LMN 3: An Open-Source DAW-in-a-Box

The LMN-3 is an open-source synth/sampler/sequencer/DAW-in-a-box. You can find the collection of all LMN-3 repositories here:
github.com/FundamentalFrequency
Build guide can be found here:
github.com/FundamentalFrequen...
00:00 - Introduction
00:31 - General Settings
00:55 - Tracks Screen Overview
01:42 - Plugins Screen Overview
02:06 - Drum Sampler Overview
02:28 - Step Sequencer Overview
03:19 - Drum Programming
04:11 - Sampler Overview
05:10 - Bass Sequencing
05:39 - Clip Cut/Paste
06:02 - 4OSC Synth Overview
07:24 - Adding Effects
08:07 - Recording
08:51 - Editing, Loop Controls, Saving, and Track Addition/Deletion
09:37 - Mixer Overview
10:19 - Pitch Bend
10:42 - Modifiers
11:20 - Project Rendering
11:31 - Implementation Overview

[@MakeSomething]

Holy cow, this is absolutely incredible! Amazing.

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

Thanks! I really appreciate that!

[@neosmoker]

@@fundamentalfrequency5110 Amazing work. Also there is still SO MUCH space for even more magic - MIDI input, microphone/line-in sampling, ARM enabled VSTs, integration (or just taking parts from) with Zynthian. Probably the sampler would be incredible feature that'd sell this project/device even more. Again, great job!

[@thailandertravel]

I’ll just open reason 5 and make beatport standard track in 5 minutes, this tech is retarded clever but not required reinventing an oblong wheel

[@TechTronix01]

Looks really practical

[@pileofstuff]

Thanks for mentioning this on the podcast. I doubt I would have found it otherwise.

[@loopop]

Nice! Looking forward to seeing how this develops!

[@AramAzhari]

Would love to see a loopop review!

[@mc2engineeringprof]

This looks and feels a lot like an open source op-1. That's incredibly impressive. Creating additional plugins and enhancing i/o options can really take this to the next level. I can easily see this becoming a great hardware hub where the focus is as much outside of the box as it is inside. One fast way to do this would be to incorporate a usb MIDI host and a single adat port. You've now got 16 audio channels and at least 16 MIDI channels. Toss in (possibly) CV ports and you've got something that can put high end workstations to shame in a handheld package. Keep it up!

[@pauljs75]

If you could somehow combine LMN 3 + Zynthian in the same box, then you have your budget answer to knock out the OP-1.

[@elinyobeats3391]

@@pauljs75 shall be no problem if you give the project some time as it is open source and the tracktion engine offers complete daw capabilities. Just a matter of time and how to implement it in the devices workflow and environment.

[@stipminovrasben1244]

Stop it! You're staring to make me burp out butterflies

[@garyhendrie4001]

Strange, thats exactly what i thought when i first glanded at it. Lets hope its a damn sight cheaper lol

[@neosmoker]

Looking at energy consumption it probably won't be an op-1. Raspberry + Teensy will eat up 6xAA battery pack within few hours, it will be also much heavier. There was a project - OTTO, that was based only on Teensy and some STM, but was abandoned. The project is great, the machine still have a lot of free, unused processing power on board, so it can grow in terms of features, but this is something than OPs.

[@h0wdyh0lt0]

If you go to the GIThub repository you can contribute to his work, I will say, every single person who has been bitching about the OP1 Field and TX-6 should be contributing to this project and watching in earnest. This is absolutely one of the most impressive DIY projects I've ever seen. Subbed and supported. I'm still reeling over here.

[@michaels5166]

David, thank you..Every time i say this,people want to get mad,to stop complaining and get off their azz and DO Something,make somethingg.

[@neosmoker]

It seems this project needs now some management - looks like a lot of people would be able to invest some time into this one.

[@roxyamused]

I haven't really noticed anyone "bitching" about the field, maybe critiqueing that it's not a huge improvement since the original OP-1 came out, and that it's laughably expensive as this video easily showcases albeit indirectly. I'm happy if you can understand all of this GitHub, diy, soldering pcb board stuff. Though I find it weird how many technically minded people don't understand that other people may not, nor will ever, have that ability. There's plenty of musicians who can't solder together a small computer- let alone ever even twist a single filter frequency knob.

[@gotoastal]

Anyone that wants to contribute needs to create a Microsoft GitHub account though and give away personal information

[@h0wdyh0lt0]

@@roxyamused My comment was fairly flippant, so maybe the point wasn't clear. The bitching I'm talking about is precisely what your response has confirmed. Tons of people, who know nothing about developing a product, swarming a companies social posts and complaining about A:the price and B: the improvements over last gen when they don't even have one in hand to know what they are talking about. There is a HUGE DIY community in the audio space. If someone doesn't want to do the soldering on an open source build there are likely tons of people in the community who will offer to do it for a non-extortionist fee. OR may even even trade services for something you are good at yourself. As a matter of fact, I intend to do just that as I have the worst soldering skills on earth and I don't want to risk messing it up. There's this strange thing in society where folks like to say "I could build that cheaper myself" or some variation of that...and it's not only ignorant, it's disrespectful. The way to change that is to actually try and build it yourself. You'll get it "Cheaper" (which is arguable since you will have to spend lots of your time (which is money) learning and doing the assembly yourself). But you will come out of it with a new appreciation for what goes into developing a product. This is who my comment was aimed at, and if you aren't seeing those comments that's ok, but I'm not sure how since there are literally thousands of them between Instagram and KZbin. If you don't want to build it yourself, that's totally fine! That's why there's a $1400.00 and a $2000.00 version that is super polished, made from premium materials and completely assembled for you! If you want to pay maybe... $1000.00 or less, then you might be able to do that by purchasing the parts list, asking someone in the community to assemble it and paying for their time. Just for full transparency. I own both the OP-1 and the Field. I love them. There is a MASSIVE improvement from original to the field. The audio processing alone is worth the upgrade. But that's also very subjective I realize. I have also already supported this project and hope to give my time in ways I can help so that we can create more options for everyone and every budget. I hope you'll get involved with the community on Github and poke around a bit. There are several folks already on there who aren't "technically minded" and are still contributing and asking for help where needed. This is a really, really awesome project and it provides a great opportunity for folks to learn, benefit and add value to the audio community. Sorry, I'm very passionate about the maker community. Thanks for your thoughts. I totally hear you on some stuff being outside folks comfort zones. I suppose that's the trade-off between DIY and pay the price for retail.

[@ozlion152]

Dude I'm an industrial designer and I'd be super happy to help you out on that angle because this project deserves full attention

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

Awesome bro yeah could definitely use any help I can get. Feel free to start a discussion on the GitHub discussions tab if you have any thoughts

[@ozlion152]

On it, cheers again for throwing in awesome idea to the community :)

[@craxx2368]

@@ozlion152 looking forward to your contribution :) this is an awesome project!

[@nicolasjonasson4820]

what ozlion152 said

[@stulora3172]

Please! I would buy a kit!

[@RND_ADV_X]

This one thing could become someone's entire hobby for a decade...

[@designisblank]

Damn. Mad respect to you. I bought an OP-1 (im not a musician, but a guy with way too many hobbies) and I couldn't stomach the cost and ultimately returned it. I loved playing with it, and this looks like an AMAZING way to get back into the hobby. I plan on building one.

[@Nick-yq5uz]

“I’m not a musician but a guy with way too many hobbies” oof I felt that.

[@briannhinton]

Very op-1 like. Great to see an open source project like this. Nice work everyone that contributed.

[@allorgansnobody]

as far as I can tell it's just the one guy

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

@@allorgansnobody yes so far it’s just been me. But that will change!

[@raoul355]

@@fundamentalfrequency5110 hats off man.

[@Bobl0blaw]

This is the first video in a while that has motivated me to want to build and add to an open source project. I can’t wait to see what the community comes up with, the “maker” niche is already pretty popular. I would recommend well edited tiktoks that show off the features and give a quick overview of the process involved. I’ve seen a bunch of DIY music equipment videos on my feed and it would bring more ideas to the project. Great job dude!

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

Yeah the next build I do I’ll film for the tiktok.

[@tissuepaper9962]

The intersection between people who care about FOSS and the people who will willingly use TikTok is pretty small. Or maybe I just really hate TikTok and have a compulsion to argue against it at every opportunity. Yeah, probably the second one.

[@DavidLindes]

@@tissuepaper9962 well, you're at least not alone. :)

[@turbochargedfilms]

@@tissuepaper9962 the intersection between people who care about FOSS and TikTok may be small, but the intersection between people and musicians who like cool looking shit and TikTok users is far wider. I mean, I wish it wasn't but yknow (Don't take any of this too seriously TikTok is straight banned in my country lol)

[@billysbikes8671]

@@turbochargedfilms your lucky wish it was banned in my country

[@samwoletz]

Incredibly impressive for a solo project. You’re pushing music making forward

[@LocalManMakesMusic]

Mom, can we get an OP-1? Mom: “We have an OP-1 at home” Just kidding, this looks amazing!

[@oskari3659]

More like other way around, Mom can we get an LMN3? Mom:"We have LMN3 at home" LMN3 at home: (is actually just OP1)

[@danilashutov1149]

This is the best implementation of an autonomous DAW I ever saw. I get that this is an open source hobby project, but IMO a product like this can make a lot of devices on the market obsolete. Especially because it's OS. Wish you best of luck and keep up the good work!

[@marcus268]

Adding one ARM vst, with resampling to other track -> function would propel this to a market leader!

[@JorbLovesGear]

Great work, hope to see more of these around

[@robertrossignol4445]

jorb seal of approval

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

Thanks man!

[@pauljs75]

If this could somehow be integrated and combined with Zynthian (also open source and running on Raspberry Pi), then it'd really be something amazing. You'd have access to pretty much any VST that could run on it on top of what there is now. Thus a library of 100's of soft-synths being available.

[@mertkarakas7863]

this is what ultimately every maker dreams of making. topped OP1 a miles away, definitelty checking the repo!!

[@Jchot]

Holy fuck, that is so much design/coding work. I never had quite enough executive function to pin coding down as a skill

[@ogsandwich]

Awesome! My OP-1 just told me to build one so it has a new friend, I may just comply. Also its jealous that sequences are inserted into track automatically without recording to tape.

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

Listen to your OP-1

[@therealmess6658]

@@fundamentalfrequency5110 my OP-1 with a busted screen is telling me the same thing.

[@NickRamos]

This project is incredible, and being open-source I'm even more excited about what will come out of it. Amazing work!

[@SeraphimKnight]

There should probably a screen under the encoders showing what they each do on any given screen... Or at least have a way to color-code the encoder functions to what's being displayed, kinda like what the OP-1 does in its interface. Also I highly suggest implementing a redo button as well. Otherwise amazing job.

[@bigtys7900]

This is amazing, such a powerful small unit that has every essential feature!

[@h0wdyh0lt0]

Daaaamn. Way to make an entrance onto KZbin, friend. This is amazing. Insanely exciting. If anyone wants to help with UI or Case design for this I'd be glad to lend my design/prototyping skillset, given appropriate time. Wow. Congrats on all the hard work here.

[@finitesound]

Looks great! Excited to see how this develops.

[@frogwav]

This is sick, it looks so polished! Great job!

[@tylertbone9]

One of the sickest things I’ve seen in a bit. Great work!

[@SKIWOK]

I stayed hype the whole video, I can’t wait to see what this turns into. This is FIREEEEEEE

[@iammatthewbirch]

Truly brilliant, hats off to you and the amazing work put in to this. Hardware and software looks bloody brilliant.

[@ganjayx]

Awesome work man! Hope your project gets all the attention it deserves from the community!

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

Thank you!

[@MatiasLaney]

What an awesome job! This denotes hard work at its finest

[@TheVoidMachine]

This is absolutely fantastic! The possibilities for the LMN are potentially endless. I love that its open source

[@v64]

Awesome project! Incredibly impressive and the fact it's open source is a great gift to the world. Thank you!

[@extralifedisco]

Absolutely amazing work mate! I love the keyswitch interface and keyboard. The UI is beautiful and surprisingly visible for such a small screen. That all this runs on such lightweight embedded hardware is miraculous. This takes what has been done with trackers in recent years and brings the benefits of visual UI design. I can think of quite a number of small suggestions for the UI and DAW itself but I think I may have to build one before I really can sink my teeth into it. I will have a look at the build files and check them out shortly. If I were to give one big suggestion it would be to add more visibility to the encoder's function on each screen. A standardized way to do this is on stuff like the DSI tetra, Elektron digi series, or waldorf blofeld, which is to put labels for the encoders in a geometrically similar arrangement, e.g. the rotary controls would display as a row along the top of the screen and the pushbutton functions on the bottom. Some screens may not benefit from this e.g. the mixer or 4OSC device, but certainly on the arrangement/song mode and the sequence mode, seeing labels for "Length/Grid/Select/Loop" would be super helpful. Screen real estate seems quite tight so perhaps these could pop in to be visible just for a few seconds after an encoder is turned or pressed, with the last-used function displayed in a brighter color. Alternately, tapping the lemon button could toggle this display on/off. Overall an incredible project and I thank you for making it open source! Can't wait to see how this develops.

[@SONWU]

I agree with these points. The tight integrations of encoder colors and screen UI is what makes it so special. It would be nice if the LMN would take the same route. Other than that it's already such a cool project....and I can't believe how much effort must have already been put into it.

[@engx3733]

I really like what you have done. Subbed because I want to help out with the project, it has great potential and I love the choice of buttons you used. Excellent work my friend!

[@mattwylie7675]

This is incredible, bringing an op-1-like feel, at a lower price, and being open source allows for the potential to be infinite. Amazing work mate!

[@sixstringedthing]

Now this is a homebrew project that ticks every single box in terms of being relevant to my interests. Great work, thanks for sharing and open-sourcing this!

[@floatingdoor]

Know this could be an OP-1 competitor makes me so damn happy.

[@suntzu6122]

Aesthetically incredible. NICE UI. Seems very simple / elegant

[@schack]

This has got to be the most amazing open-source project I've ever seen!! Just WAUW!!

[@youjuhwan9697]

I'm in love with this now. Hope there is a way to recording external source to this machine and bring it into sampler in future :) love the way you making old school style keyboard here!! amazing work!!

[@WoodyW2k]

Huge congrats on a very polished MVP. I will be following this at a minimum and I hope to find some time to get involved or support more.

[@C0llinsW0rth.]

Literally, the fact that there's an undo button puts it ahead of the op1 and op1 field. Full stop.

[@jimmy_jamesjams_a_lot4171]

I LOVE IT!! How you’ve made this look a bit like that Op-1, but yet, something TOTALLY familiar still to anyone who is familiar with those gorgeous pieces of old-school Hewlett-Packard test equipment! Whenever I see those extruded aluminum T-slots with PCBs that slide into a backplane, THAT brings some wonderfully welcome memories that remind me that still while we can’t go back to doing stuff quite that well today, we can sure at least learn a thing or two from those days and give it our best shot and nod to it!!

[@jeremybnz]

Dude, this is incredible, well done!!

[@justintyler4814]

I really needed to see this. Ty for making it dude.

[@CryptoDefender]

This is way beyond amazing! Congratulations.👏👏👏👏👏

[@julianbarker6594]

Awesome! such a cool design cant wait to see where it goes

[@imatt888]

WOW! Yes. the work you have put in is brilliant!

[@DisposablePlanet]

This is an amazing invention - great work on this project!

[@fundamentalfrequency5110]

Thanks!

[@RyanBoggs]

Absolutely genius engineering. I look forward to see where this project goes next.

[@zachshult]

Love this, keep it up. Excited to see where this goes

[@HowieStephens]

Wuuuut this is incredible, outstanding work!

[@HP30]

I was just wondering if there was an open source version of the OP-1, this is amazing can’t wait to build this thanks!!

[@pneumachina]

absolutely stunning! love it!

[@reggiep75]

Very interesting project and good for people seeking to just get music going within minutes. Digital buskers gonna love this!

[@maxxkarales64]

Looks sick, can't wait for a kit

[@miettoisdev]

man, nailed the concept! I wanted badly to build something like this myself. cool stuff.

[@dhinas9444]

Finally. The exact thing we have been looking for!

[@GuderII]

This is crazy man. Awesome job you had.

[@arxaaron]

Very excited to see this project. Along the lines of work I've just started into. Looking forward to contributing to advancing features, most especially open source sound libraries with MPE support for my recently acquired Linnstrument.

[@fuckinzell]

It’s like an open source OP-1 fused with a 1010Blackbox. I might have to build one of these at some point!

[@AlanPope]

What a wonderful project. Nice work.

[@matt-lang]

This is so cool! Awesome work on this

[@grantcampbell2462]

This is extremely rad. I've watched this video like 4 times today and am still doing over the LMN. I've gotta get my hands on a Raspberry Pi so I can put one together.

[@ZackLondres]

open source everything! i love youre existance. its crazy how much companies are charging for these types of devices. this is perfect.

[@ryounyan]

amazing. i love this concept. amazing work.

[@konunevermind1017]

Very cool workflow!!! I will keep my eyes on this!!!

[@Klausterfull]

Amazing project!! Thanks for sharing!! ❤️

[@CausticCatastrophe]

undo button! this was so elegantly designed!

[@albert4392]

My mind blown after watching this video. Great work!

[@maroon6315]

This is so exciting! Great job :)

[@DSLRDIYCNC]

that's just outstanding 😱😱😱 great work

[@philippeduhart]

This looks really cool. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[@fuckoff505]

Amazing work. I also love that you drop it the same time as field 🤣

[@HanjoSynth]

this is amazing man congrats!

[@Leo9ine]

I love it! I'm definitely interested in helping with the UX and design, both functional and aesthetic. Can't code to save my life, but UX and industrial design are my comfort zone.

[@RuthlessMojo]

This is absolutely awesome. So impressive. I need to build this....

[@axs203]

This is my kind of project. I've been thinking about this myself! This is just the thing i had in mind.

[@wayne_lambright]

This is very well done.

[@nespin0la898]

Will definitely watch how this project develops

[@BluzBazz]

Flat out incredible!

[@docteurzoidberg]

amazing . will build one for sure

[@thepanda666]

This is amazing and inspiring. Well done sir!!!!!

[@Alex140803]

Wish you success with this project its really cool ! Finally got a competitor to Teenage engeneering OP-1

[@KatzRool]

absolutely legendary contribution

[@RichardCharter]

Can't wait to see more!

[@LUXXY1984]

Great vid mate, love open source

[@xanZion1]

This has the potential to be much better than the OP1, step sequencer alone is already leaps and bounds ahead.

[@NicVigil]

Amazing work !

[@Solidsoundfx]

Dame ! Super dope work !!!!

[@cjlewis79]

Building one of these currently. mine looks like a piano thanks to a 3d printer. So much fun to build, i got to reacquaint myself with soldering again, have some more fun coding, it is so much fun to build and learn and will definitely support its growth!!

[@cjlewis79]

Hardest thing to find for this, the nuts and bolts. lol

[@lNo0n3]

I have seen one with piano keys and colored buttons, very nice, gonna print those one for myself :)

[@DJDiskmachine]

Very very excellent work, super interesting to see where it goes from here :)

[@glassrocketstair]

This is awesome! Nice work

[@Patric1976]

This is sooooo very cool! Really want to build one!

[@Yuzuki1337]

This seems like such a cool project! Definitely wanna make one when I'm a little less broke :) Huge thanks for doing this and sharing it with the community!

[@DannySullivanMusic]

When life gives you LMN, make great music

[@Y1001]

Pretty crazy. Good work.

[@enoodle]

This is sick wish you luck in development!

[@stephenmandelbaum2027]

Good stuff, definitely going to keep my eyes on this.

[@roxyamused]

These kinds of things are alway great for people who have the electronics making background to be able to understand how to it. I have no technical expertise in making diy electronics and am happy that anybody can.

[@nineeast8730]

Great job. I need to learn programming for synthesizers. It will go great with my synth design skillset. Thanks for the inspiration.

[@_truck]

Veeeery interesting. This is kindof like if the OP-1, Live, and the Cirklon had a child. Very impressed with how you’ve melded so many UI paradigms (some very OP-1 features in the metronome volume, loop points, etc, some very Cirklon features in the flow of the sequencer, etc) Really interested to see how this progresses. Will need to take a look at the build guide. Thanks for this!