Midi Controller and fruityloops

[RobertN]

I am currently using my oxygen 8 with fruityloops producer 4.1.If you own fruityloops you know that it has a piano roll and different keys make different sounds.I want to know how to use my midi controller to control the different sounds of an instrument.Do you understand?In case you dont here is an example : ok

1.I select the hard kick
2.Then I select view piano roll
3.Then I press the different keys using the mouse.(I hear the different sounds.)
4.I press it on my midi controller it still plays one sound of a different instrument.
5.All of that leading to this question how do I assign my midi controller to one instrument in FL Studio 4.1?

 

[Scooter B]

RobertN,

I am working on the exact same problem and don't expect any usefull help from the "FL TEAM".

I have FL Studio and have had FL for over two years...have not got one useful measure programmed yet but I just picked up the Oxygen 8.

I was trying to use my DR-5 as a controller but I never could get that to work.

Maybe we can tag team on this since we are in the same proverbial boat.

 

[ssscientist]

Okay gents - here's your answer.

FL defaults to 140 beats per minute. Before we start, lower this by pulling the mouse down on the number to 100 or so.

Each line of boxes going across the screen in FL represents one instrument, be it kick drum, piano, etc. The 16 box screen represents a single measure.

For a simple example, let's start with a Kick drum and a snare drum. Turn the kick drum boxes 1, 9 and 11 on and they will change color - mine is set to go lighter when a drum hits on that beat.

Now go down and find a snare. Turn that one on at 5 and 13.

Now find a hihat. Have that hit on 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15.

Now press play.

Old school preset drum machines used to call this beat 'Rock 1'.

Let's try playing around with it on the fly. Deselect 1, 5, 9 and 13 in the hihat row. Now it will be a little funkier.

Try having a kick drop on beat 6 and take out the kick on 9.

You should have the idea by now. PL in the upper righthand corner means 'playlist' -- that's where you string your patterns together to make songs.

Your Oxygen 8's are great little keyboards - I own one too - but it doesn't really come into play here. All you need for now is a mouse and FL.

 

[Scooter B]

All you need for now is a mouse and FL.

Thank you for your help ssscientist.

However I bought the Oxxygen 8 b/c I do not find pointing and clicking with a mouse a creative musical expereince. It is more true to the term drum programming but I write by playing the pads in "real time" to write a pattern or groove to fit with the guitar, bass or keyboard parts of a song I have already arranged.

I would greatly appreciate your help but where I want to get to is being able to play a trap set or percussion set live off the the Oxy8 with one key triggering the bass drum, another key for the snare, another for a closed hi hat and another for a open hi hat, etc, etc.

This is how I write on the DR-5.

If I knew exactly what I wanted to write ahead of time the step sequence method might work but right now I need to play the parts "live".

Thanks,

Scott

 

[RobertN]

Thank you for your help ssscientist.

However I bought the Oxxygen 8 b/c I do not find pointing and clicking with a mouse a creative musical expereince. It is more ture to the term drum programming but I write by playing the pads in "real time" to write a pattern or groove to fit wiht the guitar, bass or keyboard parts of a song I have already arranged.

I would greatly appreciate your help but where I want to get to is being able to play a trap set or percussion set live off the the Oxy8 wiht one key triggering the bass drum, another key for the snare, another for a closed hi hat and another for a open hi hat, etc, etc.

This is how I write on the DR-5.

If I knew exactly what I wanted to write ahead of time the step sequence method might work but right now I need to play the parts "live".

Thanks,

Scott

yeah what he said

 

[ssscientist]

However I bought the Oxxygen 8 b/c I do not find pointing and clicking with a mouse a creative musical expereince.

Yeah, whatever.

You asked how FL worked and I took the time to tell you.

If you don't like it that's tough because it's not the type of program that adapts to your preferred method of input.

 

[Scooter B]

If you don't like it that's tough because it's not the type of program that adapts to your preferred method of input.

You could have just admitted that you don't know how.

Even the manual, loop talk forum and FL tech support as pathetic as they are will tell you the mouse is capable of getting you started but it is very limited. The use of a seperate MIDI controller is hardly going against it's intended purpose or stated capabilities it is just past your (and my) current working knowlwedge base.

Although I have found the help at FLstudio.com less friendly than here you should check it out and learn a thing or two.

If you are happy with the mouse method more power to you.

Again I thank you for trying to help and if I get the answer at the FL site I will post it here to help others out.

Blessings

 

[ssscientist]

You could have just admitted that you don't know how... it is just past your (and my) current working knowlwedge base... check it out and learn a thing or two. Blessings

No, wait. Could you be a little more insulting please?

What I laid out was intended to be the first lesson, not the entire 10 course meal. Of course it's possible to use a midi controller with FL - for melodic sounds and in a very limited way. The topic was drums, and FL handles drum pattern creation in an inflexible way that makes YOU adjust to IT rather than the reverse. I know FL quite well, having used it since it was Frooty Loops 1.0 - it's a unique program that started as a loop creator and upgrades in the last couple of years have tried to make it more than that. That's probably how you were misled by the little FL site.

You are setting a very poor example for young Robert by insisting on working EXACTLY the same way as you were used to working on your DR-5. If you really want to climb Mount FL, start with the ground-level basics as I detailed in my post - it'll be good for you to finally get a usable bar of music out of FL.

 

[Scooter B]

No, wait. Could you be a little more insulting please?

I did not start the insults I just went along for the ride....chill out.

Again I sincerely thanked you in both posts for your time and effort.

What I laid out was intended to be the first lesson,

Perhaps I should have been more specific in my original post but I do not want or need the first lesson in getting started that was covered pretty well in the manual and the tutorials.

You are setting a very poor example for young Robert by insisting on working EXACTLY the same way as you were used to working on your DR-5.

The only reason I ever bought FL in the first place was as a $99 upgrade to the DR-5 via MIDI.

Program on the DR-5 (wich only has stereo outs and limited quality samples) and dump the drums into FL for better samples and tweakability, add some keyboard playing capabilities etc with the Oxy8 and I can send 8 seperate tracks to my AW16 via my Echo Darla.

Since the Dr-5 has not worked as a MIDI dump or controller and the FL forums have not been real helpful I went ahead and picked up the OXY8 to input the drum programing as well.

If you want to give a programing 101 in FL more power to you! There are a lot of people here that would appreciate and benefit from it.

This however is not the thread to do it in....Young Robert as you called him specifically asked about using his OXy8 as a MIDI contrller instead of using a mouse and you ignored his question and launched into your own agenda.

I want to know how to use my midi controller to control the different sounds of an instrument.

There is nothing wrong with what you wanted to do to help but you were ignoring Robert's and my question.

I would encourage you to start a seperate thread on FL 101 and if you are expereinced as you say you are in FL it could be the MIDI equivalent of Harveys mic threads.

 

[Scooter B]

RobertN,

I found some good info on flstudio.com doing a search on "OXYGEN 8" there is one good thread entitled "Oxygen 8 and MIDI maping"

Also a quick tip for programing the 8 knobs pasted from antohter thread;



Short cut...... if you have been messing about with fl studio for a while, you will notice a pull up menu when you right click button/s or level/s (say link controller and other stuff)

these button/s or other buttons



then you will see "link to controller" turn any knob on the Oxygen 8 then it will operate that button or level. but play with the setting, because you can control how fast, slow, omni(which I like, because I use it on my volume, so when I press a track that I am working on it turns it up on down)

 

[ssscientist]

Bye, bye Scooter B. I hope you and George W. Bush are very happy together in 'never wrong' land...

 

[Scooter B]

Bye, bye Scooter B. I hope you and George W. Bush are very happy together in 'never wrong' land...

Say hi to Dan Rather for me at "Don't confuse me with the facts I'm delusionsal" on the way out!

BTW you still never awnsered the original question so don't blame me...you are the proverbial pot calling the kettle black!

 

[Scooter B]

Hello to everyone who has followed this thread.

I want to let everyone know that Ssscientist and I seemed to have unintentionally gotten into a heated disagreement and we have (I hope) worked through it via some private e-mails.

I want to say for the record while I took offense to his second post in this thread I have read through several other threads where he has been very polite, friendly and helpful. I responded in a like manner to which I felt I had been addressed and it deteriorated from there.

Despite the fact I gave Ssscientist a negative rating on this thread I want to give him public credit for the other threads that he has been very helpful on...unfortunatley the point system will not let add positive points back to him until I spread the love around to more posters so I am trying to give him some public props here.

Now back to the original question -

I have recieved a response from the FL Studio tech support that says we should be able to do exactly what RobertN and I were trying to do but it remains to be seen as I still need to spend alot more time with FL to really understand it past the entry level of "point and click on the numbers in a track" which I would prefer to stay away from from a person preference (and mean no disrespect to peopple who like this method). It has more to do with my limitations and what I find an enjoyable musical creative experience.

Here is the response from FL Tech support wich indicates I need to use "layers" to accomplish my madness. I would be more than happy to accept Ssscientist or anyone elses contructive input on pulling this off but I would prefer not to hear that my method is bassakwards etc (I am well aware that it most probably is) from your normal PC MIDI application.

My intention when I bought an Oxygen 8 for FLStudio was primarily to allow me to enter drum patterns live to a click with each key assigned to a different sampled instrument of a trap kit and or percussion set. I am being told by someone at Homerecording.com that FLStudio was not built to do this and is in fact incapable ofperforming in this manner."

they're wrong.You need to use "Layers" and in the future our FPC plug which is a 16 sample drumkit plug with switchable kits and samples.

Run a search on Layers and you'll find info on how to set one up, split the children (samples) to seperate keys, and then move the key assignments to where you want them.

My time on the PC is fairly limited with the wife, kids, soccer games two careers etc so I am open to a group project or tag teaming on this one.

Ssscientist you know much more about MIDI than I probably ever will and have more expereince with it than I will probably ever get and I welcome your help if you are still intetested.

Scott

 

[Scooter B]

If anyone besides me is still interested here is the instructions on using Layers in FL Studio to play "live" drums via the Ozygen 8 or any other keyboard.

From the FL Studio help file:

Layering
· Set Children - Assigns all selected channels in the Help\FL.chm::/html/stepsequencer.htm">Step Sequencer as children if this Layer channel. After the assignment when you play a note on the Layer channel, all the children will play along. To unassign a channel from the Layer channel, just select all the channels you want to remain children and press the Set Children button again (all unselected channels become unassigned for this Layer channel).
· Show Children - Selects all channels that are children of this Layer channel in the Step Sequencer and deselect all other channels
· Random - When this option is off, playing a note in the Layer channels plays the same note in ALL children of that Layer channel. Turning this option on will instead select a random child and play the note on it. You can use this feature to make more analog-like drums or instruments, by assigning many similar samples to each of the children, for each note random sample will be played, thus creating more natural sound for some drums/instruments.
· Crossfade - When this option is on, you can use the Fade wheel to create crossfades between two channels that are children of this Layer channel. If, for example, you have 3 channels that are children of a Layer channel, as you turn the Fade wheel from left to right you will hear: Child1 >> Crossfade: Child1+Child2 >> Child2 >> Crossfade: Child2+Child3 >> Child3. First channel is considered the topmost channel (of those that are children for the Layer channel). Second channel is considered the first one below it etc.
· Fade wheel - Used to set the crossfade level in crossfade mode.

If you click the small arrow at the top left of this panel you can access some additional commands:
· Split Children - Splits the children of the Layer channel across the keyboard (starting with the root key of the Layer channel), assigning each layer to a single key. The root keys of the children are automatically adjusted, so they have the proper pitch when played through the Layer channel. This feature is useful when creating drumkits or instruments where each note has different sample.
· Group Children - Adds all children of the Layer channel to a group (a popup window will appear to enter the name of the group). For more information see the Channel Filtering section in the Help\FL.chm::/html/stepsequencer.htm">Step Sequencer page.