I recently downloaded lmms and i dont have a midi keyboard. when i press my cpu keyboard i am able to hear the notes from whatever instrument i use but how do i record/add/save the notes i play on my keyboard without going to the piano roll. another question i have is how can i shorten the notes when using brass or other long note sounding instruments
Hey,
As far as I know, there is no way to record midi without using the piano roll. In the piano roll I don't have a keyboard either, but the piano roll works great for me. With no keyboard and no piano roll, the only other thing I can think of would be to put the sound in the beat/bassline editor, but that has the disadvantage that all the sounds are the same note, same length.
The only other thing that might work is to use another program (like Anvil Studio, for example) that focuses on just midi. But even they have a "piano-roll-like" set-up. Anvil Studio also has a sheet music mode where you can write that way, and when the project is done you could import the finished midi file into LMMS, but that seems like a lot of trouble. My best suggestion would be to give the piano roll a try. It's easier than it looks (heck, even I can use it).