FL Studio, Reason, Pro Tools, what are all of these names for? These are names for music production software, for aspiring musicians and music producers to create masterpieces on their personal computers. Unfortunately, I’ve seen the prices for these programs and I’ve noticed they are expensive, especially when you want full-fledged features. I knew I probably couldn’t afford any of those programs so I decided to look out for alternatives, free (and legal) programs that offered similar features, what I found was LMMS. LMMS stands for Linux MultiMedia Studio, although it isn’t just for Linux, you can download the software for Windows, as well.
Something one can notice about LMMS, is that it is similar to FL Studio. When you open up both programs side by side, you can see how both are visually similar, with a place for song editing, beats and basslines, mixers, and such. LMMS even seeks to be compatible with FL Studio. LMMS allows imports of FL Studio projects, which is said to allow a seemless transfer of previous FL Studio files. LMMS is also compatible with many files and mediums used in music production such as SoundFont2, LADSPA, GUS patches and VSTs.
LMMS allows MIDI connectivity. This is useful if users have an arranger synthesizer, or any keyboard that has MIDI output. This makes creating music pieces much easier because producers can input chords and perform keyboard expression by striking keys with different velocities, allowing for easy expression of creativity. Without a MIDI compatible keyboard, users can use the computer keyboard by pressing the keys for different sounds, but things get a little more tricky with just that keyboard.
Also, although LMMS is relatively unknown compared to the other programs, an alive and up-to-date community is present in the forum. This is useful when questions come along from users of LMMS. And for the new users of LMMS, a manual is freely available at the website, which details everything about how to use the software.
LMMS, is something that I find promising as a music production software, it allows similar features as the top ranking proprietary programs but at a much lower cost (free.) I think it’s necessary to give some exposure to the program in the event an aspiring musician with a tight budget wants to get a hold of it.