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

[Sora]

I'm working on a file, but now whenever I open it up, I get this message:

An error occured while reading the FLP file.

It may be corrupted, or some plugn caused an error while opening.

After pressing the "OK" button, I can still nagivate the file with few errors. However, when I try to play it, no sound is produced. If I press the exit button, FL Studio stalls.

I've trade saving to a different file, deleting all the effects, and deleting all channels except for 3x OSC. The same problem is produced.

Any suggestions? I wasn't terribly far along, but it'd be annoying if I would have to begin again.

Thankyou.

I had the same problem as you. It deleted my first song for the S3&K project (and many more songs). I don't think there's a way to fix it. You just have to save multiple copies of your .flp regularly.

[djcubez]

I had the file corrupted error only on the cracked versions of FLStudio and Fruity Loops. Once I bought it I never got the errors. I'm not acusing you of piracy, I'm just merely stating my experience.

[-RK-]

Ok, here is something weird. When I first started a project in FL (version 5 if it matters) everything was fine. I saved it, closed the program, and went to do some work.

I came back, opened the program, and everything opened fine, but, after a few attempts at opening different projects, one of two things would happen.

A) My left speaker on my headphones would clip, and then be silent if I played back the song, leaving all audio to be put through one speaker.

Everything but SAMPLES would play, but samples would make no noise, despite all volumes being up and no problems with effects or automation (I triple checked). VSTi's and Generators and such would be fine, but, samples (all .wav format) wouldnt play.

The strange thing about these two occurances is NO error message appears. There seems to be no explination. Can anybody help me out?

Thanks a million (this is frustrating because all these problems are happening for my ORC peice mostly, and deadlines a comin! )

[Nase]

problem A is pretty common to me, Maestro. Some of my older .flps do it sometimes, and i'll have to reload them a couple of times or reboot to make it work. It happens particularly often when i have some Buzz wah wah plugin in my effects chain that i used to use a lot. Might not be of much help, just to let you know it's another thing that occurs here and then.

[-RK-]

problem A is pretty common to me, Maestro. Some of my older .flps do it sometimes, and i'll have to reload them a couple of times or reboot to make it work. It happens particularly often when i have some Buzz wah wah plugin in my effects chain that i used to use a lot. Might not be of much help, just to let you know it's another thing that occurs here and then.

Haha, guess what effect I was using with the buzz effect adaptor?

The wah wah coupled with an mda Ringmod pretty much caused most of the problems as far as I can see.

Thanks chokey.

[Cozark]

Aright, I've got a few questions for the FL people.

Firstly, I have trouble with slides. I can't ever seem to use them, especially when it comes to a VSTi (which is like all I use). And another thing probably related to that, you know that little window that pops up when you double click on a note bar in the piano roll? None of the options in that window work for anything outside of drum samples much like the above issue.

Another thing I'd like to know is how you deal with a huge CPU load. I usually have around 6-10 VSTis and a ton of drums and FX and whatever else I can fit into a song. Everything starts chugging when I get about 3/4 of all of that together. I have a P4 3.2ghz processor and 512MB of RAM.

And one more thing. Is it possible to get the Slayer 2 to sound clear instead of muddy like it does whenever I use it? I swear, I CANNOT get a crisp sound out of it at all. Also, the Slayer 2 falls victim to the problems in the above paragraphs, if anyone knows how to fix it specifically.

[zircon]

In the mixer, in the upper left menu, click "Enable smart disable for all" or something like that. It'll significantly reduce your CPU load. Also, set your buffers higher. ~2048ms is a comfortable amount, if you ask me. Finally, pick up new ASIO drivers like asio4all - better ASIO = more CPU efficiency.

[CC Ricers]

Firstly, I have trouble with slides. I can't ever seem to use them, especially when it comes to a VSTi (which is like all I use).

If you are talking about pitch slides, there's another way to go around doing them by automating the pitch knob in the channel settings knob. Right click and choose 'edit events' and you adjust how much the pitch changes. Remember, this affects all notes that are being played.

Now I have a FL question: is it possible to copy entire channels from one project to another? There are some sounds that I really like in some of my projects, and sometimes I want to use them in other pieces, or to create variations of them. I know you can clone channels, but is this possible to do between projects? I'm using FL Studio 4.

[iamthejake2000]

hi, i'm new to fl and i love it! i was wondering, is there a way to set a pattern's overall volume or to change it throughout a song? I have a pattern with perfect proportional volume balances, and i'd like to change it throughout the song. i wouldn't mind having two patterns with different volumes.

thanks.

[hazardous]

Ok, so I just got FL Studio, and I'm a total newb. Can someone tell me how to create a basic melody? Like say I wanted to have a piano play Mary Had A Little Lamb, or something simple. How would I do that. Also, how can I create a drum loops and pick the sounds? Thanks.

[CC Ricers]

To create melodies, right-click the channel name and select "Piano roll" on the menu. In the new Piano Roll window, simply draw in the notes with the cursor. You can drag and resize them as well.

Drum loops are a more complex/broader subject. I suggest reading Zircon's thread on groovy drums, it has some great advice.

[joshlanzing]

hi. is it possible to convert midi to an audio track that you can assign samples to? if so, please tell how. also, i can't get midi files to play. i'm using fl5. thanks!

[hazardous]

Ok, I've got some more questions. Can someone go over the basics of the vocoder? What menue do I go to to get it? How can I get it to vocode the things I type into the speach synthesizer. Also, can I edit my own voice?(I have a microphone). And lastly, what do the bands effect?

[Shoot The Duckies]

I just bought an M-Audio O2, and I can play fine, but I can't actually lay down a piano roll with it in fruityloops..can someone tell me why this is? What'm I missing? -.o

[dj.error]

My Midi Out doesn't seem to work... I set the port number in midi settings to 0, I set the port number in the midi out plugin to 0 too... I hate to sound like an idiot, but unfortunatly thats how I feel... Am I doing something wrong?

I've read the manual... Which proved useless

I've searched the web for over a week... Useless

I've tried everything I can think of... Again, Useless

Basically what i'm trying to do is set up my machine so that I can play sounds that are on a midi synth I have (Because I have alot more sounds that I really like on the synth)

PS: Midi works in winamp (I.E. I can play midi songs over my synth), and I do have the midi hooked up to my computer and the line out on my synth going into the line in on my sound card...

I'm really out of ideas here... :'(

-------------SOLVED--------------

I didn't turn on "Enable Midi Out"

For anyone else who encounters this problem the option is really easy to find but I completely overlooked it...

[Legion303]

Now I have a FL question: is it possible to copy entire channels from one project to another?

I haven't tried it, but isn't it possible to export a single channel to MIDI and then import it into your other project?

-steve

[dj.error]

If you want to copy a channel over why not just save the piano roll and the presets for the generator (or sample).

To save them:

Exporting Piano Roll

->Open Piano Roll

->Piano Roll Options (top left corner button looks like a keyboard)

->File

->Save Score as...

Exporting Preset

->Open Channel Settings

->Channel Settings Options (Top left corner button)

->File

->Save State as...

To Open them:

Importing Piano Roll

->Open Piano Roll

->Piano Roll Options (top left corner button looks like a keyboard)

->File

->Open Score...

Importing Preset (A little bit confusing)

->Open Browser

->Channel Presets

->The file you made should be here, add it as you would any other instrument

[tefnek]

If you want to copy a channel over why not just save the piano roll and the presets for the generator (or sample).

Or you can export everything from the project at once.

Go to Export > Project Bones. It saves all the sampler channels, mixer channels, VSTi channels, piano roll scores, etc. Unfortunately it doesn't save any data in the step sequencer. Once it's done exporting you can browse through all the parts under the browser > Project Bones > whatever you saved as.

[nooopzilla!]

Ok, this only happens sometimes, but it's been happening a lot lately, and it's really pissing me off:

I can hardly playback a track in FL 5 without my speakers popping and cracking like crazy! It has something to do with my cpu usage i'm sure; at the worst it jumps up to about 31 on this one particular track i'm working on.

i've closed down all applications running in the background, i disabled 'midi remote control'...i have no clue what it could be. anyone know what i can do to help this problem? the track sounds fine after i export it and play it back in winamp or some other app...

[asdfajsdldjsfm]

first off, 31 isn't that high.

second, how much RAM does your computer have? If you have at least 256 RAM you should be okay.

[nooopzilla!]

oh, oops, i've just never had it go that high...

but i've got 1024mb of ram...

[abg]

I can hardly playback a track in FL 5 without my speakers popping and cracking like crazy! It has something to do with my cpu usage i'm sure; at the worst it jumps up to about 31 on this one particular track i'm working on.

i've closed down all applications running in the background, i disabled 'midi remote control'...i have no clue what it could be. anyone know what i can do to help this problem? the track sounds fine after i export it and play it back in winamp or some other app...

here's a few things you could try. i can't recommend their success, but hey, they only take a second!

One thing you can do to reduce audio "lag" in FL Studio is to increase your buffer length. Now, since you say your cpu usage is only hitting 31, I'm not sure if this'll help much, but give it a try.

Go to Options -> Audio Settings -> DirectSound Properties and drag the Buffer Length slider allll the way to the right. You can try selecting the "Use Polling" and "Use Hardware Buffer" options as well to improve performance.

If that doesn't work then I'm not actually sure what could be the problem. Its not a bad thing for your CPU usage to be 31 though, mine usually hovers around 80. (Then again, I don't have a soundcard, so eh.)

[Arcana]

I found that, when I was using FLStudio 5 demo on my SB Live! with DirectSound drivers, I had to turn off "Use Polling" to get decent playback results. If I didn't, it would pop and crack like crazy.

Another option you might want to consider is to upgrade your drivers to ASIO, that might improve playback on some systems.

Finally... this is an obvious one but it has to be said... make sure your song isn't clipping. Check the levels on the top to make sure that's not the case.

[SSB]

If I have my midi keyboard hooked up to my computer and can use it in other applications, how can I set it up so that I can record in FL with it? I've looked at every option, all over the intarweb, help file gave me no aid...

[AlphabetBackward]

I've had a similar problem with FL studio...I used this VST and it makes a lot of crackling noises as well. When I play it by itself, it's okay, but it's kinda soft so I duplicated the channel a few times and changed the panning so it's two on the left, and two on the right. But when I export, it turns out fine.