Where to get free software "sound packs" and "VSTs" for LMMS?
Anybody have any good sources? :)
I've been to vst4free.com, but they seem to only have files for the two major proprietary OSes.
I've never used LMMS, so I can't give you any help specific to that DAW. Here's how I usually set up Trisquel for working with audio. (Note that this will significantly complicate your audio setup. You may want to backup your system or create another user account and try it there so that if it doesn't work for you your previous setup is intact.)
(1) Add the KXStudio repositories via the instructions on this page[1]. Then go to "Software & Updates" or Synaptic and remove any PPA added that says "non-free". I'm not sure what's in the non-free ones, but I've checked the license of every application[2] and plugin[3] listed on their site and they are all free.
(2) Add your user to the audio group with
$ sudo usermod -a -G audio $USER
(3) Install a lowlatency kernel with
$ sudo apt install linux-lowlatency
(4) Install the 'cadence' package. It's from the KXStudio repository and includes several tools that are useful for configuring and using JACK Audio Connection Kit[4]. Launch the program "Cadence", select "Auto-start JACK or LADISH at login", and click on "Configure". In the menu that launches, if the driver selected is "Dummy" change it to "ALSA". Close Cadence.
(5a) If you are using a different sound card (e.g. a USB audio interface) for audio programs such as your DAW, from the sound card you'll use for other audio (Abrowser, RhythmBox, system sounds, etc.), then skip this step and do (5b) instead. If you'll be using one sound card for everything, install the package 'pulseaudio-module-jack", launch Cadence again, and under "JACK Bridges" click on "PulseAudio". Make sure that "Auto-start at login" is selected, and if it says "PulseAudio is started but not bridged" then click "Start". Close Cadence.
(5b) Only do this if you did not do (5a) because you plan to use a second sound card for working with audio. Open "Cadence" and click "Configure". Change Device/Interface" to the second soundcard.
(6) Reboot your computer.
(7) Make sure pulseaudio still works. Open Cadence and under "JACK Bridges" click "PulseAudio". If you did (5a) it should say "PulseAudio is started but not bridged". If you did (5b) it should say "PulseAudio is started and bridged to JACK". If not, make sure "Auto-start at login is selected" and log in/out. Once everything looks good there, try playing something in Abrowser or your preferred media player and make sure you have sound.
(8) Launch "Catia", either directly or from the "Tools" tab in Cadence. You'll see a flowchart. If you did (5a) the flowchart should contain "PulseAudio sink" and "PulseAudio source". All audio to/from programs using pulseaudio goes through here. If you did (5b) these items won't be here, and pulseaudio should work as usual independently of what JACK is doing. Any program using JACK will appear as an item on the flowchart, and can have it's midi or audio input/output routed to/from any other programs input/output. Let's try that now.
(9) Install the package 'ardour'. Ardour is the DAW that I recommend. Launch Ardour and start a new session, selecting "JACK" not "ALSA". Ardour should appear on the flo
wchart in Catia. Add a new audio track and a new midi track. In Catia, you should see two new inputs appear for Ardour, one for the midi track and one for the audio trac
k. Now open VLC, open up preferences, go to Audio, and change output module to JACK. Now restart VLC and play a long file. While it's playing, VLC should appear in Catia,
with its outputs connected to your sound card's system out. Click on one of VLC's outputs and drag to the input for the audio track we created in Ardour. Now, go to Ard
our, click the red circle on the audio track to arm it for recording. Then up at the top left of Ardour click that red circle and then hit play. The expected behavior is
that JACK will begin recording VLC's output to the audio track. If this is what happens, then JACK is working and you're ready to go.
(10) Configure other programs[5] for use with JACK, install any plugins you're interested in from the KXStudio repo (they should all work well with Ardour and JACK).
[1] https://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Repositories
[2] https://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Applications
[3] https://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/Plugins
[4] http://jackaudio.org/
[5] http://jackaudio.org/applications/
Why not $ sudo apt install ardour?
> $ sudo apt install ardour
This won't give you any plugins, so it doesn't address your initial question.
It also won't install and configure JACK. Ardour won't work with pulseaudio. While pulseaudio does well at integrating with desktop environments in a convenient way, it's unsuitable for professional audio work. There are distros configured for JACK and Ardour out of the box, and GNU/Linux users who are musicians will often use and recommend one of those, but they include proprietary software, so instead I recommend configuring Trisquel to have their features.
Interesting! :)
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try them out:)