welcome to the world of FL...

[pHz]

I have loved Fruity since first getting it at version 3.0. It served as my intro to the world of computer music making and still is the first host I got to for midi comping and arranging. I still use Fruity to start projects even after adopting Sonar as well as Adobe Audition (now at vs 1.5!) and Abelton Live which I use for live recording (I still can't get good audio recording results with FruityLoops Studio ) I also have Tracktion, but the Fruit still rules for the easy, familiar in midi manipulation and automation. First love for ever!
Cheers,
Gordon

heehee - at last someone else who uses as many hosts as me !!!

slainte rob

[soulkraka]

Can someone explain me this loop-recording ur all shouting for?

a record mode where a section plays over and over (ie looped) while you play in extra notes. this way you can add to parts of the tracks a little bit at a time while they play

this is a fundamental feature in almost all sequencers (even back on atari) - but not fruity

OK, as you know I'm new to the "fruity game"...errrr
I mean FL game.

Anyways, a simple example of what I do is make a beat on pattern one, lay this out in the playlist for four bars. Loop the four bars and draw in a pattern of the same length on two even though its empty.

Next I go to pattern 2 in the sequencer in song mode, press play, and add whatever I want. Seems like loop recording to me and is the same functionality that Ive gotten with other sequencers but I just add the extra step of drawing in a blank pattern 2.

[Brother Greenmoon]

interesting - how does that work?

I think this feature was added in a fairly recent version of FL. I'm not sure when, I stumbled across it one day.

Have a look at the menus in the Piano Roll. If you turn the ghost option on you'll see all the scores for the current channel in there. They appear as the same color as the background and can't be edited (except the currently selected pattern, of course).

It would be nice if you could exclude certain patterns from appearing - seeing sliced/granulized drumloops doesn't really help you when you're trying to match a bassline to a particular chord sequence or melody, but it's still a welcome addition to the FL feature-set.

[ascdi]

fruity automation is imprecise because there is no y coordinate snap or spline curvy draw tools or anything. it's just... vertical bars.

[NicFit]

Anyways, a simple example of what I do is make a beat on pattern one, lay this out in the playlist for four bars. Loop the four bars and draw in a pattern of the same length on two even though its empty.

Next I go to pattern 2 in the sequencer in song mode, press play, and add whatever I want. Seems like loop recording to me and is the same functionality that Ive gotten with other sequencers but I just add the extra step of drawing in a blank pattern 2.

That's not looprecording...maybe loop composing, but your obviously not recording. Not everyone plays heir music with a mouse...if you are using an external midi controller and want to record your playing in song mode, Fruity will stop playing/recording at the end of your selected range.

nF

[soulkraka]

Anyways, a simple example of what I do is make a beat on pattern one, lay this out in the playlist for four bars. Loop the four bars and draw in a pattern of the same length on two even though its empty.

Next I go to pattern 2 in the sequencer in song mode, press play, and add whatever I want. Seems like loop recording to me and is the same functionality that Ive gotten with other sequencers but I just add the extra step of drawing in a blank pattern 2.

That's not looprecording...maybe loop composing, but your obviously not recording. Not everyone plays heir music with a mouse...if you are using an external midi controller and want to record your playing in song mode, Fruity will stop playing/recording at the end of your selected range.

nF

ok...i just tried it and I see what everyone is screeching about. Your right, FL needs to implement this ASAP.

[Igor 4000]

One thing that does piss me off about fruity loops, which i failed to mention, is that people always feel they need to justify themselves when they say they use it

And it's automation facilities suck.

just my opinion.

I for one feel that I'm constantly justifying it to "pro" know-it-all nitwits who feel that the only viable sequencers are Protools, Logic and DP. And it's really f**king annoying. From my experience, people in the game simply do not realize what FLStudio has evolved into; they still believe it's the same drummachine toy from like 5 years ago. And I really wish that IL would drop any association with the words "Fruityloops", "Fruity", and "FL" which seem to follow the company around like a bad rash. My opinion, of course.

And the automation features in FLS are very robust, just not very precise...for the reasons mentioned in a previous post.

[Mighty_Hero]

I compose solely in fl studio, and can't figure out why it's hated on so much either.

[Mirabebe]

FL automation is tick accurate. Statements like it's "impresise" because there's no "spline drawing thingy" show the level of buzzword dependancy in run of the mill wanabees.

[Igor 4000]

FL automation is tick accurate. Statements like it's "impresise" because there's no "spline drawing thingy" show the level of buzzword dependancy in run of the mill wanabees.

So please clear something up for me. If I want to draw an automation curve for, say, a master volume fade out...FLS will do so by ticks, right? Then the volume knob will also move by ticks, right? If so, then how could this be precise?

Let me know what it is that I'm not understanding.

[bitcrusher]

So please clear something up for me. If I want to draw an automation curve for, say, a master volume fade out...FLS will do so by ticks, right? Then the volume knob will also move by ticks, right? If so, then how could this be precise?

Most all hosts anchor all "events" to "ticks". ProTools is near-sample-accurate on automation spline points. Regardless, (to quote the programmer of Fruityloops) its much like discussing the hairs on a fly's ass without knowing much about the fly.

Let me know what it is that I'm not understanding.

Events are interpolated. In hosts with spline-based automation, you still have points anchored to ticks, just like in FL.

FL does linear interpolation between points (else you would hear zipper-noise artifacts). The difference is mostly in GUI. I love FL's automation - Spline-based stuff is cool but makes for difficult step-sequencer-type (quantized) automation.

FL automation takes some time to get used to but I would dare say it is superior to many. Hopefully someday FL will have an optional spline-based GUI for automation.

[Mirabebe]

My post was incomplete without Bitcrusher's detailed answer.

The size of the tick depends om PPQ setting. Which can go up to 768 in FL (the maximum number is not that important - it was chosen to keep the filesize down, while still providing a reasonable precision. Once PPQ resolution becomes a new buzzword - it could be increased by simply setting a variable to a different value).

Between the ticks - interpolation takes place that changes the value on sample-accurate basis.

In essence there's nothing inferior about FL's automation. You may prefer spline, thats fine - but it's only a personal preference and NOT somehow a weakness of the host.

[>v^<^^]

My post was incomplete without Bitcrusher's detailed answer.

The size of the tick depends om PPQ setting. Which can go up to 768 in FL (the maximum number is not that important - it was chosen to keep the filesize down, while still providing a reasonable precision. Once PPQ resolution becomes a new buzzword - it could be increased by simply setting a variable to a different value).

Between the ticks - interpolation takes place that changes the value on sample-accurate basis.

In essence there's nothing inferior about FL's automation. You may prefer spline, thats fine - but it's only a personal preference and NOT somehow a weakness of the host.

Well put Mirabebe.

Seems a lot of people haven't recognized the strengths of pattern-based automation. I'll have my MIDI data in pattern 1 for instance, and then my automation in pattern 2. That way it's very easy to copy them together or separately, shift the time of the automation relative to the notes, save my automation as a file and apply it to something else, etc. I'm constantly finding new ways to do creative things with automation patterns. It's definitely something that wasn't obvious to me when I first started using Fruity. Anyone who is frustrated with FL's automation, I strongly suggest you read the manual and stick with it, it's worth it.

BTW, wasn't one of the "to be considered" features in the recent online FL survey "spline-based automation for audio tracks"?

[Rellik]

I do hope they include some more comprehensive automation facilities!

Anyway, one reason people might think FL isn't the full-featured environment that it is is because it apparently lacks some audio editing features. I'm not exactly clear on what these are... FL can play back audio from the playlist, right? What more does someone who works with audio need?

[ascdi]

mirabebe, no need to be a name caller here. the issue isn't with how accurately the automation is realized-- we know it is interpolated and sample accurate-- it is with the usability and flexibility of the UI.

if i'm automating an oscillator for fm squelch noises, for example, i want to be able to set up the grid to snap to where i want: namely, semitones. if i'm fading out a filter cutoff or an amp, i want control of the decay of that fade. i KNOW that i can draw in any shape i want, but with a spline i just draw two points and then set the slope. clearly, that is easier, faster, and tidier. then if i come back a few days later and want to make it more of an exponential decay, i can do it with one click and a drag. that's whole point of a spline... it's an abstraction.
edit-- nicer syntax!