I have no idea what I'm doing

[Kazekai]

So I've been screwing around in LMMS for about 3 weeks trying to teach myself to make music on a pc, and when I say that I mean I am literally learning from scratch, except the basic instinct I have for it which it turns out doesn't compensate for a whole lot, but anyway...

I don't know how to do a lot of things I want to so here's a list of things and I guess someone can tell me if it's possible and how.

-How do I pitch-bend with a VST? Detune doesn't work with them, according to another thread (and me trying it for myself just because seeing, or hearing, is believing) and I'd like things I make with a violin or harmonica to not sound ghetto.

-How can I change the behavior of a VST progressively? Can the automation thingy do that? I ask because some VSTs come with different settings and instead of making different vestige instances for the same instrument I wanted to just change it to, say, a vibrato version of the same instrument (or in the case of the erhu one I found, a proper authentic pitch-bending in case the first question isn't possible in lmms) so it sounds more like, well, the actual instrument and not like some idiot wrote it in mariopaint.

I will most likely find more questions to ask later but these are forefront in my mind right now and are proving the biggest head-scratchers.

And I'd really appreciate knowing the most intuitive way of doing these things and not some crazy convoluted back-door method meant to compensate for some lacking in the program. I saw a youtube video where someone did some jury-rigging just to get guitars to pitch-bend properly and was too confused to follow them beyond opening the automation track. That was not very encouraging at all.

[musikbear]

-How do I pitch-bend with a VST?

If the the vst does not have a pitch-envelope, then you can always use the PITCH-dial, and set a suitable RANGE for the dial. This dial is general available on every instrument.

-How can I change the behavior of a VST progressively? Can the automation thingy do that?

Yes you could do that, it is best used for envelope changes, like cutoff or resonance, but you could make singleton setting changes, with automation. I would not do that. I would use several instances of the preset, with its own settings, because actual singletons created by automation, would need to pass over the automation cmd, and that would be next to unbearable, as you compose.

I will most likely find more questions to ask later

you are welcome, and welcome to our community, too :)

I btw have a lot of videos on lmms.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIfZfd ... vp6C8XAJUw
Also many aimed at complete newcomers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcUCFfQ3wn8
You are welcome to ask for a specific subject, you would like to see in a tutorial.
We also have our wiki resource:
https://lmms.io/wiki/index.php?title=Manual
Do ask for more if you feel it is needed, and you are welcome to make content too. Right now it has to pass through a mod, but just contact me, if you like.

[softrabbit]

-How do I pitch-bend with a VST? Detune doesn't work with them, according to another thread (and me trying it for myself just because seeing, or hearing, is believing) and I'd like things I make with a violin or harmonica to not sound ghetto.

The detune feature in the piano roll works on individual notes, whereas the pitch knob is basically MIDI pitch bend, which works on an entire MIDI channel at once. And as the VST implementation is limited by MIDI, bending individual notes isn't supported there. No idea if the VST spec mandates MIDI or if it's just a choice made along the way for LMMS, but those are the breaks.
https://lmms.io/documentation/Instrumen ... t_Controls

And I'd really appreciate knowing the most intuitive way of doing these things and not some crazy convoluted back-door method meant to compensate for some lacking in the program. I saw a youtube video where someone did some jury-rigging just to get guitars to pitch-bend properly and was too confused to follow them beyond opening the automation track. That was not very encouraging at all.

Proper polyphonic guitar-like bends and vibrato would need multiple MIDI channels, IMO. So I'd imagine LMMS not being the only program requiring a bit of setup to get it right.

[Kazekai]

I'm gonna assume the answer to both my questions was yes, although I don't really understand most of what was said it is appreciated anyway.

Any tutorial links are appreciated but I wonder if there's some out there that would specifically focus on how to deal with VSTs, especially on ways to emulate real instruments as authentically as possible? Trying to pitch-glide even with really short notes only goes so far with violins...

[musikbear]

so a tut where vst-pitch-glide is shown, is needed?
Let me know.
( I do use PITCH & RANGE in this tut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcyMSpHyL8I
but that is on the other hand quite advanced, in respect to the actual content about glissando

[Kazekai]

so a tut where vst-pitch-glide is shown, is needed?
Let me know.
( I do use PITCH & RANGE in this tut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcyMSpHyL8I
but that is on the other hand quite advanced, in respect to the actual content about glissando

I'm having a look through all your videos actually, although I guess what I'd like to know specifically are things related to VSTs, like what I should look for in a versatile one, what all the settings do, and the best way to pitch bend (not glide) without having the option to detune, and, I guess, why detune doesn't work on things loaded by vestige but works with lmms's default sounds. I'm a little unclear what is meant by "midi channels" above, I thought a midi was just how a computer processed sound but I don't know that much about them otherwise so I don't really even know what to look for in good sound assets. (Besides whether or not they sound like the instrument, which is a given obviously)

Also, I've tried using imitone with lmms and I'm curious, if I have pitch-bending enabled, how does lmms translate it? It doesn't really seem like pitch-bending is properly supported by the program honestly, or at least it doesn't seem like it has a dedicated universal function for it which I guess there's a reason for that I just don't know about right now, probably related to the midi-channel thing that I'm having trouble understanding.

Then again, the only other DAW I've ever used long enough to get moderately familiar with it (I get lost in these pretty easily to be honest) was a copy of FL studio a friend let me use to try to learn it and I didn't really make it far enough to know if pitch-bending is a standard in that either...