I recently purchased FL studio since i really like their business model and want to support it.
Also i love the piano roll, strange noone else makes it that simple.


Now about arranging, i seem to be a bit of a moron or i should read more of the manual but i simply dont get it.

About the patterns, as you can see in the picture of the playlist, i try ordering the individual instrument patterns, BUT i apparenly can only stamp whole pattern blocks with all individual instrument patterns combined.
Surely this is not how its supposed to work?

How do i put individual pattern parts in the playlist?

 

Let's say you have these elements:
- Bass
- Kick
- Melody
- Pad

You'll need to have four patterns if you want them to be separate*. What I do is simply call the patterns "Bass" "Kick" etc. and if I need a variation I use "Make unique" and that automatically clone the patterns and name it "Bass #2". You kind of already did that, you have two patterns there.

Maybe I didn't understand your question?

*: Unless you know the bass is always going to play together with the kick, then you can have one simple pattern "Kick and Bass" and put them together.

 

This is what I do, for example.

EDIT: Also if you use loops, they don't really go in patterns (I mean you could but I don't think anybody does that). Instead you just put them into the playlist directly

MORE EDITS!: If you already have a pattern with four, five channels that need to be separated there's a function that does exactly this. "Split by channels". The manual is a beast and explains literally everything, really really good

 

Sure, you will have your clips. The thing is, i did not expect the channel rack to effectively be able to hold only one clip at the time.

Feared the way is to have each clip in a channel seperately, which is strange as the channel rack can assign mixerspots individually.
Hoped there is a way to have individual clips in the sequence and all at once in the channel rack, but thats not going to happen in FL?

I split by channel which makes it far easier then copying into other channels and now i can sequence properly too

thanks, now i can arrange.

Seems like ALive is way better at making it easy to record your song by launching clips, or simply play with the individual parts of your song.

But the piano roll is way nicer to use in FL

 

If you come from other programs then yes, it's counter intuitive. It gets pretty boring to assign every channel to the mixer, THEN rename the patterns for each channels, again, with the same names as the mixer tracks. Everybody works with different methods obviously, but I agree it's not really optimal. And I always used FL :D

The piano roll in FL is the only one that can be called an actual piano roll.

 

i like it for what it is, but it is also beyond me why there is no automatic mixer channel association

Makes the impression that a lot of drugs went into the creative process of designing and coding FL

That dancer VST and Lemon Boy are great :D

 

Lol, I used to use Fruity years ago and have finished more than a few tracks in it. I have since moved to other daws, mainly ableton and reaper.
I was working on a collab with another artist from here that used FL and figured WTH? Ill jump back in.....
Man was that hard to do. All the easy routing and arranging that I got so used to in reaper and ableton took way more clicks, workarounds and time in Fruity. I was definitely regressing from where I was now in my speedy workflow and techniques.
Mainly the channel racks and arranging in the playlist. So tedious.

 

I feel ya, you should have stayed @ Reaper for sure :0)

 

yes guys, bash on it. I still like it, its inefficient and beautiful.

Kinda like nature itself

 

Honestly it just needs a function that creates a pattern everytime you add a channel, or viceversa (or something like that).
There's the "no freezing", but I've never seen or heard actual complains about FL other than this stuff

 

automatically assigning things in fls would be counter productive. i can understand why some people might want it to work that way, but that goes against the point.

you wouldnt want to use a modular synth that automatically puts patch cables into things would you? no...YOU tell it where things go...it doesnt tell you.

"pattern everytime you add a channel"

ok...so then i add a channel for a synth and it creates a pattern.....now i want to control that synth with nora...so i add a channel for nora and it creates another pattern....now i have 2 patterns where i only want 1.

it doesnt make sense to let fls do these things for you...you are in control of what goes where and when...as it should be.

its fine for other daws to function like that, but it wouldnt make sense for fls to do that. fls is more like a modular kind of thing where anything can go anywhere and all the separate parts are independent of each other until you connect them. yes...it can be a little confusing and yes, it can take a little more time to do things...but it allows for a lot more freedom and creativity (imo).

 

I was just suggesting some way to speed up things.
I could play the same game and tell you that if I want a bass I have to do the following steps:
- add the synth bass (rename it and eventually color if you care);
- add the pattern that plays the bass (rename it, again);
- link this to a mixer track (this time you don't have to rename because it does that automatically, unless you choose the slot by using the number thing)

i've been using it for a lot of time and i'm really used to it, i could never switch, but as you can see even image-line is starting to make changes related to what I said (the pattern list in the playlist? very useful enhancement if you ask me! and it's coming in the 12.5 and will probably be better and bug-free in 13, where the freeze functions awaits us all)

 

I could play the same game and tell you that if I want a bass I have to do the following steps:
- add the synth bass (rename it and eventually color if you care);
- add the pattern that plays the bass (rename it, again);
- link this to a mixer track (this time you don't have to rename because it does that automatically, unless you choose the slot by using the number thing)

yes...you could say that...and i dont see what the point would be. that IS how it works...and that is how its SUPPOSED to work.

im not suggesting that the other way isnt a valid way to work...im just saying that fls specifically isnt designed to work like that...nor should it be, it defeats the purpose.

its not a flaw...its a feature. it doesnt make sense to complain about it as that is how its designed to function.

 

it's a feature that sucks then. it takes me triple the time to add an instrument (with proper labelling and assigned mixer track and pattern) than in other daws. i don't see the others as being too limiting or anything. eventually you get used to this stupid thing, but there is no excuse

 

i do like this;

add synth, create the sequence\melody.... this is already on pattern 1 by default
select pattern 2, add kick
select pattern 2, add clap
select pattern 3, add hats
select pattern 4, add what you want and so on ...

in the playlist in order to create a track, go through your desired patterns just by selecting them, then click on a desired line in the playlist
if you want to make something unique, select a pattern that isnt used and create your drummfill lest say ...and so on

 

well, you might think it sucks...but i prefer it. it literally takes a fraction of a second to assign a mixer track....and labeling is redundant since it already says what you put in there. i dont know what to tell you if you need to be reminded by a label or a special color that a particular pattern is a kick or a lead (or whatever little labeling system you use). i dont need those things at all. im perfectly happy with my not labeled all grey playlist and channel rack. i could have 100 channels and 200 patterns and id still know what everything was without labeling it or making colors.

i dont know how long it takes you to add an instrument in other daws...but "tripple" the time seems a tad off to me. i mean...i can add an instrument and assign it to a mixer channel and open the pattern for it in under a second.

ill trade whatever extra time its costing me for the ability to actually control whats going on all day long.

again...im not making a judgement on whats the better workflow...everyone works in the way that suits them best, with that in mind, to flatly say "its a feature that sucks" is kind of narrow minded...especially after someone just told you they prefer it that way.
it doesnt suck. its a good feature. they purposely made it like that for a reason. if it doesnt fit your workflow...well you can use another daw that does. doing the automatic things you are asking it to do would absolutely take away from the flexibility and creative power fls has. i dont want it assigning anything to anything unless i tell it to.