Fruity loops replacement

[Major Tom]

I have worked with Fruity Loops demo, its a pretty useful program, but I'm not too crazy about the the interface; everything is so small, etc. Is there a similiar program that I can use to create sequences and audio loops with a nicer interface? What do you recommend ?

[Steve T]

Major Tom,

Although I use FruityLoops a lot, I'm not too crazy about the interface either. I don't think there's any immediate plans for it to be officially skinnable. You can find a couple of different skins on Section-Z - didn't work too well for me though.

As far as an alternative, take a look at Orion. I think Pro is a similar price to Fruity and Orion Platinum is around $200. Can host VSTs and DXis, and rewire although you can't run it inside Sonar. Comes with some nice synths also.

Reason you can run inside Sonar and has a very nice interface. Has a drum step sequencer, loop player, a pattern sequencer and a nice sampler and wavetable synth et al. It's sort of a closed format though, so you can't use VSTis and DXis (unless you rewire it through Sonar of course).

A sequencer I use is Massiva. Very cheap, but more of a sequencer than a loop step sequencer. It comes with a thing called PhraseSeq (the reason i bought Massiva) - this allows you to program a pattern (like Fruity), but then you can play it, i.e. the notes you play transpose the sequence - and it's polyphonic.

Hope that helps - there should be demos available of these,

Steve T

[Major Tom]

Thnks for the response. I will check and see if any demos out there for those. Its not just the tiny icon interface, and maybe its because I'm using the demo and have no manual, but I can't figure out how to do triplets....

[Paul881]

I can't figure out how to do triplets....

Go to Options>song settings and move the sliders to give you the beats per measure and beat length you want. Even allowed me to have 17 beats in a bar!

[Steve T]

For triplets, browse to "Humanize Presets" > Grooves. Drag the triplets preset onto the channels you want to tripletize.

In the graph editor you can change the "shift" parameter to offset individual notes. You can save groove presets also I think.

Steve T

[Major Tom]

Thanks guys, you are a lot more helpful than Fruity's help file which doesn't seem to have any mention of triplets. I'm working with the demo - does the retail package come with a decent manual??

[johnhoe]

Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do........


Sorry couldn't resist it!

[Steve T]

Well, I'd love to say that you get a comprehensive manual when you register, but that isn't the case. There's a PDF/Word "getting started" document that's worth a read (esp. to get your head round automation), but it's probably not as good even as the Help.

FruityLoops is a deceptively powerful program though, but you may have to do a little research to get the best out of it. Each of the generators / effects has a help sheet (albeit a few lines on an html page). Have a look through all the folders in the browser - there's some tutorials hiding in there. Some of the demo tunes show how some functions are used, e.g. x-y controller.

Once registered, you have access to on-line forums tech support and loop talk, plus some on-line tutorials and FAQs. I would definitely suggest spending some time there and you will get a fast response for any queries you make. I would go careful on there though, as they have a tendency to be somewhat sarcastic over there, heh heh.

It took me a while to figure out how to do things like running multitimbral instruments, multi-sampling with layers, and exporting patterns to midi.

(btw - Paul re triplets : I think you're suggestion would change the time signature, but each note would last the same length. Triplets changes the relative timing of notes so some are closer together than others, like ddd-ddd-ddd-ddd instead of d-d-d-d-d-d-d etc - though I have a feeling that's not quite right, so someone might have to correct me here).

Steve T

[Paul881]

Steve, sounds like a good description to me But I still can't see triplets mentioned in the humanize/Randomize control panel. Edit>Humanize...and where do you go to then?

[SPINSTERWUN]

You DEFINITELY should check out Acid Pro 4.0.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com

[Major Tom]

Acid Pro is way over my budget, but I might try a demo just for fun. Paul, what you do is look in the FL program files, open the Samples folder, then the Humanize Presets folder then the Grooves folder to find the triplet.fpr files. Actually drag one of the preset file icons to the channel button ( the ones with the sample name likeTS404 or C_Kick) and that imparts the characteristics in that file to that channel. For the triplet, enable the first 3 "sixteenth" indicators of each beat, and they will be triplets. No indication on the channel or anywhere I could see...there is a mention of the Humanize presets in FL Help, but I couldn't find any mention of how to apply these preset files. Thanks Steve T. for the tip. no thanks to FL for their limp help file. I guess I'll have to search around on the net to find out how to operate this program.

[williamconifer]

Major Tom,

You will not find a more powerful "synth studio" for the buck than Fruity. The interface is less than ideal but it's unique and you adjust to it. Someone described it as having a "mad scientist vibe". That's it! The learning curve is steep but you have to regularly hit the Fruity sponsored message boards to learn. The program is updated for free about every 6 months so it is an evolving process. I spend most of my time in Fruity composing my pieces and then open Fruity up in Sonar2 when I want to add live recordings to it (vocals and such).

Regarding the small fonts used.. you will find this in alot of audio apps. All the Native Instrument plugins have tiny fonts. My advice is to buy 2 monitors or one big one and run it at a lower resolution to make the font size bigger. 2 17" lcds would rock.

I started Fruity Jan 1 2002 and I feel real comfortable with it and I have made some real nice sounding projects with it. I have also been a little obcessed about learning it. Don't let the price, look, or name fool you. Fruity is pro.

jack

[Paul881]

Steve/Major Tom (can you hear me Major tom, can you hear me... )

Thanks for the tip, I was following the Help files in FL which was somewhat wide of the mark. I followed your advice and it worked a treat.

I am still experiencing synch problems with FL open in Sonar, the transport buttons don't work correctly even with Fxpansion 4.1. I have emailed Angus @fxpansion and waiting for his response.

[Major Tom]

William, thanks for the advice, I will start searching around for some fruity forums, I have learned a lot about Sonar on this one, and found some answers that weren't to be found in the book or help file. I was probably being impatient, expecting too much, and dreading going thru the learning curve of another piece of software just to make an informed decision about purchasing and suitability for my needs

[Toki987]

I have fruity as well, but I`ve been so involved learning Sonar that I haven`t played with it much at all. I have noticed that underneath the gimmicky lookin interface its pretty cool. The step sequencer editing is nice, and step song mode is really cool (where you drag and drop the patterens at the time you want them to occur.

[Paul881]

Toki987, I had an opportunity recently to spend two days doing nothing else other than learn FL. I had it knocking around my system for a long time and couldn't quite get to grips with it. After my two days, I learnt a lot and use it all the time now. But the subtleties and nuances take time to learn, but I'm getting there and finding the rewards well worth the effort. With Soundfonts I can create really natural sounding drum kit sounds.