doesn't help much with details. Incredibly enough he always manage to pick out the most catchy melody, bassline and drum beat, and it might sound dull in the start phase of a Second Flight production, still he is focused on the end product, and tweaks and changes until the final product is awesome!

So this artist has clearly found the key to make music on a really high level. He has "leveled up" if I can say that, and that justifies this post :-)

Simple enhancement or bug fixes that would make LMMS more complete

• Show when the volume clips https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/1022#issuecomment-50107501
• Add scroll bar in instrument plugins sidebar to enable readability on small screens https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/959
• Make the main toolbar one/two lines and/or some icons hide-able https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/387
• Make the Piano Roll toolbar one/two lines and/or some icons hide-able https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/64
• Add more "What is this" text, to make it easier for new users. The text should be short and informative. Short cuts are very useful to include.
• Option to add more than one FX channel at the time. https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/1009
• Using arrow keys for previewing samples and presets https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/871
• Ctrl + left-right key shortcut https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/811
• Shift + up-down key shortcut https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/810
• Search folders for .dll files https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/856
• Humanize option. It could be achieved simply by using a lfo https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/issues/1165

Kabasa (LMMS artist)

https://soundcloud.com/kalabasa

Powerful electronic music from Kabasa. He can also make beautiful piano pieces. What I like about him is composition-wise that he clearly knows how to build chords, and sound-wise that he uses familiar and good LMMS synths. He makes different styles, but if we look away from the piano music, mostly electronic. A lot of arpeggios or long chords, interesting leads, repetitive background synths, strong and clear drums.

LMMS Facebook page resources

There's no secret that I am one of the admins on the LMMS Facebook page, and that I create a lot of the content over there. Like this image showing all plugins that will be available in LMMS 1.1.0.

It took me a while to take the snapshots of the plugins and put them into GIMP, so I thought if anyone want to do the same, I'll give you the GIMP file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-1kciTMrTBZUTh6b0VlbG9oTTQ/edit?usp=sharing

If you have seen anything on the LMMS Facebook page you would like to work on or use, you can contact me. I will perhaps upload more content to my drive and link to it from here or other posts.

Is LMMS dying, again?

Hmm, perhaps. We have one beloved developer who have taken charge and does approximately everything on the developer side... okay, half of it, and then other devs come and go and submit patches now and then. That is of course OK, no one can demand that people will work on LMMS 24/7. It is better with a few changes each month. So in total LMMS is still moving forward.

The reason I am worried is because there is less and less activity on the mailing list, the developer mailinglist! Cause I think that when people don't answer the mails, they start to skip reading them, and then eventually never checks by. And discussions is how LMMS can evolve in a good way, how bad decicions can be avoided and how ideas and excitement is created. Luckily discussions are still alive on github!

I don't know how it will look in the future, but LMMS need more developers and involved people for sure if it is to survive. Finding developers who want to work on a music program for free on their spare time is hard, no doubt. I will try to continue the FB page, that is the only thing I feel dedicated to do and know how to do. Writing articles on the wiki takes too long for one person, so after about seven articles... I am pretty much waiting on others to write them.

Deeptone Overdose (LMMS artist)

Listen to Deeptone Overdose

This Deeptone Overdose (previously TG Complex, I think), is seemingly popular on YouTube. 120 subscribers and 3k views qualifies for a little article here on my blog. Also I like that he openly says:

I want to show you that you dont need a 500.000$ Music Studio to make music. The only thing that you need is an open source program (lmms.

He makes dubstep, electro, industrial and experimental music, as far as my genre understanding reaches in that direction. Trash guitars, raw synths, glitching and interesting drums are common sounds and effects in his creations. The drum beats are interesting and cool, he also use different percussive instruments than most artists. His style is beats, I would say, not so much tunes.

Deeptone Overdose on YouTube
Deeptone Overdose on SoundCloud

Cubician (LMMS artist)

Listen to Cubician

I found Cubician from United States today, through the cooperation with Cubiicle (previously known as Aden DeltaX). He makes electronic, dubstep, house. Inspiring tracks in my opinion. He seems to put his soul into the making of these songs, giving them their own souls, living their own lives. A lot of neat details is baked into the tunes to keep you listening, and making you want you to hear more. As electronic music tends to be, his songs are built up with repetitions, but that is a rather good thing when you manage to keep the interest high.

This is a true EDM (Electronic Dance Music) producer! Mixing and mastering is on a high level, real good! I get associations to Röyksopp and Macrowave! And the synth sounds is perfect, both raw and soft with side chaining. I really enjoy to hear such synths from LMMS. Last year I thought LMMS was incapable of creating good EDM songs, because I had yet to hear the badass synth sounds in LMMS. Now I have heard it created by several artists. Cubician is perhaps the best of these so far. Arpeggios, sweeps and other effects are common in his songs. This is party music!!!

Cubician on SoundCloud

Building LMMS on Windows

I got to make a post about this, because it has been widely known for the people I have talked to that LMMS was nearly impossible to compile on Windows. The fact that the official builds are compiled on Linux kind of supported this belief. Then Tobias suddenly said:

Building LMMS for Windows is quite easy - download required cross compiling packages https://launchpad.net/~tobydox/+archive/mingw/ and run the "build_mingw32" or "build_mingw64" scripts. Afterwards "make package" should give you a ready-to-go installer file.

He added that you need to install the "nsis" ubuntu package before using "make package".

UPDATE: I know nothing about compiling, and after I posted this post I a friend of mine once again told me it was not so easy... Luckily for you this guy intend to upload recent LMMS builds to his Google drive, and wanted to share it with you! Halleluja :3
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B49dcRGtm8vJcV9LU0xqZW81QjQ&usp=drive_web

Feedback apology

Soo, I tend to give feedback on almost every song I listen to. Turns out I am giving too much of personal feedback. If I heard your song, and I felt the drums didn't fit in a such way that I personally felt it ruined the song, I would probably have written a comment stating it on SC. That could have, and already have, pissed at least two people off, so I must of course quit with it. The reason I commented with my personal feelings was because I believed some feedback was better than nothing. "An artist would like to see how his song is considered by his audience, and through SC he can get that feedback", I thought. However If I don't explain why I said what I said (previously I thought it was implied I told my personal feelings, which is a rather bad reason as I understand now), there is no point in commenting. Also, I have been told that writing a suggestion on how to improve what I think could be improved is better, so I shall always try to do this if I write my feelings.

From now on, I will be more careful and definitely think twice if posting personal comments. Or else I will stick to general neutral comments or not comment at all. I have acted like some kind of independent judge, which perhaps is fun on my blog, but not fun when I do it all over SC. I am truly sorry to those I hurt, my intentions was good, I will gladly delete any comment you want me to delete.

LMMS for Mac

 Update: LMMS 1.1 will be the first offical LMMS for Mac. Go get it at github.com/lmms/lmms/releases

Mac users have always had the opportunity to use weeks on compiling LMMS... NOW they have the option to do it in shorter than one day thanks to Tres Finnochiaro.

CRAAZY RIGHT? I really have no clue how long it would take to compile it, I just present you with the instructions.
https://github.com/tresf/lmms/wiki/Compiling-lmms-OSX

Ooor, use the dmg file... qzindustries.com/files/lmms_1.0.2.dmg

Oh noes!

Bad news guys. It seems I have reviewed fewer LMMS artists lately, and I don't think I will manage to get back to the top level of reviewing as long as I am involved in so many aspects of LMMS as I am now. I ain't exactly planning on leaving LMMS, it is more like the opposite (hint, OMG, we'll see if it'll ever happen).

I'll probably write some more reviews, especially this summer. Beyond that I suspect nothing as I am going to university next year. If you want to try out reviewing LMMS artists you just send me a message or comment, and after I have done some reviewing on you, I'll make you a partner here on da blog. I'm going to change the title then, don't worry :)

My former userpage at the wiki

So I wanted to preserve this "biography". It tells a lot about my relationship about LMMS... Remember I wrote it two years ago :) Now LMMS is a lot better (for new users).
"
Welcome to an article about me. My current artist name is Sti2nd.

I started to heavily use LMMS February 2011. I had previously tested in on Linux but the appearance fooled me, and thus six months later I discovered a program on Windows which was amazing. LMMS is a powerful tool and after my opinion, and currently the best free DAW for Windows and Linux. I am a fan of techno, which easily can be made with LMMS, and also of instrumental film music. Instrumental music is not just looping, so I find it extremely time consuming! Calm House music rocks too though. Before LMMS I used MuseScore to create songs... and I have learned music theory through playing the Trumpet (in a band).

My thoughts about LMMS, is mainly that it could be evolved into a huge competitor to FL studio. First of all, that bastard of a theme needs to be changed, and you all know I have a reason not to like it. Then, I guess useful updates and futures should be introduced to constantly improve the masterpiece software :)

Now I am basically just fooling around and trying to help the program grow as good as I can. I have written some wiki articles, made some themes, and now I actually have a lot of fun editing pictures of LMMS. I really wish I knew C++, then I would have the chance to improve LMMS (the way I want it to). So if anyone feel the need to teach me C++, talk to me on [http://soundcloud.com/sti2nd Soundcloud] or [http://www.youtube.com/user/Sti2nd Youtube].
"