WingsOfAnAngel
Banned
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 3
Fruity Loops Studio Tutorial (By PeeJunk)
Opening the Studio
So you finally got a hold of a copy of a FL Studio package. "Err.. cool but.. what the hell am I going to do with it now I've got it?", you may (but probably won't) ask. Well, as I noticed the biggest problem inexperienced (production wise) users of older versions of FL have with it is that FLS emphasizes the good, proper, effective sequencing habits experienced users had in (and may I add -- in spite of) previous versions. We will name a few here:
1) Using the piano roll. It was meant to be used for most (if not all) of your sequencing. Though the step editor is still useful in some cases, such as drum programming, but layering drums and programming them in piano roll is the preferable method, due to many advantages.
2) Using playlist as a sequence editor. Which also means using patterns as one-instrument patterns. This is opposed to using playlist as tracker-style orders.
3) Using FX channels as -- channels. The built in mixer with EQs on each and pan/stereo separation/volume controls clearly indicates the preferred way, if there ever was any doubt.
4) Using send channels for delays and reverbs, and sending to them using the send buttons. Apart from conserving CPU, this will also fit your tune in a same virtual space thus fitting sounds together and making mixing less painful for you.
Well, we're still in the domain of things that could be done with 3.56, here come those things that are either heavily improved or totally new to FLS 4.0:
5) Bouncing. FLS makes it much easier to bounce your programmed loops. New audio tracks and integrated slicer make using your, or ready-made loops more flexible, you'll use slicer if you want to rearrange chopped up waves, and audio tracks for solid loops you won't rearrange. Audio tracks also enable you to finally add vocals, and with the help of built-in ogg codec, and free ogg ACM filter your recorded or vocal tracks won't consume too much hard disk space while still retaining full sound quality.
6) Mixing. No more changing note velocity (channel volumes in step editor) to change volumes. The new mixer is a real, fully automated mixer that should fit most of your needs. It's actually disgraceful it took them this long to include it.
7) Full and total automation. Every bit of interface that makes any sense automated, is indeed automated.
8) Multi out plugins can finally be used as multi-out. Also plugin support is more solid and faster.
Administrative Work
The best thing about Fruity to me is that it's really a productive app, and the interface is well thought of, even tho it may not be greatest as a sequencer. Now, to make use of this, I'll help you setup your FLStudio to make it a productive environ meant. First of all, you'll want your samples at hand. The best thing is to have a lot of HD space and place copies of all your sample CDs on your drive in a dedicated directory. You can also use various sample conversion programs to convert your AKAI CDs into sound fonts or Wavs, depending on what type of samples they are. Confusing? Then skip this step for now.
You probably have some samples on disk, other than those that came with Fruity. You can map your sample dirs in Options/File settings. See the folder icon buttons, you can browse for various sample folders on your disk and add it here, you can also change the descriptive name (rightmost column).
Okay, now below that table there is a similar row for locating additional VST plugins (other than those in your "PluginsVst" directory under FLStudio). There could be a whole tutorial on locating where the hell have your plugins gone, if you're not carefull when installing them. The best idea is to collect all the plugin .dll-s in some dir on your disk. If you installed any Steinberg software it'll probably be "SteinbergVstplugins" under your Program Files dir.
Now that you've opened your Settings you can setup Fruity for good. This, however is machine dependent so you should consult both the fruity manual and your hardware manuals. The order of preference for audio drivers goes like this: ASIO, Direct X, MME (WaveOut or Windows drivers, it'll say 'emulated' next to them).
Now that your samples are at hand from the left side sample browser menu. It's a great thing that one, you can use it for many other things, we'll discuss in later tutorials. You can also move (in Explorer, not in Fruity) Fruity's internal sample dirs under some of your dirs if they bug you.
Finally you can use Open or Save dialog to add some Favourite directories for files, such as your projects directory and your bouncing and rendering dirs.
Patching up the Gear
Done with the files for now, you can now go setup your instruments and effects for easier locating. Fruity isn't a bugger like Logic and Cubase, and it won't check out all your plugins on startup, and thus head for possible crashes, not even those you've added to favourites list. If you had aforementioned problems with those two you'll appreciate this. You add instruments and effects from two different menus.
Instrumeants are added from the Channels/Add one/More... main menu item. What will open now is a long list of plugins. The letter F in the little box left of the plugin name adds it to favourites. You should only add plugins that are instruments here (synths, samplers etc.). When done adding exit.
You should press the Refresh/Fast Scan button to collect all your plugins. If there are additional dlls in VST plugin dir, they'll be displayed too. You should know which VST-s are instruments and which are effects, if you don't you can use the Refresh/Scan & Verify routine but it sometimes crashes for the same reason Logic or Cubase crash on some plugins. They do this same check on startup (which btw is why they need years to startup) to spare their user from figuring out which of the plugins are instruments and which are FX themselves. Fruity does not, to spare it's users from having crashes and having to guess which of the bastards crushed the sequencer. So you see, knowledge comes handy to you
Once added to the favourites your instruments will appear on the Channels/Add One menu, which can also be reached using the right button menu on the step editor as Insert Channel.
Effect plugins are added from the mixer. You use the Select/More... menu from the mixer menu button and do the same as you did with instruments, but adding effects instead. Now they appear under Select menu.
You've setup Fruity for now. Exit the app so it will remember your preferences. It only takes it a second to boot up (hehehe).
Okay We're Set.
Now what you'll do with it is really up to you. For now I'll just show some nice beginner-level techniques, and point you in the direction to dive in the manual.
The most important window is the Step Editor, where you setup your instruments and load samples from the Sample Browser to your left. Right clicking samples in the sample browser will let you load them onto slicer. See thatupp left. That's new to you, Fruity 3 user. LCDdisplayss pattern'slengtht in beats. Right beside it is the 'repeat' checkbox (orange light). When lit, the step edited sequence will repeat as long as there is stuff in piano roll on that pattern.
Below the steps and channels there is a popup menu. It's called 'Groups'. You can group channels so that they don't appear on the panel at the same time. You simply select them, using the green lamps between channel button and steps, and hit Ctrl+G. Now all you have to do is enter groups name and there you have it. You can use Alt+Up/Down to rearrange channels on the Step Editor.
Instrumeants Panel
Whether you use your samples or synths, you'll come up with the instrument panel. It's a great tool. It's covered in the manual really in-depth, so I'll explain only the concepts.
Let's start with wicked sample fx, (some are now disabled by default because they're considered deprecated, but you can enable them in the settings, and since a lot of people use them, chances of them being dumped from FLStudio are very little). Most of them are just useful with drums, for example pogo can pitch bend kicks so you can adjust their 'thompness'. You may have been looking for the fx3, that's it.
But the new toy -- the crossfade, enables you to make seamlessly looping instruments out of many samples. You'll figure it out soon enough, just load a pad or something sustained.
Finally there's the sample editor, hit Ctrl+E and have fun. You might need to locate and load the new sample if you Saved As. I'll get to editor in-depth in some of later tutes, but you should consider using external app for that really.
Now something everybody knows, but to those who don't it might just be the most valuable thing in the article. The concept of instruments. An instrument includes envelopes, LF Os and settings, as it's sound source you can have a sample, a 3xOsc (three virtual analogue oscillators), BeepMap (bitmap-based sound synth, not really that useful part of fruity politics of buying off weird shareware audio apps), Granulizer (granular synthesis) which can be put to making some Maelstorm-like noise if used properly, Kick synth, Slicer (you use this one to cutup beats and loops) and the FM synth DX10.
Envelopes, make the filter, volume or pitch change in time. You use it to define is sound hit-like, soft, how timbre changes etc. Play with all 4 envelopes using a saw wave in 3xOsc, or loading a saw-wave in sampler and turning loop on. Apart from Volume, you need to move the amount knob to have any use of envelopes. The release phase starts when the note ends (which can only be seen in Piano Roll). Note that you can choose to edit "tension" of some phases using TNS editor, envelope turns violet.
LFO-s also change these properties in time, but they modulate them for as long as the note is held. Graphics should be very helpful here, play with the LF Os too.
Misc settings reveal polyphony (max number of notes simultaneously played). Portamento, means gliding. To achieve that bassline gliding (which is called legato) you should turn both the Mono and Portamento on. Above it are global channel controls.
Cut/Cutby define exclusion groups. You sometimes want the closed hihat to cut the open one. Cut group X, be Cut By group Y, is what is meant by the terms.
Finally, down below you have thkeyboard. Youou can define the region the sample will react to by left-button dragging (a transparent orange layer appears). If it goes from the first to the last note, the layer will go away. Dark orange spot is the key note. It's C5 by default. If you set it to be C4 your sample will sound higher. "How come that?" Because if you now play it with C5 key, sampler will pitch it up an octave. There's also the pitch fine tune knob.
Note that by changing the value in fx display up right, you send the instrument to a different insert fx channel.
The last page reveals quasi-delay, arpeggiator and additional articulation settings. It says fat mode. Yes indeed, if you set it to fat mode, make 1 or 2 delays (the LCD) set short time and slightly adjust the pitch knob you can get instant-hoover-chorus effect. The synth has to be polyphonic though and this eats more CPU than chorus on the channel usually.
Arpeggiator is not really my thing, so I won't get much into it. It works indeed, and it's self explanatory mostly, you choose the chord, set the direction, duration of one note and use gate to reduce note below duration (insert space between notes). The gate below represents the same gate thing but for regularly played notes, Duration means, time before the release phase. You can use offset to slightly offset the sample from the actual begriming. Can be useful for achieving weird-ass percussions when layering.
The KB/Vol tracking makes the instruments. You can setup how properties are affected by pitch of the note in KB, and in Vol, you do the same but how they react to velocities. Turning knob rights means "increases with pitch/velocity".
Fruity Wrapper
If an instrument is VSTi/DXi, most of these functions won't work, you'll use instrument's interface instead. Some Fruity plugins also work like this (SF player, SimSynth, Wasp..). The plugin that hosts VSTi-s and DXi-s is called wraper. It has it's own special menu allowing you to Import/Export Cubase .fxb files, and edit built-in programs. It also allows for enabling multi-outputs. This will probably include multiple MIDI channels to controll these multiple outputs. You'll need to add Midi Out devices, set them all to same port, and the plugin too.
You'll need to assign the plugin to some mixer channel before you'll be able to enable multiple outputs. Now all consecutive channels are used by this plugins as well (depending on number of outputs used).
Piano Roll
There's more to piano roll than writing chords, or whatever 'step sequencers' of the world think of it. It's sequencing as it should be. I do all or at least 98% of my sequencing in it. Some of the neater toys with it are quantizer (to add groove) and randomizer (to create ugly random patterns but also to randomize velocities, filtering and panning). The autochords and chopping are also neat.
You can also make it easier for you to remain in tune by using Ghost Channels. (Alt+V). The PR is the first place you'll meet with quantization. There is a global quantization setting on the Recording Toolbar. Look up-left, it's a roll-down menu, and it probably says 'Line'. This means that it snaps to default value, (cell) means it snaps to visible grid (depends on zoom level) none means no quantization (depends on the PPQ setting in song settings), and other values should be pretty clear.
You can edit single note's properties by double clicking it. It also has means to select, cut, copy and paste bits of sequences around. Use the manual to learn the keyboard shortcuts because you'll spend a lot of time here once you've setup your 'instruments'. Use the time ruler to select a piece of pattern and make it loop. You do this by Ctrl+dragging on the timeline.
Also the keyboard, can be set to bigger, smaller and literal. Literal will show names of different notes in drumkits or when you have named cues in sliced loop.
Layering
Wonder what the Layer does (it seems a quiet type at first)? You can use it to make two things:
1) Layered channel. Is a channel where you send a sequence to many different instruments. To do this add a Layer chanel and open it's properties. Then select two other channels, by selecting their 'green light' between the channel button and the steps, and choose 'Set Children'. Now the'll all play notes you set layer to play. You can also set the crossfade and use the crossfade knob to 'morph' from instrument to instrument, if that's your thing.
2) Layered drumkit. Maybe even more useful than the previous. Do the set children thing with drum samples on another layer channel, and then use the Split Children from the popup menu just above the Set Children button. Now in the descending order, your drum samples will only be useful if their key is used. It'll automatically add them values of C-5 and onwards (C#5, D-5 etc.).
Problem is, if you've programmed a pattern in the step sequencer, you'll no longer hear them (apart from the one that got the C-5). Worry not. You can send all the drum channels to piano roll, select them and copy them to Layer channel but setting all hits to their dedicated note. If you were pithing your drums with notes, you'll have to place them to right place and pitch them using pitch note action (edited below, on the automation grid).
Also if you used Root Note setting (instrument settings) to pitch up/down your drums you'll need to make an adjustment relative to the newly given note for that particular drums. Wow, I hope someone gets this because I'm not that good at explaining things.
What it really did is that it moved root pitch of every sample and set it's region to that note. You can do this manually with added option of being able to stack samples together by giving them same region.
These are only expected uses for layer. You can make some really nasty instruments with it, and you can also remove their bits by grouping the channels that layer uses.
Playlist
The good ways of doing things in Fruity are really natural, once you get the hold of them. And they'll do to your creativity nearly as much as stuff like learning sound synthesis or mixing (production) and mastering things do. They'll release it, you'll stop being limited.
Playlist is your sequence editor. Proper use assumes that you've placed things in your patterns that can play simultaneously (like Pat#1 Main Beat, Pat#2 Fill in, Pat#3 Bassline, Pat#4 chords etc). You can now draw patterns on the playlist to be played. It's not much different from the playlist, interface-wise. You can also select bits of time by Click+dragging on the time ruler. You can select & edit the sequence as you would do in piano roll -- almost. You cannot reduce length of patterns here.
The basic idea should be clear to anyone, you introduce a part by 'painting' it's pattern on the playlist. Note that overlapping patterns of same instrument will not cut each other out but play simultaneously, this is especially unwanted when you have a monophonic instrument.
You can select patterns too. By draging or clicking on their names on the left. You can now clone them (Ctrl+Shift+C), or rearrange them (Alt+Up/Down) and perform other editing. Use the manual again, and learn the shortcuts.
Behind the Mixing Desk: Fruity's Mixer
The mixer is more or less easy to uderstand. There are 4 groups of 16 channels, each with 8 effects, Master channel on the left, and sends on the right. You have the handy mixind-desk alike volume and pan controls.
Each channel has a built in parametric EQ so you can fine tune your mixes using them. Good practice is never to use these EQs as means of 'getting that sound' but rather as means of 'getting that sound fit in the mix'. Above it are volume slider, pan knob and stereo separation (right to left). Stereo separation can make sure that channel goes in the middle, which can be handy. Right of it are the sends. Send means that you adjust amount of that channel's sound which is sent to the send channel. It's a standard that send channels are used for reverbs, delays and choruses. All of them should have their 'dry out' set to 0.
Left side of the bottom is covered by the insert effects for each channel. The sound propagates through them from effect 1 to effect 8. You can use Move Up/Down from the popup menu to rearrange them. You can also insert up to 8 effects on send channels.
Mixer Rerouting
You can choose where a certain channel outputs. It can be master, direct soundcard output or another channel. By sending several channels to another channel, you've performed channel grouping. This is handy if you want to compress and 'mould' certain channels together but still retaining possibility to add separate effects. Common usage is compressing drums together or making kick and a bassline 'pump' each other by sending them to the same compressor..Bouncing
Bouncing is a term that really means 'to down mix several channels together', so you can direct your CPU power elsewhere. Today, it's mostly used to convert repeating loops into wave files, but the motive remains.
In Fruity this is done by selecting the diskette from the bottom left of the channel properties on the mixer. Now you choose the file to save to. Then mark a region to be bounced (in the Playlist) or choose a pattern and switch to pattern mode. Now choose 'Disk recording/Render to wave file' from the mixer popup menu, and up pops a dialog you're used to when rendering files. The biggest difference from classical rendering is, Fruity will automatically open an audio channel for the file and open it.
Recording
You can also assign an input to a FX channel the same way you assign outputs. This only works with ASIO drivers, and latency of 'live' audio will depend on the driver latency, but the input can be used for recording live sessions. To record from live input choose an ASIO input from the In menu on the bottom of the mixer. Press the diskette icon and select a file to record to. Check the "Auto create audio track" if you want an audio track with the sample created after recording.
Now enter song mode and hit record and play on the transport bar. After you've stoped you'll have your sample recorded.
There are two things to bare in mind. The sound will propagate trough all of the effects o that FX channel, and any other sound that is coming from Fruity to that track is also going to mixed in with the recorded sound.
Opening the Studio
So you finally got a hold of a copy of a FL Studio package. "Err.. cool but.. what the hell am I going to do with it now I've got it?", you may (but probably won't) ask. Well, as I noticed the biggest problem inexperienced (production wise) users of older versions of FL have with it is that FLS emphasizes the good, proper, effective sequencing habits experienced users had in (and may I add -- in spite of) previous versions. We will name a few here:
1) Using the piano roll. It was meant to be used for most (if not all) of your sequencing. Though the step editor is still useful in some cases, such as drum programming, but layering drums and programming them in piano roll is the preferable method, due to many advantages.
2) Using playlist as a sequence editor. Which also means using patterns as one-instrument patterns. This is opposed to using playlist as tracker-style orders.
3) Using FX channels as -- channels. The built in mixer with EQs on each and pan/stereo separation/volume controls clearly indicates the preferred way, if there ever was any doubt.
4) Using send channels for delays and reverbs, and sending to them using the send buttons. Apart from conserving CPU, this will also fit your tune in a same virtual space thus fitting sounds together and making mixing less painful for you.
Well, we're still in the domain of things that could be done with 3.56, here come those things that are either heavily improved or totally new to FLS 4.0:
5) Bouncing. FLS makes it much easier to bounce your programmed loops. New audio tracks and integrated slicer make using your, or ready-made loops more flexible, you'll use slicer if you want to rearrange chopped up waves, and audio tracks for solid loops you won't rearrange. Audio tracks also enable you to finally add vocals, and with the help of built-in ogg codec, and free ogg ACM filter your recorded or vocal tracks won't consume too much hard disk space while still retaining full sound quality.
6) Mixing. No more changing note velocity (channel volumes in step editor) to change volumes. The new mixer is a real, fully automated mixer that should fit most of your needs. It's actually disgraceful it took them this long to include it.
7) Full and total automation. Every bit of interface that makes any sense automated, is indeed automated.
8) Multi out plugins can finally be used as multi-out. Also plugin support is more solid and faster.
Administrative Work
The best thing about Fruity to me is that it's really a productive app, and the interface is well thought of, even tho it may not be greatest as a sequencer. Now, to make use of this, I'll help you setup your FLStudio to make it a productive environ meant. First of all, you'll want your samples at hand. The best thing is to have a lot of HD space and place copies of all your sample CDs on your drive in a dedicated directory. You can also use various sample conversion programs to convert your AKAI CDs into sound fonts or Wavs, depending on what type of samples they are. Confusing? Then skip this step for now.
You probably have some samples on disk, other than those that came with Fruity. You can map your sample dirs in Options/File settings. See the folder icon buttons, you can browse for various sample folders on your disk and add it here, you can also change the descriptive name (rightmost column).
Okay, now below that table there is a similar row for locating additional VST plugins (other than those in your "PluginsVst" directory under FLStudio). There could be a whole tutorial on locating where the hell have your plugins gone, if you're not carefull when installing them. The best idea is to collect all the plugin .dll-s in some dir on your disk. If you installed any Steinberg software it'll probably be "SteinbergVstplugins" under your Program Files dir.
Now that you've opened your Settings you can setup Fruity for good. This, however is machine dependent so you should consult both the fruity manual and your hardware manuals. The order of preference for audio drivers goes like this: ASIO, Direct X, MME (WaveOut or Windows drivers, it'll say 'emulated' next to them).
Now that your samples are at hand from the left side sample browser menu. It's a great thing that one, you can use it for many other things, we'll discuss in later tutorials. You can also move (in Explorer, not in Fruity) Fruity's internal sample dirs under some of your dirs if they bug you.
Finally you can use Open or Save dialog to add some Favourite directories for files, such as your projects directory and your bouncing and rendering dirs.
Patching up the Gear
Done with the files for now, you can now go setup your instruments and effects for easier locating. Fruity isn't a bugger like Logic and Cubase, and it won't check out all your plugins on startup, and thus head for possible crashes, not even those you've added to favourites list. If you had aforementioned problems with those two you'll appreciate this. You add instruments and effects from two different menus.
Instrumeants are added from the Channels/Add one/More... main menu item. What will open now is a long list of plugins. The letter F in the little box left of the plugin name adds it to favourites. You should only add plugins that are instruments here (synths, samplers etc.). When done adding exit.
You should press the Refresh/Fast Scan button to collect all your plugins. If there are additional dlls in VST plugin dir, they'll be displayed too. You should know which VST-s are instruments and which are effects, if you don't you can use the Refresh/Scan & Verify routine but it sometimes crashes for the same reason Logic or Cubase crash on some plugins. They do this same check on startup (which btw is why they need years to startup) to spare their user from figuring out which of the plugins are instruments and which are FX themselves. Fruity does not, to spare it's users from having crashes and having to guess which of the bastards crushed the sequencer. So you see, knowledge comes handy to you
Once added to the favourites your instruments will appear on the Channels/Add One menu, which can also be reached using the right button menu on the step editor as Insert Channel.
Effect plugins are added from the mixer. You use the Select/More... menu from the mixer menu button and do the same as you did with instruments, but adding effects instead. Now they appear under Select menu.
You've setup Fruity for now. Exit the app so it will remember your preferences. It only takes it a second to boot up (hehehe).
Okay We're Set.
Now what you'll do with it is really up to you. For now I'll just show some nice beginner-level techniques, and point you in the direction to dive in the manual.
The most important window is the Step Editor, where you setup your instruments and load samples from the Sample Browser to your left. Right clicking samples in the sample browser will let you load them onto slicer. See thatupp left. That's new to you, Fruity 3 user. LCDdisplayss pattern'slengtht in beats. Right beside it is the 'repeat' checkbox (orange light). When lit, the step edited sequence will repeat as long as there is stuff in piano roll on that pattern.
Below the steps and channels there is a popup menu. It's called 'Groups'. You can group channels so that they don't appear on the panel at the same time. You simply select them, using the green lamps between channel button and steps, and hit Ctrl+G. Now all you have to do is enter groups name and there you have it. You can use Alt+Up/Down to rearrange channels on the Step Editor.
Instrumeants Panel
Whether you use your samples or synths, you'll come up with the instrument panel. It's a great tool. It's covered in the manual really in-depth, so I'll explain only the concepts.
Let's start with wicked sample fx, (some are now disabled by default because they're considered deprecated, but you can enable them in the settings, and since a lot of people use them, chances of them being dumped from FLStudio are very little). Most of them are just useful with drums, for example pogo can pitch bend kicks so you can adjust their 'thompness'. You may have been looking for the fx3, that's it.
But the new toy -- the crossfade, enables you to make seamlessly looping instruments out of many samples. You'll figure it out soon enough, just load a pad or something sustained.
Finally there's the sample editor, hit Ctrl+E and have fun. You might need to locate and load the new sample if you Saved As. I'll get to editor in-depth in some of later tutes, but you should consider using external app for that really.
Now something everybody knows, but to those who don't it might just be the most valuable thing in the article. The concept of instruments. An instrument includes envelopes, LF Os and settings, as it's sound source you can have a sample, a 3xOsc (three virtual analogue oscillators), BeepMap (bitmap-based sound synth, not really that useful part of fruity politics of buying off weird shareware audio apps), Granulizer (granular synthesis) which can be put to making some Maelstorm-like noise if used properly, Kick synth, Slicer (you use this one to cutup beats and loops) and the FM synth DX10.
Envelopes, make the filter, volume or pitch change in time. You use it to define is sound hit-like, soft, how timbre changes etc. Play with all 4 envelopes using a saw wave in 3xOsc, or loading a saw-wave in sampler and turning loop on. Apart from Volume, you need to move the amount knob to have any use of envelopes. The release phase starts when the note ends (which can only be seen in Piano Roll). Note that you can choose to edit "tension" of some phases using TNS editor, envelope turns violet.
LFO-s also change these properties in time, but they modulate them for as long as the note is held. Graphics should be very helpful here, play with the LF Os too.
Misc settings reveal polyphony (max number of notes simultaneously played). Portamento, means gliding. To achieve that bassline gliding (which is called legato) you should turn both the Mono and Portamento on. Above it are global channel controls.
Cut/Cutby define exclusion groups. You sometimes want the closed hihat to cut the open one. Cut group X, be Cut By group Y, is what is meant by the terms.
Finally, down below you have thkeyboard. Youou can define the region the sample will react to by left-button dragging (a transparent orange layer appears). If it goes from the first to the last note, the layer will go away. Dark orange spot is the key note. It's C5 by default. If you set it to be C4 your sample will sound higher. "How come that?" Because if you now play it with C5 key, sampler will pitch it up an octave. There's also the pitch fine tune knob.
Note that by changing the value in fx display up right, you send the instrument to a different insert fx channel.
The last page reveals quasi-delay, arpeggiator and additional articulation settings. It says fat mode. Yes indeed, if you set it to fat mode, make 1 or 2 delays (the LCD) set short time and slightly adjust the pitch knob you can get instant-hoover-chorus effect. The synth has to be polyphonic though and this eats more CPU than chorus on the channel usually.
Arpeggiator is not really my thing, so I won't get much into it. It works indeed, and it's self explanatory mostly, you choose the chord, set the direction, duration of one note and use gate to reduce note below duration (insert space between notes). The gate below represents the same gate thing but for regularly played notes, Duration means, time before the release phase. You can use offset to slightly offset the sample from the actual begriming. Can be useful for achieving weird-ass percussions when layering.
The KB/Vol tracking makes the instruments. You can setup how properties are affected by pitch of the note in KB, and in Vol, you do the same but how they react to velocities. Turning knob rights means "increases with pitch/velocity".
Fruity Wrapper
If an instrument is VSTi/DXi, most of these functions won't work, you'll use instrument's interface instead. Some Fruity plugins also work like this (SF player, SimSynth, Wasp..). The plugin that hosts VSTi-s and DXi-s is called wraper. It has it's own special menu allowing you to Import/Export Cubase .fxb files, and edit built-in programs. It also allows for enabling multi-outputs. This will probably include multiple MIDI channels to controll these multiple outputs. You'll need to add Midi Out devices, set them all to same port, and the plugin too.
You'll need to assign the plugin to some mixer channel before you'll be able to enable multiple outputs. Now all consecutive channels are used by this plugins as well (depending on number of outputs used).
Piano Roll
There's more to piano roll than writing chords, or whatever 'step sequencers' of the world think of it. It's sequencing as it should be. I do all or at least 98% of my sequencing in it. Some of the neater toys with it are quantizer (to add groove) and randomizer (to create ugly random patterns but also to randomize velocities, filtering and panning). The autochords and chopping are also neat.
You can also make it easier for you to remain in tune by using Ghost Channels. (Alt+V). The PR is the first place you'll meet with quantization. There is a global quantization setting on the Recording Toolbar. Look up-left, it's a roll-down menu, and it probably says 'Line'. This means that it snaps to default value, (cell) means it snaps to visible grid (depends on zoom level) none means no quantization (depends on the PPQ setting in song settings), and other values should be pretty clear.
You can edit single note's properties by double clicking it. It also has means to select, cut, copy and paste bits of sequences around. Use the manual to learn the keyboard shortcuts because you'll spend a lot of time here once you've setup your 'instruments'. Use the time ruler to select a piece of pattern and make it loop. You do this by Ctrl+dragging on the timeline.
Also the keyboard, can be set to bigger, smaller and literal. Literal will show names of different notes in drumkits or when you have named cues in sliced loop.
Layering
Wonder what the Layer does (it seems a quiet type at first)? You can use it to make two things:
1) Layered channel. Is a channel where you send a sequence to many different instruments. To do this add a Layer chanel and open it's properties. Then select two other channels, by selecting their 'green light' between the channel button and the steps, and choose 'Set Children'. Now the'll all play notes you set layer to play. You can also set the crossfade and use the crossfade knob to 'morph' from instrument to instrument, if that's your thing.
2) Layered drumkit. Maybe even more useful than the previous. Do the set children thing with drum samples on another layer channel, and then use the Split Children from the popup menu just above the Set Children button. Now in the descending order, your drum samples will only be useful if their key is used. It'll automatically add them values of C-5 and onwards (C#5, D-5 etc.).
Problem is, if you've programmed a pattern in the step sequencer, you'll no longer hear them (apart from the one that got the C-5). Worry not. You can send all the drum channels to piano roll, select them and copy them to Layer channel but setting all hits to their dedicated note. If you were pithing your drums with notes, you'll have to place them to right place and pitch them using pitch note action (edited below, on the automation grid).
Also if you used Root Note setting (instrument settings) to pitch up/down your drums you'll need to make an adjustment relative to the newly given note for that particular drums. Wow, I hope someone gets this because I'm not that good at explaining things.
What it really did is that it moved root pitch of every sample and set it's region to that note. You can do this manually with added option of being able to stack samples together by giving them same region.
These are only expected uses for layer. You can make some really nasty instruments with it, and you can also remove their bits by grouping the channels that layer uses.
Playlist
The good ways of doing things in Fruity are really natural, once you get the hold of them. And they'll do to your creativity nearly as much as stuff like learning sound synthesis or mixing (production) and mastering things do. They'll release it, you'll stop being limited.
Playlist is your sequence editor. Proper use assumes that you've placed things in your patterns that can play simultaneously (like Pat#1 Main Beat, Pat#2 Fill in, Pat#3 Bassline, Pat#4 chords etc). You can now draw patterns on the playlist to be played. It's not much different from the playlist, interface-wise. You can also select bits of time by Click+dragging on the time ruler. You can select & edit the sequence as you would do in piano roll -- almost. You cannot reduce length of patterns here.
The basic idea should be clear to anyone, you introduce a part by 'painting' it's pattern on the playlist. Note that overlapping patterns of same instrument will not cut each other out but play simultaneously, this is especially unwanted when you have a monophonic instrument.
You can select patterns too. By draging or clicking on their names on the left. You can now clone them (Ctrl+Shift+C), or rearrange them (Alt+Up/Down) and perform other editing. Use the manual again, and learn the shortcuts.
Behind the Mixing Desk: Fruity's Mixer
The mixer is more or less easy to uderstand. There are 4 groups of 16 channels, each with 8 effects, Master channel on the left, and sends on the right. You have the handy mixind-desk alike volume and pan controls.
Each channel has a built in parametric EQ so you can fine tune your mixes using them. Good practice is never to use these EQs as means of 'getting that sound' but rather as means of 'getting that sound fit in the mix'. Above it are volume slider, pan knob and stereo separation (right to left). Stereo separation can make sure that channel goes in the middle, which can be handy. Right of it are the sends. Send means that you adjust amount of that channel's sound which is sent to the send channel. It's a standard that send channels are used for reverbs, delays and choruses. All of them should have their 'dry out' set to 0.
Left side of the bottom is covered by the insert effects for each channel. The sound propagates through them from effect 1 to effect 8. You can use Move Up/Down from the popup menu to rearrange them. You can also insert up to 8 effects on send channels.
Mixer Rerouting
You can choose where a certain channel outputs. It can be master, direct soundcard output or another channel. By sending several channels to another channel, you've performed channel grouping. This is handy if you want to compress and 'mould' certain channels together but still retaining possibility to add separate effects. Common usage is compressing drums together or making kick and a bassline 'pump' each other by sending them to the same compressor..Bouncing
Bouncing is a term that really means 'to down mix several channels together', so you can direct your CPU power elsewhere. Today, it's mostly used to convert repeating loops into wave files, but the motive remains.
In Fruity this is done by selecting the diskette from the bottom left of the channel properties on the mixer. Now you choose the file to save to. Then mark a region to be bounced (in the Playlist) or choose a pattern and switch to pattern mode. Now choose 'Disk recording/Render to wave file' from the mixer popup menu, and up pops a dialog you're used to when rendering files. The biggest difference from classical rendering is, Fruity will automatically open an audio channel for the file and open it.
Recording
You can also assign an input to a FX channel the same way you assign outputs. This only works with ASIO drivers, and latency of 'live' audio will depend on the driver latency, but the input can be used for recording live sessions. To record from live input choose an ASIO input from the In menu on the bottom of the mixer. Press the diskette icon and select a file to record to. Check the "Auto create audio track" if you want an audio track with the sample created after recording.
Now enter song mode and hit record and play on the transport bar. After you've stoped you'll have your sample recorded.
There are two things to bare in mind. The sound will propagate trough all of the effects o that FX channel, and any other sound that is coming from Fruity to that track is also going to mixed in with the recorded sound.
