Fruityloops? Anyone's fave flavor?

[dirk_demon]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for software in wich I can record drums, is Fruityloops any good? I downloaded a demo, but it was all dance, techno and R&B-kind of stuff. I play acoustic and electric rock, is Fruityloops any good for it? At $ 49,- it seems like a good deal, the demo-version looks very high-end...

Your advice would be highly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,

Dirk Demon

[Gidge]

Fruity Loops works great for all styles....the trick is finding better sounding samples, as the included ones suck ass....

[charger]

It's basically a drum machine. Except like 1,000,000x better. Since you can load in whatever samples you want, it can be used for pretty much any style of music.

They should include a warning with Fruity: "Only limited by your imagination." Or maybe they should stop shipping it with samples, so people don't always feel so confined by the ones that are included.

[barefoot]

Personally I think Acid Pro "sounds" much better - i.e. the algorithms, especially time stretching, are a lot better than those in Fruity Loops. But, FL is a much better value at $50, if you're just starting out.

barefoot

[charger]

it's apples and oranges. One is a loop arranging tool and the other is a drum machine/synth/sequencer.

[gartulan]

So fruity is loop sequencer

and Acid Pro is drum machine.

Where does one go for good samples??

[Tom Hicks]

Here you go.
samples

[gartulan]

Tom Hicks is cool.. Hey, what is forces of nature?

[barefoot]

Originally posted by gartulan
Tom Hicks is cool.. Hey, what is forces of nature?

Earth, Wind, Fire or Water.

Very cool to make that available to all of us Tom.

barefoot

[Tom Hicks]

Enjoy the samples.They are all royalty free and non-copyrighted.
As far as this site goes,I think F.O.N. is 500 posts.

[Fab4ever]

Texas Tom, thanks for the samples. Now here's a real ignoramous question:

Once I download the samples to my home computer (and I'm at work now, so I can't try yet), how do I load them into Fruity Loops? I noticed that on the left-hand side of FL there is a place for my newly saved samples. But how do I get your new samples over there?

Sorry for my ignorance - I've had Fruity for awhile but haven't yet focused on it (mainly 'cause the stock sounds are so techno/dance oriented).

Thanks again!!

Fab

[Tom Hicks]

I'm at work right now so this is from memory and pretty close.When you first start the program a dialog box of preferences pops up.You want folder options,having previously loaded up your samples in explorer in separate folders "snare" ,"kick" etc.That way they all get loaded as a batch.Once that is done,all the new folders will appear along with all the stock sounds.Just click on the folder name and it will expand to reveal all your samples.There are several ways to load them,but it is easy to just click-drag them.

[tdukex]

Originally posted by gartulan
So fruity is loop sequencer

and Acid Pro is drum machine.

Where does one go for good samples??

No. ACID is a loop sequencer with unlimited tracks.

http://sonicfoundry.com/PRODUCTS/New...ct.asp?PID=462

Sonic Foundry also has a a basic version called ACID Music that sells for around $60-$80

http://sonicfoundry.com/products/New...FeatureID=4519

[barefoot]

I've been playing with FruityLoops a bit since this topic came up and I'm more convinced now that Acid is far better - even as a sample based "drum machine".

Acid provides much more flexibility in pattern arrangement, dynamic control, and signal processing. And, at least for me, the interface is far more intuitive. On top of this, Acid almost never crashes on me. FruityLoops seems to lockup every other time I use it - especially when running VSTi virtual instruments. Plus, I'm annoyed because I can't figure out the seemingly simple task of controlling the size of the FruityLoops window to stop it from covering up my Start menu.

barefoot

[charger]

Acid provides much more flexibility in pattern arrangement, dynamic control, and signal processing.

I agree with "pattern arrangement."

On the others I think you're totally wrong. You can automate every dynamic control in Fruity. In fact, you can automate every control in the program. And you can link controls in really killer ways using either the fruity peak controller, the x-y controller, or the formula controller.

As far as signal processing, I have no idea what you're talking about. Fruity supports every plugin format that Acid does, plus Fruity plugins and Buzz generators and effects. It has 16 effects busses, 4 aux sends, and supports 8 effects per buss. And it supports unlimited channels of generators and samples. It also includes a bunch of killer synths with all parameters automatable, and a piano roll.

I personally have never had version 3.x crash, and I've used a bunch of (non-cracked) VST instruments. Perhaps you're using a crack of Fruity or the VST.

Anyway, i hate to point out the obvious, but the topic of this post is FruityLoops, not Acid. I think you should stick with Acid, since Fruity is clearly not something you are comfortable with, or are interested in using. No one here has an implicit investment in what you do or don't use. We were trying to answer the topic of the post.

[barefoot]

Originally posted by charger
Anyway, barefoot, the topic of this post is FruityLoops, not Acid. I think you should stick with Acid, since Fruity is clearly not something you are comfortable with, clearly understand, or are interested in using. No one here has an implicit investment in what you do or don't use. We were trying to answer the topic of the post.

From your description of FruityLoops it seems that you're correct in saying that I'm far from being up to speed on this software and that I was wrong in trying to make any direct functionality comparisons. But Dirk Demon did asked if it was "anyone's fave flavor?" So I think that it's perfectly valid to offer up an alternative that I personally have found to be extremely powerful and much easier to learn.

barefoot

[charger]

I agree, Acid is about as easy to use as it gets. But you pay a premium, 200$, and you get no synth support, in fact I don't think it supports VST? no piano roll, and I would think it would be hard to use as a "drum machine." And when I say Drum machine I mean loading in 30 or 40 drum samples (not loops) and using them to put together a bunch of patterns or songs. Unless I'm reading the features wrong.

The best thing about Acid that I have seen is that you can drag out any "pattern" which is usually a pre-created acid loop, for as long or short as you want. The worst thing about it (and I hear the same thing about Fruity all the time) is that music made with Acid tends to sound like it was made with Acid. Anyway, I'd be happy to check out any music you've come up with in Acid, or maybe do a little test between the two of us and the two programs using a couple of samples, to see what kinds of sounds we can come up with.

I can tell you that I know at least 1 person who creates professional loop libraries for Acid using Fruity, so I know I can't be too far off on this.

[barefoot]

Originally posted by charger
.....I would think it would be hard to use as a "drum machine." And when I say Drum machine I mean loading in 30 or 40 drum samples (not loops) and using them to put together a bunch of patterns or songs. Unless I'm reading the features wrong.

I create drum patterns this way in Acid all of the time.

Originally posted by charger
.....Anyway, I'd be happy to check out any music you've come up with in Acid, or maybe do a little test between the two of us and the two programs using a couple of samples, to see what kinds of sounds we can come up with.

This sounds like a great challenge! Let's work out some ground rules and then do it!

I'm thinking of something basically like this:

1. Use the exact same limited number of drum samples.

2. Use the same limited number and type of effects.

3. Create variations on the same skeleton drum pattern to avoid the "taste" factor entering too much into voters decisions (hopefully we can agree on something groovy and interesting).

4. Same tempo(range) and number of bars.

5. MP3s rendered completely in the one application at the same bit rate.

6. BBS members vote on the best, hopefully with variety being the main criterion.


Sound about right? Are we on?

barefoot

[charger]

This sounds like a great challenge! Let's work out some ground rules and then do it!

I'm thinking of something basically like this:

1. Use the exact same limited number of drum samples.

2. Use the same limited number and type of effects.

3. Create variations on the same skeleton drum pattern to avoid the "taste" factor entering too much into voters decisions (hopefully we can agree on something groovy and interesting).

4. Same tempo(range) and number of bars.

5. MP3s rendered completely in the one application at the same bit rate.

6. BBS members vote on the best, hopefully with variety being the main criterion.

Well, I was thinking more along these lines:
1. Use the exact same samples.
2. Use only included effects/synths (only those tools and effects included in the basic $99/$199 installation). After all, we're comparing capabilities of the systems, not the systems if they were extremely limited.
3. Same tempo, or maybe pick 5 tempos and do a couple 2 or 4-bar loops at each tempo. Basically, just drumbeats.
4. MP3s rendered at the same bit rate in the app.
5. I don't care who votes, I just want to see how they stack up, I'm fine with the BBS voting...

[barefoot]

So are we just talking drums or do you mean anything goes? Because Acid obviously doesn’t come with synths and Dirk Demon said he was “looking for software in which [he] can record drums”. If you want to use the FL synths for melodic parts then I would say that I should be able to use the loop libraries that came with Acid. But that makes things very complicated.

I think we should stick to drums since this was the thrust of my original argument that “…Acid is far better - even as a sample based "drum machine". Acid provides much more flexibility in pattern arrangement, dynamic control, and signal processing.”

Everything else I agree with.

barefoot

[charger]

I'm just talking drumbeats, man. I'm not gonna put synths in my drumbeats, that would be a song. Anyway, the drum synth for fruity isn't released yet.

Let's do 90 bpm, 120 bpm, 150 bpm, 3 loops each. You pick 10 samples from your drum sample collection, and I'll pick 10 from mine, and we'll swap them around so we're working with 20 samples total each. Zip the files up please! PM me with an e-mail address where you can receive a file of around 1-2 MB. I'm pming you now.

[A1A2]

i use both and i wouldn't be working half as fast without either of them