This question might ultimately have more to do with basic JACK, MIDI or VST topics.
Once upon a time, I used Fruity Loops as a VST instrument/plugin with SONAR. This enabled me to sequence drum beats, and then include them in SONAR. I could easily make tweaks to my Fruity Loops session, then continue working in SONAR without bouncing the beat to a WAV and importing. Beat-rate and playback were seamlessly synchronized.
I’d love to find a way to do this with Ardour and LMMS.
So far I have been able to route LMMS audio output into Ardour via JACK. However, I am unsure if (and how) to get the Ardour play/record button to trigger playback in the external application, simultaneously. Similarly, I am unsure howto have Ardour report beat-rate (and other metadata) to the external application.
I am guessing there must be a solution with MIDI “sync” or “control”; however, I am unsure howto hook it all up. Getting the right buttons pressed is one (easy) thing, but I am unsure what the relevant terms and technologies are, to enable this.
if LMMS had proper JACK support this would all be trivial-ish. LMMS does not, however, have good JACK support and its developers do not seem particularly interested in this as far as I have read.
I’m not really sure what you are doing in LMMS that you cannot do in Ardour 3, but I would personally recommend that you wait for its release (which is imminent) and not waste your time dealing with hacks that might make syncing one app (LMMS) when it really doesn’t want to be synced with anything else.
Firstly, thanks for working on Ardour; it’s rad. Also impressed that you have time to respond to questions on the forum, meanwhile.
I downloaded the Ardour3 beta5 (13072), but I’m not seeing anything LMMSy.
My user stories are:
1.1 “User wants to quickly evaluate, select, and sequence from a predefined bank of Drum samples, to create quick, basic beats.”
1.2 “User wants to construct songs from existing patterns of sequenced beats (1.1).”
Am I looking in the wrong place in the UI (my user ignorance/error), or is LMMS still addressing different goals than Ardour?
LMMS Is really targeting a different workflow than Ardour.
We will evolve in that direction. RIght now, you’d probably just
(1) import the sample files into the region list (option at the bottom of the import dialog)
(2) once they are all in the region list drag and drop samples into tracks, with the grid enabled
(3) at some point, use region copy-drag rather than drag from the region list
(4) select N regions in a track and then duplicate them to copy “patterns” (or copy-drag them)
probably several gotchas with that kind of work flow, which would be worth filing a bug report and adding to over time.
I guess the main “problem” (it’s not a real problem) is that Ardour doesn’t give any “pattern cloner” system. If you copy a “pattern”, then paste, you’ll have 2 patterns. Changing one doesn’t change the others. This is mainly the reason I’m still using LMMS… + some other capabilities (auto controller for example).
Other solution: use a midi sequencer in parallel, I’m trying “non” editors at this time…
Metal3d: this is true for audio, it is not true for MIDI. For MIDI, you have the choice of whether or not copied MIDI regions are linked to the original by default, and if they are linked by default, you can unlink them (i.e. make them independent).
Oh… ok, I didn’t checked this To be precise I didn’t use Ardour for a long time before yesterday… I’m working on my last album and discovered what gives Ardour 3… impressive. I’ll check this tonight. Thanks a lot
you’re right, I was not familiarized with ardour midi sequencer (7 years I’m using it for audio and mixing…). Midi sequences are linked, so now the last reason I’ve to use LMMS is… the LB302 integrated synth
