Spekular's topic reminded me that I wanted to share some thoughts about
how other sequencers are introduces in their websites.
This is not made to suggest to copy commercial products pages, since
they are really different to us. But in the conclusion I'd like to share
my opinions with you.
Here's what I'll do: I'll read the "What's this program" homepages and
see how LMMS compares to those statements.
_____________
Let's start with FLStudio, because LMMS started as a free alternative to it.
Imageline prefers to show what's new in the last version of FLStudio,
and it doesn't describe FLStudio itself.
http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/
They are mostly about their GUI:
- Fully reworked scalable interface: now their GUI adapts to any screen
size. We've had it for years °-°
- Multi-touch. So they worked on touch screen users. I'm a touch screen
user, and I think it's a good improvement. Still it's not really important.
- New Category tabs and /the ability to delete content on
right-click/:this got me.We do have folders in our browser, and we are
able to delete them by going in the LMMS program files. But I never
thought any user would have asked to make it simple.
- Piano roll, you can now remove auto-zoom: We don't have auto zoom in
piano roll, yet it seems some users don't like it. Yey
- Drag'n'drop: multiple files can be taken from the Windows file browser
to the program Playlist (which is the same as our Song Editor). I
actually think this feature is a mess, but it might just be my opinion...
- Stepsequencer: you can use either this or the piano-roll. We do not
have a step sequencer
- Fruity Envelope Controller: Updated, 8 Articulators, Mod X/Y env,
Smart Knobs, New UI. Yes, this is the only new feature about audio.
- Fruity Keyboard Controller: Attack smoothing, new UI.
If we scroll down, we see a list of windows, but no description.
What about the video? It describes new features too. LMMS video is
actually so much better that theirs made me smile.
So how does the new user know what FL Studio does? Well, not from the
website.
_____________
Now let's move to Ableton Live. I know it's a bit different from LMMS,
but since it seems it's heavily used...
What is Live? Ableton decided to write a page to present it to the newcomer.
https://www.ableton.com/en/live/
First of all, they state that Live has what /you need/, and that /if
/you have used music software before you know half of Live.
5 Synths and 3 Samplers (and support of VST, as said in the video)
We have 15 Synths, 1 Sampler as well as support for VST, Pat and Sf2
390 Drum Kits (+ Downloadable paid kits)
We have one large kit of sounds, plus we link to H2 drumkits.
25 Packs (of presets)
We do have a lot of presets, but
4000 Loops (including MIDI ones)
We don't provide loops since LMMS is not ready for them atm. Plus,
they are not really that important
They provide a slide-list.
Operator: "A versatile synthesizer combining frequency modulation and
subtractive synthesis"
We provide frequency, phase and amplitude modulation, as well as a
really good additive and/or subtractive synth inside Zyn
Sampler: "Sampling instrument with multisample playback and import as
well as profound sound design options."
We don't have something like it, but a bunch of AFP with all the
effects are a good match.
Analog – "Emulates the unique character of vintage analog synthesizers"
Whatever
Collision – "Physical modeling instrument for authentic mallet
percussion sounds and creative percussion"
Is our Mallets working? But even if, Collision seems to be more
complex and complete.
Tension – "Physical modeling string synthesizer"
We don't have it
Electric – "The sounds of classic electric pianos"
Well I don't know how well it works, but its GUI is quite little...
Our Zyn can do more I think
Drum Rack – "An instrument for layering samples, synths and effects in a
classic 16-pad grid"
We don't have this kind of feature, we can do drumsynth racks with
Zyn but we can't import audio files in it.
Simpler – an easy-to-use but powerful sampler with classic synthesis
parameters.
Basically the same as Audio File Processor, but without Functions.
Impulse – "A drum sampler with complex modulation capabilities"
I don't get what it is... It again seems similar to Audio File
Processor, but it has Transposition and Stretch (we lack of them, but we
can play a lower or higher note and fix the pitch with pitch-shifter effect)
Then they have 34 Audio Effects (we have more and faster ones. I saw in
a comparison video between it and Cubase that for every effect
processed, the sound is delayed a bit °-°)
And 7 "MIDI effects": Arpeggiator (we have it), Chord (Theirs lets you
select 6 notes to add), Note Lenght (we... don't... have it?), Pitch
(err.. that's an "effect"?), Random (we can achieve it with
arpeggiator), Scale (it's more complex than previous ones), Velocity
(whatever)
And stop, the rest of the page is about hardwares, community, downloads,
editions etc.
Nothing stops us from having a tab like this in our page, it would be fun :P
_____________
I wanted to do one about Mixcraft, but the page doesn't explain anything...
I think it's enough... Cubase or Logic are too different from LMMS to do
such a comparison.
*Conclusion*
I know that those two programs have a lot of features we lack of...
mostly GUI features. But as far as audio is concerned, we do have a lot
to offer.
What do we have now in the homepage?
We link to a Tutorial! It's a big plus compared to those other programs.
Next to it, we link to Download page.
All with a great video.
We briefly describe what LMMS is, does and has.
Then we... link to Download again.
Then we link to community pages for support, and to github for problems.
We invite the user to share what they do.
THEEEEEEEEN we let the user see some great screenshots of the program.
And then we list features.
So the big differences are:
FLStudio:
- Doesn't say anything about the program, only a welcome back for their
users
Ableton:
- Takes a lot of space to show features and then links to more content
and hardware to buy.
LMMS:
- Lets the video talk about the program, then suggest the user to get in
touch with the community. At the end of the page, a list of features is
shown.
After all this comparison and analysis what I think we should do is:
- Put the screenshots upper in the page, before (or maybe right after)
the "Take you Pick"
- State some of the features as a description of those screenshots
- Link to the Showcase page somehow (Let the program "speak for itself"
[cit])
- We do have a great list of tutorials here
<https://lmms.io/documentation/Video_tutorials>, I think they deserve a
place in the Homepage
What do you think about our homepage compared to others?
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