Tools for composition
No matter how you might prefer to create songs, there’s a bit of software for you.
the app called Linux Multi Media System (LMMS) has become the daddy of loopbased music making and easy MIDI editing. The important bit of LMMS is the sidebar on the left, which has samples, file management and instrument plug-ins – and instrument plug-ins are what really power LMMS. Included are a bunch of weird instruments and different synthesisers, but we’ll be focusing on the component called Sf2 Player, which runs MIDI soundfonts, enabling you to compose Midi-based music without external hardware.
If you drag Sf2 Player onto the Song-editor window it will create a new track. Click the track’s Sf2 Player button and a new plug-in window appears, with a piano and sound controls. If you click the piano now, no sound will come out of it – first you need to load a soundfont. In the middle of the window are two menus: FILE is for choosing the soundfont, and PATCH is for choosing which instrument to use (and there may be many to choose from). Once you’ve loaded your soundfont, clicking a piano key should now make a noise, and your computer keyboard will act as a substitute piano.
The Song-editor has a collection of nodes for activating notes or samples: left-clicking enables a node, middle-clicking disables it and double-clicking opens the Piano-roll to create new tunes.
In the Piano-roll you can either record notes on the fly, or draw them by hand. Clicking on the piano keys on the left previews each note, and as long as the Pianoroll is in Draw mode (click the pencil icon if it isn’t), clicking in the blank field creates a note that looks like a solid bar.
If the note is the wrong length, you can click and drag the right of the note to make it longer or shorter. If you’ve played the wrong note, click and drag the note up or down the piano to adjust it, or move it into another octave. To delete a note, just right-click.
If drawing out riffs isn’t your thing, you can use your computer keyboard to play notes in real time, and if you press the record button, LMMS will transcribe the notes for you on the fly. The beauty of LMMS is that you don’t have to choose between one mode or the other – you can combine both methods: drawing notes by hand, or playing them live. If you fudge a note while recording, you can redraw it later.
Whether you’re into electronic music or not, LMMS is an excellent way to navigate songs and sequence musical arrangements. LMMS may not be a recording suite, but for those happy enough using synthesised instruments and virtual drumkits, there’s genuinely all you need to construct a song without having to buy extra hardware.
of every instrument within the drumkit, and if you want to preview a sound, just click an instrument.
The Pattern Editor is pretty straightforward, but something that may throw you off is the Size function. Size is set to 8 by default, and the default ‘resolution’ is eighth notes (quavers), so the Size function will be set to eight eighth notes to make a full 4/4 bar. That’s slightly confusing at first, but if you want to make a pattern in 5/4, the Size should be 10, and if you want something in 7/8, the Size would be 7 – and so on.
If eighth notes won’t suffice, and if you need smaller subdivisions, you can change the Resolution to 16th notes (semi-quavers), or go right down to 32nd or even 64th notes. If you need something in a triplet-based subdivision (for blues or jazz, for example), you can choose the same numbers, but with a T – such as 8T for eighth-note triplets.
Moving onto the Song Editor in the top half of the screen, there is a list of patterns on the left. Click a different pattern from the list to open another pattern below in the Pattern Editor; it’s a good idea to name each pattern – just right-click and open Properties to change it.
On the right is a giant field with empty squares. Each square represents a bar of music: clicking each square will sequence that bar when the song reaches that point in time. For anyone into highly complex percussion arrangements, multiple patterns can run together.
If you don’t like the default drumkit (GMKIT, which admittedly is pretty mediocre), there should be a selection of alternative drumkits available as a package in your repositories. To the right of Hydrogen’s screen is the Sound library tab. This lists whichever kits are installed; to load one, right-click on the title of the drumkit and click Load.
Once you’ve finished your drum arrangements, you can export your project as an audio file to be used in a recording suite later – speaking of which, it’s time to look at these…