Modulate This! - Electronic & Experimental Music Tech, Technique, & People

FL Studio 7 Tip: Improve Performance on Dual-core and Multithreaded Processors

FL Studio 7 supports performance improvements for dual-core, multi-core, and multithreaded processors. Turn on multi-threaded generator processing via the menu OPTIONS-> General settings, and click the button indicated in the diagram above.

What does this do? Here is what the help file has to say about this feature:

"Multithreaded generator processing - If you have a multi-core or multithreading processor this option will distribute the CPU load of compatible generators across the cores improving performance. "

30 New Free Drum Kits for FL Studio FPC

Image-Line has released 30 free new drum kit's for FL Studio's FPC drum synth. As shown in above illustration, use the built-in download manager to access the kits.

According to Image Line:
"The "real" drums were recorded in as non-invasive a way as possible. No EQ, no compression, nothing but a drum and a microphone (or two). This was done so that the end user could modify the sound of each drum to his or her liking. They were recorded using the best mic for each specific drum. So the range of microphones used were pretty big. AKG C1000's, Octava MK-012's, and Shure PG81's were used as overheads. AKG D112, Shure Beta 52 and Sennheiser MD421MKII's were used for Kicks and Low toms. Sennheiser MD421MKII's, Shure Beta 98DS's, Sure SM57's and Sennheiser e604's were used on toms. A Shure SM57, Rode NT1a, and a and a Shure Beta98DS."

Related Links:

• Get 10% off all Image Line Products

Other FPC articles on this blog:

• M-Audio Trigger Finger Tutorial & Enigma Preset for FL Studio FPC
• Free FPC Kits for Registered Users
• How to Import Sounds Intro FPC and Build Your Own Presets

M-Audio Trigger Finger Tutorial & Enigma Preset for FL Studio FPC

None of the default Trigger Finger mappings work with FL Studio's FPC. I've created a preset that works with FPC using the Enigma Editor.  In this article I'll show you how to download my Enigma bank then copy the preset for FPC into one of your Enigma banks.

The article is rather long, read on, and feel free to comment with your own tips...

Image Line's Juice Pack 2.0 (10% off link) - Now You Can Use the FL Studio Core Effects as VSTs Within Other Programs

Image Line, the makers of Fl Studio and Deckadance, have released Juice Pack 2.0.  Juice Pack is a collection of the most popular effects from FL Studio in VST form. This pack is normally $99,You can download a demo here, but when you go to buy you can save money by using this 10% off link. It's a pretty big bang for the buck!
 

If your an FL Studio user who normally uses rewire to access FL Studio effects, you can use these effects natively within another VST host (such as Ableton Live, Cubase, Sonar...). Click the image on the left to enlarge a screen shot of some effects mapped into Ableton Live.

If you are not an FL Studio user, you owe it yourself to check out the out this pack of VSTs as it contains some fantastic effects, most notably Fruity Vocoder, Fruity Love Filter, The Edison Wave editor. Last year, I posted a video tutorial of using Fruity Vocoder within Fl Studio. Note, I'm working on a tutorial for using the vocoder with Ableton Live, subscribe to this blog to be notified when this and other articles are posted.

Here is a summary of what is in Juice Pack 2.0...

Image Line software has released FL studio 7 - get 10% off

Image Line software has released FL studio 7. The update is free for existing customers (for those not familiar with Image Line’s lifetime free updates, visit this link). New users can get 10% off of FL Studio by using this link. 

New features include: 

• Pattern Clips - a new method for creating audio, MIDI, and automation clips in the playlist. 
• The Edison Audio Editor – an extremely powerful and fully integrated audio editor and recording tool replacing the wave editor. Edison loads into an effect slot (in any mixer track) and will then record or play audio from that position.
  

   

• Love Philter - Love Philter consists of eight identical filter units, each able to be feed to the next one in the chain. It can create complex delay, gating and filtering effects.
  

  

• Parametric EQ2 - an advanced 7-band parametric equalizer plugin with spectral analysis.
  

  

• Smart disable mode added for Generators/Instrument plugins (it was previously only for Effects plugins). 
• Multithreading - Some generators can now be threaded for CPU gain on dual cores. 
• Mono source recording. 
• Support for Apple AIFF loops 
• Bug fixes updates to existing plug-ins 
• …

For more details and a demo version visit http://www.flstudio.com. Note all FL Studio demo versions are fully featured allowing you to create new songs and export them to WAV or MP3. However, save project is disabled. 

In upcoming posts I will discuss some of the new features and plug-ins in more detail.

How to Import Sounds Into FPC and Build Your Own Presets

FPC (FL Pad Controller) is multi-layer drum machine that has been part of FL Studio since version 5. In this article I'll show you the basics of how to import sounds into FPC pads then save the kit as a preset. I won't go into the complexities of programming kits in this article - perhaps in a future article - but this should be enough to get you going. Click image thumbnails to see a larger views of screen shots.

The easiest way to import sounds into an FPC pad is to simply drag samples from the browser on to an FPC Pad. That's all there is to it. Now when you trigger the pad, you'll hear the new sample.

To build more interesting and realistic sounds, you can also assign up to 4 samples to a pad using layers. With layers you can layer samples so multiple samples trigger when you hit the pad, or you can create velocity cross-fades so that different samples play with different velocities. To do this, Click the "Layer Properties" tab on the FPC, then drag samples to the desired layer.

Repeat this process with all the pads. When you are all done, use the menu on the FPC, select "Save preset as..." and specify a name for your preset. When you want to load your kit, it now appears in the preset list from the menu system or the browser.

New Patches included with Sytrus 2.3 Upgrade

Just a follow up to my last post. I took the time to document the new patches that came with Sytrus 2.3. See my list below. Very cool additions for sure.

Again, preview Sytrus here, click here to buy and  get 10%.

Arp:

Action 2
Action 3
Cyberarp
Hypersaw 2
Hypersaw 3
Phased
Phased 2

Bass:
Squelch

Bell:
Dream Bell

Drum:
Crash Cymbl
Hi hat

DX7:
Timpani

Guitar:
Acoustic steel
Electric 5

Organ:
Drawbar

Pad:
Dawn
Scythe
Scythe 2
Swirling

Plucked:
Raspy
Sitar

Short synth:
Basci subtracting 7
Bite size
Celestial 2
Guitar Harmonics
Hyper Resonant 3
Hypersaw pluck
Mooginsh 3
Moogish 4

Synth string:
Asian string
Conan
Detuned saw
Hypersaw 2
Phased
Phased string
Slyce
Total brokeness 2

Image Line's Software Synth Sytrus 2.3 Has Released - Get 10% Off!

One of my favorite software synths Sytrus has been updated. The update is free for registered users. For everyone else, click here to get 10% off Sytrus or any other image line product.

For those of you not familiar with Sytrus, image line describes it as "a powerful and versatile synthesizer featuring six customizable operators for FM (Frequency Modulation) and RM (Ring Modulation) synthesis, plucked string synthesis, 3 filter modules, an effects module with chorus, three delay lines and unique programmable unison mode."  The synth can be used inside of FL Studio, or as a VST/DXi inside of your host.

Words don't do it justice, so check out the very cool Flash-based microsite http://www.sytrus.com/ to hear it first hand. Note you can also get a free demo version of this synth when you download FL Studio. Note, this is a full fledged VST

Here is what's new in 2.3:

- New Cherry phaser filter.
-  New edit options in the harmonics editor.
- LFOs have a "bipolar LFO tension" option now.
- The shape loader now loads AIFF samples.
-  New envelope point modes: "stairs" and "smoothed stairs".

It also looks like they've added some new patches as well.

Video Tutorial: How to use the Vocoder with FL Studio

This tutorial has been updated and can  now be found in this post - http://newecho.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/video-tutorial-.html.

A faster way to select patterns in FL Studio

One way to select patterns in Fl Studio is of course to use the Pattern Selector. An even faster way to select patterns is to use the "Playlist". The Playlist has a list of all the patterns in your project. To jump to a pattern, simply click the pattern name in the Playlist. Click the image on to see a larger version of the picture illustrating this.