FRUITY LOOPS 101 - PLEASE direct -ALL- FL questions here

[starla]

Please ask all your fruity loops questions in this thread! also, if this gets to be a long thread --- please do not post the same questions twice, read through it first. I am sure that i will not be the only one posting to this thread giving help as well.

Some threads that already exist for fruity loops are:

general "how to use" threads:
http://remix.overclocked.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7021

importing samples/synths/generators:
http://remix.overclocked.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7537

about changing tempo, and a little automating events:
http://remix.overclocked.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7151
http://remix.overclocked.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7327

shuffle in fruity:
http://remix.overclocked.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6940

effecting part of a song/using send tracks:
http://remix.overclocked.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6679


Please feel free to post any questions about the program here. thank you!

~starla

[jbnewberry]

Know of any way to make a 3rd party vst respond to slides? Or is this a feature not yet addressed by the current wrapper?

[djpretzel]

Anyone wanna start compiling these answers into a "de facto OCR FruityLoops tutorial"?

[AnotherOneBitesTheDust]

I can't really think of what would make this forum better, because all the changes I do think of have not so pleasant side effects. I have thought of asking to make permanent threads like this for each major remixing program, like in the reviews section. But what if it gets too large? You would have to search through a lot of stuff (it could be good stuff...or pointless)

Eventually those threads in the initial post might get purged, which will leave this thread with massive questions and answers about one program. But then, wouldn't that be a good thing? I don't know, it hasn't happened yet.

As djp asked, I wonder if someone would actually do it? I see it that someone could, since someone took the time to compile every single word in the "three word story" thread into one post.

I have my own questions about everything, like the most effecient way of running any certain program, using all the hotkeys, knowing what tab does what, what combinations are good, etc. It's nice to look through a non-professional help file. It always sounds like they say too many things about one subject, but maybe that's just me.......yeah it's just me. Blah

[Beatdrop]

Pretzel: starla already has started working on a tutorial (unfinished, as far as I know) and she used a smaller section in it that I had done previously concerning analog synthesis and the use of a couple of the base plugins that you get with FL. I'm not sure if she's still working on it, but perhaps she'd be willing to submit that as an OCR tutorial? What I saw of it was looking really good :o

If not, then I'd be happy to make one.

[starla]

the tutorial will probably be all of this compiled, eventually, with an faq section.

http://injury.enry.net/boop.html is the starts of it, at least.

~starla

[starla]

Know of any way to make a 3rd party vst respond to slides? Or is this a feature not yet addressed by the current wrapper?

vsts will sometimes respond to channel pitch, this may be your only way to get them to slide until another release fixes it.

~starla

[jbnewberry]

Thank you, Starla, for your response. Oh well, waiting for another update.

[Beatdrop]

Actually, as far as I know, 3.5 and up allow you to apply portamento to a VST synth. However, the track portamento that you can slap on anything in Fruity is REALLY touchy, so be careful with it.

Of course, this is only if the VST plugin doesn't have portamento built into it, and if it's a vsti synth of any kind, it most likely does.

[klm09]

This ought to be stickied so it doesn't fall off the page.

[djcubez]

i'll help anyone in need and pretzel, i'm currently working on a BIG a** tutorial for remix.overclocked.org on fruityloops. I have included a lot of stuff plus tips and sample .flp files. Also for other help go to:

www.floops.co.uk - great site, great tutorials, don't bother with the forum, check out the links.

[Beatdrop]

Mrmm... I don't think I'd go by those tutorials too much... one line from one of them says it all:

"once it sounds good expand on it! (its alright to mix minor and sharp notes!)"

Since when were there "minor notes"?

Seriously, the best tutorials you can find on FruityLoops are the flash ones available @ http://www.fruityloops.com

HOWEVER, they have yet to cover a wide array of topics, so just anticipate someone making a FULL tutorial for OCR. I would, but seeing as other people already are (and I scarcely have the time), I'll just lie in waiting if anyone needs or wants my help.

[djcubez]

hey djp, you think we could get this stickied? thanks...

[Mystical]

I encountered a sound card problem with Fruity a few days back, posted some request for help here, and then my post got deleted without any notice. At least could have dropped a PM or moved it to any correct section (if there is).

:cry:

[starla]

I encountered a sound card problem with Fruity a few days back, posted some request for help here, and then my post got deleted without any notice. At least could have dropped a PM or moved it to any correct section (if there is).

:cry:

EVERYONE's posts from tuesday to like, friday, got deleted. dont think we're just mean to only you. =]

can you say what your problem was again?

~starla

[Shiryu]

Hats off to you, Miss(es) Peacecraft, for the wonderfull idea.
I am forever noob on Fruity Loops, but I sure learn a lot from those OC Threads and the official FL site.

Looking forward to see more of that FAQ.

8)

[dPaladin]

Can you record on a staff using FruityLoops? I suck at using Piano Rolls.

[Israfel]

Nope - it's a bummer. Actually the vast majority of software seems to center around the piano roll. In my opinion, even programs like Sonar or Cubase are inadequate for people who compose on a staff.

[Psythik]

What's Fruity Loops?

[dPaladin]

What's Fruity Loops?
heh heh. :::snigger:::

[Israfel]

Fruity Loops is basically a software synth/sequencer.

[djcubez]

yeah a good one...worthwhile to. I love it :lol:

[OverCoat]

Snigger?

[djcubez]

yeah whats the snigger for? snigger is a type of laugh or sumtin where you're usually laughing behind someones back at their stupidity.

And what if some people don't knwo what fruity loops is? trust me people don't. I gave a speech in PUblic Speaking about fruity loops...everyone was confused becuz my powerpoint was messed up...

[DM Lee]

i knew what fruity loops was before i was even a member of the forum. although if he would have been more specific with his question it would not have been sniggered at. like "What is fruity loops, like, how does it do remixes" someone would answer, "basically, it edits midi's" something like that, but anyways, we need more tutorials for fruity. I have only read stuff i already know here usually. i found out most of the stuff about fruity i know from fiddlin with it. I think some of the advanced techniques should be explained. like how the playlist works (im actually clueless on that, but get the basic idea of "what" it does) how to use the different things like wasp, simisynth, ts404, because mostly i have read a lot about what they do and how they work, but never really on how to use them, like, "if you mess with the first part you get this changed" but in a more technical fashion would be good. Also the effects in the effects menu, it would be great to have each one explained in depth. Most seem prett self explanitory, but fuity lsd, fruity free filter, etc. just some thoughts on what could be explained here. I could use some of that stuff, and im sure people newer than me could use all of it.

[HBCyBeR]

OK, I warn you, this will probably be a stupid question...


When I load a Track from a MIDI file into a Piano Roll, how come the sample doesn't "cut itself" even though the "cut itself" mode is on?

[Elex Synn]

Speaking of which, what does "Cut itself" mean? I've figured out how to use different combinations of the channels on the songlist, and what not...
Actually, I am working on an Ogre Battle Remix as of right now... But I rather know all of my options in FL before calling it complete.
Another question... I need an opinion. I am seriously considering buying the FL Full version. Is it worth it? Hopfully it'll have some better sounding instruments with it.

[HBCyBeR]

The "Cut Itself" is used to prevent a sample to overlap itself.
Ex: You have a WAVE file of a trumpet that lasts 30 seconds.
Let's say you have a simple tune and you have DO, RE then MI.
If you don't have cut itself and you only have 1 second between each note, you will hear three trumpets at the end, right?
NOW, if "Cut Itself" is on, the sample will stop playing at RE and start from the RE note, stop playing when at MI to play the MI note alone...

Am I of any help? Heh

[DM Lee]

the full version is worth it and know it does not give you better sounds. It allows you to save your work and work on it again. No matter how good you think a mix is, you can never make it in one shot without saving. I used the trial for all my mixes and actually didnt think i would need fl full because i was doing fine without it, but when i got it, omg, my music improved within days, plus the ability to save, means you will work over and over on the same thing, giving you more time to try other effects, options, instruments, and whatnot. If you want better sounds, go to somewhere with soundfonts, save them to you computer, put the files into a new folder in the "samples" folder of fruity loops. also you can do the same thing with wavs... any wav at all. When you open fruity it will show the folder in the browser (instrument selection menu). use them just like the drums and what not that come with fruity... i think like all the default instruments in fruity are like purposely out of tune or something, without editing a midi just changing the instruments to others i was told of awfully out of tune notes.

[Elex Synn]

Cutting itself sounds rather useful. Thanks HBC.

As soon as I depost my check tommorow, I suppose I'll be picking up the full version, and work on my Ogre Battle mixes.

Thanx! 8)

[dPaladin]

Wait, how can you save a remix if the demo won't let you? Would you play it back, then use another program to record THAT? Hmm, that sounds like work! I hate work.

[DM Lee]

all you can do with the demo is export the mp3, its in the file menu. It turns whatever you have into an mp3 but you can never work on it again, if you want to be able to work on a mix more than once, get the full version, its the best thing i could have ever done for my music.

[Beatdrop]

The ability to have a .wav sample "Cut Itself" is only useful with drum samples. If you're using an instrument sample, your best bet would be to just slap a Volume envelope onto it and program notes using the piano roll.

Also, you can use the Cut feature to make analog beatbox-sounding drums (having certain sounds cut others, like an open hi-hat cutting by a closed hi-hat). All you do is hit "Cut Itself" for each of the samples involved in this, and then set the numbers so that they match up with the way you want things to cut other things.

[djpretzel]

Would the creation of a FruityLoops forum be a good idea? Just tossing that idea out there. Of course, then there might be similar need for a Reason forum . . . those are the only two I can think of. Perhaps not necessary?

[Beatdrop]

I'd say just have more dedicated forums.

Hardware
Software

And then have stickies for individual items of common concern.

Hardware
---MIDI
---Audio Input
Software
---FruityLoops
---Reason

I'm sure you get the idea.

[DM Lee]

A fruity loops and reason forum would be great ideas. Especially since some of us (like me) have both and are fairly well known with one but could still learn more, and with the other are completely clueless (except for the basic turn on, switch instruments, stuff). I think reason seems very very technical and i would probably get "great" results out of it if i knew what to do. On the other hand, I have fruity, and know a lot about it, and actually know too much to use all in one song, but there is still a ton more i could know because i learn more about fruity every week... if i knew the "exact" limits of fruity then i would be much better with my mixes... to me, nothing would be better for those seeking help than a fruity loops and reason forum. You can sift through this forum for threads that seems all fruity or all reason and move them and it will give it a basic start on helping those so they dont ask same old questions. Go for it djp, i have actually been hoping you would do this someday.

[djcubez]

djp that'd be awesome. Make remixing 101 a forum category maybe and then add sections for different programs or way of making music. Maybe a section for fruityloops, one for reason, one for other products and one for synthesizers or something along the lines of that.

[Beatdrop]

OK, I warn you, this will probably be a stupid question...


When I load a Track from a MIDI file into a Piano Roll, how come the sample doesn't "cut itself" even though the "cut itself" mode is on?

Not sure if I answered this in my last post, but Cut Itself only works when you're programming INTO THE STEP SEQUENCER. When putting notes into the Piano Roll, you MUST have a Volume Envelope on the sound in order to control it's length. If you have one on it, the note will stop the moment it stops in the Piano Roll.

EDIT: Too many L's in "control."

[djcubez]

I have a question about FX or editing a .wav in fruity loops because in my mix, i want to make the beat sound all crackly like a vinyl record or somethin. I was wondering if theirs a good way to do it within fruity loops.

And if no one else is doing this I am already compiling the post into a fruity loops FAQ that i'll send to djp along with my basics tutorial.

[Antonio Pizza]

Why not just make it a sticky as several people have suggested before?

[dPaladin]

The FL sounds SUCK!! How can I solve this prollem?

[djcubez]

what do you mean it sucks? what about it? the instruments? just the quality overall? what?

[dPaladin]

instruments. They're all synth. Very little woodwinds and brass, which also sound synthed. I can produce better music with Anvil Studio. And I have.

[starla]

The FL sounds SUCK!! How can I solve this prollem?

Do not EVER use the default instruments that come with fruity.

download soundfonts, use the softsynths that come with it, use vsti synths [some of the coolest ones are free, come on], and download drum samples. but dont ever use the stuff that comes with it. i swear, gol detunes half of it on purpose to laugh at noobs. you can import -any- wav file. why do you chain yourself to the things that it comes with?

the stuff it comes with sucks on purpose. so you dont use it. so dont use it.

its really rather simple, but i'm tragically amazed at the amount of people that ignore this fact.

~starla

[Metasquares]

The FL sounds SUCK!! How can I solve this prollem?

Do not EVER use the default instruments that come with fruity.

download soundfonts, use the softsynths that come with it, use vsti synths [some of the coolest ones are free, come on], and download drum samples. but dont ever use the stuff that comes with it. i swear, gol detunes half of it on purpose to laugh at noobs. you can import -any- wav file. why do you chain yourself to the things that it comes with?

the stuff it comes with sucks on purpose. so you dont use it. so dont use it.

its really rather simple, but i'm tragically amazed at the amount of people that ignore this fact.

~starla

Ah, that explains it.

[dPaladin]

The FL sounds SUCK!! How can I solve this prollem?

Do not EVER use the default instruments that come with fruity.

download soundfonts, use the softsynths that come with it, use vsti synths [some of the coolest ones are free, come on], and download drum samples. but dont ever use the stuff that comes with it. i swear, gol detunes half of it on purpose to laugh at noobs. you can import -any- wav file. why do you chain yourself to the things that it comes with?

the stuff it comes with sucks on purpose. so you dont use it. so dont use it.

its really rather simple, but i'm tragically amazed at the amount of people that ignore this fact.

~starla
Yechh! All right!

[OverCoat]

Well, methinks the percussion samples are ok, but that's really it.

[dPaladin]

Well, methinks the percussion samples are ok, but that's really it. Yeah, but there are way too many of em...Who needs 6 "kicks"?

[Beatdrop]

Dark Paladin, unless you want the drums in all of your songs/remixes to sound the same, I suggest you change out the sound of the kick drum.

And SeattleOverCoat, are you nuts? The default drum samples are total ASS in FL with the exception of the ones in the Hip-Hop folder (which aren't entirely hip-hop-ish) that was added in FL 3.5. The snares are dead, the hi-hats are sampled crappily, and you only have, like, what, THREE cymbals to work with? BLEH!!!~~~

EDIT: used to say "And Suzumebachi, are you nuts?" but was actually in respones to SOC. Apologies to Suzumebachi :?

[Elex Synn]

I agree, the default sounds blown President Bush's aging balls... So exactly where do you people get your sound samples from? I wouldn't know where to begin.

[djcubez]

i got some kool drum samples at www.bigassbeats.com though it requires a membership. Another site that's hosted by the same company as FL and has samples specfifically fo FL is www.samplefusion.com which are all royalty free samples. Of course the other day i took carbunk1es advice and just searched google, which yes, took awhile, but i found some great samples :)

*edit* smile was the wrong way

[ChA0S'-ReIgN]

Alright Biggest Noob Question Of them all.... is it possible to get more instruments into Fruity loops... i checked nearly everywhere but all i found was a big beat and techno pack... and the instruments provided aren't really that great... any ideas.. im greatful for anyone helping me

[lazygecko]

Here's a nice question: How do I humanize in Piano Roll?

[Elex Synn]

Here's another question. "What" does humanizing a piano roll mean?

[lazygecko]

Humanizing is kinda like slightly randomizing velocity levels... Like adding human errors to make it sound more natural.

[Dalton]

There are TONS of one-shot wave samples out there. I heartily recommend www.primesounds.com. Once you download a sample, all you have to is move it into the Fruity Loops Samples folder, and then it will be accessible from the sample browser within the program.

[Beatdrop]

GeckoYamori: Right click on the track in the Step Sequencer and click "Humanize..." That works for both Piano Roll-ed notes and notes in the Step Sequencer.

Humanizing allows you to add variations to a NUMBER of parameters to make it sound more human. These include pitch, panning, and velocity...

[neostormx]

Know of any way to make a 3rd party vst respond to slides? Or is this a feature not yet addressed by the current wrapper?

hehe per my discussion with gol:

gol (DidierDambrin) wrote :

"listen, fruityloops plugins were designed for slides in the piano roll. VST plugins weren't, they were designed to support MIDI pitch bend. You want slides for your MIDI plugins? Fine, contact every single VST plugin maker, & ask them to port their plugins to fruityloops plugins.

You don't seem to realize that if you were using another sequencer, you would draw pitch bend messages the same way."


now learning how to draw on the pitch bend sequencer is a bit of a task for me, because the grid is too wide between levels and does not show you numbers. i'd like to see numbers so i can just plot mathematically instead of drawing events.

[neostormx]

The FL sounds SUCK!! How can I solve this prollem?


If you have the money, this will simply solve your problems:

http://www.sonicreality.com/sonicsynthmore.html

i am very happy with it (also i got it cheaper when it was on sale :)

listen to this demo that i really like: http://www.sonicreality.com/Chorus%20Strat.mp3

[Beatdrop]

Most VST plugins come with built-in portamento (glide). In fact, I can't think of any that don't... Usually, if there's no dedicated Glide setting, there's a MONO setting that will force portamento, albeit not very much. Even HALion sports a portamento feature...

[Aimaina Hikari]

I've been messing around with Fruity Loops lately, and I'm not quite sure how you remixers do it. If you import a MIDI file, that plays fine in a pattern, but when you switch to song mode, it only plays the first five seconds or so. Can anyone explain this to me?

(Appologies if this is an obvious question...)

[OverCoat]

ok. do you know what the playlist is?

See those 5 buttons at the top? Says:

PL SS PR SB FX

You really only need to worry about the first button for this. This is called a playlist for some odd reason. This is where you select patterns and sequence them. Got it? The reason the pattern stops is because you have no patterns down.

Bah, you sound like a smart guy, I think you can figure this out. :wink:

[djcubez]

it only plays for the amount of blocks in for it. I mean it loops back to the arrow once theirs no more blocks to the right. That's what the MAIN AUTOMATION is for.

[Beatdrop]

... No, that's not what the MAIN AUTOMATION is for. The "MAIN AUTOMATION" is nothing but a pre-labeled pattern that can be used to put all automations into (which is why it's triggered at measure 1 in the playlist). The thing is, you can put automations into ANY pattern(s) now, so all that is is part of the default template. Usually what I do is just delete it and move set my automations where ever I feel they should be.

[suzumebachi]

lol that's what i use it for. i never use the main automation, so i usually set it as the end of a song. i much prefer setting up individual patterns for each automation. it's a pain in the ass to scroll 30 measurements in the event editor when you can just use a new pattern and create the automation in the first measure then place it where you need it in the playlist.

[Beatdrop]

Indeed. It's much easier that way than using the so-called "main automation" pattern. And if anyone would care to contend my belief, I have the words of FL beta-testers/creators to back me up. :P

So yes, the "main automation" pattern is nothing. It's just there for show...

[OverCoat]

Beatdrop is right. I never even cared about the Main Automation. It's just like every other pattern.

[djcubez]

well i taught myself how to use fruity so i think i'm pretty good for a self learner, teacher...thingy...whatever

[neostormx]

the only thing i use the main automation pattern for is keeping pace. so.. um.. yea i really dont use it.

its probable i CAN use it to automate somethings like tempo/EQ/filter changes... but i dont. i use individual patterns for each automation so i keep things uniformed.

[Hadyn]

I have one little question; where can i get some decent sounding guitar/violin/electric guitar/bass guitar/any real instrument sound-files for fruity loops?

I have some really cool ideas and loops going on, but i really need some realistic sounding instruments to add some feeling and mood into my works. Thanks if you can help, and btw i love (like, seriously love) the site you guys have here, it rocks in every way!^_^

later. ~raven

[Blak_Omen]

Another question:

Is there something that can create a computerized voice in Fruity Loops? If so, where can I get it? I read it in the "manual" but I don't think I have it...thanks in advance. :)

[octo]

black omen:

I stopped using fruitly loops before version 3 came out, but im pretty sure that version 3 doesn't have a computerized voice creation tool.

Im not sure what exactly your trying to do, but if you want to make your computer talk in a computer voice and sample it to sequnce in FL you can use programs like "text ole" and the computer voice generator app from www.analogx.com

the analog x one is harder to make out the words but is very versitile in the sense that you can muck about with tempo and pitch of the voice.

Apps like text ole create the more traditional computer voice like the ones you hear in tracks by cylob or bogdan raczynski.

If your trying to get YOUR voice or one of your freinds to sound like a computer... thats a vocoder.. you can get a simple one at www.analogx.com but hardware vocoders will put it to shame any day of the week.


I apologize in advance if you allready knew all this, and i misunderstood your question. But as far as i know, FL does Not have this feature built in.


peace

[Blak_Omen]

D'oh! Why didn't I THINK of that!

I'll have to get AnalogX again (I used to have it)

I was actually refering to that cool looking thingy in the manual, but thanks for reminding me about analogx. :D

[djcubez]

The computerize voice comes with fruity loops now from what i know. On the browser their should be the directory "speech" their should be some already generated ones in there but if you want to make your own just drag and drop any old one into the step sequencer and an edit window should pop-up, just edit it there.

[octo]

its mainly becuase i only really ever used fruity as a sequencer, never really used the other dsp functions and stuff. Its a neat app though.

[neostormx]

I have one little question; where can i get some decent sounding guitar/violin/electric guitar/bass guitar/any real instrument sound-files for fruity loops?

I have some really cool ideas and loops going on, but i really need some realistic sounding instruments to add some feeling and mood into my works. Thanks if you can help, and btw i love (like, seriously love) the site you guys have here, it rocks in every way!^_^

later. ~raven

I'll say it again, if you havnt looked at page 4:

http://www.sonicreality.com/sonicsynthmore.html

now go look at page 4

[Hadyn]

Oh, sorry, must've missed that.
heh, $299 though? is there perhaps any half dencent free synths out there? i mean, i don't have that kind of money.

[djcubez]

I just want to update this Floops post with some good basic tutorials online to save you the time of looking for them yourself (i did already did it).

http://www.fruity.sk/eng/mmanual.php [MANUAL]
http://www.fruity.sk/eng/2step.php [D&B]
http://www.fruity.sk/eng/triphop.php [TRIP HOP]
http://www.fruity.sk/eng/techno.php [TECHNO]
http://spinwarp.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=9&page=1 [D&B]
http://www.energyuk.net/floop_txt.html
http://www.energyuk.net/flooprev_txt.html
http://www.angelfire.com/realm/devico/fltutorial.html
http://www.dnbc.co.uk/ukg2/fruity/one.html
http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/floops/floopsmain.asp
http://www.djbb.dk/floops/tutorials.htm
http://www.studiowhiz.com/_tutorials/maps/53/index.php?id=53
http://www.internetdj.com/article.php?storyid=263
http://www.doepfer.de/controller/fruityloops3tutorial/fruityloops.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/nh/fruityloops/tutorial1/tut1.htm

*note* beware of the pop-ups on the angelfires sites (they're not so good
tutorials anyway)

*edit* broken link.

[Beatdrop]

FL 3.5 and up come with a Voice Synth that can create multitudes of voices at any pitch or speed. They can be used like any other generator and have FX applied to them. They basically render as samples from the speech engine, you just tell it what you want said and at what speed/pitch/voice and it renders it as a .speech file that can be used exclusively in FL. But again, that only comes with FL 3.5 and higher.

[Dj Snotmouth]

First, in the sample songs that come with Fruity Loops, are most of the channels actually made with the Fruity Loops generators, or are they just samples? Is there any way to tell?

Also, some of the channels are different colors, what do the different colors mean? I didn't see it anywhere in the help...

In the piano roll, when I know you can drag the end of notes to change the length, but some seem to be smaller than I can make them, in the premade songs... How's that done?

Oh, and one simple MIDI question I don't really get... When you hook a synth up to the computer, is the sound that would be played on the synth, sent exactly as-is to the sequencer?

[Beatdrop]

First, in the sample songs that come with Fruity Loops, are most of the channels actually made with the Fruity Loops generators, or are they just samples? Is there any way to tell?

Also, some of the channels are different colors, what do the different colors mean? I didn't see it anywhere in the help...

In the piano roll, when I know you can drag the end of notes to change the length, but some seem to be smaller than I can make them, in the premade songs... How's that done?

Oh, and one simple MIDI question I don't really get... When you hook a synth up to the computer, is the sound that would be played on the synth, sent exactly as-is to the sequencer?

1.) Click on the channel. If you see a neat little interface with lots of knobs saying stuff like "coarse" and "fine," you know it's a generator. All of the generators have their names on the graphical interface (the WASP, for example, has its in the bottom-right hand corner).

2.) The colors can be set by the user, but types of channels have preset colors. To set this, open the channel, and right click on it's name in the upper-right hand corner of the window and then click on the little colored box to choose the color.

3.) To make notes smaller than they can be dragged in the piano roll, double-click on them. A dialog box should pop up with duration and start time settings. You can adjust these to get down to the tiniest of notes. Great for making drum rolls and such.

4.) No, MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It has nothing to do with audio. MIDI data is for transmission of note data, start and stop times, parameter changes, and etc. To get the sound off the synth into the computer, you'd have to hook an audio cable up to its output to an input on the computer, such as the Line-In on the soundcard.

[Dj Snotmouth]

Could you explain how to use the granulizer?

I don't really get it :?

[Beatdrop]

What the granulizer does is take a sound and randomly output slices of variable length. For example, if you put a sample of a guy screaming into it, depending on how you set the parameters, it will take different lengths of sections of an adjustable randomness and make them the output. The knobs in it adjust the size of the grains (the slices), the size of the gaps inbetween the grains, the overall randomness, and more.

For more detailed information on this plugin, check out the help file that comes with FL.

[Dj Snotmouth]

I looked in the help file that's attached, it tells me to download the 'in depth' manual, but I can't find that...

What I don't get it about the granulizer, is just how to use it. I'm not so concerned about what it does- I'd like to figure that out on my own. I'm just having trouble getting it to DO anything...

[Beatdrop]

Open the channel properties for the Granulizer and click on the "SMP" tab. Point it to an audio sample, and STAND BACK! ;)

It's that simple. You just load an audio sample into it and it's ready to go.

[Dj Snotmouth]

Sorry for all the questions, but I have one more...

In some of the songs that come with FL, the settings change automatically, as the song goes. How is this done? Again, something I couldn't find in the help file..

Thanks

[Blak_Omen]

Hmm. I think I have FL 3.3...but I didn't exactly pay for it (I'm poor! I'm overseas!). So is there anywhere where I can download the voice thing, or would I have to look for FL 3.5?

[Hadyn]

Sorry for all the questions, but I have one more...

In some of the songs that come with FL, the settings change automatically, as the song goes. How is this done? Again, something I couldn't find in the help file..

Thanks

Next to the play/stop buttons is a little round symbol, that i think goes read when pushed... athough i might be getting confused with Reason. Anyhoo, click this (it's a 'record' button) and start playing the song, as you go along you can adjust the sounds, volumes, tempos, balances, and any other variables. When the song's over, unclick the record button, and play the song back, now it will auto do ehatever you did to it when recording. You can record over and over again to easily add these variables to all the different instruments too. good luck! ^_^

[Pants McFamily]

I forget who recommended it (sorry...) but I went to BananaQuartz Studio and downloaded some soundfonts, but whenever I try to save, FruityLoops tells me that they are limited use demos and deletes them! What's going on here? Should I get some soundfonts from other websites, or is FL being gay?
And I still do not quite understand the concept of a soundfont. Is general MIDI a collection of low quality, standardized soundfonts, or are they completely different? What are all these other kinds of instrument files included with FL? Some of them won't even let me use the piano roll with them.

[Beatdrop]

Okay, the thing is, you probably don't have a registered version of the SF Player for FL... So you'll need one of those to be able to save the SF Player channels that are in your project for future use as well as to render them.

[djcubez]

Sorry for all the questions, but I have one more...

In some of the songs that come with FL, the settings change automatically, as the song goes. How is this done? Again, something I couldn't find in the help file..

Thanks

Hey dj, what you're talking about is automation. I can give you a really simple flp file that will teache you it or a very in depth complicated explanantion that i don't get. What do you want? The flp file right ;)

Goto:

www.floops.co.uk
click on tutorials and grab the automation tutorial, i think it's called automation tutorial for dummies. Anyway unzip it if it's zipped and open it with FL.

*note* this has nothing to do with FL but it's pretty funny.

You guys know about world war I right? well i was studying it today and i wrote down the "Ottoman" place like so: Automan, like a car dude. Pretty funny huh? at least it wasn't a test or quiz ;)

[brainzelda]

Is there a wah wah effect in Fruityloops or some other effect that I can tweak to get the way sound on instruments?

[djcubez]

Try the buzz effect adapter. It's an effect. Just load sometihng by clicking on the button on the top. pick one that sounds good and check out the presets. i believe their is a "wah-wah" in there.

[dPaladin]

Can I get an FL type program free? Since i have the demo, all it's good for is importing MIDIs and exporting MP3's...
Hey the graceful failure...we're in the same location...odd, I don't see you anywhere. :lol:

[djcubez]

Hey isn't that weird... maybe we're here in different here's you know?



actually i don't know but...

[Dj Snotmouth]

Does anyone have an in-depth explanation of what all the controls for the different synths do (FX, 3xosc, etc)? I understand the basics, like attack, decay, etc, but some of them really have me lost...

[DM Lee]

What i would like is a semi in depth explanation of wasp. I can make some ok chip tunish sounds with it but everything else i try turns out very strange or distortedly retarded. The basics on using wasp would be fine, or if someone can tell me a good way to make something good with wasp that would be kewl too.

an in depth guide to all the different synth makers would really be appreciated, i have looked for guides and tutorials but so far found nothing.

[djcubez]

distortedly retarded

ummm what?

[DM Lee]

huh?

[Dj Snotmouth]

What i would like is a semi in depth explanation of wasp. I can make some ok chip tunish sounds with it but everything else i try turns out very strange or distortedly retarded. The basics on using wasp would be fine, or if someone can tell me a good way to make something good with wasp that would be kewl too.

an in depth guide to all the different synth makers would really be appreciated, i have looked for guides and tutorials but so far found nothing.

[DM Lee]

also an explanation of the different effects would be good (fruity reverb, blood overdrive, etc) I know the ones that are self explainitory lik eflange, phase, overdrive, distort, etc but there are some that i have no clue what their purpose is, like fruity lsd or whatever, there probably about half of them that i dont understand and dont want to use because i dont know what they will do.

[djcubez]

actually, neither do i. However i know a good board that can help. They have some Fl00ps pros there. www.samplecity.net/forum go there and check out the fruity loops discusssion. Ask a question.. Btw their's a sample posting forum there with free samples and my name there is djcubez.

[Beatdrop]

LSD is for playing back GM instruments as actual instruments in your song. It allows you to load other DLS files to have new sounds and such. Playback is done via MIDI.

Blood Overdrive is distortion, just a more customizable form of it than the Fast Dist. It was designed more for use on synthesized sounds than anything else, and gives a very very very dirty sound. I'm not going to go anymore indepth than that because you can get even more info simply by opening the Blood Overdrive plugin, clicking on the little fruit in the upper-left hand corner and going down to "Help."

I think the Fruity Reverb is pretty... self-explanatory. Again, if you're truly stumped with it, just do the Help thing for it the same way as for the Blood Overdrive.

[DM Lee]

thanx for the lsd info, i never knew that. But i dont use gm sounds so i have no use for it, but i never knew you could click the fruit and get help with the different effect generators.

still want help with the sound generators though, lol.

[Hadyn]

Up the top of the WASP thingy is a few knobs: two say 'crs', two say 'fine'.

The first thing you should EVER do in wasp is change these to be right in the middle, as this generally puts the sounds in wasp in the same pitch as the rest of the song, thus you can have a half decent electric guitar^_^

Other than that, i wouldn't mind some WASP info myself, like how to save a song so that when you load it again all the WASP settings stay the same, rather than resetting to default :(

[Beatdrop]

Correction: You don't need to have them in the middle.

The WASP's oscillators are 3 octave +/- capable. Meaning right in the center is 0, a third of the way to the left is -1 and a third of the way to the right is +1, etc. As long as they're at even octaves, they'll sync up perfectly and give you a decent sound. However, I'm pretty sure (can't check right now) that the WASP has an Oscillator Sync feature which causes the oscillators to hard sync if they're not at even octaves. The best way to understand what I mean is to test it out.

The WASP only resets to default if you don't have a registered version of it. It's a plugin that you have to buy seperate from FL for 30 bucks or so; well worth it if I do say so myself.

EDIT: More tips:

Another technique you can use with the oscillators is called "detuning." This is done by fine tuning them both so that they're only slightly not synced up. This gives more width to the sound and is typically used with your stereotypical trance lead.

The "Dual Voice" button activates a built-in chorus type effect that just fattens the sound up a bit.

The PW knob (Pulse Width) only functions with the Square waves, so don't bother messing with it if you aren't using any Squares.

Oscillator 3 is a sub-oscillator that generates very low frequency waves only. It's best used when you want to create a bass sound.

The slider above Oscillators 2 and 3 is the balance slider that selects how much of the two oscillators you want. Right in the middle would be a perfectly even mix.

Anyway, that's all for now... Just the basics.

[Blak_Omen]

Okay, I went and downloaded a few SoundFonts just to give them a go, but I'm having trouble working out how to use them.

I gather you need something called a SF Player, but I don't think I have one, and if I did I don't know where to find it.

[DM Lee]

thanx a lot for the wasp info, i really do need to start using that damn thing.

[mDuo13]

okay, I downloaded a bunch of free soundfonts for my fruityloops full, but for some reason whenever I try to use soundfonts and then save my work, it alerts me that "some of the plugins you have used are demos" and it deletes all the channels with soundfonts before saving it. Is there something wrong with my FL, and is there a way around this other than changing the soundfont channels into other channels until I am ready to export?

[lazygecko]

Buy the full soundfont plugin, or simply crack it. It's around $30 I believe.

[DM Lee]

i just want to say that i only made one remix using soundfonts without the sf player and i remember it was one of my best mixes to date but because when i saved and lost stuff i was left with just a snare channel that used a snare wav. I was very very very pissed off trust me. That was one of the worst days of my life i swear. You know those days when you get started on a song in the mornign and you just get hooked and you dont finish until about 16 hours later? well yeah all that work just "GONE!" :evil: i hated fruity on that day, i really did. But life goes on and mixes come and go. I just hope noone else has to go through such a tragedy for it would really be a shame.

[djcubez]

Whenever I add a plugin I always try to save the song to make sure it's not a demo version of the plugin....and look at the top toolbar of the plugin.

[Blak_Omen]

Another crazy question - thanks for all the great help so far, but I'm a long way from being remotely good at Fruity Loops.

Okay, next question/problem - Midi doesn't work properly. You know those little orange lights that are supposed to light up to signify the beat? They don't light up properly, they kind of jump...I can't describe it but suffice to say that it doesn't work very well. As a result the rhythms in Midi are never the same as what I put in to Fruity Loops.

Anyone have a solution for this?

[Beatdrop]

In the MIDI Options window, check to see what you have set for your Master Sync, and then make sure that under the Options tab, "Enable MIDI Master Sync" is checked.

[Blak_Omen]

It is checked, and the same problem is still occuring...

[DM Lee]

does your computer have a lot of ram? maybe it is just having a hard time processing the information sometimes and that is causing the skipping effect. Also, this goes along with that, make sure and restart your computer once in a while when you are mixing, this gives your computer all its free memory back. Often when i have mixed all day my computer is slow as shit.

[Blak_Omen]

256 Ram, and I'm on Windows XP...Fruity Loops does the same thing whether I run it as the first program upon startup, or the last thing. I tried restarting, and it still does the skippy thing. ^^"

[DM Lee]

that really sucks... sorry that this doesnt help, but i feel your pain (do you have a bruise on your arm too?)

[Blak_Omen]

It just means that I can't use midi....-_-

[Beatdrop]

What soundcard do you have?

It's very possible that your soundcard's synthesizer is just a total piece of shit and that's all. But if that's not it, I have no idea what the problem is...

[djcubez]

Dude in the midi settings on your computer make sure the port is enabled to the same port on your midi channels.

[captcapper]

uhhh anyone know how to make a decent scratching effect in fruityloops 3.0. the only thing i can think of is to get a scratching sf and use that but is there a way to do it with effect or something?

[DM Lee]

yeah how do you use the built in scratcher in fruity?

i mean i can manually mess with a sound effect during a song, but i cant put it in directly and control it or anything, i dont think i would have much se for scratching since its not my style, but sometimes i am just like, yeah i need a scratch there.

how do you use the fruity scratch thingy?

[captcapper]

there's a manual scratcher?

[Beatdrop]

You should be asking AE about this. He does incredible things with it...

[djcubez]

AE uses fruity loops? tight. I love his mixes. He must also know how to use the Zero-X beatslicer.....

*O AEEEEEEEEE!!!*

[DM Lee]

xero x beatslicer? is that in fruity loops??? if it is i really need to find out about it. lol.

[djcubez]

Yeah it is. It's that beatslicer generator. It's only a demo but you can buy the full for like 30$ (or crack it, i have yet to find a crack for it).

[Beatdrop]

You didn't know AE uses FL? He's only been using it, like, forever :roll:

AE uses CoolEdit to chop up his beats, apparently. He does it the manual way ;)

[DM Lee]

hey i have cool edit too, maybe i should start chopping stuff up in there... hmmmmm. I dont think i will buy the beatslicer, oh well. i still want to learn the fruity scratcher though, anyone know of a tutorial for it? I looked for about three hours last night.

[djcubez]

Yeah www.computermusic.co.uk has a fruity scratcher tutorial if i remember correctly..

[DM Lee]

that was a big help in a lot of areas of my music, but nope, no scratcher tutorial i could find. thanx though, thanx a lot. :D

[djcubez]

Yeah, you know i could've swore they had one..

[djcubez]

Holy shiznit, i was just playing with Beat slicer today and i think i finally got the hang of it. Beat slicer rocks man.

[DM Lee]

they had a fruity beat slicer tutorial in there that let me know what the beat slicer was pretty much all about... do you really need a beat slicer if you manually program all of your percussion?

[djcubez]

Probably not... i wouldn't think so i mean if you just used samples in the step sequencer maybe but if you made the samples or .wav beats your using yourself i wouldn't think so

[DM Lee]

i dont make the samples, i mean i put them in arranged, like i dont ever "EVER" use the step sequencer, it just seems like cheating to me or something, i put all my percussion into the piano roll and i dont use i also dont use the playlist, i program everything into one full song... does this like eat up more memory or something?

[djcubez]

wow....i use the playlist and seperate patterns...all of that. I suspect what you do it's up more of the memory..i find patterns much easier because i stated creating music with Acid 2.0...

[djcubez]

Hey UBB i found the tutorial on Computermusic.co.uk about the fruity scratcher, go:

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/softtut3/1.asp

here.

[DM Lee]

hey thanx, i still dont quite understand how to use it but i will mess with it and figure it out somehow, this was a big help though.

[djcubez]

Yeah, i just don't use it. If i do, i just use automation.. i record the scratcher in a certain pattern doing a certain scratch. The thing tht doesn't make sense to me is the fact that the scratcher is an effect and not a generator...i can see it as both..

[DM Lee]

yeah, i only use scratch samples if i need em. I dont really have much use for scratching but i want to make some old school run dmc type remixes, my main inspiration would be "It's like that" run dmc vs jason nevins i think. Also egyptian lover is an old school techno hiphop mix that is pretty kewl i want to imitate the style of.

[suzumebachi]

i dont make the samples, i mean i put them in arranged, like i dont ever "EVER" use the step sequencer, it just seems like cheating to me or something, i put all my percussion into the piano roll and i dont use i also dont use the playlist, i program everything into one full song... does this like eat up more memory or something?

that's very time consuming, and very much a pain in the ass. if you wanna go on doing it that way, fine. but the step sequencer and playlist editor are there for a reason. it's about six-thousand times easier to do it that way. also... well... nevermind.

[DM Lee]

i actually find it to be a pain in the ass to have to switch between playlist and regular play to hear just one section, and then you have to move the playlist ummmm, playpoint (the line that tells you where in the song its playing) to where you want to hear, and in the playlist i will probably forget what little blocks are playing what... the playlist just seems too confusing to me, and i think it feels better to see my music in one big piece rather than a ton of little pieces i have to put together like a puzzle. I find the playlist more time consuming.

I guess if i used it more and got used to it, it could be better than one piano roll, i guess it comes down to personal taste.

[OverCoat]

I usually use the piano roll for percussion as well, because you can put percussion on the next measure to use as a fill. I guess I never use the step sequencer, either.

[drizzt]

Well I'm what remixers call a Beginner. I have just submitted a remix to ChronoTrigger that might come up in a few days if it makes it.

http://bondpage15.tripod.com/Lavos_1999/Lavos1999.mp3

Tell me what you think.
I also want to know on FruityLoops when using the playlist (because I haven't really dived into the whole program yet) I will have a solo going, and once the solo stops, it stays in the backround the whole time, Like the strings on the end of Lavos1999. It actually made a cool effect on Lavos1999 but in some cases I do not want it there. Any Help?[/quote]

[OverCoat]

Try turning the release down.

[captcapper]

uhhh okay i dont think i have the fruity scrather thing what version is it in i lookedd all over and cant find it i have fruity loop 3.0 full. am i just blind or is it not in this version?

[djcubez]

it's not a generator. It's an effect you add to a sound like reverb or delay.

[OverCoat]

uhhh okay i dont think i have the fruity scrather thing what version is it in i lookedd all over and cant find it i have fruity loop 3.0 full. am i just blind or is it not in this version?

I think it comes with 3.3 or 3.4 and later.

[DM Lee]

actually i did have 3.0 before and i swear i remember messing with it one time, but not having a clue what to do other than put an instrument and scratch it back and forth, other than that it was useless.

[Zaro]

Ok I need some help in FL, How would I go about in making a piano line into a decent electrical guitar sound? Is it possible?

[djcubez]

No not really...

The best sound i've gotten is by using a wasp and throwing a blood overdrve and paramtric EQ on it. It still doesn't sound the best though.

[OverCoat]

I know. There's a VST effect somewhere called Warp or WarpVST or whatever. I found it on KaZaA, so I don't know if I had to pay for it or not. Please tell me if it could have been purchased.

ANYWAYS, once you get it and install it, start it up, put it in an FX channel, set it to "plexi" or something, it's the middle line. put the effect on a piano and it will actually sound remotely like a guitar. I think. Do it, it sounds cool!

[Rossodio]

Ech... this is a hard question to put into words...

I have written tracks for a song I am writing; some of my channels are .WAV's (each one is a different part of a drum kit). I want to get each of these channels and change what they play into soundfont sounds. If I simply add another channel that is the soundfont player, then I have to cut and paste every single note in every single .wav channel into the soundfont player -- so this is really not what I want to do. Does anyone know of a way to do this? All I can do right now is change the sound that the channel plays into a different .wav sound :(

If the question is unclear, let me know... otherwise, I hope to hear an answer from you guys soon.

- Rossodio

[djcubez]

Yeah it's kind of unclear. What i hear is that you want to use the soundfont player to play and edit .wav's in.

[Rossodio]

Ech... not quite. I have soundfonts, know how to manipulate them using the soundfont player, etc... The problem is that i have already written some music using a .WAV channel running through FX filters. I want to get these beats/notes and move them into a soundfont player channel, as opposed to having to cut and paste all the notes for all of my tracks manually. Does this make any more sense? Damn, I wish I could think of a better way to ask this. Ugh :(

[jbnewberry]

You can move the midi information from one track to another. Get in piano roll for the track you want to copy. Click on the little piano icon in the upper left corner of the piano roll window. Edit-select all (or ctrl+A). Edit-copy. Then open piano roll for the soundfont channel you wish to move the data to. Click the little piano icon again. Edit-paste. This will move the midi data for the entire length of the pattern.

Don't know if that is what you are asking or not.

[djcubez]

You can just drag the soundfount player over the .wav file...or maybe copy it first if you still want the .wav

[Rossodio]

Yes, yes, I realize that I can do this pattern-by-pattern for each instrument in my drum kit... the problem that I have with this is that I have at least 40 or so patterns that I would have to do this with, and each of them with 5 or more .WAV channels (one for each type of drum, high hat, cymbal, etc.).

I am wondering if there's a quicker way to get by this and just transfer the notes without cutting and pasting through the piano roll. I tried dragging the soundfont player over the slot where I have the .WAV, and it seems not to do anything. Hmm... any other suggestions?

- Rossodio

[Rellik]

Hi, I'm new to FruityLoops and remixing in general, and I just have a couple questions.

Can you use nothing but FruityLoops to make a remix? Or do you really need some kind of a midi keyboard... i have a midi keyboard, but for some reason it wont connect right on my computer, and I don't really want to mess with that. Can't I just use the piano roll?

Also, how can you do triplets in the piano roll? And how do you import midi tracks?

[Blak_Omen]

I use nothing but fruity loops, Sibelius and the internet to make my remixes (although none have really been accepted yet ^^").

Triplets, you can either set them manually with the note lengths (although it's a pain), or you can import a midi file with them written out. What I do if a part is too complex for me to be bothered to construct it in Fruity Loops is write it in Sibelius, save it as a midi file and then import it.

It's up to you, really. Find your own way. (I'm sure there are easier ways of making triplets, I just don't know. :P )

[T1(\)0]

How do you make a note smaller than a sixteenth note in piano roll?

In the drum roll sample, it is SO small.

[Blak_Omen]

The only way I can think of so far is to double click a note and bring up the note properties. There you can set the length of a note, and you can change it to something smaller than a 16th note.

[OverCoat]

Actually, see the block at the top with the 6 buttons and the dropdown menu? Click the dropdown menu and click 1/2 step to easily reduce notes to a 32nd note. Also, try the 1/4 step and get 64th notes!

[Newfie]

This is from another post I deleted

I'm thinking of making a Chrono Trigger remix.. I think the Lavos second battle song will be my mix.. I'll be using Fruity Loops 3.0 and wanna know where I can get more sounds and how should I make the mix..? I got the idea, I need some more ideas to advance it, cause when its done, I'll need some more things in it to make it worthy enough..






- Newfie at Work

[Blak_Omen]

What block? This sounds easy, I just can't find what you're talking about...(Why didn't anyone tell me this earlier? Maybe cause I didn't ask. I'll shut up now)

[djcubez]

Are you trying to make notes smaller? you just chop them up in the piano roll with edit->chop

[OverCoat]

No, he wants to make 32nd notes and possibly 64th notes. As for which box, it's a small one with 6 lights on it, three of the buttons have keyboard captions, one on the bottom says "wait" and there's a box that says "Auto" in it. if you click 1/2 step then in the piano roll when you size your notes you will be more precise. Blah.

[DM Lee]

after you click that box and choose somthing (there is also tick, which i use only) you can manually streatch the note to any point you want.

[Rellik]

Hey, sorry, I have another VERY newb question about Fruity Loops.

But... well, okay, I've been trying to use it for a while, I've made some progress, but I'm still very confused, so...

Pretend I just got FruitLoops, I have no idea what any of it is, and I have no other software or hardware... what would you tell me to do first? I have no idea what a soundfont is, I have no idea what a sample is, I have no idea what Drum Kits are, I have no idea how to do anything...

What would you tell me? What would you tell me to do first? What would you tell me to use first? Thanks

[OverCoat]

What to do first? Use the interactive tutorial, of course! Go to the browser on the left, then "FLP loop files > Tutorial > Getting Started" and load the different tutorials to learn about how the program works. Then what you should do is read the topics in this forum about soundfonts, resource URLs, and whatever else you need to know.

[DM Lee]

and obviously read the thread about fruity loops, it surprises me when questions get asked about fruity loops that have been answered in that thread. I dont know if this perticular one has, but i know if i was new with fruity and came on this thread i would scavenge through that fruityloops question thread like a racoon going through garbage. I have read like every thread in this forum about fruity, but its been a while since i went back through it.

seriously just once in a while, going through every thread in the forum about the program you use will greatly help you remember stuff and think about the full amount of things you can do. I have used something a lot and like using it (effect, one of sound machines, a certain technique, etc) but then i wont ise it for a couple days and forget about it, and then i go through the threads and be like "oh yeah, i forgot about that".

(i think i need to go lay down now)...

[Kyosuke]

Ok im remixing a song in FL 3.5 full.....im doing my thing, then all of the sudden, when i play ANYTING on it, i hear popping in my speakers...ummmmmmm any suggestions ?

Oh and i can play music on my comp and its crystal clear

EDIT

LIKE IT FUCKING MATTERS NOW ! Stupid soundfont DEMO JESUS CHRIST MY WHOLE GODDAMN REMIX IS GONE DAMNIT ALL TO HELL SHIT !

.....

....

.....

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[«NMZ»]

...yeeah

speaking of SFs... how do you get them to work in FL?

[djcubez]

Easy, load them into the soundfont player (which you have to buy...or crack) or drag them into your step sequencer.

[washudoll]

Help!! i am NEW here...cuz this is my first POST! YAY!...well i have a PROBLEM with FRUITY LOOPS!

I use a full version of fruity loops version 3.5.6

But if i IMPORT a .mid file or open a .flp file a ERROR box appears and says: THE FILE DOESN't EXSIST OR HAS BEEN MOVED

But the files DO EXSIST!

Help me?

Man i just tried it out again..and i can't even OPEN MIDI files!!

Thnx!

[djcubez]

That's probably not a fruity loops problem...or is it? I don't think anyone else has had this problem. Maybe you should try moving the file and opening from it's new location. O and try and make sure it's telling you that the .mid file doesn't exist, not some other part of fruity loops.

[dPaladin]

Uhhhh, I'm working on my first remix, and I've run into a problem. When I save (export mp3, cuz I'm using the demo), I get 30 seconds of blank space at the end of my song. WHY? WHY, GOD, WHY?!?!

[Dalton]

Check to make sure no pattern boxes are filled in on your playlist AFTER the end of your song.

Also try selecting "Cut Remainder" on the rendering window under "Looping Mode"

[Merid]

Might want to update the links on page one of this thread, Starla. They're dead/the thread doesn't exist anymore.

[washudoll]

That's probably not a fruity loops problem...or is it? I don't think anyone else has had this problem. Maybe you should try moving the file and opening from it's new location. O and try and make sure it's telling you that the .mid file doesn't exist, not some other part of fruity loops.


W00T?

never mind i think i know what the prob is....its because of my windows fonts..they are messed up...soo if i save a file in FL i get p$8.mp3 or p$8.mid etc..

Now i have to format my shitty windowz..


Anyways i working on remix of ISOLATED WARRIOR of the NES 8 bit..

My castlevania 3 REMIX is done.."Lets_begin_beating_dracula's_ass.mp3"

YAY for me?

[irus_xx]

Okay Im new here, and being the newb that I am, I have a question about breakbeats. How might one go about making one? I mean, I have the thing down perfectly in my head, but I have no idea how to transfer that into Fruityloops. Any suggestions/tolerance of my n00b idiocy would be much apreciated.

[Blak_Omen]

I, on the other hand, would like to know what a breakbeat is.

[Fo Shizzle]

To my knowledge (heh) a breakbeat is any solo played by a drummer. It can be in a rock band, blues, whatever. Can be flanged and whatever else. Not sure but a pretty reliable friend gave me that info.

[Blak_Omen]

Hmm, I always thought those were called Drum Solos....

[Beatdrop]

*Sigh*

A breakbeat is not a solo played by a drummer. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

A breakbeat is a drum rhythm in which another drum rhythm was taken, broken apart (thus the "break"), and rearranged into a new rhythm to give it a jagged edge where it was chopped apart. Breakbeat is also a style of Electronica that uses these rhythms. Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, Hybrid, Fatboy Slim, and many others have done this style of music.

A breakbeat is rather simple to create. Take a drum rhythm, typically one you created, render it as a .wav. Put that .wav into a sound editing utility, such as CoolEdit or Sound Forge, and seperate it at any spot that you see a spike in the spectrum that would signify the hit of a drum. Take these new slices, render each one as a new .wav, and load them into your sequencing program. Rearrange them into a new drum beat, and you're good to go.

[Fo Shizzle]

Yeah, sorry about that. I originally had the right idea, but my friend and I had this argument. He's been producing music for 2 1/2 years so I trusted him.

Some friends I have =\.

[DM Lee]

breakbeats generally do just that, break the beat. And often the use of gating is essential in breakbeat music, but its not absolutely necesary.

For example, if you have a beat that follows a melody, you will drop everything out of the song for a measure except the essential parts of the beat and the main part of the melody and then have the melody not play on any sections where no percussion is present (use gating for this). And then viola, you have a break in the beat.

Breakbeat songs would consist of doing this constantly throughout a single mix, well not constantly, but enough to make the song be classified as a breakbeat.

Usually breakbeats are accompanied by a general drum n bass beat throughout.

Dont everything i said too seriously since im not so experienced, but im just saying what i do know of breakbeats

[Blak_Omen]

Thank you Beatdrop. I like breakbeats if that's what they are. I really need to get myself CoolEdit/Sound Forge...

[irus_xx]

Oh...sounds...easy. I guess. Heh, well, thanx for the info! Now I just gotta get crackin on this remix!

[Rellik]

I just have a quick question on FruityLoops... specifically the SoundFont player. Is there any way to... um... not have to buy this SoundFont player? Um... if, um, so... how would I go about this? I have tried something starting with a K and ending with a aZaA, but that didnt work out. Sorry if I'm being overly secretive, but I'm a newbie here and dont know what's what. Dont get all mad and defensive of the industry... if you dont approve of not-especially-legal computing than just say so and dont help me, or maybe ban me if I'm breaking some rule that I unfortunately did not know about... But, if I were to persue this not-especially-legal way to obtain the SounFont player (not that I will) what would I do? Hypothetical question (but its really not (but I shouldnt have said that)). I'm assuming many of you here are all very violently aversed to not-especially-legal computing, but... remixing is barely more than a hobby for me yet, definitely not worth many real dollars.

Also, where do you think I could get some feedback for non-remix compositions? I will eventually get to doing some remixes, but I'd like some feedback on my experiments to know what's good and what's not before starting one.

[dPaladin]

When I d/led FruityLoops, it had a soundfont player (demo) with it

[Blak_Omen]

Ah, but the demo isn't as good as a proper working version. Am I right?

[djcubez]

I just have a quick question on FruityLoops... specifically the SoundFont player. Is there any way to... um... not have to buy this SoundFont player? Um... if, um, so... how would I go about this? I have tried something starting with a K and ending with a aZaA, but that didnt work out. Sorry if I'm being overly secretive, but I'm a newbie here and dont know what's what. Dont get all mad and defensive of the industry... if you dont approve of not-especially-legal computing than just say so and dont help me, or maybe ban me if I'm breaking some rule that I unfortunately did not know about... But, if I were to persue this not-especially-legal way to obtain the SounFont player (not that I will) what would I do? Hypothetical question (but its really not (but I shouldnt have said that)). I'm assuming many of you here are all very violently aversed to not-especially-legal computing, but... remixing is barely more than a hobby for me yet, definitely not worth many real dollars.

Also, where do you think I could get some feedback for non-remix compositions? I will eventually get to doing some remixes, but I'd like some feedback on my experiments to know what's good and what's not before starting one.

I found it on KaZzA easily. Search for Fruity Soundfont (NOT PLAYER) and you should get it. It's about 680 Kb or sumtin.

[reelmojo]

First... call me a dumbass.

Second, when I import a midi and try to play it back... I get no sound at all. It doesn't seem to matter what I click... I know I know, I'm new to this though. Any help would be appreciated.

[OverCoat]

I can point you in the direction of the MIDI options. Press F10 while in FruityLoops. I've tried a lot of combinations and I can't seem to get midi working in FL, though. :cry:
The good thing is, though, that I never use MIDI anyways. :D

[dPaladin]

you have to add sounds to the MIDI when you import it. You can't open GM in FruityLoops, but you can get a GM Collection Soundfont. That's what I did. In other words, import your MIDI, choose a soundfont ans choose "Send to selected channel."

[djcubez]

Goto settings in the toolbar and click Enable MIDI output. Also check your MIDI settings and make sure you assigned the MIDI mapper or your sound cards MIDI to port 0.

[dPaladin]

I have asked this question before, but I didn't get an answer. WHY do I get 30 seconds of blank space at the end of the songs I make. I open a MIDI in FL, add soundfonts, screw with the volume and pan, and render it. Viola! Cello! A 1:32 piece is 2:08 with blank space at the end of it.

[jbnewberry]

When you export, select "cut remainder" in the export options.

[irus_xx]

Got 'nother drum question. When you start up FL and you have the 4 channels sitting there (C_Kick, C_HC, CHH, and C_Snare) is there any way to increase the amount of beats you get? Like 16th notes and 32nd? Because without them I cant get the timing quite right...

(not sure if that makes sense, but thnx anyway! :D )

[OverCoat]

Got 'nother drum question. When you start up FL and you have the 4 channels sitting there (C_Kick, C_HC, CHH, and C_Snare) is there any way to increase the amount of beats you get? Like 16th notes and 32nd? Because without them I cant get the timing quite right...

(not sure if that makes sense, but thnx anyway! :D )

I totally answered that a few pages back, go look.

[Blak_Omen]

To repeat for the lazy, change the snap in the top to something like 1/4 or 1/2. Experimentation is the best way to learn this.

If you really wanted you could probably go into song settings and scale up the tempo but...

[Elex Synn]

I've downloaded a bunch of rather nice soundfonts from Bananaquartz Studio, and they play just fine in Fruity Loops (I have the full version now. Early Christmas present :D ). But when I try to save my work, FL says something about "Some of the FL plugins used in this project are limited to the demo vversion only, and will be deleted. Continue saving?"... Or something like that. Then once I did save (Trying to figure out what this means), all my soundfonts are erased from the project.

Why does it keep deleting the soundfonts?

Please, and thank you.

[jbnewberry]

How about reading the previous page in this thread. While you're at it, read the entire thread and many more questions will be answered.

[Elex Synn]

Ouch. So that was the 4th / 5th time my question was asked. I'm just lucky I actually had time to read all the pages of this thread.

[Dyne]

Once more, because I asked the same question, which has now become the jaded topic of late.

There are demos in the new version of Fruity Loops. Unfortunately, that are not savable, so unless you leave your machine on 24/7, you have a one shot deal to encode your work to MP3, WAV, or what have you.

[DjNioN]

Ok this Q is for the super-advanced users of FruityLoops, i know its possible on FL to make those choir vocal-sound alikes but I have no idea how to do it. Ive heard songs made by FL that have them in it but it is still a mystery to me on how to do it. Can anyone help me out on this? (Example, Metroid, The norfair/magmoor Awes) Thanks

EDIT: Nevermind, got it.

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

I don't know about vocal sounds, but there are ways to make all sorts of neat sounding pads. You can use simsynth to make them, but I prefer 3x oscillator.

To make pads with the 3x oscillator, first select your waveforms. I prefer to use saw waves for all three, but there are variations that can give you different sounds that may sound better. Adjust the tuning either all to zero semitones or all to -12 semitones for each oscillator (so they're all the same). Set the fine tune on one oscillator down to -35 cents, and the fine tune to another to +35 cents. This will give them a very thick sound. If you prefer, you don't have to detune them as much, or even at all. You can leave all 3 at 0 cents, if you prefer.

Now for envelopes:

Under the volume envelop, turn the attack knob slightly up, and the sustain knob all the way up. Make sure the cutoff knob is turned way down. If you want you can turn up the resonance up also (up to halfway is probably good). There, now you have some OK sounding pads.

However, they probably still sound a bit cheesy. You want to add some effects to make them sound a lot richer. For effects, you should add some reverb (the default preset should be fine, although you may want to add more). Also add a flanger effect for some fun. I normally use the "Ultra Fat Chorus" preset so it sounds like it takes up more space (and sounds a lot richer). If you want, you can also add a phaser effect. I'd suggest experimenting with the different phaser presets until you find one that suits you, or you can play around with it yourself to get the effect you want.

Now that you have your sound, you want to make it work. Go to the piano roll view and build your chords and stuff. If you want, you can play around with channel panning in the piano roll. You can also give it some more phasing qualities by going back to the envelopes section of the sample, rigth clicking the "cutoff" knob, and selecting "edit events". Now you can draw a bunch of stuff on the graph to control the sounds cutoff. I'd suggest first selecting from the top left corner, Init events (to put the graph at the current cutoff position), and selecting ("use smooth transitions", or whatever it says). Now you can draw curves on the graph for some cool cutoff effects.


Hope that makes some sense or helps.

Now go out there and make some badass pads.

[jbnewberry]

That is just a matter of finding the right sample or soundfont you want. You can search through the various free soundfont sights like www.hammersound.net and www.bananaquarts.com and see if any of those strike your fancy. I'm sure there are some decent free choir samples out there. There is a crappy one in one of the FL sample folders. If you don't have any luck there, you might try some place like www.bigfishaudio.com and lay down a little cash (or a lot) for some high quality samples. Some of the online sample dealers will even sell individual sample downloads from 2 to 10 bucks each.

Hope that gives you a start.

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

If it's soundfonts you want, go here:

www.thesoundsite.net
(I'd recommend the "uncompressed section)

The soundfont I've been using for choir has been the "Florestan Choir" soundfont

[jbnewberry]

Thank you very much Mr. Nelson. I've been looking for a soundfont like that for ages. Good free choir sounds are hard to come by. Thanks again.

[DjNioN]

Sweet, thanx doods. Alot better than the vocals I made.

[djcubez]

Yo Nelson, I thinkn the pads and soundfonts place helped everyone, and *bling bling* gangsta remixer!

[Beatdrop]

ARhgarwjblknasrlwaraW:$@$@^te...

My head... MY HEAD!!!

ow.

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

ARhgarwjblknasrlwaraW:$@$@^te...

My head... MY HEAD!!!

ow.

meaning you couldn't figure out how to make pads? 8O

[SlightlyOddGuy]

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you get FL to export music as a MIDI? I've found all of the options for it, but every time I try, I just end up with a tiny blank file. I think it has something to do with setting my soundcard to the right port, but I can't find a way to determine what it's port is either.

[OverCoat]

This is probably a stupid question, but how do you get FL to export music as a MIDI? I've found all of the options for it, but every time I try, I just end up with a tiny blank file. I think it has something to do with setting my soundcard to the right port, but I can't find a way to determine what it's port is either.


Are all your channels midi channels? If not, I don't think it will recognize as a midi and will not work. Check other midis, do they work? If they don't, mess around with your card's midi settings until it works. Hope that helps.

[SlightlyOddGuy]

Ahhh. That explains it. Thanks!

[Eternalumination]

Hey, i think this is a stupid question too, but hey, if i get an answer, its worth it. Well anyways, Uh...How do you install a soundfont? haha. i tried putting it in the directory where the default ones were, but it doesn't show up. can i get some help here? thx

[OverCoat]

Hmm. If you did the right thing (I assume you put the soundfonts in FLwhatever\samples\soundfonts for example [I recommend it goes in the samples folder and some subfolder]) then you probably don't have a newer version of Fruityloops. Soundfonts can be seen in the FL browser starting at version 3.4 and above. Also, only .sf2 format can be read. If you are using .sfark or .sfpack, you need an uncompression tool.

[Eternalumination]

I have the version 3.4 FL progam, i put it in the (whatever)\samples\soundfonts and the file is in .sf2 format. When i go to soundfonts, it just shows up as 1 soundfont and nothing else. Its supposed to be like alot of instruments and stuff but i dont' see them.

[Blak_Omen]

Double click on the Name (Next to patch and bank) and it should come up with a list of instruments.

I hope that answers your question...if I answered the right one...

[Rellik]

I've got a question. I've heard you shouldnt use the instruments that come with FruityLoops... but I can't find anything to match the default C_Kick. I look at all these soundfont sites just trying to find a kick drum like that, all i can find is drum KITS, where each note is a different drum instead of just one drum and different notes. Darn it all... should I just use C_Kick after all?

Also, another question, about tempo changes. I've been able to successfully make tempo changes within a song at least once or twice... but its mostly luck, since I dont know what i'm doing. In fact, can I just get a quick walkthrough of how to change the tempo within a song? Its really confusing...

And I haven't even gotten into the advanced stuff... I'm just barely starting to make a Metroid remix that sucks, and I'm having alot of trouble :/

Also, how can I use .sfARk or whatever they are? Or can i only use sf2?

[djcubez]

For the tempo change use automation. If you don't know how read on. Create a new pattern with solely nothing in it. Name it whatever you want in the playlist. I prefer Auto. Then make it play for the first block of the playlist. Don't put anything in it. Now, for automation, select that pattern, and hit the record button. Then hit play. Now anything you do in the song at the specific time you do it will happen automatically. So basically the pattern is the automation tool, you record with it when it is selected, and put the play pattern in. if you record within another pattern it redoes the automation thing when ever that pattern plays.

For the C_kick problem. Just use it, I do. Or, look for .wav files of kicks. I find them easier to use then soundfonts. I have a bunch. Just ask.

[Blak_Omen]

If you scroll back a few pages I believe there should be a tempo-change walkthrough...well at least I recall a debate about it anyway.

C_Kick is fine but you'll probably want to use something special. I don't know, try distorting it or something. Creativity = Good thing.

SFArk is a compressed soundfont. You'll need to get the program to unpack it, though I can't remember where I got mine from.

[djcubez]

try samplefusion.com

[Rellik]

Thanks, although samplefusion.com doesnt work.

Anyway, my friend (and yes, I do mean my friend, not me) needs a crack for FruityLoops 3.1.7 or whatever it is... he's tried KaZaA, heck, I've even tried Kazaa for him, but we haven't found it...

Then I tried SoulSeek, which is a great up-and-coming filesharing program/network, but it wasn't there anymore. Oh well...

Anyway, if anyone has seen any good sites or specific places for that kind of thing, I'm sure he would appreciate it. In fact, he kind of forced me not-so-kindly into posting for him as his registry wouldnt work, so I think he means it... he threatened to kill me, and if that didnt work, he threatened to talk in capital letters on AIM until eternity ends. Which is worse than death.

Thanks, :P (seriously, its not a big deal, I doubt he's even tried that hard to find the crack that he's been searching for "for millions of years")

Also, I'd like someone's opinion on whether its kind of tacky and amateurish to use hand-clap as a percussion. Personally, I like it, but it won't go very far if nobody else does.

Oh, also, here's a tip (you probably already know this) if you make the cut flow down and the reverb flow up it sounds really cool :) also if you make the echo so that its cut goes up as it echoes and you have a metalic instrument it will sound more music-boxy but retain softeness.

[Garian]

dude. i need hlep with fruityloops, how can i get decent sines with the 3xOsc and default effects? :(

[OverCoat]

dude. i need hlep with fruityloops, how can i get decent sines with the 3xOsc and default effects? :(

Hmm... on the 3xOSC, see the wavy lines? That's a sine wave, should be the first square where all the shapes are. That's how you make sine waves. whee.


wavy lines? Squares? Shapes? I feel like I'm in kindergarten again!

[Garian]

SOC, i mean DECENT sines, not just any old sine sounding wave, it needs to sound like a nice instrument. can't just be a wooooooooooooow or anything, has to sound GOOD. :(
but it doesn't hurt my head like buzz, so i'll just keep toying with it.

[OverCoat]

SOC, i mean DECENT sines, not just any old sine sounding wave, it needs to sound like a nice instrument. can't just be a wooooooooooooow or anything, has to sound GOOD. :(
but it doesn't hurt my head like buzz, so i'll just keep toying with it.

But that's what a sine wave is

[Garian]

bah. nevermind :(

[Blak_Omen]

I personally thing hand-clap as percussion is really lame in the wrong context. It all depends really, everything has its place - just maybe not in music.

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

I personally thing hand-clap as percussion is really lame in the wrong context. It all depends really, everything has its place - just maybe not in music.



The hand clap can actually sound really awesome if you add about 50 % reverb and some other effects (try playing with the parametric equalizer A LOT). The default samples really aren't that bad depending what you do with them. It usually takes a lot of playing with envelopes, lfo's and the different VST effects to get them to sound really good.

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

I've got a question. I've heard you shouldnt use the instruments that come with FruityLoops... but I can't find anything to match the default C_Kick. I look at all these soundfont sites just trying to find a kick drum like that, all i can find is drum KITS, where each note is a different drum instead of just one drum and different notes. Darn it all... should I just use C_Kick after all?

Also, another question, about tempo changes. I've been able to successfully make tempo changes within a song at least once or twice... but its mostly luck, since I dont know what i'm doing. In fact, can I just get a quick walkthrough of how to change the tempo within a song? Its really confusing...

And I haven't even gotten into the advanced stuff... I'm just barely starting to make a Metroid remix that sucks, and I'm having alot of trouble :/

Also, how can I use .sfARk or whatever they are? Or can i only use sf2?

You can actually make the C_Kick sound really nice if you layer a bunch of them together and add some effects to it. Try adding some distortion and really tweak the parametric equalizer for a start (the effects are really good to learn because they can totally change the sounds of different samples)

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

dude. i need hlep with fruityloops, how can i get decent sines with the 3xOsc and default effects? :(


That really depends what you want to do with the sine wave oscillator. You can use the sine wave to make portamento lines (for hip hop and stuff), basses (for hip hop, trance, and lots of other stuff), and even pads. If you want to use it for pads, you probably want to refer to the other post I wrote on making pads (like a couple pages before this one). You probably want to tweak the tuning all to the same or an octave apart (when I make basses, I usually turn the high oscillator all the way down from the default setting and it works). Really though, you need to be specific with your questions, because each different kind of oscillator can have multiple uses, and you can blend them together. I like the sine wave because it has a really pure mellow sound. Probably the best thing you can do is experiment and find out how it works.

[Ghetto Lee Lewis]

For the tempo change use automation. If you don't know how read on. Create a new pattern with solely nothing in it. Name it whatever you want in the playlist. I prefer Auto. Then make it play for the first block of the playlist. Don't put anything in it. Now, for automation, select that pattern, and hit the record button. Then hit play. Now anything you do in the song at the specific time you do it will happen automatically. So basically the pattern is the automation tool, you record with it when it is selected, and put the play pattern in. if you record within another pattern it redoes the automation thing when ever that pattern plays.






um, there's really a lot easier way to do automation than recording and trying to do stuff live (especially if your computer is unresponsive or you don't have a really decent mouse). If you right click on the tempo bar and select "edit events", you can control the tempo as precisely as you want. From the event editor, select "init current position" and events will automatically be placed at the current tempo position. Now, whenever the playlist comes across that pattern (make sure you place at least one of them in the song view), it will read the events in that pattern to control the tempo.

The neat thing is, you can right click in almost any of the knobs in most of the editors, including the VST/VSTi plugins that come with Fruity Loops, including the Buzz adapter plugins, and edit events for almost anything. Just edit events for them in the same way as the tempo, and you have yourself custom made envelopes for cutoff, attack, sustain, reverb depth, or whatever else you need to modify.
The drawback is, and you must be careful, is that any changes you make to events will actually control the corresponding knobs. That is, changes in the event editor will stay in the song permanently. Therefore, if you want changes to be reset to how they were before changes were modified, you must make corresponding changes in the even editor (I've had this problem with some songs, when playing through or rendering a song and when playing it again the cutoff for a pattern start too high. This however, can be fixed, either by playing the pattern with events modified where they should start or making the changes back to how they were in the right pattern).


The event editor can make Fruity Loops an incredibly powerful piece of software. Just figure out how to use it right.

[hardcloud]

Is it possible to import existing MIDI files into Fruity Loops? And if so, how?

[OverCoat]

Simple, just go File> import> MIDI file :D

[DJKarma]

Here's a simple question that'll probably have a simple answer. Let's say I want a sound to continue on long, maybe make it a whole note or whatever. How can I do that? Basically, how can I tie the beats together?

[Garian]

piano roll, djkarma. if you have the song settings at default, it will already be looking like a 4/4 signature anyway, 4 beats per measure. if you want a longer note, just pull the whatchoocallit, the trigger so its longer, but make sure that the envelope has a sustain on it, or no volume envelope at all, or else your note won't continue beyond what its hold is set to.

[hardcloud]

Simple, just go File> import> MIDI file :D

Mine doesnt have that option at all. I'm running 3.0, maybe I should upgrade.

[OverCoat]

You should definitely upgrade. the later versions don't have that "Crash every 5 minutes" problem.

[hardcloud]

Ok, I just installed 3.56. I imported an MIDI but when I tried to play it back, it wouldn't make a sound. It's not even funny how much off a n00b I am at this...

[OverCoat]

You have to set up midi first. in FL, press F10. I also have a problem with MIDI though. for SOME odd reason, Midi will not play even when I have the correct device selected to port 0! (I use the creative PCI sounds, not GS wavetable) Logically it would've worked, but I have problems with this.
EDIT: Nope, no answers! Help!

[hardcloud]

Oh cool. I just set up the MIDI just like you said (except I used GS Wavetable) and now it works. Thanks, You've been a ton of help.

[OverCoat]

Glad I could help, uhh... Citizen!

(sorry, I don't wanna type your name, it makes me laugh too hard!)

[Rellik]

Does the piano roll frustrate anyone else? You cant select large groups of notes and move them all, you cant copy and paste (lets say you want something to repeat, you have to click everything in again) and... its just so frustrating. Sometimes the snap has problems with it, where it gets stuck snapping in the wrong place. Grrrrr... isn't there any better way? And also, could I copy notes from Fruityloops and paste them in Cakewalk, since that is so much easier to edit?