I am currently a LMMS user (and do some minor development there). I heard zrythm and am curious. Haven’t started using zrythm though. Can someone tell me similarities and differences between both.
Zrythm is (supposed to be - still no stable release) way more powerful. The goal is to be a full-fledged DAW and is already ahead of LMMS in terms of features. LMMS is more of a sequencer than a full DAW.
Similarities:
- Good MIDI editing UI/UX and both focusing mainly on electronic music production
- Both can record MIDI
- Cross platform & free (libre) software
Differences:
- LMMS is heavily influenced by FL Studio while Zrythm is mostly influenced by Cubase and Bitwig
- LMMS has more/better built-in plugins
- LMMS is older and more stable vs Zrythm is new-ish and still in beta
- Zrythm supports all major plugin formats (thanks to Carla) vs LMMS only supports VST2 and LADSPA
- LMMS has no support for audio tracks or audio recording/editing vs Zrythm does
- Zrythm allows region looping (the only libre DAW that has this AFAIK)
- Zrythm has more modulation options (you can connect pretty much anything to anywhere)
- Zrythm has opt-out plugin sandboxing so it won’t crash if a plugin crashes
- Zrythm has chord assistance (chord track and chord pad) - the only libre DAW that has this AFAIK
- LMMS has a better drum pattern editor
- Zrythm is written in C vs LMMS is written in C++
In my opinion, LMMS is perfect for beginner producers, but it’s not good enough if you want a full DAW because it lacks features.
This is a terribly lazy question to ask. You should be reading documentation, trying thing out and as needed, and then asking specific questions.