Is Fruity Loops lacking?

[-SPYRO-]

If you want a note a little bit early or a little bit late, then you're buggered. You've got no micro control over your drum position. Natural organic sounding drums are always a little bit early or a little bit late. Its crucial to the sound.

You can choose between:

-Open the shift parameter and adjust times (per pattern)

-You can "randomize" notes, menu EDIT/randomize (ALT-R)

-You may want to use the Piano Roll (F7) and shift the notes there using snap to "none"

-You can also load a "Peak controller" on the Mixer, create a fast random LFO with a very limited range and link it to the "offset" knob located on the FUNC tab on the channel settings window.

-Or use the peak info coming on an FX channel to control the offset.

-Or use a formula controller to send that random LFO


as you see there are multiple ways to do one thing on FL, that is the main reason I like it.

[traumatek]

Also, in the piano roll you can double click on a note you have made and it will bring up a "Note Properties" window, from there you can adjust the start position and note length down to the tick as well. Also pan, vol, cut, res and pitch knobs are present, and an invert portamento switch which is pretty damn cool.

Another fun thing to do is use "Layer" its in the drop down list of generators. You can have it be the parent to as many sample channels as you want, after you select the samples you want, click "set children" then in the layering drop down select "split children" and all the samples in the layer will be assigned to notes starting on C5, you can then create beats with the layer in the piano roll without having to bounce between piano rolls for each sampler channel. It works pretty much like the slicer. The really cool thing about it is you can screw around with the samples individualy, so... you can have them on different mixer channels, set their lfo's and filters independantly and that sort of thing, yet arrange them in beats together. Pretty much makes Battery excess baggage, especially if you cant afford it. Im not knocking Battery though, its a great plugin

There is a tutorial called "Layer channels" in the projects/tutorial folder if you need more help with how it works.

Even more fun is to slice up beats with the slicer, then save the pattern as a score file. If you take note of the slice count, you can make your own layer drum kit and apply the score to it, effectively recreating the beat with your own samples. From there, you can further tweak it by hand or quantize it. Ive created some really unique sounding breaks doing this.

Fruity can do just about anything if you dig deep enough into it. I still find new things and ive been using it since v1.7

[pango]

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I love FL. I made the entire soundtrack for an MMORPG (www.sprigganharp.com (http://www.sprigganharp.com)) with it. The versitility is perfect. It may seem amaturish to some people, but to me, it's just an easier way of doing the same things.

By the way, I'm having a reeeeally annoying problem with FLS5 right now. For some reason (I probably just accidentally hit a hotkey), notes in the piano roll and in the playlist don't stretch freely anymore; they just snap like in past versions. I've checked all the help files and I can't seem to find what the hotkey is to change that. Haha, could anyone help me out here?

[traumatek]

For some reason (I probably just accidentally hit a hotkey), notes in the piano roll and in the playlist don't stretch freely anymore; they just snap like in past versions.

Maybe you changed the snap setting by accident, in the transport bars, look for snap, Im guessing its set to line or step or something. If thats not it then I have no idea

[ouroboros]

one of the things that amazes me about FLS is how flexible it is: it seems like I'm always learning about new techniques or new ways of doing things. - never thought of the layer trick!

[imagegod]

Not to hijack a thread, but will FL 'freeze' a track/render to wav?

Thanks!

[ouroboros]

Not to hijack a thread, but will FL 'freeze' a track/render to wav?

Thanks!

Yes, in that you can always bounce a track down easily but then you do have to reimport it, -easily. So it bounces down, but not "freezes" as people often seek. The FL fans, myself included, might say yes it does, and people looking for a specific freeze functioning might say no.

Ahh the ambiguity of art

[braj]

I never get FL workflow, and what is going where isn't readily apparent to me. I just don't get it. I wish there were a way to get it to just set up like a regular sequencer. Then I could work from there, but even the mixer is a mystery to me.

[Mighty_Hero]

think of it this way.
pattern in your stuff. once done on each pattern, hit L, which puts your stuff in song mode. Opening then the song playlist, just pattern in your patterns on the according #.
Of course you could also just have one big pattern as your whole song, use no quantization, etc etc.
the mixer is very easy too.
the inserts affect the sound right away, the aux/sends do it no so 'directly'
with each vst you load, it should pop up the basic para. settings (channel settings) and that box labeled fx, is the mixer number you assign.
I could go on and on....

[Hellbilly]

The pattern based sequencing still puts me off FL5. I just don't seem to be able to do anything productive there in the demo.

Everyone says the workflow is easy and everything is so simple and easy, but it still makes me want to strangle the damn thing.

Fruity Loops has always been in my eyes the Fischer Price of sequencers, or an oldschool tracker on steroids.

[Mighty_Hero]

in the piano roll though (articulate, no snap, chop, arping, sliding notes etc etc etc), I can assure you it's not.
spend some serious time with it, and I bet you'll find composing is just a breeze.
I tried many hosts before deciding on studio.
whatever you find easy to use right away though, is probably best for you, so you will be productive and not pissed.
for me, studio is all I ever needed and more

[donkey tugger]

The pattern based sequencing still puts me off FL5. I just don't seem to be able to do anything productive there in the demo.

Everyone says the workflow is easy and everything is so simple and easy, but it still makes me want to strangle the damn thing.

Fruity Loops has always been in my eyes the Fischer Price of sequencers, or an oldschool tracker on steroids.

What do you want out of it m'boy then, stylee wise? One may be able to shed a tad of light on the matter.

[Hellbilly]

@DonkeyT

Well, i'm just used to years of linear sequencing in Cubase and Cakewalk. I guess it's more a matter of being used to something else.

I mean, i don't even know how to put a synth on a midi track in FL, other then opening a preset in that browser.

Since i use an Octapad to play my "drums", i sometimes play the whole song through or make alot of varioations. It just doesn't work for me in the pattern enviornment in FL. I would end up with 20-30 tracks of drum patterns in the sequencer.

These are just some issues.

[braj]

How well does it work as a plug in for Tracktion (for example). I've seen it crash Live more often than not.

[donkey tugger]

@DonkeyT

Well, i'm just used to years of linear sequencing in Cubase and Cakewalk. I guess it's more a matter of being used to something else.

I mean, i don't even know how to put a synth on a midi track in FL, other then opening a preset in that browser.

Since i use an Octapad to play my "drums", i sometimes play the whole song through or make alot of varioations. It just doesn't work for me in the pattern enviornment in FL. I would end up with 20-30 tracks of drum patterns in the sequencer.

These are just some issues.

Ahh, err

Well, yes, I used to bugger about with cubarse for years, did some good stuff, but I like the way FL works. Then again I hold no truck with this 'keyboard' malarky which you all seem to love..geetars + mouse is the way to go. Still, I never found said 'fisher price' sequencer in any way limiting for any style, some buggers even use it for free jaaath. Mebbe a case of use your mind and your arse will follow or the suchlike.