LMMS, Made Better Wifth Fedora 12

[CamoAnimal]

For those of you who don't know LMMS or Linux MultiMedia Studio is,

"LMMS is a free cross-platform alternative to commercial programs like FL Studio®, which allow you to produce music with your computer. This includes the creation of melodies and beats, the synthesis and mixing of sounds, and arranging of samples. You can have fun with your MIDI-keyboard and much more; all in a user-friendly and modern interface." - lmms.sourceforge.net

As Fedora 12 has only been out 3 days you would think that it would still have a few bugs under the hood, especially in the audio department. In the past I have had trouble with everything from ALSA bugs, to Wine audio failure. And who could forget the latency problems that plagued PulseAudio. I have compiled a list of personal problems, from my findings, that have been common to most LMMS users.

The biggest is probably, as mentioned, the audio interface. In Fedora 11 ALSA was prone to bugs that would cause the audio to come out as a bunch of crackles and high-pitched noises; or not at all. In Fedora 12 the audio now comes out clear and with no noticeable latency. I will, however, state that I have had the audio stop twice so far for unknown reasons.

The next major problem for me is processor usage. I am using an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked at 1.66 GHz, and while using LMMS in Fedora 11, LMMS helped itself to a whopping 50% of my processor WHILE IDLE! This did not reflect the actual usage, but instead the amount being reserved by the program. In turn, my laptop would be extremely hot to the touch after only a short usage time. This too has been corrected in Fedora 12, where LMMS only runs at 4% while idle.

As some may have noticed, even after LMMS has been closed on the desktop it continues to run in the background. I found this to be a problem, even on Windoze. I have tested for this problem several times in Fedora 12 and each time LMMS has closed without continuing to run in the background.

Wine has also gone and been updated with support improvements for a hand full of VSTs.
(I still have yet to test save support for VST settings)

I will add updates as I find out more... Hope this sways more people to update to Fedora 12.

CamoAnimal

[sonoran]

Originally Posted by CamoAnimal

The next major problem for me is processor usage. I am using an Intel Core 2 Duo clocked at 1.66 GHz, and while using LMMS in Fedora 11, LMMS helped itself to a whopping 50% of my processor WHILE IDLE! This did not reflect the actual usage, but instead the amount being reserved by the program.

I just tried to make a reservation on my Athlon64 and was informed it was all booked up thru the holidays. Maybe it's time for another core or three.

[CamoAnimal]

Not necessarily. More cores doesn't mean more power. LMMS only supports 1 thread, which means that the second core is almost useless, unless you are a big multi-tasker. At only 1.66 GHz a piece, one core on my laptop is all that LMMS needs to run most of my songs.

P.S. I withdraw my the last part of my comment... If you want to use half the VSTs or plugins that I do then you are up the creek until either the developers for LMMS incorporate multiple cores, or you get a serious processor.

[sonoran]

The idea of reserving time on the cpu struck me as funny.
However, subsequently I downloaded and built the LMMS package and am really enjoying playing with it. I'm not a musician, and my efforts are driving my dogs crazy, but it is very easy for a beginner to get started with LMMS. Thanks for the link.

[CamoAnimal]

No problem. And that is the best thing about LMMS is that you don't have to be a music major to dabble. I wanted to create techno like I heard on the radio, but didn't have the money for Reason, or better yet, FL Studio, so I did a little searching and found LMMS. In my opinion, it is the best opensource/freeware digital audio workstation (DAW) to be found. And as the LMMS wiki grows it will become more and more of a user friendly project.

Lastly (a personal note), don't limit yourself to what is built into LMMS. With integrated plugin support, and possibly WINE, you also have access to VST instruments and effects, soundfonts, samples and so much more. So, as you progress don't let what you see be your glass ceiling.