Noob Questions: Licensing, Must-Have Plugins, Tribal Music

[Planet]

Hi all, and sorry for the noob questions (did try searching first, but didn't find anything that covered exactly what I was looking for).

Just so you know where I am coming from, I would like to compose short (about one minute) tracks to accompany youtube videos / slideshows for my wife's boutique clothing store. The style of music would be kind of tribal / world-groove music. Funky grooves with (kind of) Indian sounding instruments.

1) Licensing / Copyrights:

Do I need to buy a license if I compose music for youtube videos that would be used in advertising / product promotion?

Will I get sued by someone who created one of the sounds / samples that is used in LMMS if I use it for a commercial song?

And is there a place where I can get royalty free samples / sounds / plugins?

2) Must-have plugins

LMMS seems pretty comprehensive out of the box. However, re there any "must-have" plugins that aren't included in the default download of LMMS? Again, I would be aiming for things that would help out with tribal / world groove / funky Indian / Middle Eastern sound.

I found DSK Indian Dreamz Plugin and it seems like it might be a good start.

3) Randomness

Is there an easy way to allow slight randomness / amplitude variations in beats and notes?

Real musicians are often ever-so-slightly behind or ahead of the beat. and even if they TRIED to play at the same volume, they wouldn't be able to do it consistently from note-to-note.

So is there a way to sort of define limits for variation in timing or volume for different instruments?

4) Easy Pitch Bending

Is there an easy way to bend the pitch of certain sustained notes without using a midi Keyboard? I don't want ALL the notes of an instrument to have pitch bend, just the occasional note here or there.

5) alternate scales / tuning / Maqams

Is it possible to use non-standard scales (middle eastern / Indian)?

They are known as Maqams in Arabic music and they have quarter-tones (not just the twelve half-tones of the well-tempered scale)

Thanks in advance.

[musikbear]

1) Licensing / Copyrights:
Do I need to buy a license if I compose music for youtube videos that would be used in advertising / product promotion?

No you may use lmms for everything without any license at all.
LMMS is 100% free.

Will I get sued by someone who created one of the sounds / samples that is used in LMMS if I use it for a commercial song?

Unless you make use of very recognizable samples, and use them completely without any effect (reverb delay filter, or ENV settings) noone will be able to recognize a sound-sample, but the sampling question is very difficult to answer, unless you have made all the samples yourself, and is that ok? You still sampled someones original work - Like The factory that made the instrument.. -now you use the sound of that instrument, but not with the physical instrument -legal?
Very murky water.

And is there a place where I can get royalty free samples / sounds / plugins?

Perhaps you can start here
http://talkinmusic.com/musicproduction/ ... cts-loops/
But in our documentation we also link to sources

2) Must-have plugins
tribal / world groove / funky Indian / Middle Eastern sound.

You could write a PM to Eino. He has first-nation relations, and i am sure he will be happy to guide you

3) Randomness
Is there an easy way to allow slight randomness / amplitude variations in beats and notes?

Not automatically (yet -im sitting with a first attempt right here:p
But open piano-roll, and set 'Q' 1/192 & magnification at 800, now you can move individual notes and achieve randomness

Real musicians are often ever-so-slightly behind or ahead of the beat. and even if they TRIED to play at the same volume, they wouldn't be able to do it consistently from note-to-note.

Again in piano-roll, but here you need to work on the note-volune-bars, in the bottom of the editor

4) Easy Pitch Bending
Is there an easy way to bend the pitch of certain sustained notes without using a midi Keyboard?

Yes, if the instrument isent a vst, or zasfx, then you can use 'detune':

Read more about it here:
https://lmms.io/documentation/Piano_Roll_Editor

Is it possible to use non-standard scales (middle eastern / Indian)?

Well, im out of my pool in that one - you can create your very own microtonal tuning in zynAddSubFX, but it is complicated. I think you need to find a VST that has this feature, Scale-wise you could try ARABIC

(2. from right)
but is that what you mean?

[Planet]

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it.

I will look through the documentation a bit more thoroughly today. I was kind of foggy on WHAT I was supposed to be looking for, but you cleared that up.

Now I know what I should be looking into.

Thans again.