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  • Book Overview & Buying LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production
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LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production

LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production

By : David Earl
4.8 (5)
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LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production

LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production

4.8 (5)
By: David Earl

Overview of this book

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.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
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Preface
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Time for action—heading
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
1. Gearing Up: A Preflight Checklist
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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
2. Getting Our Feet Wet: Exploring LMMS
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
3. Getting Our Hands Dirty: Creating in LMMS
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
4. Expanding the Beat: Digging Deeper into the Art of Beatmaking
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
5. Making Spaces: Creating the Emotional Landscape
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
6. Finding and Creating New Noises
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
7. Getting It All Stacked Up
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
8. Spreading Out the Arrangement
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
9. Gluing the Arrangement Together
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
10. Getting the Mix Together
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
11. Getting into Instruments
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
12. Where to Go from Here
12. Where to Go from Here
Guilds, societies, and such
Where to sell my stuff
Summary
13
A. Pop quiz—Answers
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
14
Index
Index

Installing LMMS

LMMS installers can be downloaded from the following link:

http://lmms.sourceforge.net/download.php

Installing LMMS on Windows

The Windows operating system comes in several flavors. The versions of Windows operating system that LMMS is compatible with are the following:

  • Windows 2000
  • Windows XP
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit)

Windows is installed from a factory CD. Windows versions come in both 32 and 64 bit. 64-bit applications have a lot more power than 32-bit applications. This is essentially because the application can access more RAM more efficiently. 64-bit operating systems give applications the ability to access more than 4 GB of RAM. If your operating system has 64-bit capability, I highly recommend it. LMMS runs beautifully in 32-bit as well, so if you are currently working in 32-bit, you'll still have a lot of power.

Windows 7 can be installed as either a 64 or 32 bit platform. To find out which you are running, click the Start button in the lower-left of the screen. Then go to Control Panel | System Maintenance, and click System. You can view the system type here.

Installing LMMS is very easy. Make sure to choose either 32-bit or 64-bit from the lmms.sourceforge.net site.

The downloaded installer from lmms.sourceforge.net will simply install the application and it will be located in your Programs folder.

Installing LMMS on Linux

LMMS was born on Linux! Linux is a free operating system that is very popular as an alternative to Apple and Windows platforms. Linux also comes in many flavors. I would suggest checking out Ubuntu. The download for Ubuntu can be found here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

You will need to burn this installer to CD, run it from a memory stick, or you can even run Linux inside Windows. Nothing like having your cake and eating it too!

Installing LMMS on the Linux platform is detailed here:

http://www.linuxmusicmaker.com/2011/07/easy-install-lmms-0412-using-ppa-on.html

Installing LMMS on Mac OS X 10.6 and above

For those of us who would like to try LMMS on OS X:

The OS X version is currently 4.1.0 and is fairly stable. It is a port, however, and is not available directly from the folks at lmms.sourceforge.net. Use at your own risk!

To install LMMS, simply drag the downloaded application to your applications folder.

End of Section 4
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