LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production

384 Pages·2012·13.03 MB·English

by  Earl David

LMMS: A Complete Guide to
Dance Music Production
Beginner's Guide
The beginner's guide to exploring, understanding,
and rocking the world of dance music using the free
LMMS digital audio workstation
David Earl
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by on 1st October 2012
This material is copyright and is licensed for the sole use by on 1st October 2012
LMMS: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production
Beginner's Guide
Copyright © 2012 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
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and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or
indirectly by this book.
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companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However,
Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: September 2012
Production Reference: 1140912
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84951-704-1
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Sandeep Babu ([email protected])
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Credits
Author Project Coordinator
David Earl Vishal Bodwani
Reviewers Proofreader
Tobias Doerffel Stephen Swaney
Tres Finocchiaro
Indexer
Paul Giblock
Monica Ajmera Mehta
Acquisition Editor
Production Coordinator
Robin de Jongh
Arvindkumar Gupta
Lead Technical Editor
Cover Work
Susmita Panda
Arvindkumar Gupta
Technical Editors
Vrinda Amberkar
Prasanna Joglekar
Ankita Shashi
Copy Editor
Insiya Morbiwala
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About the Author
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
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.
I would like to thank my wife for putting up with my late night writing
sessions. I also give deep thanks and gratitude to Artemis Robison, without
whose efforts this book, quite possibly, would not have happened.

I would also like to thank all of the mentors that I've had over the years.
Mentors such as David Occhino, Mike Dana of Fresno City College, Andy
Newell of Ripesound, Steve Schick at Fresno State, Jordan Rudess of Dream
Theater, Mark Bacciarini, Lance Freeman, and Fresno State's entire music
department. Without learning from these teachers, there is not a chance
I could have been doing what I do today, and it is because of them and
others, who I may not have listed here, that I feel compelled to pass my
knowledge on to those willing to learn.
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About the Reviewers
Tobias Doerffel is the founder and lead developer of LMMS (and is living in Germany).
He has been working on LMMS since 2004 and also runs and supports other Open Source
projects, such as iTALC. He has been studying Applied Computer Science with a focus on
Computer Engineering and is currently working as a Software Engineer.
I'd like to thank all the supporters and active members of the LMMS
community. It's great to see the creative results from people all over the
world using LMMS.
Tres Finocchiaro was born in 1981 in upstate, New York and had an early interest in
computing and technical writing. He got his first computer in 1993, an IBM PCjr, on which he
learned the BASIC programming language. In 1999, Tres was exposed to the Linux computer
operating system when visiting his brother in Buffalo, NY. Soon after, Tres began refining his
skills and interests in computing and other Linux-related projects, such as the public domain,
free software, and the Open Source community.
Tres began by working with the Oneida Indian Nation's Turning Stone Casino in Upstate
NY, where he was employed as a Cashier. Two years later, Tres was hired as a Computer
Operator and was nearing the completion of his Associates Degree in Computer Networking
Systems. Eight years later, Tres is a key component to the IT operations at Turning Stone as
an Application Development Analyst, which includes computer programming and support
as well as technical writing. For years, Turning Stone has played a key role in providing Tres
with the structure to succeed while allowing for creativity to expand his knowledge in both
computing and technical writing.
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After writing and creating several computer programs for the work place, Tres started the
community-based printing program jZebra as a side-project from home. The jZebra, a small,
web plugin, has had great success and is used by businesses in countries all over the world,
including Britain, Indonesia, and Germany (to name a few). The jZebra is free software that
prints barcodes, receipts, and ID badges, and the source code is offered for others to learn
and collaborate from.
In addition to the jZebra project, Tres is also an active member of the Ubuntu Desktop Linux
community and LMMS music community, and he is a blogger, husband, and father as well.
I would like to thank Tobias Doerffel for his contribution to music
production, Packt Publishing for giving me this opportunity, and my wife for
her unsurpassed patience.
Paul Giblock is a Researcher at The Joint Institute of Computational Sciences in Oak
Ridge, Tennessee. He holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science, and is currently
working toward his master's degree at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Paul
started contributing to LMMS in 2006 when he added the LB302 synthesizer. Since then,
he has assisted in porting LMMS from Qt3 to Qt4, creating the Controller framework,
enhancing MIDI support, updating plugins, and improving various aspects of the graphical
user interface. He also added the Soundfont Player, LFO Controller, Peak Controller, and
Stereophonic Matrix plugins. Paul is currently interested in high performance computing,
human interface design, and digital signal processing.
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Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Gearing Up: A Preflight Checklist 7
Getting a studio ready to thump 8
System requirements 8
Installing LMMS 9
Installing LMMS on Windows 9
Installing LMMS on Linux 10
Installing LMMS on Mac OS X 10.6 and above 10
LMMS resources or where's my stuff? 11
File management – keeping it together 12
Managing project versions 13
Time for action – saving our first project 13
Playing sessions at other studios 15
Setting up MIDI for LMMS 16
MIDI keyboards 16
Control surfaces 17
Setting up MIDI in Windows 18
Time for action – setting up MIDI in Windows 19
Setting up MIDI in Linux 19
Time for action – setting up MIDI in Linux using ALSA 20
Installing MIDI in Mac OS X 20
Getting sound out of LMMS 21
Getting on the mic 21
Dynamic microphone 22
The condenser microphone 22
A brief introduction to sound cards and audio interfaces 24
Great resources for inspiring sounds 25
Radiohead 25
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