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Home > Business & Other > Audio Processing > LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production
LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production
LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production

LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production:

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LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production

Now that we've discussed studio practices and put our studio together, it's time to explore LMMS.

In this chapter, we'll be doing the following:

What kind of electronic musician are you?

So here we are, ready to finally boot up LMMS and get crackin'. When we first open LMMS, we are presented with a blank template song. This is like a blank canvas ready for us to start making music with. After we have set up all of the preferences and settings from

Chapter 1, Gearing Up: A Pre-flight Checklist we should be ready to just jump in with both feet and get some work done.

Before we get going, we need to understand what our best workflow is. Maybe you are a piano player. You may want to use a keyboard controller to record notes into LMMS. Maybe you are an obsessive-compulsive tweaker and want to have meticulous control over every iota of data being written into LMMS and prefer to use your mouse. Your workflow is a way of creating the path of least resistance between you and your music.

To understand which workflow is going to work best for a given individual, we need to explore our tools. In electronic music, there are some tools...

Let's open up LMMS and see how it is laid out. No better way to do that than to open up a blank template and get our feet wet.

Let's open a new song template. If you are using Windows or Linux, the application will show in the Program Menu. If you are using the Mac version, double-click on the LMMS application to open it and then do the following:

  1. Go to the LMMS Project menu and choose New.
  2. Go to the Project menu and choose Save As.
  3. Choose a name for this project and save.

So we have a song template open now and it looks similar to the following screenshot:

What just happened?

Remember how I said that most DAWs will usually open two main windows? Well, as we can see here, LMMS actually starts us with a bit more than that. To make it easier for us to get around, let's have a look at this song template and get familiar with its layout.

The Main Menu bar is where we can choose to Open, Save, and adjust the preferences of our project. We can also use the Tools menu to undo and redo actions that we've performed in any editor within LMMS:

The Main Menu bar

Here...

This is the fun part of using LMMS. When LMMS first opens, we are given a Beats+Bassline Editor on the right-side of the screen. If you don't see that editor, go to the handy-dandy toolbar to select the button that opens it up! It looks similar to the following:

Using the Beats+Bassline Editor

The Beats+Bassline Editor that we are given may have a default instrument loaded. I love synths, (this instrument is a synthesizer instrument), but I think we should start using the Beats+Bassline Editor with samples and build a beat. Building a beat with drums is the heart of electronic dance music and we need to lay a solid foundation.

It is time now to get our Beats+Bassline Editor ready for action:

  1. Open the Beats+Bassline Editor by clicking on its icon. This is what we will see:
    Time for action—setting the stage to build a beat
  2. To get rid of the synth that is currently being used in here, click on the icon that looks the following:
    Time for action—setting the stage to build a beat
  3. This icon will bring up the following menu, where we can choose to remove this track. Let's go ahead and remove it:
    Time for action—setting the stage to build a beat

We just created an empty editor, now let's get down to business!

Now that we have an empty editor, let's go grab ourselves a bass drum. Head over to the Side Bar and choose the Samples tab, giving us a list that looks similar to the following screenshot:

Time for action—adding drums to the Beats+Bassline Editor
  1. Open up the drums directory by double-clicking on it.
  2. Inside this folder are some juicy samples that come packaged with LMMS. To get our bass drum, (bassdrum02 looks like a good bet...) into our Beats+Bassline Editor, simply drag it from the Side Bar to the Beats+Bassline Editor, in the blank workspace. A new 16-step sequencer will appear. Groovy:
    Time for action—adding drums to the Beats+Bassline Editor

Note

A sequencer is an instrument that plays a sample or sound in whatever pattern or sequence we choose.

Now that our sample is loaded into the Beats+Bassline Editor and we've got a sequencer to play that sample, we can start creating a pattern.

Let's make a beat, using the steps of the Beats+Bassline Editor:

  1. When a sample is loaded into the Beats+Bassline Editor, an instrument is created to play the sample and next to that instrument we have a Volume knob, a Pan knob, and 16 little segments. Let's click on the first segment and then every fourth segment following:
    Time for action—creating a beat pattern
  2. This is going to give us the standard, no-frills, dance kick drum. In the dance community, this is usually called four on the floor. Hit your Space bar, or click on the Play Icon to have a listen.
  3. Let's get another element in there. A clap would be a good bet for our next instrument. Let's go back to the Side Bar and grab ourselves a clap from the same menu we ordered the bass drum from. Just drag-and-drop like before. Have you noticed that clicking on the sample in the Side Bar lets you know what it's going to sound like? Handy, huh?
  4. When the clap is imported into the editor, we'll get another...

The Audiofile Processor is an excellent way to incorporate sound files into a project. Let's explore it:

  1. Double-click on this area:
    Time for action—editing samples with the Audiofile processor
  2. We will now see the Instrument Editor which will look similar to the following:
    Time for action—editing samples with the Audiofile processor
  3. The Audiofile Processor has our bass drum sample loaded in it and we're going to try and clip the tail off of our sample a little bit.
  4. See the knob that says END? Click-and-hold on that knob until you get a value of about 60.

Tip

To get a precise setting for a value in LMMS, double-click the knob you wish to use. A parameter can be entered from your computer's keyboard.

You'll see that the sample's endpoint has pulled forward a bit (that is towards the right). This means our sample is not playing all the way through and that strange, pitched tail of the sample is now sounding more normal.

After we've done this, our bass drum sounds a bit better, but now it clicks a little...

Let's add additional content to our pattern. Adding variation will help keep things from getting repetitive or gasp boring:

  1. Hit your Space bar to temporarily suspend playback of the editor.
  2. Go to the Side Bar and drag over hihat_closed01.
  3. In the new step sequencer, let's put that hi-hat on these beats:
    Time for action—adding elements and variation to our beat pattern
  4. Now hit the Space bar again.
  5. This pattern works well, but maybe we want a little more variation in the hi-hat. We can add steps to our step sequencer by right-clicking in the step area and choosing to add more steps. The more variation and the longer the sequence, the less repetitive our project will sound.
  6. When we right-click on the pattern, we get the following menu:
    Time for action—adding elements and variation to our beat pattern
  7. In this menu, let's head down to Add steps. Choose Add 16 steps. Do this for all of the patterns.
  8. Now our sequencer should change to reflect the new extended hi-hat pattern! Drag the window out to make the steps easier to see.
  9. Let's add some...

We need to assign a bass to our pattern. We will be using the Triple Oscillator Synth to get the job done:

  1. Go to your Side Bar and click on your Instrument Plugins Tab. It looks similar to the following screenshot:
    Time for action—adding bass to the Beats+Bassline Editor
  2. There are plenty of cool instruments there, but we're looking for the Triple-Oscillator. The icon looks similar to the following screenshot:
    Time for action—adding bass to the Beats+Bassline Editor
  3. This Synth should do well for our bass synth. Let's drag it over to the Beats+Bassline Editor. This will, once again, add a step sequencer to the editor. Be sure that once it is in the Beats+Bassline Editor that you add 16 steps to it.
  4. Now we have three drums and a bass. Let's do something simple to start with as far as the bass is concerned. Have it play on the off-beats. So we'll be clicking on the off-beats. The pattern should look similar to the following screenshot:
    Time for action—adding bass to the Beats+Bassline Editor
  5. Press your Space bar and let's check it out!
  6. Whoa! Didn't that sound great?

Almost all instruments in the electronic music world give us the opportunity to shape the pitch and duration of sound using simple parameters. Let's have a look at some of the ways we can use the basic synth parameters to bend the sound to our will:

  1. Click on the synth in the editor and then look for this area:
    Time for action—editing note length and root pitch in the Beats+Bassline Editor
  2. Let's click on the area called ENV/LFO. This should open a screen that looks similar to the following screenshot:
    Time for action—editing note length and root pitch in the Beats+Bassline Editor

    Note

    An envelope is a way of altering the knobs controlling an instrument over time.

  3. This area of the instrument is where we are going to alter the length of the triggered sound. There are seven knobs related to how this particular envelope is affecting volume on this instrument. We're going to deal with the HOLD knob.
  4. Turn the HOLD knob to 0.
  5. Now our sound has the proper length. It's pitched a bit high, though.
  6. Look to the keyboard at the bottom of the instrument. Do you...

Now that we have the rhythm cruising along in our Beats+Bassline Editor, we should add some variation to the pitch of the bass instrument. For this, we are going to use the Piano Roll editor to change the pitch on specific steps of the sequence.

  1. To open the pattern in the Piano Roll, right-click on the bass pattern and choose Open in piano roll. It is the first choice in our menu:
    Time for action—opening a pattern in the Piano Roll editor

What we will see now is a representation of our stepped pattern in Piano Roll form. The note grid of the Piano Roll shows pitch vertically and time position of the note horizontally. The width of each green vertical line on the grid is the length on that note:

What just happened?

Below the grid, we can see the velocity of the note.

Note

Velocity is the term for how hard the note is being played.

Technically, if we were playing a piano, velocity would be how fast our finger was speeding towards the key when the note was played. On a piano, if our finger is playing a key at break-neck speed, we would get two effects. The note would be really loud and the timbre of the note would change as well, sounding more bright and harsh. In LMMS, velocity is assigned to note volume. If we want to adjust the...

  1. So let's simply grab a couple of notes and move them to create some variation of our bass line. Try grabbing and moving these notes vertically to give us the pattern similar to the following screenshot:
    Time for action—changing the pitch of the bassline

Now we have a bass line that changes. When we have the Piano Roll open, we will only hear the instrument we are editing. If we hit the Space bar, the Piano Roll will play back our bass line to us alone. To hear it in context, we need to return to the Beats+Bassline Editor. You can select the Beats+Bassline Editor at any time and have a listen to the bass line during this tweaking session.

The default tool in the Piano Roll editor is the Pencil tool. The Pencil will create events wherever appropriate. If you are in the note grid, then the pencil makes new notes and can be use to shift notes in pitch and time. In the volume/pan grid below, it adjusts volume and panning per note.

If you right-click, you'll have...

When using a bass in the beats+bassline pattern, shifting pitch, volume, and panning is fine. If you plan on creating more drastic changes or want to have a bass line with multiple note length values, I suggest creating an instrument in the Song Editor and using the Piano Roll editor there.

The Beats+Bassline Editor is very basic and is very good for creating patterns. When we need to be more melodic or use chords, we should use the Piano Roll in the Song Editor:

  1. Let's go mute the bass line in our Beats+Bassline Editor. We are going to create a bass line in the Song Editor. To mute the bass line, simply click on the green button to the left of the instrument's name:
    Time for action—muting instruments in the Beats+Bassline Editor

Now we've muted our original bass line and can start in on the Song Editor window.

  1. To enable a Piano Roll in the Song Editor, simply double-click next to the first instrument we see; the Default preset triple oscillator synth. A black region will appear next to the synth, showing us where we are going to write our note information:
    Time for action—enabling a Piano Roll in the Song Editor

In LMMS terminology, that black area is called a block. Think of blocks as blank paper that you are about to write your masterpiece on. Blocks can be moved around in the Song Editor to create an arrangement.

Remember how we got instruments into the Beats+Bassline Editor? Well, the Song Editor works the same way. Simply grab a sample, preset, or instrument from the Side Bar and drop it on the Song Editor's track list. The track list is the area we currently see the Default preset synth that we create a block for a second ago.

Unlike the Beats+Bassline Editor, the Song Editor does not perform step sequencing. Its primary editor will be the Piano Roll editor...

In the Song Editor, if we want to use a MIDI keyboard controller, it's pretty simple:

  1. On the instrument you wish to allow input for, click on its Track Tools icon:
    Time for action—enabling a MIDI keyboard controller in the Song Editor
  2. In this list, we see three options: Clone this Track, Remove this Track, and MIDI.
  3. If we choose MIDI, we can designate which of the MIDI controllers hooked up to our system we want to use:
    Time for action—enabling a MIDI keyboard controller in the Song Editor

Now we have the ability to record MIDI notes directly into the Piano Roll editor if we get bored with inputting all of the notes by hand. We'll do some of that in Chapter 5, Making Spaces.

We've already defined what a Mixer does, but how do we decide what instrument goes to a specific FX Channel?

LMMS has a very different approach from other DAWs as to how it allows routing to the mixer.

When you create an instrument, no matter whether in the Song Editor or the Beats+Bassline Editor, you have the option to route it to whatever FX channel you decide is appropriate. If you do not choose an FX channel, it will automatically be routed to the masteroutput, which goes directly out to your headphones or monitors. If you choose not to define an FX channel, you can still adjust the volume of the instrument at the instrument itself, right on the front panel. Here's the area of the instrument where we can choose our FX Channel. I'm showing our bass from the Beats+Bassline Editor we created:

Getting the Mixer to work in our project

It is important to be able to separate out audio streams from different instruments in LMMS. Let's assign the instrument now:

  1. If you grab the illuminated number above where it says FX CHNL, you can drag up and down to change the assignment of this instrument to the Mixer. These channels can have effects placed on them, pass the audio through the plugins, and then send the audio on its way to the master channel.
  2. Let's try assigning the bass line to FX Channel 1. We should see the audio playing through the FX-Mixer now. Oh wait... we don't!

Oh, that's right. We muted the bass line in the Beats+Bassline Editor. Go and unmute that instrument and we should now see the audio playing through the FX-Mixer:

What just happened?

Those of you coming from a traditional DAW background may find this a bit confusing. Each instrument having its own set of plugins, panning, and volume—as well as having a routing...

Plugins are audio effects that we can apply to instruments and FX channels in the Mixer. If you want your sound to be reverberating and huge, there are effects for that. If you want your instrument or sample to sound dirty and raw, there are plugins for that as well. Plugins are used to help shape the timbre of the sound and give us something more interesting.

Plugins are usually applied to a project when the project is getting ready to mix down. There are exceptions, though. Sometimes, we need to use plugins to take a sound that's vanilla and make it more of a spiced curry. This way when we use that sound in our song, we are more inclined to use it in a more emotionally appropriate way.

When we are using plugins to create a sound we want to play with while we are composing, we usually put it directly on the instrument of choice. Remember this menu?

What's a plugin? Where do we put 'em?

There's an area called FX that we want to check out.

Using effects chains, we can send a sound into new spaces and created interesting timbres. We will be essentially creating a sequence of processes that will alter the sound at each step:

  1. Go to the bassline instrument we are using in our Beats+Basslines Editor and click on FX. You will see the following screenshot:
    Time for action—exploring FX
  2. There is a button next to the area that says EFFECTS CHAIN. Click on this button to enable your plugins.
  3. After clicking the Enable button, click the Add effect button. You'll be presented with an impressive list of plugins that are included with LMMS. These plugins have an interesting descriptor: LADSPA.

    Note

    LADSPA stands for Linux Audio Developer Simple Plugin API. These plugins are all free and are constantly being created in the Linux community. This is why, when you open the Add effect list, there are so many choices.

    Time for action—exploring FX
  4. When you click on an effect, it will give you a description of the effect below. All you have to do next is click OK. Let...

Well my, my, my. That was a lot of information.

Believe it or not, this is just scratching the surface of how LMMS works and as far as music-making environments are concerned, LMMS is simpler to understand than other DAWs out there. In this chapter, we covered the following:

Now that we've had an overview of LMMS, we're going to start getting to work on getting creative. Using the LMMS environment, we'll be exploring how to make really interesting house, techno, and trance music. We'll be analyzing patterns, creating sounds, and using advanced techniques to get the foundations laid so that we can do what we like in LMMS. These foundations are not...

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Key benefits

  • Create the dance music you wanted. An experienced guide shows you the ropes.
  • Learn from the best in dance music; its history, its people, and its genres.
  • Learn the art of making music: from the way you set up your equipment, to polishing up your final mix.

Description

You've scoured the forums, watched the tutorial videos, and done everything you can to learn the secrets of the art of making dance music. Everyone is saying something different about how to get into producing your own projects. This book will help connect the dots and lay a solid foundation of knowledge so you can get beats banging out of LMMS.This book will show you the ins and outs of making Dance music with LMMS. Do you make house, trance, techno or down-tempo? After this book you'll be able to make a song that stands out from the masses, using time honoured tricks of the trade. From inception to conception, this book will help give you a workflow to channel your muse using LMMS.Readers will be given a brief lesson on the best of dance music history, then learn how to recreate it using the Open Source digital workstation - LMMS. The reader will be guided through creating a project from start to finish. By the end of this book, the reader will know how to create a full dance track in LMMS and make it ready for distribution.Along the way, readers will take short stops into music theory, song arranging, recording, and other related information to give them a good foundation for making dance music with depth as well as power. Reading LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production will not just teach the reader how to use LMMS, but also how good dance music is crafted. The reader will not just be taught how to make decisions in LMMS, but when and why. After devouring this book, the reader should be able to focus on his or her creativity, with LMMS as a co-conspirator in the process of making great dance music.

Who is this book for?

You have a computer and a love for dance and electronic music. Maybe you've been to some clubs, and the energy of electronic dance music has you completely under its spell. You see a DJ spinning, and everyone is dancing. It's infectious. You want to make music that affects people that way. Today the open source community has offered you LMMS. Read this book, and you'll be shown a process to creating great dance music. This book is going to connect the dots if you have already started making dance music, and provide a very solid foundation if you are just getting started ñ no matter what your skill level is.

What you will learn

  • How to install and navigate LMMS
  • How to create compelling bass lines and loops
  • How to create a sample library of custom-made sounds
  • How to use the LMMS editors to create and edit your music
  • Explore the instruments included in LMMS
  • How to use the Song Editor to arrange a song
  • How to mix and use effects
  • How to export a mix from LMMS so that it can be shared with the world

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Sep 21, 2012
Length: 384 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849517041
Category :
Business & Other
Concepts :
Audio Processing

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Product Details

Publication date : Sep 21, 2012
Length: 384 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849517041
Category :
Business & Other
Concepts :
Audio Processing

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Table of Contents

14 Chapters
1. Gearing Up: A Preflight Checklist Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
1. Gearing Up: A Preflight Checklist
Getting a studio ready to thump
System requirements
Installing LMMS
LMMS resources or where's my stuff?
File management—keeping it together
Time for action—saving our first project
Playing sessions at other studios
Setting up MIDI for LMMS
Time for action—setting up MIDI in Windows
Time for action—setting up MIDI in Linux using ALSA
Getting sound out of LMMS
Getting on the mic
A brief introduction to sound cards and audio interfaces
Great resources for inspiring sounds
Making custom samples
Time for action—recording with a microphone
The art of listening—controlling your listening environment
Summary
2. Getting Our Feet Wet: Exploring LMMS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Getting Our Feet Wet: Exploring LMMS
What kind of electronic musician are you?
Opening the LMMS default song and making noise!
Time for action—opening a new song template
Using the Beats+Bassline Editor
Time for action—setting the stage to build a beat
Time for action—adding drums to the Beats+Bassline Editor
Time for action—creating a beat pattern
Time for action—editing samples with the Audiofile processor
Time for action—adding elements and variation to our beat pattern
Time for action—adding bass to the Beats+Bassline Editor
Time for action—editing note length and root pitch in the Beats+Bassline Editor
Exploring the Piano Roll editor
Time for action—opening a pattern in the Piano Roll editor
Time for action—changing the pitch of the bassline
Using the Piano Roll in the Song Editor
Time for action—muting instruments in the Beats+Bassline Editor
Time for action—enabling a Piano Roll in the Song Editor
Time for action—enabling a MIDI keyboard controller in the Song Editor
Getting the Mixer to work in our project
Time for action—routing an instrument to a channel on the FX Mixer
What's a plugin? Where do we put 'em?
Time for action—exploring FX
Summary
3. Getting Our Hands Dirty: Creating in LMMS Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Getting Our Hands Dirty: Creating in LMMS
Starting our beat with the basics
Time for action—making the most basic of beats
Time for action—fitting the bass in
Other styles in dance music
Time for action—creating Chicago style house music
Tasting the ingredients of dance music
Summary
4. Expanding the Beat: Digging Deeper into the Art of Beatmaking Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Expanding the Beat: Digging Deeper into the Art of Beatmaking
Starting fresh
Time for action—setting up long form patterns
Time for action—adding harmonies to beats
Time for action—making the bass pitch friends with our harmony
Time for action—using the key of the song
Time for action—sweeping a filter using automation
Time for action—panning and volume automation
Time for action—putting reverb on the clap and twiddling it
5. Making Spaces: Creating the Emotional Landscape Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Making Spaces: Creating the Emotional Landscape
Using the Song Editor
Time for action—moving a pattern into the Song Editor
Time for action—bringing in instruments
Time for action—playing the notes in the Piano Roll editor
Time for action—using panning to spread the song out
Time for action—delaying those stabs!
Time for action—setting up reverb on an FX bus
Summary
6. Finding and Creating New Noises Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Finding and Creating New Noises
Sampling audio
Time for action—creating a pattern completely from samples, with a drum loop
Time for action—sound sculpting in Audacity
Summary
7. Getting It All Stacked Up Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Getting It All Stacked Up
Get your loop set
Time for action—setting up the loops
Time for action—making our basses
Time for action—dirty bass
Time for action—sending clones through effects
Time for action—adding the ambient elements
Using samples in the Song Editor
Time for action—adding a sample track
Summary
8. Spreading Out the Arrangement Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Spreading Out the Arrangement
The art of arranging
Time for action—breaking down Imagine by John Lennon
Time for action—analyzing One
Time for action—spreading out the loop
Summary
9. Gluing the Arrangement Together Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Gluing the Arrangement Together
The art of the transition
Time for action—creating a dropout with the accompanying pitch fall
Time for action—creating a filter sweep
Time for action—adding in effects over time
Summary
10. Getting the Mix Together Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Getting the Mix Together
What is mixing?
Time for action—separating audio streams
The mixing ABCs
Time for action—using compression in LMMS
Time for action—using EQ
Time for action—exploring echo and simple delays
Time for action—exploring Freeverb
Time for action—exploring vintage reverb
Summary
11. Getting into Instruments Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Getting into Instruments
The instruments of LMMS
The language of synthesis
Time for action—exploring oscillators
Time for action—exploring different synthesis methods
Time for action—activating instrument filters
Time for action—assigning modulators in LMMS
Summary
12. Where to Go from Here Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Where to Go from Here
Guilds, societies, and such
Where to sell my stuff
Summary
A. Pop quiz—Answers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
A. Pop quiz—Answers
Chapter 3: Getting Our Hands Dirty: Creating in LMMS
Chapter 4: Expanding the Beat: Digging Deeper into the Art of Beatmaking
Chapter 5: Making Spaces: Creating the Emotional Landscape
Chapter 6: Finding and Creating New Noises
Chapter 7: Getting it All Stacked Up
Chapter 8: Spreading Out the Arrangement
Chapter 9: Gluing the Arrangement Together
Chapter 10: Getting the Mix Together
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index

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Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.8
(5 Ratings)
5 star 80%
4 star 20%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 0%
Andrey Dvornikov Feb 26, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
The only book about LMMS. Not a bad one. :)
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Heinz-Peter B. Jul 19, 2019
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Ich arbeite mit diesem freien Musikprogramm. Hätte das Programm viel lieber in deutscher Sprache beschrieben bekommen, ohne die übliche Übersetzerei.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Tres Finocchiaro Nov 07, 2012
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
There's some things you'll learn by clicking through them, then there's LMMS. LMMS has a lot of features that have become expected in a music studio, but without a clear understanding of how to find them and what they actually do (i.e. Envelope) it's just a game of turning knobs, clicking buttons and *hoping* things sound good.The book starts with an introduction to the equipment LMMS (as well as other music software) mimics and ends with some very cool automation stuff such as dynamically changing tempo, volume and some advanced techniques used in music creation.Don't be fooled into thinking this is just a crash course on the LMMS software. The author takes time to explain microphones, keyboards, synthesizers, distortion pedals and much more which is important in an era where many musicians have never touched the physical equipment they are so eager to use electronically.What I found most valuable from this book is the explanation of the Triple Oscillator. This instrument often seen as "Default preset" is easily overlooked but can create sounds such as a bass guitar, electric guitar, and many others! Also, the detail about each instrument plug-in (such as Kicker, LB302 and ZynAddSubFX and taking advantage of that yellow star (instrument presets) was excellent. This book was enough inspiration for me to take LMMS a step further from a hobby to a great free production tool. I'd highly recommend purchasing this book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Brett L. Markham Feb 11, 2013
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I do most of my audio work on Linux using Ubuntu Studio with KXStudio extensions. Included in these packages is the free (yes FREE) LMMS software. LMMS is one of the few great Linux audio packages that also works on Windows, giving Windows users an excellent choice over some of the much more $expensive$ proprietary options. As a bonus, even though originally designed in Linux, LMMS allows access to VSTs under both Linux and Windows, which opens a world of opportunity.Every DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software package has its strengths and weaknesses. LMMS is custom made for dance music, but unfortunately the available online documentation leaves a bit to be desired. I got this book both because I am interested in making dance music AND because I wanted to learn LMMS. This book delivers on its promise. Certainly, there's no such thing as a truly *complete* book on any musical subject, but in terms of its core competencies of showing you how to use LMMS and explaining how dance music is constructed, it is excellent. This book takes you step-by-step through putting together a cool piece of dance music. The author explains every step clearly, gives examples, asks you review questions, etc.If you know absolutely nothing about music, this book will not make you a serious composer. It gives a bit of an introduction to things such as musical scales, chords and keys which is enough to get started. I have a hard time judging this as I've been involved with music for three decades. It's hard to put myself in the shoes of someone with absolutely zero knowledge of music and ask: would this be enough? I think it is, though just barely, and would recommend if you are seriously interested in music composition generally and need to learn music theory, you should get a supplemental text on the subject. It would also be helpful if you actually know how to play an instrument -- any instrument. This is not, IMO, a shortcoming of the book. I'm glad the author covers what he does and hopefully it will whet some readers' appetites.The author shows you how to use every feature of the software, including features such as the Beat/Bassline editor that make LMMS unique. He shows you how to use effects as both inserts and sends, how to use the mixing panel, how to use automation to work with practically any control, and more.The author also explores dance music construction including its beats, tempo, syncopation and more. He discusses the ideas behind synthesis and gives an introduction to using external instruments with MIDI.There is one shortcoming to this book. In several sections he tells the reader to "reduce/increase volume by X db." The problem is that the knobs are calibrated in percentages rather than decibels and unless someone knows how to correlate db and percentages, there will be a bit of head scratching. To make this easy, a signal is cut in half for every 6db. So a volume control at 100% would be reduced to 50% when turned down 6db.Overall, this is a really great book. It is accessible in that it is written for laypeople, is very clearly written with good illustrations, and really explains its subject matter. It talks to the reader but never down to the reader. I like this book a lot, and wish more authors who address complex subjects could do so with this author's clarity.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Amazon Customer Oct 26, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
The author is clear in his explanations on how LMMS functions. I use this book as a valuable aid in my Digital Music course. The only real issue I have is that an older version of LMMS is covered and there have been significant changes to the program since it was published. Of course, this is not the author's fault, but simply a consequence of the rapidly evolving technology age we live in. Just realize, it will be up to the reader to discover how the many new LMMS features work and how to apply them. I eemphatize with the author because I am also an author of technology books and well aware of how rapidly things change once your book is published. That's why I constantly focus on unchanging fundamental principles and less on the current technology issues, which I know will change rapidly.Oh! how I envy fiction and historical authors.
Amazon Verified review Amazon

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About the author

Profile icon David Earl
David Earl
David Earl is a music composer, producer, and performer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His music has been heard in Film, Television, Audio Branding, and Video Games. David's has worked for clients such as Brown Paper Bag, Summit Pictures, Double Fine, Activision, THQ, Lila Rose, Artemis, Sony, Pyramind, Ripesound, and the Juno Company. David has been balancing a life of intense creativity with a deep desire to teach. For the past 10 years, he has helped to develop various curricula for Pyramind in San Francisco. He is an Apple Certified Logic instructor, and also teaches Modular Synthesis using Reaktor. As a purely innocent and altruistic endeavor, David started posting tutorial videos to YouTube as ‘sflogicninja' in 2007 as an attempt to help fellow producers. He now has a following of over 25,000 subscribers worldwide. He has since started creating tutorials for MacProVideo, and creates additional video material for Pyramind Online; the Online counterpart to their brick and mortar training center. David has collaborated with other writers in his field, but LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production is his first official effort.
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