DarkeSword   Administrators 🎮

First, be patient. You only waited one hour before asking again, and nobody posted anything in the thread within that time. As for your question, automate the channel's volume to zero, then just bring it back up again, after a bar or two. It would probably make sense to automate any reverb or delay effects you have on the channel down to zero also using the effect's knob so that any residual sound gets killed too. If you need to know how to automate things in FL, check out the helpfile, or just search this thread. Automation should be in here somewhere.

Hey guys, lets try to keep the FAQ construction discussion in its own thread or something, and keep this thread as the FL101 thread, so as not to confuse people. Maybe use the Projects forum? A massive FL FAQ project would be fine there.

For future reference, for anything that's a demo version in FL and won't save, you've gotta pay money to get the full version. That's just how it works. Also, the fact that you're still using FL3 leads me to believe you've acquired a copy through other means. I'm not gonna try to give you a guilt trip, but seriously, make the purchase so you don't have to ask us how to work around the limitations of illegally obtained software. If you DID buy FL however, then go download the latest version (4.51). FL has free updates for life for online purchasers.

So in fruityloops you're just feeding it a MIDI file and editing the way it sounds? Not necessarily a MIDI file, but yeah, you're sequencing notes and FL plays it back. With CEP, you drop wave files onto channels and specify when they play. It's a mixer. You can't WRITE NOTES with CEP. With FruityLoops, you actually write the notes using the piano roll, and those notes are rendered using generators like samplers, soundfont players, and assorted VSTi's.

The peak controller outputs the volume level of a channel as a number which can be linked to a knob or something. For example, I use the peak controller to make some cool gated synth brass sounds. Here's what I do. I make a sampler channel and load up a high-hat sample into it. I set that to FX channel 5 (this is arbitrary). In FX channel 5, I add the peak controller. Then I write some kind of cool pattern in the hit hat channel using piano roll. I add a soundfont player and load up one of my synthy brass soundfonts. I set this to a different FX channel than the peak controller is set to, like FX channel 6. Now I write some sustained chords into the soundfont channel. Then I right click on the volume knob for the soundfont channel and go to "Link to controller..." In the dialog box that pops up, I go to the internal controller option and select the peak controller on FX5. I hit all the checks and everything to get out of that dialog. Now, when I hit play, I hear the synthbrass chord sounds coming in following the pattern I wrote into the high hat line. Note that you can't hear the high hat here. The peak controller automatically mutes whatever you feed into it. There's an option on the Peak Controller window to unmute it, but I never use that. The mute might be your problem. Remember though, you usually don't want to use the peak controller in the same FX channel as the sound you want to hear. Keep the PC in it's own FX channel, like 16 or something, and label it so you know what it is. The controller is something that sends the numerical data to another channel in order to control a certain option like volume. Hope that helps.

Valentines Day! Grab "It's Been Years..." off my site, since it was written for a special someone.

The $49 version is a waste of money; its just a beat machine. Get the $99 version. You absolutely need the piano roll if you want to use the program by itself to make something serious.

You won't find good free ones I'm afraid. =( It's very hard to make a good brass sample to begin with; the very very good ones that exist are quite expensive.

Information about buying FL is available at http://www.flstudio.com/ They break down exactly what you get for the edition you buy. I use the Fruity Loops edition of FLStudio, and I find it suits my needs just fine. I paid $99 for it, and $35 for the soundfont plugin, because I'm more of a sample guy than a synth guy. All of my mixes here at OC are done with FLStudio Fruity Loops Edition and a collection of soundfonts, if you want an indication of what just that can accomplish. I'd recommend that if you're just starting out and don't want to fork over the full price for the entire full Producer edition of FLStudio, at least get the FruityLoops edtion, because that has the piano roll, which is absolutely indespensible.

BIZ-NIDDLY-UMP PIMPIFICATIONS. Go listen. I am ten ninjas.

Please don't confuse the word 'soundfont' with the term 'sample.' Soundfonts are a specific file format (.sf2). Not all samples are soundfonts.

Your question was pretty clear. Here's a picture of the piano roll window from FL's help guide. The button in the upper left corner (#5) is what you want to make use of. Notice how they have a long blue note at the bottom, and then a smaller blue note near the top (#9). The smaller note has a small triangle in it, which indicates it's a slide note. This means that it will take the pitch the large note will start on and start bending the pitch to where it's located for whatever duration it's set to. In this case, it will bend the pitch from G# upto C# in one beat (four little boxes). You can make one of these notes by hitting the #5 button in the picture. It has a triangle on it. In order to make a note get louder or softer, you can overlap the slide note with the note you already have (example, put a B slide-note right on top of a regular B note). Set the regular note's velocity to the starting volume of the note, and set the slide note's velocity to the volume you want it to fade to. The fade start at the slide note and will last for the duration of the slide note. Hope that helps.

Listen up people! My stuff is gonna be played, so tune in!!

Ooh, this pulse is strong. The triplet feel in the percussion is really nice, and accents what's going on really nicely. I'm not too crazy about that flute sample. Sounds kinda tinny. When the piano comes in with the choral sounds, it's pure heaven. The guitar also adds a really nice touch. Your sounds (for the most part) are excellent, and you really build a nice texture by combining them properly. A few things; for the most part, the song seemed to have a lot of highs and lows, and not enough midrange. It may have been a levels issue. Not too serious, just something to think about. Also, it was a bit short. I would have loved to hear the part with the chorals developed more. All in all though, great work, Helen.

No they can't. I'd suggest completely uninstalling Winamp 3 and getting Winamp 5 anyway. It's better than 3 and more stable. If that doesn't work, Google around for some MP3 taggers. I know there are some out there.

Thanks for that information. Funny, on my FL Studios box, it says that you are legally entited to only ONE free upgrade - haha. Has anyone ever tried 4.5 yet? If so, in your personal opinion, is it worth upgrading from V4.12 to it? Geez, just when I thought I had everything... You should have bought it online. You get free updates for life with the online version. Boxed users have to pay $29 extra for the free-updates-for-life option.

and FL slayer Correct, but that doesn't answer the question of "Where can I find good bass and electric piano samples?"

Thanks for the comments; keep them coming! WOOT! mixcount+1!!

Umm...dude, when you buy FL, you get free updates for the main software for life. You're legally entitled to download 4.12 if you bought 3.56. Go and DOWNLOAD it. You're using outdated software when you're legally entitled to use the most recent version! As for the SFPlayer, it works with the most recent version of FL. You can't buy the SFPlayer without buying FL, and if you bought FL, you automatically have the most recent version.

http://soundfonts.darkesword.com/

What do you mean by a battle snaredrum? A marching snare, akin to what was used in the army, or a kind of power-rock snare you'd hear in a battle them in FF or something?

Because a sample format allows you to map wav files to a keyboard and allows you to trigger the sample with a keyboard or by a piano roll, among other things. Soundfonts can also have velocity specific samples, such as in a piano soundfont. High velocity will play a harder attack, whereas a low velocity will give you a softer sound. If you're just talking about percussion, soundfonts are nice because yes, you can program them into a MIDI keyboard, and also, percussion soundfonts often have sounds that work really well together. Stand alone wave samples are nice; I use them a lot myself, for rev cymbals and more ethnic percussion sounds, but I prefer soundfonts, because they're sounds that come in packs and they often have specific data about when to cut a sample (e.g. a CH sound will automatically cut a OH sound). Granted, you can do stuff like cutting with wav samples, but it's more convenient when you have a soundfont that takes care of all that for you.

BOOCOCKY INDEED.

You need the NOVAkILL synths:DREAMkILLER EGOkILLER GODkILLER SOULkILLER MINDkILLER those are IMHO the best electronica synths ever Available here: http://www.novakill.com/killerz.htm They're VST's. I should check these out too.

soundfonts.darkesword.com I don't use .wavs that much, besides my rev cymbal.