What features do you want the most?

[regulus79]

I thought I'd try to get some more indexable discussion over here on github, so I'm asking you all, what features do you want to see the most in LMMS?

(I know we should probably be working on fixing bugs and regressions right now to get 1.3 out, but having this topic here to keep track of wanted features is still useful)

Feel free to suggest any features, big or small! From major core changes, to the smallest of UI tweaks. (Realistically, if it's a major request, it probably won't happen LOL, but it's important that we are all on the same page as to what users want!)

If someone else already mentioned a feature you were thinking of, maybe upvote their post or something.

[TheTwoNamedMan]

multiple instances of the midi editor

[TheTwoNamedMan]

and an internal method to easily change the theme. pitch black is not appealing to me

[JMii63]

and an internal method to easily change the theme. pitch black is not appealing to me

you can download custom themes off the lmms sharing platform on the website.

[djent]

Automation Editor:

• "Clamping" Say the range for a knob is 0-100, I'd like to limit the range to something else. 85-92 for example. Even having a visual indicator of what the desired range is would be helpful. Something like "guide lines" in photoshop.

SF2 Player:

• Volume Envelope. It seems like this should be achievable with fluidsynth built-in generators. (https://www.fluidsynth.org/api/group__generators.html)

SlicerT:

• Clear All Slices. When working with longer samples, sometimes there is just way too many slices. Even when setting the threshold to the highest setting.

[messmerd]

On May 5, a button that clears all slices was added to SlicerT: #7850

[djent]

Song Editor:

• Multi-Select Instruments. I'd like to select a range of instruments so I can change their colors, assign mixer channels, mute, drag to new location, etc.

[TheTwoNamedMan]

would that include the option to copy paste multiple things?

[Mastartiq]

Plugin Manager with scanning instead of Vestige with the addition of VST3 format (maybe CLAP too). VST2 x64 and x32 should not be removed as they are useful for older plugins in case of x32 and for plugins that have not been updated to VST3 in case of x64. Better integration of the Control VST Plugin inside LMMS so we can save as presets when making changes, on an external synth (ex: Helm) or effect plugins like an equalizer (ex: TB Equalizer) so it will remember our changes for future opening of the LMMS Projects. Modern theme / UI for LMMS. I'm not sure if it has been done but automation could benefit of improvements so we can choose any place on the song editor without having to go in the automation editor and try to clean the curves (before and after) the time in the song editor where the automation occurs. And the last, sampler editor should have significant improvements as stretching mode, chop tool, crossfaders, pitch tool, stretching to fit the bpm with and without changing the pitch speed.

[Mastartiq]

I almost forgot. Swing knob in the LMMS Midi Editor and Bus Sends / Channels.

[AW1534]

YES! plugin scanning Is something I desperately want. In the meantime you can make VeSTige presets for your plugins.

[szeli1]

Are you thinking about something like #7317 for the automation changes?

[Mastartiq]

Are you thinking about something like #7317 for the automation changes?

Yes! The pull request is even more advanced than what I want so I'm glad there is one open.

[szeli1]

Yes! The pull request is even more advanced than what I want so I'm glad there is one open.

It will probably go nowhere, I tried to merge it, but others found issues with the core idea. If you believe that feature would help the workflow, you could leave a comment on the PR.

[GitHubUser-2]

VST3 support. I DESPERATELY need that. Also, audio recording.
VST3 is one of the only reasons I'm forced to use anything else. I use many other plugins that aren't supported by LMMS.

Now here are the things I want, but can live without:
SF3 support.
The ability to slide envelope values under others (so I can have a value that is increasing linearly, drop back to 0 without sliding).
Plugin manager that can scan directories.
TripleOscillator updated to have more features as such are available by many other Synths.

And finally:
A finished LMMS 1.3.0

[GitHubUser-2]

@Mastartiq Hi, thanks for correcting me on that! That is some very useful information. I'll edit my comment.

[GitHubUser-2]

@szeli1 When I'm modifying the envelope for my volume, I often want it to climb slowly, and then drop off at a certain point. At the moment, I can only change the quantization value and get it as close as possible.

[djent]

@szeli1 When I'm modifying the envelope for my volume, I often want it to climb slowly, and then drop off at a certain point. At the moment, I can only change the quantization value and get it as close as possible.

You can do this in recent Nightlys with "Draw OutValues mode"

[szeli1]

You can do this in recent Nightlys with "Draw OutValues mode"

So does that mean that its implemented already?

[djent]

So does that mean that its implemented already?

Yup. Just use a nightly version

[firewall1110]

Some incomplete things , that prevent me use LMMS in same speed as Cubase:

(1) Knife mode should work not only for audio clips.
(2) Any clip should be re-sizable as pattern clips
(3) Record button should work (and not only for audio clips in sample track)
(4) Proportional velocity sizing (now sizing make all notes velocity the same)

[regulus79]

(1) Knife mode should work not only for audio clips.
(2) Any clip should be re-sizable as pattern clips

Done in #7477

[bratpeki]

If a sample clip is empty, it would be nice for the loaded sample to extend the full length of the clip, and not just the one bar it's initially restricted to. Come to think of it, it would be good for the sample to stretch the entire length anyway, since we have the knife tool for slicing what isn't needed!

+1 for the SlicerT resetting all points button, and also making the "envelope" textbox a fized size at the top left part of the ADSR, and not having it stretch out like it does now.

[szeli1]

If a sample clip is empty, it would be nice for the loaded sample to extend the full length of the clip, and not just the one bar it's initially restricted to. Come to think of it, it would be good for the sample to stretch the entire length anyway, since we have the knife tool for slicing what isn't needed!

This sounds easy to implement, I would like to put this on my todo list.

[regulus79]

Once #7477 is merged, every clip will have a m_hasBeenResized state which may help. So like, if the sample clip hasn't been resized yet, set it's length to the full sample length, but if the user has resized the clip, don't change the length.

[szeli1]

Once #7477 is merged, every clip will have a m_hasBeenResized state which may help. So like, if the sample clip hasn't been resized yet, set it's length to the full sample length, but if the user has resized the clip, don't change the length.

Does that mean that this feature request will be implemented?

[regulus79]

That PR does not implement this exact feature, I'm just saying that it might add some useful tools to make implementing this feature request easier.

[sakertooth]

I don't think this is a feature request really, but a bug fix request. IIRC, it wasn't always like this, and the clip would extend to cover the full length of the sample.

[Spacemagehq]

How about markers ? Video editors have these to mark areas you want to add or remove stuff or add notes in the timeline.

[regulus79]

Yeah, I was also kind of thinking of implementing something similar. A kind of sticky line which can be moved around to help with snapping and organization. I might have to think a bit more how to best implement it and what the ui wold be like.

[Mastartiq]

To keep the discussion open.

Although not urgent, a randomize button for the Control VST Plugin from the LMMS Host would be absolutely cool to be implemented. Useful, mostly, in case of synths and creative effects for random sounds, which we can further refine to suit our tastes and needs.

[headquarter8302]

A small, non-destructive sample editor within AFP or natively will save everyone time from needing to import and export files from Audacity to cut, splice, or stretch audio without leaving the DAW

[anytizer]

Nice to have: An undo/reset to previous random values in Organic would be great. When you clicked randomize button, and felt that the last one was just good to be preserved, than the current set of random values at hand, or seeking further random values.

Technically, I want to recover the values of the "random", that just got overwritten with the last click on Randomize button.

[Monospace-V]

Issues I would prioritize:
Previously when pitch bending there used to be nothing in the automation window. Now the notes are shown, but the note being automated isn't necessarily at zero, but at wherever it is in the piano roll, relative to some point the pattern of which I have been unable to figure out.
This is distracting. Additionally, it is confusing, as it gives the impression that the starting tone isn't whatever the note is but instead whatever 0's position corresponds to in the piano roll. I'd feel this is a relatively urgent issue since it's misleading and confusing behaviour.

Also, the current way the piano roll is highlighted only to the parts which exist in the song editor, gives the impression it has to be lengthened in SE before notes are placed in PR. This is just something we should be aware of in the future, since people are likely to not try to place notes on the dark part and instead try lengthening it in SE first. If we cannot shrink the piano roll is this behaviour adding anything?

Things that get in my way:
I can't use reaxcomp and reaeq in LMMS, presumably because LMMS cannot handle a variable number of vst parameters (I cannot recall exactly). It would be nice to be able to use the reaplugs in LMMS. I really like them.

Being able to show the notes in the corresponding automation track at the corresponding time would be really useful because I hear and decide where to put things by note and comparison is hard. I waste a lot of time trying to figure out which part of my automation editor corresponds to this note on the instrument piano roll. My primary use of automation is made time-consuming this way.
Being able to play back parts of automation and the track or song from different positions in the automation editor in this state would also be useful.

Long-term I'd like:
Shortcut editor. I want to use my mouse and no modifier key to manipulate loop points again.

I'm rather fond of legacysebb, so if it was made a setting toggle and developed upon further it would make it really useful. This has been suggested by other users in the server too.

[regulus79]

Now the notes are shown, but the note being automated isn't necessarily at zero, but at wherever it is in the piano roll, relative to some point the pattern of which I have been unable to figure out.

Fixed in #7465, although once #7759 is merged it hopefully won't be as much of an issue.

[ribbon-otter]

I dream of a way to non-destructively modify notes using something like an effect except it replaces each note with one or more modified notes. For example, sometimes I want to add a short grace-note at the start of each note, or experiment with a passage using staccato articulation, and currently that requires me to manually modify each note.

This could be thought of a plug-in interface or generalization of the stacking-and-arpeggio tab in the instrument setting window. Alternatively, it can be thought of as effects which happen at the note-level instead of the audio-data level.

This could be implemented with a midi-out to some external program and then accepting a midi-in to accept the modified notes back, which continue down the standard synthesized route. Then I could write plug-ins or use something like danferns/midi-fx to apply the modifications.

While non-destructive modifications would be nice, a way to bake the changes into notes (i.e. destructively modify) would be appreciated.

[Monospace-V]

I don't entirely understand what you're asking for.
You can select all notes with Ctrl-A and change the size of any note to change the size of all.
But you talk about "destructive" modifications. I think you might not be asking about this behaviour but I want to verify what you mean.

[ribbon-otter]

you can change the lengths of notes with ctrl-a, but that is a very limited tool. For example, I might want each note to be 50% of its current length, and not reduce the short notes to 0-time long notes. It is just like how the stacking-arpeggio tab allows me to do some automation, like automatically add notes above, but lots of things are impossible. For example, if I wanted to add the next note above in a particular key, that is impossible.

I want to be able to write plug-ins which convert a midi stream of events into a modified midi stream, just like how the current effect system allows plugins to be written which map a stream of waveform data into a modified stream of waveform data.

Strictly speaking, it doesn't need to work on midi, but I want to have effects that modify notes, rather than modifying sounds. (like how turning on stacking, replaces each note with a bunch more notes, but extendable)

For example, we could imagine a plug-in which accepted two midi streams, one which describes the chords, and one which describes the melody, and then it automatically writes a harmony track for the melody by selecting near-by notes that are in the correct cord. In non-destructive mode, I could change the melody or chords, and the harmony track would be automatically rewritten. (Just like how if you have an echo effect on the track, changing a note changes what echos are heard). With destructive mode, it would give me a bunch of new notes I could manually edit, that don't automatically update when the inputs change. Similar to nobschulth's second idea of freezing tracks, but for just for these note modification midi-level effects.

Or for example, for a more simple plug-in, we could imagine a plug-in which automatically adjusts the velocity of each note, to make the notes on the heavy beats louder and the notes of the soft beats quieter, something which would be tedious to do manually.

If non-destructive plug-ins were implemented, then "export track to midi" and then importing the midi track would work to get a destructively applied plug-in.

[regulus79]

Oooo yess, I also really want non-destructive midi effects like that!

Maybe one of these days I can look into the midi system and see how difficult it would be to implement something like that.

[nobschulth]

I have a pretty old laptop, so these two features would be great to save performance:

1. A way to completely disable tracks. Currently you can only mute them, but they still get rendered in the background and use CPU resources, even if you don't hear them.
2. A feature to freeze/bounce tracks. You can already do this by soloing the track, going to "Export tracks", export them and then importing that exported file as sample again, but this is of course not very usable. It also won't help the CPU usage, as the non-exported track is still active and can't be deactivated without moving all clips somewhere else.

[rdrpenguin04]

I feel like I remember these two were being looked into after the sample track refactors. I've been looking for these features myself, since I also don't have a super powerful laptop but I run computationally-expensive synths.

[Gabrielxd195]

SFZ Player: Although Carla exists and there are plugins for playing SFZ sound sources, it's always better to have an SFZ player integrated into LMMS. This program desperately needs an SFZ player because we compose a lot of orchestral songs, and Carla and the plugins for this are inefficient.

Drum Sampler: Honestly, I don't know why LMMS, being a program for composing electronic music, still doesn't have a built-in "multi-sample" player like Sitala, which allows you to play multiple samples from a single instrument or MIDI keyboard. LMMS desperately needs one to avoid using external plugins.

Pattern Editor: The pattern editor needs a change of philosophy and new features such as: a timeline, a record button, a preview in the Song Editor, connecting the track to a MIDI keyboard, and, above all, the ability to make clips independent within a single track for more variety.

There are many things I would like to see added to LMMS such as: Multitrack Recording and Audio Editing, LV2 and VST3 Plugins, but for now if you have to add some features I recommend the 3 above.

[regulus79]

The drum sampler idea sounds interesting. Now I'm wondering, it might not be too hard to make... Also related I remember #7648 which proposed a kind of drum view for the piano roll, which could make it easier if a drum sampler plugin were implemented.

Also, hopefully #7794 and #7559 might help with some of the pattern editor stuff once they're merged.

[Gabrielxd195]

The drum sampler idea sounds interesting. Now I'm wondering, it might not be too hard to make... Also related I remember #7648 which proposed a kind of drum view for the piano roll, which could make it easier if a drum sampler plugin were implemented.

Even the Pattern Editor itself could be the "Drum Sampler" we need, if they added the ability to make clips independent, a record button, preview in the SE, timeline, Loops buttons and the ability to connect the track to a MIDI keyboard, giving you the ability to mark the specific note of each audio sample or instrument within the Pattern Editor track, with that we would have a fully functional Drum Sampler, and without having to invent a new one, the Pattern Editor would be like MPC Beat, a Daw that uses rhythm patterns like LMMS but more vitaminized and complete.

[rdrpenguin04]

I've had making an SFZ player on my todo list for a while, but I'm not very confident in good C++, and SFZ requires a lot of fairly repetitive code. I'll look into it at some point though; until then, sforzando is my go-to for SFZ playing.

[Gabrielxd195]

I've had making an SFZ player on my todo list for a while, but I'm not very confident in good C++, and SFZ requires a lot of fairly repetitive code. I'll look into it at some point though; until then, sforzando is my go-to for SFZ playing.

If I were a programmer, I would get involved in this project so we can have a good SFZ player, because neither Sforzando, nor Sfizz and the other attempts at sfz players on Linux are useless, or have some bug or crash when you load a large sound font and Carla is horribly poor at running sfz.

[rdrpenguin04]

To be clear, I run sforzando on Linux. If you're having issues running the sforzando VST on Linux, ping me in the Discord; I can try to help

[eugenialoli]

VST3 support.

Is it a problem of manpower, or a problem of money to get this supported? If we could get a fund going, could this get implemented before the next major version?

[messmerd]

From what I understand, the server hosting the website is seeing some huge CPU spikes at certain times of the day, possibly due to requests from bots. We're working to troubleshoot the cause of it, but it may be a while before things are back to normal.

In the meantime, if you need to download LMMS, you can find stable/alpha releases here: https://github.com/LMMS/lmms/releases

[eugenialoli]

Thanks, but I was after the nightlies you see... :)

[messmerd]

Of course :)

It's a little trickier getting the nightlies manually, but here's how you can do it:

• Go to the commits page
• To the right of the commit you want, there should be a green check mark. (Unfortunately the last couple commits have build failures for Windows on ARM64, so there's a red X, though those commits can still be used if you're not on ARM64 Windows.)
• Click the green check mark (or red X), then click "Details" next to the OS/architecture you're using.
• Expand the "Upload artifacts" section (may need to scroll down a bit to find it)
• Click the "Artifact download URL" at the end of the "Upload artifacts" section to download the nightly build

[messmerd]

I just learned about this 3rd party website that provides nightly links for GitHub repos: https://nightly.link/LMMS/lmms/workflows/build/master

It's a lot easier to use than the instructions I just gave, so I'd recommend it.

[headquarter8302]

It's a lot easier to use than the instructions I just gave, so I'd recommend it.

Or just go to the Actions tab, filter by build actions, and go to the latest succeeding workflow with the green tick. That's also equally easy :)

[ArsenPutch]

1 The ability to record audio and MIDI from the arrangement window.
2 Using additional tracks as messages.
3 Using VST3 plugins
4 Adding effects that resemble guitar pedals.
5 Changing the interface in the likeness of BandLab
6 So that there are VST lists in the effects and in the VeSTige
7 AudioFileProcessor should have a crossfading function after the loop.
8 Adding DrumPads for drum samples except for the sequencer.
9 Adding a built-in plugin similar to Serum where there is additive, wave table and sampling, like CMI Fairlight

[anytizer]

An inbuilt command line feature to convert between the file formats. eg. .mmpz, .xptz, to .mmp, .xpt and vice-versa.

[Monospace-V]

Doesn't lmms dump convert between MMP and mmpz? I wonder if it can do similarly for xpt and xptz.

[anytizer]

Looks like I can surely dump xml on screen, but not to a file using Win11. lmms dump project.mmpz > project.mmp fails producing 0 bytes filesize. Under Ubuntu: .mmp file produces along with an on-screen message: SocketNotifier: Can only be used with threads started with QThread. Though not fully necessary, a remote connection over ssh says: qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found. This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem..

We could skip loading the gui for such command line features.

[charnam]

Currently, the reason why I can't switch to LMMS full-time for music creation is the window management. As a Linux user, I simply cannot daily-drive a program based on window-management strategies that make me feel like I'm back at square one with Windows.

However, I feel LMMS would be so much more usable if it had more window management shortcuts. Or better yet, if there were some option to have windows decoupled from the application itself, so as to let the OS window manager decide things like placement.

If I'm going to be honest, I feel like I'm missing something when I look into the preferences menu. There are so many things that I'd like to be able to change, but there are very few options, and most of the existing ones are for very technical things that I don't need to be changing. Having a simple "keyboard shortcuts" menu, at least, would make LMMS' usability so much better.

Again, all opinion based, I don't mean to criticize the project. I love the idea of LMMS, but it just seems to be executed in a very weird way, and I'm not able to use it very well due to my keyboard-centric muscle memory, especially with a yucky trackpad. I've had an idea, for a while, to create an X session on my computer specifically for LMMS, since it is itself a window manager in a way, and configure keyboard shortcuts, as well as super+drag on windows, to make the app more usable.

The issue here is that I don't know a thing about C++ or Qt, so maybe if I learn all of that, I can finally set up my ideal LMMS setup and actually start making music with it. I probably won't ever end up doing that, though, so in conclusion, it'd be nice to have a keyboard shortcuts menu and proper window management features, such as super+drag.

[messmerd]

There's a PR that allows windows to be detached, but progress on it has stalled: #3532

[JMii63]

if I remember correctly, you can use the function keys to show/hide certain elements.

[charnam]

if I remember correctly, you can use the function keys to show/hide certain elements.

It'd require a custom configuration from me, in order to change the shortcuts or bind different keys to "emulate" these shortcuts, and even then, these shortcuts don't solve my problems, which is why I don't really find this idea helpful. Do we have a "maximize / restore active window" toggle shortcut? Do we have a "close active window" shortcut? I assume not, at the moment. It'd really be easier to have a menu where all of the shortcuts live, and an available "remap shortcut" which presents a dialog to press a key. Or, even a small textbox to type something simple like Control+L.

Again, I'd try to fix every issue I have myself in my own repo, and/or submit a PR, but I really don't have time to mess with Qt or C++ at the moment; I currently have no experience in either one. That's not to mention the weird separation of plugins like ZynAddSubFX, which ideally would be in their own LMMS-contained windows. I assume this isn't the case due to protocol incompatibility, which is perfectly understandable, but if I'm going to be honest, is just unfortunate, and really makes me question why sub-windows aren't just separated from LMMS itself. Yes, I know that LMMS has a somewhat "old" codebase, but it's the little inconveniences and barriers to "just making music" which really make me prefer my more simple, less feature-complete alternatives.

I guess this just isn't the right program for me; not every tool can be perfect. I do appreciate the work going into this program, but again, due to the problems I face while attempting to use it, I can't daily-drive LMMS as my main music creation application.

[guiguex]

A pure WebView/WebGPU/WebAudio LMMS using WASM DSP cores (FaustWASM, fftprocessor, ffmpeg-wasm, libsndfile-wasm, sfzparser, WebAudio decoders) and sandboxed native bridges could handle CLAP/VST3, SF2, SFZ, and full Faust ecosystems at near-native speed—true next-gen DAW potential. Qt stays the hard bottleneck, outdated for low-latency, GPU-driven modular workflows. Qt has become a legacy monolith — bloated, closed, and incompatible with the speed and openness of modern web-native DAW architectures.

[messmerd]

The CLAP folks have been working on standardizing a WASM version of the CLAP format called WCLAP, and a couple months ago released an experimental WebView extension. This is something I'd eventually like to support in LMMS.

[MilesWK]

I'm not a user, but I can tell you why I am not one:

The UI looks really clunky. I am a music producer with releases on Spotify, iTunes, etc. I have been using Logic Pro (apple) and love it for that reason
The instruments. I am one who likes acoustic and natural instruments. Even free software has some great instruments.

I do like that it is cross platform, but many tools such as Pro Tools has that

I don't want to be rude, I am simply giving you some feedback so you can improve, but again, I haven't ever used this product, so as they say, don't judge a book by its cover

[headquarter8302]

Hey there. If you can, perhaps you can point out which parts of the UI look clunky?

[JMii63]

i know it sounds dumb but in fl studio and garageband you can give the tracks little icons and I really want that in LMMS. Also changing the color of the track doesn’t change the color of the grid on that track, purely aesthetic but it would look much better.

[regulus79]

Oooo I kinda like the idea of being able to change the grid color.

[JMii63]

it would change with the track color of course, just like in fl studio and garageband :D

[synka777]

I would like some settings to change the UI size in the GUI directly. I have a 15in laptop running linux (the resolution is something like 4k) so the font is super small on my screen... It would be really nice to have some settings to change the UI/font size, and maybe some hotkeys like we have in modern web browsers nowadays :)

[headquarter8302]

For the time being, you can set the environment variable QT_SCALE_FACTOR to any integer as a multiplier for the scale. LMMS respects this and will scale accordingly

[eatgritsbro]

Hey, I sample a lot in my production and it would be awesome if the below was added in a future release:

• Time stretching audio samples
• Slicing and chopping audio clips natively in LMMS
• A vector-based used for better scaling of UI elements on larger screens

I appreciate all the work you do!

[headquarter8302]

We have (partially) implemented some of your requests in our master/nightly builds:

1. Slicing and chopping audio can be achieved with the cut tool, and the new SlicerT instrument
2. We're slowly replacing a lot of our bitmap visual elements with vector files, thanks to @rubiefawn

Feel free to use these nightly versions