When we first open LMMS, if we are starting a new endeavor, we should always hit this button first. We will save this project to the LMMS project folder designated in our preferences. Be sure to give the project a name that's memorable!

The Song Editor is where we will be arranging the various parts of our song. This editor is where we decide what instruments we use, what parts we listen to, and which parts we are choosing to edit. It is an overview of our song. This is what the Song Editor looks like in our session:

The Piano Roll editor is where we can look inside of a pattern and create notes for our song.

Think of the Song Editor as our overview and the Piano Roll editor provides us a micro level view. The Song Editor will have the sections of our song. The Piano Roll lets us look inside of that section and create note data and move that data around.

The Beats+Bassline Editor is the backbone for LMMS generated dance music. In this editor, you stack various instruments and samples to create a beat and bassline using an old technique that was originally developed for drum machines from the 70's and 80's. This method is a grid-based technique that is very easy to use. All we do is drag an audio file or instrument into the Beats+Bassline Editor and the editor will create a 16-segment sequencer. The Beats+Bassline Editor also allows for easy organization of Song Editor elements by allowing us to add and remove them.

The Beats+Bassline Editor looks similar to the following screenshot:

Automation Track Data is shown in regions on the Song Editor, as well as the Beats+Bassline Editor. It allows us to change parameters in LMMS over time. Automation is a great way to add life to any composition. Gradually fading the volume of an element in and out of a track is the most obvious way to use automation. More esoteric uses will add extra variety to the sounds of your samples and synthesizers over the course of a song. Electronic music can be very repetitive if you don't add something that changes gradually over time. The last thing we want music to be is static.

Here's what the automation data of an Automation Track looks like:

The FX-Mixer is where audio from all of our samples and instruments are summed together. In LMMS, you have the ability to send any instrument or sample to any channel strip of the audio mixer. Ultimately, these audio channels sum together at the master output. The master output is what we are going to hear when our project is done. All of the audio energy from all of the elements we are using will add up here and we want to be sure that all of that audio energy doesn't overload the mixer. This can lead to clipping, a term used for when an audio signal has more amplitude than the mixer allows and starts sounding, well, really bad. Clipping creates a kind of harsh distortion that you probably don't want to include in your music.

The audio mixer has 64 stereo channels available to use. In all, that gives us 128 audio channels.

In the mixer, we'll be balancing volumes from our instruments and samples and adding audio effects. The FX-Mixer looks similar to the following screenshot:

Project Notes are used to help us keep track of changes that we are making in a song and allows us a written memory of what we did last night at 4 AM. Sometimes when in the creative flow, it's a really good idea to keep track of what you've done so that when you revisit the project, it'll be easy to slip back into the flow of things.

The Controller Rack is a list of controllers that we can assign to almost any parameter in LMMS. When we create a controller in the Controller Rack, then any knob that we are using in LMMS can access that controller and allow itself to be controlled.

An example of a way this would be used is panning. Let's say that we want a sound to pan slowly from ear to ear as we listen to it. We could use the Automation Track that we talked about earlier to do this. The Controller Rack will automate the panner over time, but slightly differently. To create a reoccurring pan from left to right over time, we would need to write automation by hand. The controller rack's LFO effect will control the pan knob of an instrument over time and does not require an automation lane to do so. An added bonus is that an LFO in the controller rack can be assigned to multiple locations.

The Controller Rack looks similar to the following screenshot:

To the right of the TEMPO is our time signature. The numerator and denominator of this fraction lets us know some handy musical stuff. The top number is how many beats there are in a bar. The lower number tells us the value of those beats (that is quarter note, eighth note, and so on.). Most dance music is in 4/4 time, but artists have been known to bend the rules. I actually highly recommend it: