Splunkle

As zircon said, it sounds like something is eating your CPU up. Increase your audio buffer size, this can be found by going "Options>Audio Settings". The problem is, while a larger buffer eases the load on your CPU, it will introduce "lag" into your song. This can be a big problem if you are using midi controllers, as there is a delay between pressing the key and the sound playing. Hence one should set their buffer to be as small as possible without getting any scratches or the like. If you don't want to increase your buffer size, don't run stuff in the background. Or get a new CPU. Or update your drivers. Or kill kittens in a ritual to the elder gods to give you more power. Or something. But buffer increase is the easiest solution.

I have little idea about what you are talking about. Please rephrase your question. I will mention that the Piano roll has copy and paste abilities , which could be what you want, along with the group select tool.

Sounds like the crackling you had, if it was solved by changing volume levels, was clipping. There is tons of advice on how to avoid it, but to still keep your song at a decent volume level. I'll just say that Fruity Soft Clipper and Fruity Compressor are your friend, and that googling something like "compression sound tutorials" will give you a lot of tips. Also, check out the links sticky.

I think what Zaphoy is refering to is the software keyboard (What I will call it for lack of a better term) that FL has. Usually "z" on your computer keyboard is C4. Then "s" is C#, etc. I am not aware of any way to change this - I think z always has to be C. However, like the others were saying, you can change the root note in the generator (In this case FL keys). Usually the root note is C5. If we set that to C6, then when we ask it to play C5, we hear C4. Thus setting the root note an octave higher plays stuff an octave lower, and setting the root note an octave lower play stuff an octave higher. One could set the root note to any note, not just the C's, but watch the sharps and flats. If one set the root note to C#, when one asks for B, one gets A#. But one was to ask for C, one would get B. Using this method, one could map the fruity software keyboard to any set of notes... but I'm afraid that you cant use "q". It's still the bottom two rows of your keyboard, and I don't think you can change that. Oh, to set the root note, simply right click on the desired note in the keyboard in the channel properties window. The bright orange rectangle thing should move, showing you where the root note is. Hope that helps.

Currently the notes are in a piano roll on a MIDIout channel right? Well then, to copy the notes, simply right click on the channel, go edit>copy, and then right click on the destination channel, and go edit>paste. That should do it. Oh, to add another channel, go channels>add one.

Ok... I'm going to try to answer both at once, because the questions are related. Anyways, here we go: MIDI is just a bunch of notes. NOT SOUNDS. What a program does when it plays a MIDI file is pass the notes onto your soundcard and then the sound card produces the sound. Thus, a midi file will sound different on a different sound card. So what fruity is doing with one of its midiout channels is routing data to your soundcard (or whatever you want - that is what you setup in the remote section of options), and then the soundcard actually does the sound production, not fruity. Hence, Zaphoy, I would speculate that your soundcards midi volume is set rather low. Look through the windows volume controls, hopefully something will be there. Alternativly, you could just copy the midi notes into a different channel. You will probably get a better sound this way too. Lemon of Hyrule, I would recomend you do the same thing - copy the notes into a different channel. The reason it turns out to be "just a bunch of piano notes" is because that is all it is. Just plug the notes into something that can make some noise, and you're away. Hope that helps.

Blimey, three questions in a row... well, starting at the top: @TSN: Make sure your audio is all set up properly. Go to Options > Audio Settings, and make sure you have the rigth sound device selected. If that doesn't work... uhhhhhh... Make sure your speakers are plugged in? @XOR - SYS: Yeah, this is crazy buisness. The same thing happens to me. I managed to fix it once, but that was at 4am, and I can't remember how I did it. Anyone else know how to fix it? @myka316: It sounds like you aren't using the piano roll. Right click on the channel (in this case GloomPrelude) and go "piano roll". The keyboard on the left tells you which note is which, and is also a handy-dandy testing keyboard. Its fairly easy to figure out, so I won't bother going into all the fuctions of the piano roll - though the help file is great place to read up on it.

Fruity Soft Clipper also works good, depending on what you are trying to achive with compression. I use soft clipper whenever I just want to stop the channel clipping, whereas fruity compressor can do all this other jazz.

@ Meteo Xavier: Well, you could just get a cymbal sound and reverse it. Fruity Sampler can do this for you, just tick the "Reverse" checkbox in the plugin tab. If you don't use Fruity, well, I'm sure your wave editor of choice can do it.

Well, the Fruity soundfont player only plays .sf2 files. Or at least, thats all I am aware of it playing. Smeh. Anyways, get your soundfonts into the .sf2 format - usually you have to extract them out of some crazy format - I know Darkesword's ones (which are sexy good 'fonts, btw) are in some crazy format. He host a decompression tool though, so that shouldn't be an issue. So, you have your soundfonts in .sf2 format. Now, load up fruity, and load up your soundfont player. Do this by going channels > add one > Fruity Soundfont player. If you aren't using the Fruity soundfont player then go channerls > add one> More... and then choose you soundfont player. Then, bang out a few notes and you are away!

Under midi settings (found in the options menu), make sure the right device is set to the right port. Usually midi channels are set to port zero, so select whatever midi device you want to play 'em to be port zero. The devices should be in the "output port mapping" bit, and you should at least have some microsoft midi mapper or something like that there. Or you could use fruity LSD. =D

Well, I just want to thank Zircon for his awesome guides. They are like some form of tasty bread, except more informative. Mmmmmm. Bread. Anyways, I would also like to thank most of the remixing forum. Before I registered, I lurked 'round here for ages, and it is amazing what you can learn here if you pay attention. There is a huge amount of infomation - but it is largely unsorted. Sure the search function helps, but it doesn't pull up every topic on a subject, and brings up a lot of unrelated stuff. Which is why I think this thread is great. It concentrates knowledge, even if it is just Zircon's tutes. Compy, I think you have given a great many tips 'n tricks with mastering and all that jazz already, but its spread all over the place. A thread that just consolidated that would be unbelivably awesome. If people are going to run around thinking they are some sort of awesome master of mastering because they read a single guide on it, well, I say let fools be fools, and perhaps the rest of us will learn something. After all, you can't stop the signal [/serenity]

Well, you can automate stuff in a few ways in Fruity. Up first are automation clips. These are, well, clips that live in the playlist, down in that bottom bit. Right click on the knob you want to automate. In this case its filter cutoff, right? Choose the "Create automation clip" option. Then, in the playlist, down in the bottom bit, paint the automation clip. You can then modify it at will - Right click to add a new point, left click on points to move 'em up and down - its preety intuitive. Another way of automating is using the event editor. This creates automation within the current patten. Right click on the knob you want to automate. Select "edit events" This brings you to the event editor. Value of the knob is on the left, so the higher the graph, the higher the knob. Time is at the top there, measured in bars, so you know just when stuff is happening. Left click to set the knob at a value at a time, right click and drag to set some straight lines - this is sounding all awkward. Just play with it, once again, it is preety intuitive. Why are there two ways of doing this? Well, sometimes it is better to use Automation clips, sometimes better to use the event editor. Auto clips are great if you want a change to happen once in a song, whereas the event editor is better if you need a change to happen mroe than once in a song. Also, some people just prefer one over the other - a matter of taste. Anyways, again, take a look at the demo songs that come with FL. It is amazing what you can learn from those. For example, "Toby & Freyda - Maybe" features heavy use of both types of automation.

Fruity is a pattern based sequencer. The song is made up of patterns. The patterns contain piano rolls, automation, and all that jazz. It sounds like you are making a song with only one pattern... A mistake I made myself way back when I started with fruity. Hit F5. This should bring up the playlist. Here you can tell pattens when to play and when not to. Thus, you can have a pattern for a chorus, a pattern for each verse, or something like that. This way, whenever you get to the chorus, you just call that pattern, without having to copy paste huge amounts of goo. The best way, IMHO, to get a grasp of patterns is just to look at the demo songs that come with fruity and see how they work. Remember, F5 for the playlist, and you can click on the LEDs next to the play button to switch between playing the patten and playing the song.

There are 2 ways of doing this, that I am aware of: Firstly, there are time signature settings in "project settings", which can be found in the options pull down menu. You should be able to generate any time signature using that. The second way is to use the thingy in the top left corner of the step sequencer. This denotes the top part of the time signature for this pattern. Usually it displays "--" which means it is the same as whatever you set in the project settings. You can change that however, to whatever you want. The bottom part of the time signature remains unchanged, however. The first method is great if you have an entire song in one time signature. If you change time signatures midsong, the second method is better. Also, remember that the secodn method only changes the time signature for that pattern, so you could have two different patterns in different time signatures playing at the same time if you wanted. Does that make sense, or am I rambling?

Well, I have literally no idea what the freaking is going on here. Could you host your .flp somewhere? Failing that, you could just email it to me at Splunkle@gmail.com - then I could try to figure out just whats going on. Maybe its because I suck at life and forgot use piano roll. Ah. Mystery solved. Please?! Sorry man, while I know of the song you are talking about, I know of no remixes - perhaps Google could give you more answers?

Well, I have literally no idea what the freaking is going on here. Could you host your .flp somewhere? Failing that, you could just email it to me at Splunkle@gmail.com - then I could try to figure out just whats going on.

Hot wow. Thats some nice work there. And Skaven uses Slayer exactly right - uses its strong points, and covers it weak points using FX. Sure it doesn't sound exactly like a guitar, but that don't matter - it sounds GOOD. Thanks for the linky, Nasenmann.

The only thing that can actually even pass for a quitar is POWER. Thats about it... Flslayer sucks Slayer is great, you just have to use it right. Sure it isn't going to produce Iron Maiden lead guitars, but thats not what it is about. No guitar simulator will be able to sound like every single guitar out there, and if you want want it sound good, you are going to have to put in the effort. Use FX (Especially EQ), tweak the notes, learn about the slides. Slayer is just like any other synth - only useful sometimes, and you will have to put in some effort to make it sound good. It can do some awesome backing guitar work, and is unbelivably good for those situations where you want a cheap sounding guitar. It is also for those situations where you want somethign vaugely guitar sounding, but no guitar could possibly do stuff like that. As for tutorials... ummm. Just play around with it, look at the help file, see how it works, particullarly the different input modes (Solo fixed, solo dynamic, strumming, etc). As for your question about holding, I tend to leave hold off, and just extend the note if I want it to go on for a while. Or, if I want that squeal, I leave it on hold, then mute the channel when I don't want the squeal, and unmute when I do. Well, there is a panic button, just in case sounds do go on forever... fogoten what it is though. As for why they are doing it forever.. curious. Do your pattens go on for ever? If the sound is continuing after the note has stopped, then it sounds like a problem with release - check your envolopes. Oh! The other thing is, you might have it set to play the pattern, not the song, where it just repeats the current pattern. Fix this by clicking on the song LED just next to the play button. If none of this helps, I've probably mis-understood you. Try explaining it again, and I'll try fixing it again.

Uhhhh... How are you importing the midi? If you are just opening the .mid file in Fruity, then it shouldn't do that. If you are importing tracks from a midi file using the piano roll, it may be doin gsome funky stuff, becasue Fruity is a pattern based sequencer. If there are bars of rest, it will just nuke 'em, knowing that you will merely delay the pattern in the Playlist.

You didn't read the help file did you? =P. All the info you need is in there. Try the sections about the Step Sequencer, Piano Roll, and Playlist.

Okay, first of all, you might want to try reading through the "What software or hardware should I start out with?" Sticky. Really good info in there. Then I would recommend grabbing the FL studio demo, and try it out. If you do have any questions, try the help file first, then try searching around here, chances are somebody has already asked it. Having done all that, humbly ask for help in here =P. Good luck.

Ummm. I think you are talking about a 7 band eq, not Fruity's Parametric EQ. While the Fruity Parametric EQ only has 7 sliders, it is parametric, which means that you can adjust the freq each sliders is boosting or cutting, thus allowing you to pinpoint the frequencies you want exactly. Also, all good parametric EQ's (which includes fruity's) can adjust the "width" of the slider - how the slider will effect nearby frequencies. You could make it huge, so moving the slider will move about will effect frequencies several 1000 hetz above and below it, or really narrow so it only effects frequencies within 10 hetz. I think these are logarithmicly scaled, so 10 hetz really low is a few hundred up really high, which is good, else you would get some really weird effects with wide band EQing. And yet another wonderful thing about the Fruity Parametric EQ. It allows you to choose the type of slider. You can make it a normal boost/cut thing, or a high/low cutoff, notch, and a few others besides. In short, Fruity Parametric EQ is really, really good. At least, it is in my humble opinion. To all you people who already knew this, apologies for the long post.