FL Studio makes synthetic music?

[bmanic]

*** lot of stuff ***

Ehm.. I have a AMD Athlon 3200+, a RME HDSP 9632 soundcard running fine in most hosts at even 64 sample buffers but I usually have it at 512 samples.

If I load up 4 stereo wave files that are each over 4 minutes long and try to stream them from my audio hard drive in FL Studio I get stutters the first pass. Second round (listening a second time trough) I get less stutters but still every now and then.

I can't understand why some people try desperately to defend FL Studios audio streaming engine.. get over it, it sucks, period.

I've been a registered user of Fruity since version 1.2 and absolutely love the software but I don't hesitate to state it's weaknesses.

Also, the lack of any kind of PDC (doesn't have to be full pdc, just pdc on master output would be enough. I know, I've nagged about this before.. ) doesn't make life easier when it comes to mixing.

FL Studio is a great composer tool but nothing more than mediocre when it comes to serious audio work (think 32 tracks or more, full mixing, splicing, editing etc. it simply sucks in FL compared to SX/Nuendo/logic/protools/Sonar) but then again, it was never even designed for these tasks so why defend it then??

- bManic

[bmanic]

FL can do sidechaining for a long time now.

otherwise, this conversation is annoing.

Eh? Show me how? How do I route a hihat track to a channel with OtiumFX compadre in it and use it's sidechain to drive the drumbus? AFAIK this is NOT possible in FL Studio, at all. You can use it's own internal controllers to do a lot but VST sidechaining? I don't think so.

- bManic

[bmanic]

This is an insane topic...

well here's just one example:

"when i listen music made in Fruity loops, i don't know why (i don't use FL), it sounds very tiny and digitally. What about extract all separate tracks from FL and mix and master it for example in Cubase SX ? I think it will sound much bigger and more natural than mixdown from FL ...."

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 75#1039775

Examples don't make things true, with thousands of people downloading the demo and trying it out every week (tens of thousands JMC?) you are going to get people saying everything from FL Studio is perfect to FL Studio sucks...so what

In the case above it's complete crock...there is nothing in Cubase that you can't do in FL on the mastering/mixing side. It's just VST's, 1's and 0's

Carb.

I agree, I was just illustrating that there seems to be some myth/consensus about the sound quality of FLStudio amongst some people. Several people criticised the first poster for speaking rubbish when he was just pointing out what some other people say...

This however I agree with. The soundquality/mixing engine itself in FL Studio is top of the line. The sinc 256 algorithm during bounce is of superb quality. Switching to cubase/nuendo in hopes of better sound quality is just plain stupid.

- bManic

[jmh]

I'm rather curious as well about sidechaining, one of the things I've found solution for so far... even not from long time FL users.

And my experiences with the demos are similar to what some are echoing, more than a few audio tracks and things start coughing up... though I can't see that as an issue for my style of working, I rarely use audio tracks and in those rare instances I do, it's in chunks small enough to be loaded into RAM.

That part about telling Kingston how he doesn't know anything about anything made my day though

Regards,

JMH

[angrysow]

to point something out, cubase was not originally designed as a peice of recording software either, it started as a midi sequencer. I have hope for fl studio and believe that those features wont take terribly long to implement.

I agree regarding weakness in the audio engines streaming capabilities. The only solution that I found was to expand my memory capacity up 1.2 gigs, which helped, but still, I beat the shmack out of fl studio, and there are projects where I simply cannot load another audio file in, because when I try I get an error saying "out of memory".

part of the recording problem is that when recording mono sources, you are forced to record a stereo file, effectively halving the available bandwidth. I am often frustrated by shortcomings inherent in the software design, but I still love the program, I would just love it a whole lot more if those things were fixed.

Max

[peejunk]

If it were just VSTi, you'd be right. However, it's not. The signal/mixing path is FL Studio or Cubase or whatever. If you take six VSTi and simply add up the output you'll get clipping. If you simply divide by six, you'll get a quiet signal. So, there's some kind of processing involved. It's the quality of that processing that comes into play.

Wrong, and unfortunately, unreacted to. Just use very short clips (like ten samples or so) mix them and get an audio editor that would allow you to read out a value of a single sample at any given point and compare. You'll see for yourself.

Gain (amplification) is just multiplication (by a value smaller than 1 so it is kinda division by a value bigger than 1). Samples in an audio stream can also assume negative values. Mixing is just simple summing, if there is any difference in "mixnig engines" it would be in some per-channel processing like making amplification slightly non-linear or something.

If an app crumbles when mixing long-ish audio files then something is f**ked up with disk streaming, not with mixing (otherwyse it would f**k up with equal amount of vsti being summed as well).

[donkey tugger]

its those pesky acoustic geetars that give that bastard synthetic sound every time

[kovacs]

its those pesky acoustic geetars that give that bastard synthetic sound every time

Ouch! IS this being played on a plastic uke??? And that sing-a-long mic doesn't do wonders either.

Donks, you need to buy Nuendo. It will make you a PRO!!! And maybe you could learn to sing in Chinese, too, English is so bastardly synthetic these days...

[Carbonboy]

Why is FL the most "controversial" audio software? Am I missing the debates on the others or are they on different forums?

It's because

1) There's 100,000's of users.

2) It's significantly cheaper than most other platforms and this has many users of more expensive packages scratching their head and assuming it must be inferior, then posting so.

3) The 100,000's of users are 14-28 and ready for a fight, with little restraint and there you go

Carb.

[Hink]

Why is FL the most "controversial" audio software? Am I missing the debates on the others or are they on different forums?

It's because

1) There's 100,000's of users.

2) It's significantly cheaper than most other platforms and this has many users of more expensive packages scratching their head and assuming it must be inferior, then posting so.

3) The 100,000's of users are 14-28 and ready for a fight, with little restraint and there you go

Carb.

you got that right....

[Z3R0T0N1N]

its those pesky acoustic geetars that give that bastard synthetic sound every time

best answer yet.

[Carbonboy]

Ehm.. I have a AMD Athlon 3200+, a RME HDSP 9632 soundcard running fine in most hosts at even 64 sample buffers but I usually have it at 512 samples.

Well, that's nice. Are you using ASIO?

If I load up 4 stereo wave files that are each over 4 minutes long and try to stream them from my audio hard drive in FL Studio I get stutters the first pass. Second round (listening a second time trough) I get less stutters but still every now and then.

I can mix 16 stereo audio-clips with no stutter and 1% CPU. Indeed I can stream far more than that and do so as the need arises.

I can't understand why some people try desperately to defend FL Studios audio streaming engine.. get over it, it sucks, period.

The problem is you not FL.

I've been a registered user of Fruity since version 1.2 and absolutely love the software but I don't hesitate to state it's weaknesses.

Nothing is perfect. You however below mention a hand-full of hosts and make the unsupported claim that they are better than FL. I don't see you discussing the weaknesses of those nor would I expect you to, as you have decided that 'FL sucks'.

Also, the lack of any kind of PDC (doesn't have to be full pdc, just pdc on master output would be enough. I know, I've nagged about this before.. ) doesn't make life easier when it comes to mixing.

FL6 has PDC.

FL Studio is a great composer tool but nothing more than mediocre when it comes to serious audio work (think 32 tracks or more, full mixing, splicing, editing etc. it simply sucks in FL compared to SX/Nuendo/logic/protools/Sonar) but then again, it was never even designed for these tasks so why defend it then??
- bManic

I use FL professionaly without problems or restraint. I wonder why you have trouble and I don't with the same package?

Carb.

[hitman8081]

I've heard a lot of people say that FL Studio makes songs that sound synthetic. I also know that a few pros use FL Studio and it sounds everything but synthetic or boring in nature...

dude ignore everything you heard about fl studio you heard it from people that call themselves producers, cant even write a good tune, and think cubase ,sonar, and logic are what they need to be and feel profesional.
fl studio is extremely profesional and makes writing songs a snap. other sequencers take ten steps if more to do what it takes to do in one simple step in fl studio, sequencers like cubase, sonar, and logic make very easy task very complicated and for what? to be profesional? why does a sequencer need to be very complicated and drawn out to be profesional? if thats the way cubase, logic and sonar work i guess fl studio isnt profesional and rather a toy? baloney. fl studio in the right hands is as profesional as the mucisian using the software just as its as amature as the amature using the same software. so the next time somebody gives you the hulabaloo that fl studio isnt profesioanl think about that

[bmanic]

Ehm.. I have a AMD Athlon 3200+, a RME HDSP 9632 soundcard running fine in most hosts at even 64 sample buffers but I usually have it at 512 samples.

Well, that's nice. Are you using ASIO?

Eh? Ever heard of RME, best ASIO drivers since.. well, ever. Of course I'm using asio you silly boy.

If I load up 4 stereo wave files that are each over 4 minutes long and try to stream them from my audio hard drive in FL Studio I get stutters the first pass. Second round (listening a second time trough) I get less stutters but still every now and then.

I can mix 16 stereo audio-clips with no stutter and 1% CPU. Indeed I can stream far more than that and do so as the need arises.

Consider yourself lucky then. I've tried the 8 track full 5 minute test on all the computers that I use on daily basis (2 at home, 8 at school) and none works tbe first time you hit play without stuttering. Also, none of the people I know that own FL Studio have ever got it to run well while streaming from disk. It needs the files in memory, then it works fine.

I can't understand why some people try desperately to defend FL Studios audio streaming engine.. get over it, it sucks, period.

The problem is you not FL.

See above.

I've been a registered user of Fruity since version 1.2 and absolutely love the software but I don't hesitate to state it's weaknesses.

Nothing is perfect. You however below mention a hand-full of hosts and make the unsupported claim that they are better than FL. I don't see you discussing the weaknesses of those nor would I expect you to, as you have decided that 'FL sucks'.

And a typical fanboy answer from you. If you would have bothered to read my post carefully you'd seen that I LOVE FL STUDIO for it's composing capabilities. But as a fanboy you can't seem to think straight when you see the words "Fruity" and "sucks" in the same post. Just read my post again, Fruity is a good app, it just SUCKS at MIXING and AUDIO EDITING (ever wonder why film score dialogue editing isn't done in FL studio? ).

Also, the lack of any kind of PDC (doesn't have to be full pdc, just pdc on master output would be enough. I know, I've nagged about this before.. ) doesn't make life easier when it comes to mixing.

FL6 has PDC.

Nice, I didn't know about this. I've been nagging about PDC on the master output for ages. Last I heard, we'll be getting a manual delay option on each channel (which is ok if the rendering takes this delay into account).

FL Studio is a great composer tool but nothing more than mediocre when it comes to serious audio work (think 32 tracks or more, full mixing, splicing, editing etc. it simply sucks in FL compared to SX/Nuendo/logic/protools/Sonar) but then again, it was never even designed for these tasks so why defend it then??
- bManic

I use FL professionaly without problems or restraint. I wonder why you have trouble and I don't with the same package?

Because you are too proud to comment on any problems that you might have encountered? And just for your information, I use it professionally as well and can very well live with the way FL studio works right now but I don't pretend that it doesn't have issues like some do.

In the future you might try to read other peoples messages a bit more carefully before jumping to conclusions, ok?

- bManic

[bmanic]

I've heard a lot of people say that FL Studio makes songs that sound synthetic. I also know that a few pros use FL Studio and it sounds everything but synthetic or boring in nature...

fl studio is extremely profesional and makes writing songs a snap.

Indeed. The only thing keeping one from making professional sounding music in FL Studio is onself. Period.

..but

other sequencers take ten steps if more to do what it takes to do in one simple step in fl studio, sequencers like cubase, sonar, and logic make very easy task very complicated and for what? to be profesional? why does a sequencer need to be very complicated and drawn out to be profesional? if thats the way cubase, logic and sonar work ..

.. lets not kill lies with lies, ok? Coz this is all not exactly true. You can work as complicated as you want with each of the mentioned hosts (I don't have much experience with Sonar tho..). There are things that they do much better than FL Studio and things that FL Studio does better than the rest.

fl studio in the right hands is as profesional as the mucisian using the software just as its as amature as the amature using the same software. so the next time somebody gives you the hulabaloo that fl studio isnt profesioanl think about that

Amen.

- bManic