DDRKirby(ISQ)

Just installed it. From first impressions, a mixed bag. As I imagined, no major changes that affect me, but it's all the little UI tweaks that I'm either pleased or worried about. for one i'm worried about the change in behavior of right-click dragging a horizontal scrollbar. It used to be that that would let you scroll in both X and Y directions, but now it just seems to be scroll X + zoom X. And zoom X is something I almost never do! also, if pattern blocks are dying, what was supposed to be their supposed proper way to select an arbitrary pattern? The only two things I see are the pattern selector at the top (ugh), or right-clicking that, or clicking in the title ba of the playlist... I'm looking forward to playing with patcher though, hopefully it's good. =D edit: i guess the new "pan in X and Y is middle mouse button, which is a problem because my mouse doesn't have one. hmmmmm....." edit2: ...but one of my other mouse buttons works fine for it, yay. overall verdict, there is nothing really new for me here aside from potentially patcher (maybe???), but an update is an update. it'll basically just be me learning a few new UI things and readjusting my shortcuts and such. I'll probably discover one or two shortcuts and such that already existed in previous versions too, hahaha. edit! okay, patcher can't add 3xOscs. it's useless to me now. i'm left with almost nothing good to say about this version =( probably one of the only things that i like is the ghost note display in the piano roll, which i think will be useful when i'm doing harmonies with two monophonic synths (TS404!). i disagree with most of the other interface changes. poo.

I haven't actually gotten around to trying out FL10 yet, but isn't subtle relative-brightness linked to velocity an old feature?

http://www.mediafire.com/?n9awexh8artwo2c something like that, anyways.

easily handling integration of VSTs across different computers (and/or different host programs) would be something to aim for if you were to do this.

Yeah don't worry, I know i =can= get the sound I want; i'm just too lazy to tweak it right now =P

Not the first time I've heard that. I'm holding on because I haven't yet figured out to get the new method to sound the way that I want it to. But yes, I definitely know that what I'm doing is weird and old. =P

Most of my stuff is done for OHC nowadays so I can't -afford- to waste time labeling stuff. I don't use pattern blocks anymore--everything is pattern clips, for better or for worse. I've pretty much gotten used to the new workflow. I make very liberal use of the "make unique" function that you can get by right-clicking a pattern block--it's what i use to make a "1 2 1 3" series of drum variations, for example. I use both the step sequencer and the piano roll. For drums I use the step sequencer for oneshot samples and the piano roll for slicex-chopped loops. For all my synths and melodic stuff I use the piano roll EXCEPT when I'm doing something in swing time and I want to have it in swing, which forces me to use the step sequencer, though i usually convert it to piano roll to get the actual notes down. I use the same template for everything that has mixer channels for all of my drum stuff set up already so I don't have to waste time setting up all of the compression, light reverb, light overdrive, etc. I still use the "stupid weird old" way of doing sidechaining (linking threshold to the peak controller) instead of the new actual sidechaining. I don't have much organization in the playlist, though I do tend to keep similar parts in the same row. Mostly my playlist clips tend to just extend to the right and downwards slowly as the song goes on. I have no hardware, not even a midi keyboard. Nothing is done live. For automation, I shift-click select the portion of the track that I want the automation to happen at and then create an automation clip. Except for things that are purely toggled on and off (such as a 1-measure plugin turn-on/turn-off)--for those I use edit events and add it as a pattern clip. I never use channel groups. Commonly I'll have synths in the "audio clips" group just because that's where my focus happened to be. I never use the "pattern selector" thing on the top of the screen--to select a pattern I either click the clip directly in the playlist or click its name using the bottom half of the playlist window.

average time: ~1 hour, due to OHC every week, and not getting around to making "real" songs that often (it does happen). Then the 1-hour songs end up being better than all the other ones...dammit. Also, echo what people said about mixing+mastering on a different day. Good to save all the "finishing touch" stuff for another day so that you can come back to it fresh.

I've been using Take1 for soundfonts because of the aforementioned SFZ problems.

One of the many reasons I generally love using 3xOsc and TS404 more than other synths xD

learn both; try both; use either. i use playlist clips now but honestly I found just sticking to patterns more intuitive (and I could color them in neat gradients! xD). I used my patterns for automation too, so there was really no need for the playlist until I started doing one-shot samples as audio clips in the playlist. But I think FL has been pushing playlist clips and I found that they work just fine too so I mostly use those now. *shrug* Honestly I think either is fine. Unless maybe there's some new stuff in beta that I don't knwo about xD

Alternatively, if this is something you're doing a lot (as opposed to one instance), you might instead edit the envelope (lower-right section of FPC) and use a volume envelope. You'd probably want 0 attack, 100% sustain, and 0% release. Then when you're drawing your note in the piano roll, just draw it to how long you want it to sound. Since you have 0 release, the end of the note will cause the sound to stop.

my complaint about panomatic is that you can't rightclick the speed and set it to a specific number of steps/beats, and there's no visual indication of the LFO speed either. I should start just doing what Nase said.

neat, but also covers some techniques that people getting into tracking (maybe myself) should know, such as the echo+chorus type stuff. Also, attack, decay, sustain might not necessarily have to be at 0, unless you're trying to do your volume fading manually.

nice--will definitely try this out soon. pleases me to know that the VST itself is actually still being updated too, wow! Quality presets are really essential for me when using Synth1 because there's too many knobs for me to tweak (haha, i know...) when compared to my 3xOsc staples, so it's harder to use "quickly" for things like OHC. Not that I =mind= having those knobs to tweak, mind you. Just saying I really appreciate the presets.

the fact that this is "only" 40 patches makes it an instant d/l for me.

OHC093 I submitted in time but realized that my render became mangled beyond recognition. here's my entry: http://www.filefront.com/17080397/An%20Element%20of%20Surprise.mp3 Name: An Element of Surprise Description: http://www.kvraudio.com/get/3094.html A few mins before the start of the compo I decided to whip up the Ugo "The Element of Surprise" synth and see if I got any inspiring sounds. When the TBD "theme" came up I decided to just roll with it. All synths you hear are randomly generated via Element of Surprise. The only other things are drum samples and FX. enjoy!

Random: If anyone still remember my entry from OHC077 (war), I recently finished a song with the same ditty in the middle of the breakdown: ...that is all. =X

missed this week's because i was moving back home from college. d'oh!

Ok ok, i'm convinced. The smoothness argument is a really good point as well.

That, or set the Base level to 100% and the Vol of the peak controller to be negative. Either works. And yeah, I always still use the peak controller as well, despite them having "actual" sidechain now. I guess I don't know how to tweak the "true" sidechain to achieve the right sound since I'm not as familiar with it.

Or 3xOsc like I do =P here's a collection of tutorials I've made over the years, plus also my FLMC9 entry. Some of them are really outdated and don't reflect my current practices at all. But maybe they'll help. Also most or all should have a fruity notebook somewhere that explains things. http://www.filefront.com/16355635/DDRKirby%28ISQ%29_FLTutorials.zip There's also zircon's quick tutorial on synthesis, which uses Synth1. http://www.zirconstudios.com/tutorial3.php

I missed 2DC because I didn't know there was one this week...they're not on a bi-weekly basis are they? Someone needs to announce them better =X

That works except i don't have any control devices and sequence everything by hand =D (ok i have a hercules dj control mp3 for fun but I'd just feel awkward using it as a midi controller =P I like sequencing by hand anyhoo.)

Ok, so I know how to do vibrato on say, a 3xOsc, via the "INS" tab of channel settings and using the LFO. But what if I want better control over it, say if I want to be able to determine vibrato on a note-by-note basis (tracker-style, ish). The best idea I can come up with is to link the "AMT" of the LFO to some controller (X-Y controller, or peak controller, etc), with the mapping set up so that 100% on the controller will give me the right AMT for full vibrato, and 0% will correspond to no vibrato. Then just automate that controller appropriately. I haven't actually tried the above method yet, but are there any other/better ways to do this?