flstudio (whats missing for you?)

[arke]

I had a major problem a few days ago. I discovered far too late that FL doesn't recognise signals MIDI pedal signals, which was quite unfortunate after I'd just recorded my client's 6 minute piano piece to MIDI I booted up Tracktion and it worked straight away. I would have liked it if the MIDI implementation worked there instead of me having to get it working in another program.

You're not the only person complaining about that, which is why FL6 will have support for it

[jasonf]

better hardware support.. ie... more than one midi keyboard. the ability to setup the midi stuff for every plugin only once... i hate it when i load up atmosphere and have to link-to-controller 5 or more parameters every time, when i can just open reason and do a live performance with just a few clicks to add the devices.

also the new mixer doenst seem to solve my problem... who f**king cares its small I want to be able to READ the channels name.

h and mixer channel presets
-I wish project files would never corrupt ever. Many other hosts NEVER run into project file corruption.

1) the actual problem is with the plugins... i guess plugins arent made to work with fl... they are made to work with cubase pro tools and logic.. (and of course fl & the others but they are not that importand)

2) if it was the last project you saves / opened or somehting there is a folder called back-up i think? search your fl directory and youll find it. it only saves the last project opened or saved not sure tho.

[james0tucson]

I had a major problem a few days ago. I discovered far too late that FL doesn't recognise signals MIDI pedal signals, which was quite unfortunate after I'd just recorded my client's 6 minute piano piece to MIDI I booted up Tracktion and it worked straight away. I would have liked it if the MIDI implementation worked there instead of me having to get it working in another program.

This really was a strange thing for the developers to miss. The real surprise was they way they didn't consider it to be a problem. And the number of users who will act like you're the one with a problem, really bothers me. And frankly, I'm tired of hearing about how great FL6 will be.

I know there are workarounds for the pedal, but I don't really understand how to implement them, and I'm not particularly excited about doing some workaround each and every time I start up.

Any MIDI signal that comes on the channel should reach the generator, period. This goes for SYSEX to MIDI-out channels as well -- another shocking thing to discover does not work. What kind of sequencer app doesn't support SYSEX?

This stuff aggravates me to no end. I used to tell people that FL was the best value in midi sequencer software, but because of problems like these, which are apparently regarded as very low priority items by the developers, I no longer recommend it as heartily as I once did.

[tony tony chopper]

>>Any MIDI signal that comes on the channel should reach the generator, period


That's not FL's way of working, and we make it clear, so you should have chosen another sequencer.

First, FL only talks MIDI. Slides, per-note levels anyone? FL imports and exports MIDI, but no way I'd have based a sequencer on a 20+ years protocol. It's ok to translate latin, but no one speaks it anymore.

Second, FL's way of working is input/output, and both don't know each other. If you have a pedal, and the plugin supports that, then you can link both. If you don't have a pedal, and the plugin supports one, you can link anything else - a knob, a button, a joystick, even your voice, and more in the future. You can use your mod wheel to control the parameter you want.
It's more powerful but less direct - but we make it clear, and there are other sequencers for more directness.

[jack-the-pipe]

Hey guys, I posted this on the FL site and thought I should also put it here...

This feature needs to be included in FL for sure. I reckon that it would'nt be something hard to include either but let me know. I just moved my 60 gig sample library to a different partition. Instead of FL telling me that a sample is missing or is in a different location, it takes it upon itself to locate the file. Problem is, is that if two samples have the same name, there is no telling which one it will pick. I have a large sonic foundry library and they name their samples "Kick 01, Kick 02" and so forth, so in this situation, FL is likely to pick the wrong one. With a loop it would be easier to notice and then you could just use Windows' search function to find the right one, but with something as subtle as a kick you can easily be stumped as to why your song sounds different. Its not the drugs, its the FL sample finding feature. I hope other people feel the same.

If IL could just implement a pop up that says something like ... "FL has noticed that KICK 01 is no longer in its original location (G:\Sample CDs\Sonic Foundry\Mac Money\One Shots\Kick 01.wav) Would you like FL to attempt to locate it or would you like to locate it your damn self?". And then I could pick an option. As it is now FL doesnt even consider that KICK 01 was in a folder called Sonic Foundry. FL pulled from a Big Fish Audio folder so it shows that it probably just picks the first one it finds which isnt too reliable at all. I think ACID has this feature in their program and it would help me and others out a ton. I will be less nervous about moving around a sample library or doing something simple like condensing folders. Maybe IL could call it the "JACK-THE-PIPE SAMPLE FINDER UTILITY" in honor of me. Hah. But seriously, can this happen?

Thanks.

[jack-the-pipe]

This was SCOTTs (FL ADMIN) reply (in bold) followed by my reply in italics. What do you think about this? ALSO, IS THERE ANY WAY TO TRANSPOSE MULTIPLE CHANNELS (without using the pitch slider)?

I WROTE: I had 58 files with the name ``kick`` so you can imagine.

SCOTT WROTE: And so you are back to your original feature, you get to locate them yourself

I WROTE: 'Would you like FL to attempt to locate it or would you like to locate it your damn self?'

SCOTT WROTE: I assume your real problem with the auto-load is that you are not aware the wrong sample was loaded...and may not ever be, unless you notice something sounds wrong?

In the mean time, one thing I do is make sure that all my samples have unique names (as far as possible).

Regards Scott (FL STAFF)

Then I replied in my next message with (orange italic)...

SCOTT WROTE: And so you are back to your original feature, you get to locate them yourself
Locating them myself isnt a hassle but to have the option with the directory structure noted would be more suitable. First so you can be aware and then you can see where the file used to be. Then its a no brainer, and I could find all my correct samples in less than a minute. Resave my project and vuala.

The real problem is, is that after putting a song off for a month and working on other things you can easily forget where you got a kick from. Even worse, you could have someone important in your studio and you say "check this song out, you'll love it..." you load up the song, everything LOOKS fine, you press play and feel like an idiot because your kick which is suppposed to sound like a heavy reverberated neptune kick that nearly blows off the woofer in your face really ends up sounding like a cheap elementary school gym whistle with a lot of reverb. Your snare instead of being snappy and up in the mids, sounds like a fart. Whistles and farts dont go with hip hop artists, or any artists as far as im concerned. Meanwhile, Mr. Bigshot that could get you signed is looking at you like "dude, what the hell is up with those drums". Then you say "oh, FL chose the wrong kick and snare for me, let me look through these 430 freaking kicks and snares that I have to find the right one, then you'll love the song". Meanwhile he is out the door, wondering what drugs you're on. THIS has HAPPENED to ME. Not as serious and with nobody that mattered but what if it is? This missing feature could ruin a kids life.

SCOTT WROTE: I assume your real problem with the auto-load is that you are not aware the wrong sample was loaded...and may not ever be, unless you notice something sounds wrong?
Exactly. Back to the whistle and fart beat. And even some more subtle differences could ruin a song and make it lose its umph. You dont have to notice, but it just doesnt feel the same. Is it my speakers? Is it my mixer? What is the eq? Is it this new poster I put up? How about the bookshelf? Is it FL? You end up looking through similarly named files just to be sure, and it is a waste of time. Lose the inspiration, curse FL and end up calling the N.W. And most importantly, the pop up should have the previous location, so I could narrow it down and not look through 400 subfolders.

SCOTT WROTE: In the mean time, one thing I do is make sure that all my samples have unique names (as far as possible).
Not possible. I work with another producer that has his separate studio. We have the exact same sample library. If I move my samples to the G:/ partition, he has to do follow my lead. If I start renaming samples, he is not even going to find them period. I want to know in confidence that if I email him a .flp and tell him to play it for this big up and coming rap artists a la 50Cent that happens to be at his studio, he can do so and it sounds like it sounded to me. I dont want to say G, play this for Ciara, and he asks me "why the hell are their LAZERS and ELEPHANT GRUNTS mixed with an 80's disco bass". "Is that TREMOLO string supposed to sound like a car alarm on fast forward?" No my tremolo string sample was 4 bars long, the one FL is finding is 8 bars, so um... fk! My career is nearing this point shortly and its not something i want to go through. I dont move sample drives frequently but putting them in other folders, i do. During this process its important to know that FL will consider the way you feel about auto sample finding. These are things that we're going through and organization and reliability is key.

So what do you think. Would this be something hard to include and what do you other users do?

ALSO, BACK TO MY ORIGINAL QUESTION. CAN YOU EVEN TRANSPOSE MULTIPLE CHANNELS WITHOUT USING THE GLOBAL PITCH SHIFTER. I JUST WANT TO SELECT SOME CHANNELS, AND ENTER TRANSPOSE -2 OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT.

[james0tucson]

It's more powerful but less direct - but we make it clear, and there are other sequencers for more directness.

You think you make it clear, you claim that you make it clear, but you have customer who are still confused about it.

[tony tony chopper]

>>but you have customer who are still confused about it

they're not confused, they are aware of that way or working, and don't like it

there are a lot of pure MIDI sequencers, if you're looking for one

[james0tucson]

there are a lot of pure MIDI sequencers, if you're looking for one

Actually, I'm hoping to have some influence on the improvement of FLS, because I'd like to keep using it.

As for MIDI being an obsolete protocol, it may be old, but it's also the only way to operate synths that are being designed and sold today.

As for not being confused, I still don't understand how to setup the default project so that my controller sends sustain pedal messages to the current generator channel, or even how to make the link-controller setup permanent. I'm still confused after being on looptalk for years, after reading the manual, and even after reading the FLS Bible.

[tony tony chopper]

MIDI is still useful, that's why FL speaks it. But 'MIDI thru' clearly limits the power of a sequencer, if it goes thru as pure MIDI there are things you just can't do.

There's an 'omni' mode to link a controller to the selected generator. But since none of our generators supports sustain, there's nothing to link to. FL6 will have the wrapper expose 128 CC's so this will be possible (for VSTi's), without using a MIDI out channel.

[birrbits]

Things missing for me:
5) Audio clips in FL are fkucing AWEFUL.

This is pretty vague hoffy, what is awful? the sound, the implementation, loop support?
Are you just here to bash the product, or are you actually looking for improvments?

[Lusamars]

Is FLStudio5 dual-processor ready? if not, will it be on version 6?
I ask it because i´m waiting for the new yonah ´s laptops to switch from mac to a FLS DAW based

[Carbonboy]

1) Not enough Zoom

Did you know that the PPQ settings (default 96) influence this? Just wind it up...problem solved.

...there are similarly easy solutions to some of your other complaints.

They are not complaints, they are reasons why i don't like FL's Piano Roll- which someone in this thread requested to know.

And i don't think "PPQ settings" is a particularly intuitive (or "easy") solution to this problem, especially considering other people have mentioned it in the past- clearly i'm not the only one who didn't think "not enough zoom... oh, right, PPQ Settings!"

So anyway, i'd love it if you could "easily" solve my other "complaints"; how do i get FL to communicate with my hardware devices? PDC? Why is audio handled so terribly?

...?

FL's great for what it is, but it's still a long way to go before its anywhere near the same league as PT or Cubase... so lets all stop pretending that it is

If you think about zoom, you cant move/qaunize notes below the timbase set can you? However I agree it's not immediately obvious.

PDC is in FL6, but it's a far better solution to avoid the need for PDC in the first place, I have carefully built my studio around the principle that PDC is an evil to be avoided. However I understand that some people want it so good luck to them.

I have no idea why you can communicate with your hardware devices and why you think audio is terrible...I think it is 'unconstrained' if you are worrying about the fact that clips can go anywhere,

oh and about Cubase, I think the opposite is true, and I use FL Studio in a professional capacity so it's horses and courses and all that.

Carb.

[soma]

Things missing for me:
5) Audio clips in FL are fkucing AWEFUL.

This is pretty vague hoffy, what is awful? the sound, the implementation, loop support?
Are you just here to bash the product, or are you actually looking for improvments?

Apology in advance for being so terse:

-implementation; the major problem is that they are in fact sampler channels instead of true audio clips This makes it feel more like a trigger sequencer and less like an arrangement view.
-I'd like to be able to see/edit the .wav that is streamed form disk.
-I don't like how the clips are tied to a certain instrument (Sampler Channels). I would prefer to move a clip to a track that has it's own effects/settings, so that the same sound can be played through different effects depending what track it is on.
-Cannot put clips of different audio samples in the same track. This means no auto cross-fades, no visual over-layering, no ripple fades, and no inserts form other sounds.
-I don't like the way I delete clips accidentally by clicking on them when I think I am going to move them or open a menu.
-I can't remember, can you overlay automation on top of an audio clip? If so, bravo! If not I'd like that too.

[tuz]

i'd like to see something small.... horizontal lines in edit events that you're able to snap to. might sound stupid but it would be really useful for incremental editing. i'm sure it would be easy too. of course it would help for it to have percentages/or values so that you know exactly where you're putting them. right now it's trial and error.