Fruityloops & FL Studio

[Digital Liquid]

I've been writing tracks since the age of 16 (I'm now 30) and Fruity Loops has been the most trance/dance friendly sounding bit of kit I've ever used. Once you start plugging decent vst instruments into it, hook up a midi keyboard and add your own samples, you really can create whatever type of track you like.

 

Acid Pro3 is great but, has little or no midi support - bit "clicky" with vst's too.

 

Acid Pro4 has full midi support and looks great but, I've not had time to evaluate it yet - can#t therefore comment.

 

Cubase / Making Waves Pro are others that spring to mind but, for our sort of music, Fruity Loops is the bollox.

 

Btw - Fruity Loops is now re-released as FL Studio Pro - effectively this is Fruity Loops 4 with a MAJOR added bonus - you can record live into your patterns as against recording the pattern, THEN adding it to the tune.

 

Users of FLoops 3.56 will know and appreciate what a difference this makes !

 

Happy writing

 

Any queries/questions, feel free to e.mail me direct and I'd be pleased to help.

 

Steve

[James]

cheers Steve - very useful info there!

 

FL Studio does indeed look the nads

[Guest]

Any tips on how to use fruity!! We have it but have not got the first idea how to use it!!

[Digital Liquid]

FIRSTLY, I have had to type this twice now after finding my file attachment was too big - LOST THE SODDING BASTARD LOT !

 

calm down.

 

OK.

 

Here goes.

 

You must ensure when you are using Fruity Loops (FL) that you create each pattern on its own. That is, when you create a bass drum, hi hat, bass line, synth lead etc, they must be in there own pattern. There is no point making twenty tracks in one pattern cos, although it might sound good the first 20 times, after 50, when you realise you cant do anymore with it, you’ll get pissed off.

 

So, you must create each track on its own.

For example,

 

Track 1 could be your bass drum. Right click the words bass drum and fill each 4 steps. Push play and you’ll hear your thud.

 

Click the play list button and colour in track 1 for whatever length you want. It’s also good practice to right click and name each track in the playlist to avoid confusion later on when there might be 50 tracks or more.

 

Go back to the Step Sequencer and select pattern two, track 2 – Closed Hi Hat.

Right click it and insert every 4 steps, once again. This time, shift & right twice and you’ll see the hat move two steps right. Return to the play list and colour in track two, as long as you like, and don’t forget to rename the playlist channel.

 

Goto song mode (as opposed to pattern) and click play – then you’ll hear your bass drum and hat, playing along side each other.

 

Now, lets add a simple bassline.

 

Goto Channels/Add one and select one of your instruments (This will vary from machine to machine dependant on what vst’s you’ve installed) – Go with TS404 which you should have.

 

You’ll then see a new channel appear in the Step Sequencer.

Select Pattern 3

Right click the TS404 and add every 4

Shift, Right twice

Goto Song

Play

 

…?

 

The TS404 will be playing too higher a note so, click TS404 to get the channel settings window up on the right hand side. Increase the pitch number to 24 and then decrease the knob fully to the left.

 

Your TS404 will now sound like a bass noise when you press play

 

ON the channel settings window, if you click the TS404 tab, you should see a load of knobs and sliders – mess with the frequency one and see how it changes the noise. IF you [censored] the noise completely, always remember a right click and reset will return whichever knob you’ve turned too far back to default.

 

IN the top right hand corner of the TS404 channel settings window you’ll see FX1 – this is the fx channel, to which, this instrument is sending.

 

After pushing play, click the FX button and you’ll see the track one level meter moving.

 

Go back to the TS404 window and make the FX send 3.

Then goto the FX window.

 

Select FX 3 and then add one – go for Fruity Delay

 

Push play and you’ll see the TS404 now is having the delay effect applied to it.

 

For each channel, you can have up to four unique effects. However, there are another four sends to additional fx channels 1/2/3/4

 

FX can be automated. As can many things – filters/pans etc.

 

If you want to see if a filter or effect can be automated into your track, hover the mouse across the knob (I hate that expression) and on the top left hand display FL will show a small red icon. This means you can automate that knob into moving where and how you want it to at any time in the track.

 

EG

 

Goto MAIN fx channel and insert a fruity free filter.

 

Goto the Play List and double click the Main Automation channel (This should be where you keep all things like this, otherwise, you’ll get [censored] confused and wont know where a change is being made from) – the channel (9) should go red.

 

Go back to your fruity free filter and right click the frequency button for Edit Events.

 

Right click and hold from 1 to 4 in an upward diagonal line.

 

Go back to the playlist, press play at the beginning and you will hear all three tracks filtered into place between bars 1 and 4 – that typical filtered effect we all know and love !

 

RIGHT.

That’s loads for now, any specific questions ?

 

Steve

The following is a link to a recent track written entirely in FL3.56

http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/3409/3409541.html

 

 

[Guest]

Ive made this thread "sticky" As I feel it answers alot of the questions that get asked over and over again in this forum. It can then be used as a reference for those who make one of these "Whats Fruity like" threads. The thread can then be put to bed, kepping this forum a wee bit tidier.

 

Hope evryone agrees.

[LittleMissLoud]

[Mr Moo]

Some one on the tidy board has made 2 tutorials of FL.....

 

http://www.freewebs.com/chrysus/flstudiotutorials.htm

 

 

[Claire DC]

There's loads of them about, just a case of finding them!! Thats why i go on production forums as they all tend to be posted there at some point and if not then theyre full of useful information on all aspects of production anyway and always someone willing to help you!!

[Digital Liquid]

Its always a good idea to put a compression effect on the master effects channel

 

You can right click the red symbol (top left hand corner) of the vst instrument you are using to see what, if any, knobs and sliders can be automated by listing the available events to edit. This means you can automate the change of filters, amplitude, sustain, decay, etc etc etc

 

I've just upgraded from Fl3.56 to Fl Studio 4.1

 

WHAT a difference.

 

FL4.1 allows you to play directly over the song and it automatically creates a new pattern (OF ANY LENGTH( fl3.56 required this to be a present length for the whole song)) for the section you've just played. Go into piano roll to Tidy it up and, hey presto, it's all perfect.

 

CTRL A in piano roll selects all

CTRL C copies selected events

CTRL V in piano roll pastes events

CTRL A then place the mouse over event 1 - you can then extend the length of every single note/event in the pattern - or shorten - a very useful feature

 

Will post some more "help" for FL4.1 when I've got some more "hands on" experience.

 

 

Top Bollox Software !

 

 

[Claire DC]

Better isn't it

[Scream]

sod fruity, get Logic, LOL!!

[Claire DC]

I've got logic too but thats too much of a beast to master at the moment!!

[Scream]

Logic is the muts nuts. I love it, so much more room for creativity and style in my eyes.

[James]

Logic is such a robust package and just 'feels' right. BK uses this

 

Only problem is I may have to think about going over to Mac (G5, nice!) as Logic is dis-continued on PC. Or I just stick with Reason & FL on PC. Whatdoyadoo ?

[Mr Happy]

James said:

Logic is such a robust package and just 'feels' right. BK uses this

 

Only problem is I may have to think about going over to Mac (G5, nice!) as Logic is dis-continued on PC. Or I just stick with Reason & FL on PC. Whatdoyadoo ?

 

dump the lot and buy a playstation